Our Team

Dean of the Bouvé College of Health Sciences and Professor of Health Sciences at Northeastern University. Dr. Sceppa received her medical degree from Francisco Marroquín University in Guatemala City, Guatemala, where she was born and raised. She received her PhD in Nutrition from The Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Sceppa is a clinician, researcher, educator, mentor, and leader. Her research seeks to understand the role of lifestyle interventions on advancing health and quality of life among older adults. She examines the role of physical activity, exercise and nutrition as health promoting interventions for underserved and vulnerable populations, particularly Hispanics and African Americans older adults and the elderly. Dr. Sceppa’s research has provided evidence-based information to transform the way we think about healthy lifestyle from personal choice to preventive medicine. Dr. Sceppa serves as senior faculty mentor for the Network of Minority Research Investigators at the National Institutes of Health, the GSA Board of Directors, and member of the American Society for Nutrition.

Alla V. and Solomon Jesmer Professor of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine and a cognitive neuropsychologist within the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center at Rush University Medical Center. She is also the Associate Director of the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. Her research interests include disparities in chronic diseases of aging, cognitive decline, and risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease. She is the Principal Investigator of the Minority Aging Research Study (MARS), which has been funded by NIA since 2004, and the Clinical Core Leader for the Rush ADRC. She has extensive experience mentoring junior scholars under-represented in medicine including sponsoring K-series fellows, and junior faculty with diversity supplements, small pilot grants, and investigator-initiated foundation awards.

Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is an appointed member of the US Department of Veterans Affairs’ Geriatric and Gerontology Advisory Committee and the NIH’s Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee. Dr. Baker is also the Editor-in-Chief of Ethnicity & Health (Taylor & Francis Group). She is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA), and founder member and co-convener of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Collaborative Interest Group. Her background in Gerontology, Psychology, and Biobehavioral Health has evolved into an active research agenda that focuses on understanding the behavioral and psychosocial predictors and outcomes of chronic pain and symptom management among older adults from historically marginalized populations. Specifically, she examines health disparities and inequities in access and availability to pain management resources among older Black adults.

Vice President of Policy and Professional Affairs for the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) and a board-certified geriatric pharmacist. Ms. D’Antonio directs GSA’s policy initiatives and is responsible for developing relationships with organizations in the aging arena. She represents GSA on several policy coalitions and serves as co-chair for the Adult Vaccine Access Coalition, president of the board of the Protecting Access to Pain Relief, and a member of the steering committee for several federally focused coalitions. Ms. D’Antonio is also the executive director for the National Center to Reframe Aging, the central hub to advance the long-term social change endeavor designed to improve the public’s understanding of what aging means and the many ways that older people contribute to our society. She received her Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from Duquesne University and her Master of Science in Health Finance and Master in Business Administration with a concentration in health care from Temple University. She completed a residency in administration and finance at The Philadelphia Geriatric Center.

Program Manager for the RCMAR National Coordinating Center. Blake joins the RCMAR National Coordinating Center from American University where he worked as an Academic Program Assistant. He worked in the School of Communication where he oversaw division budgets, managed scheduling, and fulfilled various administrative needs. Blake holds an MA in History from American University, where he conducted research on race and immigration in the United States, focusing specifically on the development of racial and ethnic identity among minority groups. He also worked with minority populations to record oral histories and support access to museum collections and archives. Blake supports cross-center collaboration, promotes the work done by RCMAR scientists and centers, and manages the development of RCMAR National Coordinating Center infrastructure. 

Program Coordinator for the Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research National Coordinating Center (RCMAR NCC). She advances RCMAR NCC’s mission by providing administrative and project support, coordinating with the RCMAR Centers and AD/ADRD Centers, and promoting the work of RCMAR’s centers and scientists from diverse backgrounds. She received a Master of Arts in International Peace and Conflict Resolution with a focus in dialogue and education at American University. Her work was centered around utilizing adult education to begin dialogue to reframe the narratives in post conflict societies.

