NASW member W. June Simmons, CEO of the Partners in Care Foundation, has been appointed to the National Advisory Council on Aging. The council is among several national research advisory councils reporting to the director of the National Institutes of Health concerning pertinent programs.
"As a social worker, I am honored to represent the field — especially during these challenging times — on this very important advisory council," Simmons said in a statement.
A major responsibility for the council is to review and make recommendations regarding grant applications to support biomedical research and research training activities.
Simmons will serve on the Advisory Council until December 2012 and will participate in council meetings held at the NIH.
According to the Partners in Care Foundation, Simmons' career includes numerous activities involving aging issues.
She was a delegate to the 2005 White House Conference on Aging. She serves as senior adviser to the Alliance for Children and Families' National Initiative for Transforming Social Service Geriatric Practice. She is an appointee to the HMO Caregiver Work Group, a national think tank funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to advance managed care models for caring for the aging population.
Simmons is an advisory board member of the Practice Change Fellows Selection Committee and was founding chair of the National Chronic Care Consortium. She initiates and directs the Institute for Advancement of Geriatric Social Work Education, a cooperative venture between major Southern California graduate schools of social work to develop the region as a center of excellence in geriatric social work education.
In addition, Simmons serves on major national and local technical committees, panels and advisory boards.
Kimberly Acquaviva (Photo: Jessica McConnell/GWU)
In other news regarding the field of aging, NASW member Kimberly Acquaviva, assistant professor in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at the George Washington University, this year became chair of the Friends of the National Institutes of Aging, according to former FoNIA chair and Alliance for Aging Research executive director Daniel Perry.
Perry said Acquaviva, whose term will run through 2010, will be an effective and persuasive leader.
"She brings a wealth of experience and fresh ideas for mobilizing organizations to support research to enhance the universal human experience of aging," he said in a statement.
NASW is a member of FoNIA, a coalition of 50 national organizations representing patients, researchers and health care providers. The coalition promotes scientific discoveries made possible through NIA-funded research and educates policymakers on the potential benefit NIA initiatives hold for advancing scientific understanding of aging in order to extend the healthy years of life.
In addition to her FoNIA and faculty roles, Acquaviva is the American Society on Aging's liaison to the NIA and directs the National Collaborative on Aging at George Washington University. She serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services, Sexuality Research and Social Policy, and the Journal of Ethnographic & Qualitative Research. Acquaviva has received awards from the American Society on Aging, the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, and several other organizations for her leadership in the field of aging and health.