Speakers

(Occurred October 18-20, 2016)

Keynote Speakers

Linda H. Clever, MD

Internist and occupational health specialist, Linda Hawes Clever, MD, member of the National Academy of Medicine, twice a Stanford graduate and former Associate Dean of its School of Medicine, founded the not-for-profit RENEW twenty years ago, to help capable people live whole, healthy, fulfilling lives. She likes good walks, good conversations, and good cookies.

Herant Katchdourian, MD

Herant Katchadourian MD, emeritus professor of psychiatry and human biology at Stanford and former president of the Flora Family Foundation, was born in Turkey to Armenian parents. He received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the American University, Beirut and his psychiatric training at the University of Rochester. Since joining the Stanford faculty in 1966, he has served as dean of undergraduate studies and vice provost of undergraduate education. He is famous for his lectures in human sexuality to undergraduates. He has received numerous awards, including the university's Dinkelspiel Award and the Lyman Award from the Stanford Alumni Association. Since his retirement he teaches for Stanford continuing studies a course on guilt and has a book by the same title. He leads the travel study trip to the Middle East, including Moslem art, architecture, culture and history. 

Anabel Pelham, PhD

Anabel Pelham, PhD, is  Professor Emeritus, Gerontology,  San Francisco State University; Founding Director, Center for Age-Friendly Excellence; President, National Association for Professional Gerontologists.  Dr. Pelham is Founding Director of the Center for Age-Friendly Excellence (CAFÉ) www.cfafe.org a project of the Los Altos Community Foundation and a member of the Foundation's Board of Directors. She is an has expert in global issues in aging and gerontology, Age-Friendly Cities and community development, community-based health and human services, qualitative research methods, graduate gerontology curriculum development, geriatric care management, life-long learning, and credentialing and accreditation in the field of gerontology. 

David Sobel, MD, MPH

David S. Sobel, MD, MPH, is Consulting Professor, Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine. He  served as Medical Director of Patient Education for The Permanente Medical Group and Kaiser Permanente Northern California.  He has written ten books including Living a Healthy Life with Chronic Conditions, The Healing Brain, Healthy Pleasures, The Mind & Body Health Handbook. He has made over 200 television appearances and provided over 500 invited keynote lectures. His healthiest pleasures include adventure travel with his wife and filmmaking with his writer/director son. 

Workshop Speakers

Christopher Gardner, PhD

Christopher Gardner, PhD holds a PhD in Nutrition Science and is a Professor of Medicine at Stanford. For 20 years his research has examined potential health benefits of dietary components such as soy, garlic, antioxidants, omega-3 fats, vegetarian diets, and weight loss diets in the general population. More recently his interests have expanded to two new areas. One he calls "stealth nutrition" - which he describes as connecting food choices to social issues such as animal rights and welfare and climate change for the purpose of promoting healthful behavior changes in food habits. The second new area involves looking at "systems approaches" to eating behaviors, such as focusing on the complex web of factors required to acquire, prepare, and present food in university, worksite and hospital settings.

Karl Knopf, PhD

Dr. Karl Knopf, EdD,  taught corrective exercise to the disabled and older adults for over 40 years at Foothill College where he was the Coordinator of the Adaptive Fitness Therapy AA Degree Program at the college. Dr. Karl has literally written the book on boomer and senior fitness as he has authored over 15 books, and numerous articles. He has also been quoted and interviewed on numerous radio, TV and other media.

Jim McCabe, DSW, MSW, MPH

Jim McCabe is the President of Eldercare Resources. He has more than 25 years of experience in health care and long term care planning. Dr. McCabe has twice served on the Board of the American Society on Aging and is a member of the National Financial Planning Association. He is the author of the book Solving the Housing Retirement Puzzle: 20 Tips to Help You Make the Right Decision, and is a frequent contributor to journals and newsletters.

Sean Mackey, MD, PhD

Sean Mackey, MD, PhD, is Chief of the Division of Pain Medicine and Redlich Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Neurosciences and Neurology at Stanford University. Chronic pain is a persistent problem that affects our mobility. Dr. Mackey specializes in getting to the root of chronic pain and specializes in specific brain and spinal cord regions that perceive and process pain leading to holistic innovative therapies to provide more personalized treatments. He has published over 200 journal articles, book chapters, abstracts, and popular press pieces in addition to numerous national and international lectures addressing chronic pain.

