Written by Jess Maurer Past Webinar: Exploring Age Friendly Communities with AARP
Thursday, January 14, 2016 – 12:00pm – 1:30pm
Join us on January 14th, 2016 from 12:00 – 1:30 via webinar to learn about AARP’s Network of Age Friendly Communities (AFCs). An affiliate of the World Health Organization’s Age Friendly Cities and Communities Program, AARP helps communities across the country become great, well-designed, livable places for people of all ages. Bowdoinham, Maine and Newport, Vermont are two local examples we’ll be hearing from directly!
Our Presenters
Lori Parham
Lori K. Parham, Ph.D., is AARP Maine’s State Director, leading the states advocacy and education efforts on health and financial security issues statewide. She began her career at AARP in Florida. Before becoming Florida State Director in early 2007, she served as Manager of Advocacy and was responsible for policy and legislative advocacy.
Parham has extensive knowledge of health and long-term care issues. Before joining AARP, Parham served as a legislative analyst for the Florida Senate, providing technical expertise to the Committee on Health, Aging and Long-Term Care. She also served as staff for the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA), focusing on long-term care issues. Prior to her work at AHCA, Parham worked at the Florida State University, Pepper Institute on Aging, where she was involved in multiple research projects on long-term care.
Parham oversees AARP Maine’s efforts to engage cities and towns in creating livable communities for people of all ages, with a specific focus on economic development and aging in place. She has presented to multiple groups on the importance of Maine taking a collaborative and proactive approach to building age-friendly communities.
She has a B.A. in Sociology from Belmont Abbey College, as well as a M.S. and Ph.D. with a specialization in Political Economy and Aging from the Florida State University. She is currently a member of the National Academy for Social Insurance, and sits on the Boards of ITN America, a non-profit providing transportation alternatives to seniors and Avesta Housing.
Patricia Oh
Patricia Oh, LMSW, is Coordinator of Older Adult Services in Bowdoinham, Maine, where she has worked with Bowdoinham’s Advisory Committee on Aging to provide services and advocacy that enable older residents to live in their homes for as long as possible and to remain active and engaged in the community. In 2014, Bowdoinham became the first community in northern New England to be accepted by the World Health Organization as a member of the Global Network of Age-Friendly Communities. Later that year, Bowdoinham was one of two communities in the United States and one of 13 municipalities in the world asked to help the World Health Organization develop a set of indicators that communities can use to measure progress toward making their communities more age-friendly, In 2015, Bowdoinham joined the AARP-NAFC.