About Us – Wellness with Pride

Aging with Pride, Healthy Generations and the National LGBTQ Health and Longevity Center at the University of Washington are innovation hubs designed to translate world class science into effective practice and interventions to improve LGBTQ health and well-being across the generations. We specialize in community-based research within diverse and historically marginalized communities and develop strong partnerships to develop, test and implement innovative evidence-based solutions to complex health and social problems. We are committed to enhancing the strengths and resilience of communities by cultivating transformative opportunities that promote health and wellness. For more than two decades we have supported all ages of the LGBTQ community through best practices in research, intervention development and implementation, and education and training, in order to reduce health, economic and social disparities now and for generations to come. Some of our current key projects are described below.

Aging with Pride: National Health, Aging, and Sexuality/Gender Study (NHAS) is a decade-long landmark study is the first federally-funded longitudinal national project designed to better understand the aging, health, and well-being of LGBTQ midlife and older adults and their families. With over 2,400 LGBTQ adults ranging in age from 50 to over 100, this project deepens our understanding of how various life experiences are related to changes in aging, health, and well-being over time. The findings paint a vivid portrait of the lives of LGBTQ midlife and older adults, documenting the interplay of risk and resilience to further understand those reaching their full aging and health potential and those most at risk of health, social, and economic disparities. This project is a collaboration with 17 community agencies serving LGBTQ older adults in every census division throughout the U.S. The project is funded through a federal grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute on Aging (NIA).

Washington State Population Equity and Diversity Project is our most recent project investigating health disparities of all ages of LGBTQ people and diverse racial/ethnic communities. This is the first state-wide project to assess the health, economic, and social needs and resources of LGBTQ adults 18 years of age and older across Washington State. This newly-assembled research team cuts across four UW departments (Schools of Medicine, Nursing, Social Work, and Public Policy and Governance) and two campuses (Seattle and Tacoma). The project comprehensively investigates population health in Washington State across the two intersecting vulnerable populations. The pilot research will investigate innovative, feasible study aims by utilizing population based data and pilot-test a community survey designed to identify key modifiable mechanisms, including social and community level risks and their relationship to improve health outcomes.

Aging with Pride: IDEA (Innovations in Dementia Empowerment) is the first federally-funded project testing a program designed to improve quality of life for LGBTQ people who experience memory loss or who help those experiencing memory loss. The study takes place in the Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles metropolitan areas. Older adults with memory loss can participate with an informal care partner, who may be a spouse or partner, friend, family member, or anyone who assists them. Either the person with memory loss or the person who helps them (or both) must be LGBTQ. Participants meet with a coach to learn exercises and strategies related to memory loss. The IDEA research team cuts across the UW School of Social Work and Nursing.

Meet the Team

Karen I. Fredriksen Goldsen, PhD, is the Principal Investigator of Aging with Pride: National Health, Aging, and Sexuality/Gender Study (NHAS). She is a Professor at the University of Washington School of Social Work, Director of Healthy Generations Hartford Center of Excellence, and Director of Institute for Multigenerational Health. Dr. Fredriksen Goldsen is a Fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare and the Gerontological Society of America, and a Hartford Scholar and Mentor, and founder of Generations Aging with Pride, GSA Rainbow Research Group, and Shanti/Seattle. She received her PhD in Social Welfare from the University of California at Berkeley.

Charles A. Emlet, PhD, is a Fellow of Gerontological Society of America, a member of the Association of Gerontological Education in Social Work (AGE-SW) and the National Association of Social Workers, and in 2013 was a Fulbright Visiting Research Chair and Fulbright Scholar at McMaster University in Hamilton Ontario, Canada. His current areas of research include older persons living with HIV/AIDS and LGBT aging. He received his PhD in Social Welfare from the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio.

Hyun-Jun Kim, PhD, is a research scientist at the School of Social Work, University of Washington and serves as the Project Director and co-investigator of Aging with Pride: National Health, Aging, and Sexuality/Gender Study (NHAS). His research interests include health disparities in historically disadvantaged older adult communities and the role of human agency and social relationships in the interplay of well-being, health-related quality of life, multiple identities, and cultural resources. Dr. Kim is a Gerontological Society of America Fellow. He completed his PhD in Social Welfare at the University of Washington, School of Social Work in 2009.

Linda Teri, PhD has been at the University of Washington (UW) since 1984, and in the School of Nursing since 1998. She has been the Principle Investigator (or Co-PI) on over 50 NIH funded grants, each focused on (1) understanding the relationship between cognitive, behavioral, and affective problems among older adults with varying levels of cognitive impairment or (2) developing and evaluating community-based treatment or training programs designed to decrease the behavioral and care-related problems experienced by older adults by working with them directly, with their family members, or with staff providing their care.

Other contributors include Hyunzee Jung, Sunghee Le, Eileen Crimmins, Cynthia Boyd, Charles Hoy-Ellis, Sarah Jen, Jayn Goldsen, Amanda Mancenido, Melina Tovar, Diane Gregorio, and Anyah Prasad.