Chief Executive Officer of The Gerontological Society of America (GSA), the nation’s largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to research, education, and practice in the field of aging. The Society works to advance innovation in aging and disseminate information among scientists, clinicians, policy makers, and the public. He is leading the Society’s current initiative to “reframe aging” in America by fostering accurate narratives of aging to replace the outdated “conventional wisdom” that dominates public understanding. The 5,500-member Society is advancing major initiatives related to improving adult immunization rates, earlier detection of cognitive impairment, improving oral health, and demonstrating the impact of the longevity economy. Appleby also is currently serving a four-year term on the National Advisory Council on Aging after being appointed by the U.S. Secretary for Health and Human Services, and he additionally serves on the National Alliance for Caregiving Board of Directors. Prior to joining GSA, he had a 17-year career with the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) where he served in a variety of roles before being appointed Chief Operating Officer. Before joining APhA, he was on faculty at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science (PCPS). Appleby holds a bachelor of science degree in pharmacy from PCPS and a master of public health degree from Temple University. He has been awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia.

Senior Evaluator with the Northeastern University Public Evaluation Lab (NU-PEL). She has nearly 20 years of experience conducting evaluation research for education, youth development, and public health organizations and institutions. Through her work as both an external and applied internal evaluation researcher Dr. Friedman has led evaluations of programs funded by federal (e.g., NSF, DOE, DOJ, DoD, NIH, NASA), foundation (e.g., Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies; Mellon Foundation), and corporate entities. Most of Dr. Friedman’s work has centered on youth development and adult training programs for informal educators, building evaluation capacity within community-based organizations, and developing strategies and resources for embedding evaluation practices into program activities and organizational operations.

Inter-disciplinary Professor of Sociology and Health Sciences and Director, of the Institute for Health Equity and Social Justice Research (IHESJR) and Senior Advisor of the Northeastern University Public Evaluation Lab (NU-PEL) at Northeastern University. Dr. Lincoln has led community-partnered evaluation efforts for the past 20 years with funding from SAMHSA, NIH, NIJ, AFSP, RWJ and others. Her research examines the way that social exclusion and marginalization both contribute to and are consequences of poor mental health through the development of innovative models to increase community involvement in research.

Dr. Melissa Gerald is a program director at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the Division of Behavioral and Social Research (BSR) at the National Institute on Aging (NIA). Gerald’s portfolio is focused on the role and impact of families and interpersonal relationships on health and well-being in midlife and older age, and she is developing a research program devoted to animal models of human sociality. She also manages aging-relevant research on sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations and on characterizing and reducing stigma to improve health, and she represents NIA on the trans-NIH SGM Research Coordinating Committee. Prior to joining BSR, Gerald served as a scientific review officer at the Center for Scientific Review, where she administered and oversaw the scientific review of applications for the Biobehavioral Regulation, Learning, and Ethology study section and special emphasis panels in the Biobehavioral and Behavioral Processes Integrated Review Group. Before working at NIH, Gerald was an associate professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus and had served as the Scientist-in-Charge of the free-ranging rhesus macaque colony on Cayo Santiago, where she led a biobehavioral research program devoted to natural and sexual selection in nonhuman primates and sources of individual differences in social behavior. Dr. Gerald obtained her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles and her bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and Psychology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She received postdoctoral training in behavioral neuroendocrinology as an Intramural postdoctoral fellow in the Laboratory of Clinical and Translational Studies’ Primate Section at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. 

Dr. Erin R. Harrell is a Program Official in the Individual Behavioral Processes (IBP) Branch in the Division of Behavioral and Social Research (BSR) of the National Institute on Aging (NIA). She manages a portfolio on Applied Cognition that includes research related to the effects of aging and cognitive decline on functions such as driving, negotiating challenges associated with aging-in-place, and interacting with the built environment. Prior to joining NIA, Dr. Harrell served as a Scientific Review Officer at the Center for Scientific Review in the Clinical Care and Health Interventions Branch and led Special Emphasis Panels involving fellowships in Population Science and Epidemiology. Prior to joining CSR, she was an Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama where she directed the Healthy Aging across the Lifespan using Optimization (HALO) lab. Positioned at the intersection of human factors, changes in cognition, patient outcomes, and intervention development, Dr. Harrell’s scientific work focused on understanding ways that technology can facilitate the aging process by investigating adherence and adoption of technology. Additionally, part of her research portfolio focused on older adult caregivers and low-income minority adults in rural settings and aimed to explore how stress across the lifespan may be accelerating the aging process. Dr. Harrell was an active advocate for science as a mechanism to promote health equity by reducing health disparities and enjoyed mentoring undergraduate and graduate students from various majors including biology, criminology, nursing, and psychology. Dr. Harrell earned her Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from Florida State University. She was a McKnight Doctoral Fellow and participant in the Department of Homeland Security’s HS-STEM Summer Internship Program. Her research was supported in part by funding from NIA through an R36 Aging Research Dissertation Award to Promote Diversity.