Moderator

Katie C. Lewis, PhD, serves as the Director of Research at the Austen Riggs Center. Her research examines interpersonal behaviors, personality processes, and suicidal ideation in adult psychiatric patients using experience sampling methodology. Dr. Lewis received a doctorate in clinical psychology from the Brooklyn campus of Long Island University. In the past, she has served as the graduate student representative on the Ethics Board of Division 39 and as an associate editor for the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. Her research has been supported by the Robert Wallerstein Fellowship in Psychoanalytic Research, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and the Division 39 Marsha McCary Fund for Psychoanalysis. She has published and presented on a wide range of topics, including suicide and self-harming behaviors, personality psychopathology and assessment, and the ethics of confidentiality in clinical writing. She currently serves as a Consulting Editor and Section Editor for the Journal of Personality Assessment.

Panelists

• Blessing Ojembe, PhD, MSW, RSW, is a Post-doctoral Fellow at McMaster University, Ontario Canada, a Commonwealth scholar and a gerontological social worker whose research interest focuses on: 1) understanding the experiences of aging, loneliness, inequalities, social exclusion, cumulative disadvantages of Black older adults, compounded by their specific social locations such as race, age, gender, immigration status, employment, and; 2) addressing the representational intersectionality of Black older adults in policy, research and practice. Her current research agenda which uses a community-based model and builds on findings from her PhD research, specifically focuses on exploring the aging experience of Canadian-born and immigrant Black older adults on a broader context and understanding how it constructs ideas about their lives and social context. Her research uses a qualitative research design, data collection and analysis to conceptualize Black older adults’ experience of aging. Blessing has ten years of experience in individual, group and community-based practice with older adults in Africa and Canada. Blessing holds a Bachelor of science in Social Work from the University of Nigeria, two Masters in Gerontology and Social Work both from the University of Southampton, United Kingdom and York University, Canada. She also has a PhD in Social Gerontology from McMaster University. Blessing is a Faculty at Fanshawe College, Toronto Campus and will be joining the Faculty of Social Work, University of Manitoba in July as an Assistant Professor. Blessing is a co-founder and sits as the Vice Scientific Director, Grants and Scholarship of the Emerging Researchers and Professionals on Aging – African Network (ERPAAN). ERPAAN is an organization that mentors young African students to develop interest in ageing research through awarding them scholarships to conduct their chosen research. Blessing believes that the future of gerontology lies in getting the younger generation to be involved in the study of aging, globally.
• Paula R. Pietromonaco, PhD, is Professor Emerita, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.  Her research focuses on how romantic partners shape each other’s physiological responses, behavior, and perceptions, how individual differences (e.g., attachment insecurity) modulate these responses, and the link between these responses and downstream emotional and physical health.
• Niobe Way, PhD, is Professor of Developmental Psychology at NYU, the founder of the Project for the Advancement of Our Common Humanity (PACH; pach.org), creative advisor of agapi and the PI on the Listening Project. Dr Way was the President of the Society for Research on Adolescence, received a B.A. from U.C. Berkeley, a doctorate from Harvard, and was an NIMH postdoctoral fellow at Yale in the psychology department. Her work focuses on social and emotional development, how cultural ideologies shape families and child development in the U.S. and China, and on how to build a more just and humane world. The Listening Project (LP) is a school-based curriculum that was created to address the global crisis of connection (i.e., loneliness, depression, anxiety, suicide, hate crimes, mass violence) by fostering the practice of listening with curiosity in schools, workplaces, and homes. As a professor DR. Way teaches the "The Science of Human Connection,"Transformative Interviewing," and "Culture, Context, and Psychology." The work integrates her theoretical, empirical, and applied work developed over three decades on the intersections of culture, context, human development, and wellbeing.

Austen Riggs Center Inc. adheres to the ACCME’s Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Medical Education. All those at Austen Riggs Center involved in the planning of this activity, including the presenter(s) listed above, report they have no relevant financial relationships with an ineligible company*.

The views and opinions expressed in this presentation are those of the presenter(s) and do not necessarily represent the official policy or position of the Austen Riggs Center.

* An ineligible company is any entity whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.