Advisory Board
James H. Aylor, Dean, School of Engineering and Applied Science
Jim Aylor is the Louis T. Rader Professor of Electrical Engineering and became Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science in 2005. A member of the electrical engineering faculty at the University of Virginia since 1978, he served as Department Chair from 1996 to 2003, and Associate Dean for Academic Programs from 2003 to 2005. Over the years, he has been an active researcher in the area of complex computer system design, and founded UVA’s Center for Semicustom Integrated Systems. In 1993, Aylor served as the President of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society and from 1994-1996 he served as a Division Director (and a Board of Directors member) of IEEE. More >
Eugene J. Barrett, Professor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, School of Medicine
Dr. Barrett is the Director of the UVA. Diabetes Center, and currently serves on the National Board of Directors of the American Diabetes Association. His clinical interests include diabetes and lipid disorders, and his research interests include diabetes, insulin action, and nutrition. His research on diabetes and insulin action has been published extensively in peer-reviewed, professional journals. More >
Richard Bonnie, John S. Battle Professor of Law, School of Law
One of the foremost legal experts in mental health law, Professor Bonnie also holds appointments as Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Science, and Director of the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. He teaches and writes about criminal law, bioethics, and law and public policy relating to mental health, substance abuse, aging and public health. He developed and directs the Advocacy Clinic for the Elderly, an interdisciplinary program on aging and the law, the Advocacy Clinic for the Elderly. His is an authority on competency assessment and the elderly, and voting among elderly people with cognitive impairment. More >
David S. Geldmacher, Associate Professor of Neurology, School of Medicine
Dr. Geldmacher is the Director of the Memory Disorder Program. Dr. Geldmacher’s clinical interests include behavioral neurology and dementia, and his research interests include visual and spatial processing and dementia drug development. More >
D. Casey Kerrigan, Chair, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, School of Medicine
Dr. Kerrigan is chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Residency Program Director, and Professor of Sports Medicine at the University of Virginia. She received the M.D. degree from Harvard Medical School in 1987, and completed her residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of California at Los Angeles. She is certified as a National Board of Medical Examiners Diplomat as well as an American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Diplomat. Her clinical interests include general rehabilitation, and her research interests include walking and running. More >
Courtney H. Lyder, Medical Center Professor of Nursing, School of Nursing
Dr. Lyder is the University of Virginia Medical Center Professor of Nursing, Professor of Internal Medicine and Geriatrics and Chairman, Department of Acute and Specialty Care at the University of Virginia. He is also Director for Diversity Initiatives, University of Virginia Medical Center and School of Nursing. His teaching focus is gerontological nursing and pressure ulcer prevention and treatment. Dr. Lyder’s nearly $7 million in research and training grants have focused on care of vulnerable and minority elder adults with particular emphasis on chronic care issues. Moreover, his research and policy work related to pressure ulcer care has influenced Medicare regulatory changes in nursing homes and hospitals. Presently, he is a co-investigator on an NIH study investigating the use of a special camera to detect reactive hyperemia in darkly pigmented elder adults. More >
William Morrish, Elwood R. Quesada Professor, School of Architecture
Professor Morrish, holds the first endowed interdisciplinary professorship in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban and Environmental Planning at UVA’s School of Architecture. Mr. Morrish was the founding director of the Design Center for American Urban Landscape at the University of Minnesota College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. He carries on this work at the University of Virginia through interdisciplinary teaching and research. His design and policy research focuses on the future of America’s aging metropolitan first ring suburban communities and city working class aging small home neighborhoods. His research adapts design principles from “green” building, landscape ecology and non-profit community organizational work. More >
Heidi Scrable, Associate Professor of Neuroscience, School of Medicine
Dr. Scrable holds a Ph.D. (1990) in experimental medicine from McGill. She trained at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, and it was there that she first became interested in molecular pathways of differentiation and development as potential pathogenetic mechanisms of human disease. Her main interest continues to be the idea that mutations that affect the timing of individual steps in these pathways could result in abnormal development or even disease just as readily as mutations that compromise the nature of the steps themselves. Dr. Scrable completed postdoctoral research at the University of Cincinnati, where she attempted to create a model system based on the lac operon of E. coli that would make it possible to regulate when and for how long genes were expressed. Dr. Scrable’s research group at the University of Virginia is the first to get this system to work in the laboratory mouse, and to use this powerful tool successfully to control transgene expression. More >
Gordon Walker, CEO, Jefferson Area Board for Aging
Gordon Walker has been the executive director and chief executive officer of the Jefferson Area Board for Aging for 20 years. In that capacity, he presides over all JABA operations, programs, and development activities. He is an adjunct professor in the Departments of Medicine and Nursing at UVA, and has also served as president of several local, state and national organizations. In 1995, Mr. Walker was appointed to the White House Conference on Aging as a representative for the State of Virginia. Prior to his tenure at JABA, he was associate director of the Georgia State University Gerontology Center, a legislative aide to the US Senate Committee on Aging, and deputy director of the Vermont Department of Aging. More >
Arthur L. Weltman, Professor of Exercise Physiology, Curry School of Education, School of Medicine
Art Weltman directs both the Exercise Physiology Program and the Adult Fitness Program, part of the University of Virginia Center for Cardiac Health and Fitness, and has a joint appointment as a Professor of Medicine. As the Director of the Exercise Physiology Laboratory of the General Clinical Research Center, he is involved in much of the clinical research at the University related to exercise, body composition, regional distribution of body fat, strength, function, and balance. His current research interests include an examination of the relationship among exercise, body composition, regional distribution of body fat, strength, balance, function, and hormones. More >
Advisory Board Member Dr. Heidi Scrable
Ask Dr. Scrable how she became involved in the field of aging, and she may state it was “by accident.”
While a post-doctoral fellow, Dr. Scrable initially entered the research arena as a cancer geneticist, intrigued by why a defect in the p53 gene is responsible for many cancers. The p53 gene produces a protein that helps give damaged cells time to repair themselves before they divide. People who inherit a faulty version of the p53 gene have a higher risk of developing cancer because the damaged cells begin to accumulate. While working with animal models in her lab at UVa, Dr. Scrable found an intriguing connection between aging and cancer, which is nicely illustrated by mice in which a special mutation of the p53 gene is introduced. In the process of conducting cancer-related research, Scrable found that mice in which the p53 gene has been perturbed have increased tumor suppression, and interestingly enough, Scrable also found that these mice have reduced longevity. This finding could ultimately lead
to very promising developments in her research lab, which now focuses on the role of the p53 gene inaging.
Dr. Scrable’s research demonstrates that aging is not a random process, but rather there is a genetic program underlying the process of aging. She notes, “We are pretty much at a place that cancer biologists were a couple of decades ago, when the idea that cancer is a genetic disease was first accepted.” Her findings have suggested a pathway to identifying and manipulating “longevity” genes. Once she determines how p53 actually controls the aging process, the tools of molecular genetics may be used to help solve some of the mysteries of the aging process.