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MARIA B. DWIGHT Maria Dwight, president and founder of Gerontological Services, has over 40 years' experience in programming and planning facilities and services for older people with emphasis on the inter-relationship of housing, health and social services. She leads the strategic planning compliment of our services, with broad experience nationally as well as overseas. Maria is a frequent speaker at universities and conferences and has been a lead faculty member of Harvard's Graduate School of Design Summer Seminars for over 30 years. She is often a presenter at international conferences in Asia and Europe. As a professional consultant, her firm has worked with developers, colleges and universities, hospitals, housing and long-term care providers throughout the US by providing strategic planning, market analysis, market segmentation, operational and space programming, marketing plans and materials. Maria's professional career includes the establishment of the first municipal geriatric authority in the US. In recognition of her efforts, the Maria B. Dwight Geriatric and Rehabilitation Center was named in 1977. Maria has been an active member of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA). She has served on the boards of a number of non-profit organizations, including Centura Health of Denver, Colorado; Center for Healthy Aging, Santa Monica, California; Alternative Living for the Aging, in Los Angeles, California, and Stonewall Communities of Boston. Maria received her undergraduate degree from Hampshire College and her master's degree from the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California. KAREN R. ADAMS Karen Adams has worked in the field of aging research and development since 1977 when she graduated from The Pennsylvania State University and began a year of housing research under M. Powell Lawton at the Philadelphia Geriatric Center. She continued her graduate studies in the dual degree program of Urban Planning and Gerontology at The Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California. Karen served as Vice President of GSI from its inception in 1982 until 1993 when she joined the AAHSA Development Corporation (ADC) for eight years, as a Director and as the Vice President in charge of the program. ADC is a subsidiary of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging. Karen worked with investment banking firms, affiliated State Associations, development and design firms and non-profit, long-term care and senior living organizations to develop services and programs. Karen provided technical assistance in finance issues to policy and advocacy staff, assisted providers in planning, development and finance, and worked to retain finance vehicles at the national level. She was awarded the AAHSA Chair's Citation for her service to the Association. Karen's diversified experience brings added expertise to the GSI team. She works nationally with a wide variety of clients, and has pioneered planning efforts in the areas of healty aging and environmental awareness in the development process. She works extensively with the GSI data sets and incorporates these findings into trend analysis. RALPH A. NOVAK Ralph Novak is in his tenth year with GSI, in which time he has worked on over 200 projects as either project director or demographic and geographic information systems (GIS) analyst. He began his career at GSI after completing his graduate work at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he studied under William A.V. Clark in the Department of Geography. While at UCLA, he worked at the Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies on a variety of projects concerned with urban form, demographic transition, residential segregation according to race/ethnicity and class, housing discrimination, local and international migration, urban poverty, and population geography. Ralph has worked closely with GSI clients to direct the primary market research process, including sample selection and survey design. He has developed innovative approaches to situational and market analysis in the retirement housing market, and has presented a number of papers on trend setting analysis at a variety of conferences. LESLIE R. DWIGHT Leslie Dwight is the president and founder of Gerontological Solutions, Inc., Gerontological Services' technology resource company located in Massachusetts. The company develops new hardware and software technologies to support older people's independence as well as working with Gerontological Services, Inc. clients on strategic technology plans. Leslie (Lili) Dwight has focused for the past ten years on hardware and software product development in the field of aging. She has 25+ years of experience in software product development in the fields of aging, eduction, finance, music, entertainment, and security. In the field of aging, Leslie has developed hardware, software, and Internet products designed to enhance facility operations through supporting residents' independence and holds patents in these areas. Ms. Dwight also works with facilities to develop strategic technology plans for their transition into the technology area. Ms. Dwight has been a speaker at IAHSA, LSN, AAHSA, CAHSA, Partnerships in Aging, The Lemelson National Program for Invention, Innovation and Creativitiy at Hampshire College, the Carnegie Mellon/ElderVision SeniorTech 2000 Symposium, the "Managing From The Future" 2002 Summit in Wichita, Kansas (2002), and an instructor at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Leslie chairs the Deerfield, MA Ad Hoc Committee on Senior Housing, as well as being an advisor to the Franklin County Regional Housing Redevelopment Authority and Rural Development, Incorporated. Ms. Dwight is a charter participant in CAST, AAHSA'a technology strategy group. Ms. Dwight serves on the board of Incorporators for the Loomis Communities in Western Massachusetts and on the board of Four Winds School in Gill, MA. She is a member of the Food Bank Farm of the Pioneer Valley, and a charter member of the National Museum of Women in the Arts. DIANE Y. CARSTENS Diane Carstens has worked in the field for over 25 years, and has been part of the GSI team since 1986. She serves as a consumer researcher for GSI as well as project director on numerous assignments. She has completed over 80 studies, including the design and analysis of surveys in Russian and Chinese. Diane's other area of specialization is design. She is the author of Site Planning and Design for the Elderly, a respected text in the field, and wrote the first design section for AAHSA's Retirement Housing Professional's study guide. She oversees the design review portion of our work, working with architects and designers on project development teams. She has served on the faculty of the Harvard Graduate School of Design's Summer Seminar series. Diane is a graduate of Mills College and received her Master's Degree from the University of Illinois, Urbana. SUZANNE D. MANNING Suzanne Manning has been part of our team for over five years and continues to develop our research capabilities to new levels. She has successfully expanded this vital area of our practice as Director of Research, as well as serving as a valued member of our project team. Suzanne is a cum laude graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles. CONSULTANTS We work closely with, and offer a variety of services through our relationships with a few highly respected and qualified colleagues and associates. JAMES M. DOYLE provides both a financial and a development perspective to the planning process, for new development and acquisitions, divestitures, and repositioning projects. WILLIAM D. HENDRICKSON, Financial Consultant, has worked with us for over thirteen years as a feasibility analyst, specializing in financial modeling and scenario building. GWEN C. UMAN, Geriatric Nurse Practitioner, and HAROLD R. URMAN, Statistical Analyst, both of Vital Research began their relationship with GSI in 1984, and continue to be invaluable to us in our work, by providing rigor to our statistical analysis and with wise counsel in a variety of areas concerning geriatric practice and resident satisfaction. All are valued, skilled and highly esteemed professionals with whom we are proud to be associated. |
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