From the President's Desk
We ended our Fall semester  First Thursdays - Graduate Student Talk series with an excellent, well-attended seminar by Linda Kahn, who will soon be defending her dissertation in Epidemiology. Her main topic was sperm quality as it relates to male adiposity and stress, but she also presented interesting data on the worldwide increase in births resulting from  in vitro fertilization (IVF). We don't have good numbers, but we know that at least 4.5% of births in New Jersey, which mandates insurance coverage and thus are easier to count, are through IVF. IVF births are associated with a higher risk for a number of diseases - and little is known about the long-term effects of the extreme hormone treatments on mothers and on egg donors.

People in our age group can probably name every pair of twins with whom we were in grade school - but now, with IVF, twin births are quite common. Twin births are associated with a host of risks for mothers and babies. Canada and much of Europe will only cover the IVF costs of single embryo transfers. Anything goes in the United States, however. As you can imagine, we had a very lively discussion. Isn't it interesting how selective (perhaps a bit arbitrary?) people are in the risks they worry about and the ones they assume willingly? Thank you, Frank Wolf, Dean Emeritus School for Professional Studies, for organizing these wonderful talks. 

Now to EPIC business.  A number of us are working on new program development. We're planning focus groups for early next year. If you want to be part of the planning process and discussion, please contact us.  And, please do attend this Tuesday's talk by Caitlin Hawke (see below). Former Associate Dean, Planning and Administration, School of the Arts at Columbia, Barbara Batcheler, who retired three years ago, will also be attending and sharing information. We hope to profit from Caitlin's and Barbara's experiences. Stay and join us for lunch at Faculty House at the special EPIC reduced rated. 

Have a good day! 

Jeanne Mager Stellman, President, EPIC
Professor Emerita & Special Lecturer
Mailman School of Public Health

Alternate Tuesday Talk December 6
“Community Matters: The BAiP Model,” Caitlin Hawke, Senior Science and Strategy Manager, Columbia Aging Center; Board member, BAiP

is a vibrant community of older adults residing in Manhattan's west side in an area bounded by 96th and 110th Streets. Over 1200 members strong, it is a grassroots, all-volunteer nonprofit organization that relies heavily on peer-to-peer exchange to achieve its mission to keep retirees connected. In great part, it does this through over 1000 activities each year, which range from ongoing reading and exercise groups to social opportunities to informational panels. Caitlin Hawke (Senior Science and Strategy Officer at the Columbia Aging Center) co-leads the BAiP activities committee and serves on its board in her community work. She will discuss what has worked (and what has not) as the organization has grown and sought to become sustainable. Incorporated in 2009, BAiP recently received the 2016 Joan H. Tisch Prize from Hunter College “for outstanding accomplishment in the field of urban public health” and may be one of the best kept secrets outside its UWS catchment.


Alternate Tuesday Talks address topics across the academic spectrum as well as issues of particular importance to the retired academic community.  Attendees can continue their discussions in the Faculty Club, at a special EPIC reduced rate.

Guests are welcome. 
11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Faculty House Garden Room 1

Holiday Luncheon and Tuesday Talk Dec. 20
Professor of Historical Musicology Susan Boynton and Professor of Music Composition  Brad Garton will demonstrate and discuss the project for which they received a Provost Hybrid Learning Course Redesign and Delivery grant, “Using Music Visualization to Enrich Student Learning in Music Humanities."

Professor Boynton teaches a course in the history of western music, middle ages to baroque. While at the Columbia Global Center in Paris, she participated in teaching music and art humanities as parallel and contemporary courses and she drew on her extensive knowledge of the visual arts to make connections between works of music and what students were seeing in Paris.
Union Seminary Encore Learning
In January 2017, Union Theological Seminary will launch a new program for learners 55 years of age and older who want to do social justice work. The four-month program will bring a diverse group of 12-15 participants to the campus for a time of discernment, dialogue and experiential learning for transitioning to an “encore” stage of life and work in a social justice setting.

Encore at  Union  combines the spiritual and  theological  perspective of an ecumenical seminary and the application of real-world praxis for undertaking such an important life transition. The program will be facilitated by a recent M.A. graduate of  Union , Ruth A. Wooden. Ms. Wooden enrolled at  Union  as her “encore” after retiring in 2011 from her professional career as President of both Public Agenda and the Advertising Council. Ms. Wooden also served as the Board Chair of  encore.org , the leading voice in research and advocacy for building a movement to tap the skills and experiences of those in midlife and beyond. 

Please click here for information about Union's December 7  Faith in America public dialogue on the topic of “The Aging of America: A New Work Force for Social Justice.”  Ruth Wooden will interview Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Ellen Goodman and AARP Experience Corps CEO Lester Strong on their own encore stages of work.