AGE-WELL, UHN and EPIC-AT ELEVATE EDI SERIES: Gendered Ageism | October 31 @ 12:00pm – 1:00pm ET |
Moderator:
· Dr. Azadeh Yadollahi, Moderator, Senior Scientist, KITE, Toronto Rehab, University Health Network
Speakers:
· Dr. Paula Rochon, Founding Director, Women’s Age Lab, University of Toronto
· Dr. Olive Bryanton, Older Adult Advocate, AGE-WELL OACAC Member, University of PEI
· Sherry Baker, Older Adult Advocate, AGE-WELL OACAC Co-Chair
Description: This partnered EDI webinar series between EPIC-AT, AGE-WELL and UHN focuses on diverse programming of health researchers, advocates and healthcare professionals delivering webinars on ageism, gender, and allyship. This first webinar will focus on gendered ageism.
Older women can experience discrimination based on both sex and age with far-reaching consequences for their health and well-being. Known as Gendered Ageism, the discrimination of a person based on sex and age, it is embedded in health care and social practices, with one of the major consequences being financial inequities. For example, in Canada, and other high-income countries, women may face hardships in their later years—in part due to the accumulation of financial inequity they experience across their life span. This leads older women to receive lower pensions compared to men and is associated with negative effects on their health and wellbeing. In this talk, Dr. Paula Rochon, founding director or Women’s Age Lab at Women’s College Hospital, will discuss how to address gendered ageism by promoting intergenerational contact by bringing together older and younger people, providing educational opportunities to raise awareness, and creating policies. After the formal presentation AGE-WELL OACAC members and older adult advocates, Dr. Olive Bryanton and Sherry Baker will respond to the presentation sharing their own lived experiences and perspectives.
Learning Objectives:
· The concept of gendered ageism and why it is important.
· The forms that gendered ageism takes, including the pension gap.
· What we can do to address gendered ageism.
Bios:
Moderator:
Dr. Azadeh Yadollahi is a Senior Scientist at KITE and an Associate Professor at the Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto. Azadeh leads SleepdB, the first sound-proof sleep laboratory in Canada. Her research focus is on improving chronic respiratory disorders during sleep, such as sleep apnea and nocturnal asthma. This includes discovering novel physiological mechanisms that narrow the airways during sleep and makes breathing hard or impossible. She is also developing and commercializing wearable technologies for improved diagnosis and treatment of chronic respiratory disorders.
Speakers:
Dr. Paula Rochon is Founding Director of Women’s Age Lab, a geriatrician andsenior scientist at Women’s College Hospital and ICES. She received her medical degree from McMaster University and Master of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Rochon is a professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto (UofT) and is the inaugural RTOERO Chair in Geriatric Medicine at UofT. She is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and a Fellow of the Canadian Geriatrics Society (FCGS).
Dr. Rochon has a strong record of federal funding and has published more than 300 papers in peer-reviewed journals. She held the role of the Vice President of Research at Women’s College Hospital for 12 years. Dr. Rochon chairs the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (Canada’s federal funding agency) Institute of Aging Advisory Board to support research and promote healthy aging across Canada. She is the Deputy Editor of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS). She was a member of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, when it was active, where she chaired the Congregate Care Setting Working group.
She has received research distinctions, including being elected to the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences in 2013. She was awarded the Eaton Clinical Researcher of the Year Award from the University of Toronto in 2020, the Eugenie Stuart Award for the Best Thesis Supervisor from the University of Toronto, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, in 2022, and the President’s Impact Award for Excellence in Research from the University of Toronto in 2023.
Dr. Rochon is committed to the development of trainees and new investigators in aging research and making valuable contributions to our future understanding of aging. Her team has won prestigious research awards, presented across Canada, and published in peer-reviewed academic journals, disseminating key learnings and important findings from their research projects.
Sherry Baker, M.A. is the co-Chair od AGE-WELL OACAC. She is an independent consultant and has been the contracted Executive Director of the BC Association of Community Response Network since 2010.
Sherry has sat on, and chaired many provincial, regional and local boards over the years. She is the co-chair of the Older Adult and Caregivers Advisory Committee for Age-Well. She was the Executive Director of Ishtar Transition Housing Society from 1995-2006.
She was awarded the Canada 125 Medal and received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012. She has been awarded three Paul Harris Fellowships by Rotary International. She was awarded the “Elder Abuse Awareness to Action Award” by Simon Fraser University Gerontology Research Centre in 2018, and the Dr, Elizabeth Podniek Award for Elder Rights in Canada in 2022.
Sherry holds a Master of Arts degree in Applied Behavioral Science from City University in Seattle, a Bachelor of Home Economics from the University of British Columbia and a Diploma in Business Administration from Fraser Valley University.
Dr. Olive Bryanton, Older Adult Advocate, AGE-WELL OACAC Member
Dr. Olive Bryanton (Hampshire, PEI) joined OACAC in 2018. As an educator and passionate advocate for older adults, Dr. Bryanton was instrumental in establishing the first multi-purpose Seniors Centre on PEI, which celebrated its 25th anniversary this summer. She was also instrumental in establishing the Seniors College, affiliated with the University of Prince Edward Island and served as the first president. In 2000, Dr. Bryanton received an Honorary Degree from the University of Prince Edward Island for her advocacy work with older adults and lifelong learning in 2012. Dr. Bryanton was awarded the Queens Diamond Jubilee Medal from the Federal Minister of State for Seniors Hon, Alice Wong, for provincially and federally contributing to seniors. In 2017, Dr. Bryanton was appointed by the Minister of Health PEI to serve as an executive advisor for developing the recent Seniors Health and Wellness Strategy for Prince Edward Island. She is currently a lifelong learner and defended her PhD in 2018. She also received the Order of Prince Edward Island in 2021 and the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee medal in 2022. In addition, in December 2022 she was appointed to the National Seniors Council and the International Longevity Centre as an Ambassador in 2023. Currently, she is working on a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Prince Edward Island under the supervision of Dr. William Montelpare.