Mickey Trockel, MD, PhD

Mickey Trockel, MD, PhD, has dual training as a psychiatrist and behavioral scientist.   He recently accepted a position as the Director of Scholarship and Health Promotion for Stanford’s new WellMD Center. He applies his training and experience as a clinician scholar to conduct the periodic Stanford Physician Wellness Survey and to evaluate the efficacy of Wellness Center directed and affiliated efforts. He directs the WellMD Center affiliated “Health for Healers” research group and provides consultation to help other scholars with their research on physician wellness. Dr. Trockel is particularly interested in supporting research on the relationship between physician wellness and patient care outcomes. Dr. Trockel finds his active clinical practice very meaningful and informative to his current research interests. Most of his patients are physicians who see him for psychotherapy. Away from work Mickey’s favorite things to do with family and friends include riding his bicycle in the Santa Cruz mountains near Stanford and playing ultimate Frisbee.

Ester Szabo, PhD

Esther is the CEO of Gates Pass Advisors, LLC, a fee only financial advisory practice focused on the needs of women and couples in transition.

Esther's counseling and teaching background allows her to help her clients go beyond headline anxiety to articulate their personal life goals, and then helps them develop, implement, and maintain a clear and stable financial strategy that aligns with them.

Esther is a respected leader in her field and has over two decades of personal financial planning and portfolio management through both good and challenging market environments.

A past president of the Financial Planning Association of Silicon Valley, Esther has been quoted in US News and World Report, Investment Advisor, the San Jose Mercury News and the Wall Street Journal.

Panelists

Richard Adler, MBA

Richard is a Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for the Future (IFTF) in Palo Alto. Richard has worked in the field of aging for more than two decade., focused on the link between aging and technology. When he first started working in aging, it was “about them,” but now he finds that “it’s about himself.”    At IFTF, Richard has directed research on the aging of the baby boomers and the future of caregiving. He is currently leading an effort at Avenidas, the Palo Alto Senior Center,  to create a Generations Lab where older adults can explore the new world of personal digital technologies.

Wes Allen, PhD

Wes is the Director of the Health Improvement Program, Stanford Prevention, Research Center (SPRC) Stanford School of Medicine. A true health advocate and researcher, he and his team disseminate SPRC research, conduct outreach, and facilitate the adoption and implementation of health promotion programs on the local and national level. Under his leadership, the Health Improvement Program has provided education to over 2 million individuals. Wes was a group facilitator for the Meyer Friedman Institute of UCSF, an organization that conducted research on providing behavior modification programs for people with Type A behavior patterns. Wes likes to listen to KDFC, learning about classical music and interesting stories about the composers. He enjoys traveling, Greta America, cooking Italian food, and watching NCIS because he use to watch it with him mom while drinking hot chocolate.

Bruce Feldstein, MD

Chaplain Feldstein is founder and director of The Jewish Chaplaincy at Stanford and an Adjunct Clinical Professor at Stanford School of Medicine, Division of General Medical Disciplines.

While he was specializing in emergency medicine for 19 years, an injury led him to a deeper sense of his life's work as a chaplain.  He has navigated the journey from action-oriented emergency physician to reflective chaplain, shifting his focus from ‘‘curing’’ or ‘‘fixing’’ to bringing comfort and healing, to becoming someone capable of being fully present, bringing all of himself to the bedside: body, intellect, heart, and soul, as well as his training and life experience.

Joyce Hanna, MA, MS

Joyce is Associate Director of Health Improvement Program, Stanford School of Medicine. Joyce has developed and conducted health education seminars and conferences, with a focus on behavior change, healthy aging, weight management, exercise physiology, and nutrition. She is a former consultant to the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness, and past president of Lifelong Fitness Alliance, an organization that promoted physical activity throughout the lifespan.  Joyce is the founder and co-director of Living Strong, Living Well, a strength/fitness program for cancer patients and survivors.  She is also the program Director of the popular Stanford Alumni Annual Healthy Living Retreat for Women. She likes to spend time with her five grandchildren, family and friends. She enjoys mountain hiking, reading biographies, going to good movies and chocolate.

Manjula Waldron, PhD

Manjula is a consulting professor in Stanford Prevention Research Center, Stanford School of Medicine. She retired as a professor of Bioengineering  and spent her life researching deafness and design process. She is a certified healing touch practitioner and a holistic life coach. Since 1998 she has focused on the upside of aging and developed her REWARDS© program. Manjula  taught Science and Spirituality and Designing Resilient aging for Stanford Continuing Studies and Designing life for meaning and purpose and Reboot your life for Stanford Health Improvement Program. She is deeply committed to inclusivity. In addition to her technical writing she just completed her first historical novel: Love Partitioned and Love Redeemed, to explore women's transformation when faced with extreme hardships as in partition of India during its independence. She is an expert in smart robotics and enjoys creative cooking.