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Center on Aging

 
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Faculty Biographies


David K. Brown, PhD - Associate Professor


Dr. Brown received the M.A. from New York University in 1960 and the Ph.D. from West Virginia University in 1974. He was on the faculty at Concord College from 1966-1977.

In May 2004, Dr. Brown received a letter from Governor Bob Wise thanking him for his distinguished service to the state of West Virginia. Read the letter to Dr. Brown from Governor Wise (PDF)

He has served on the faculty of the Center for the Study of Aging at the University of Alabama, and has conducted numerous management training events and seminars around the country. His publications are in the area of aging and health policy and human services management. The University Press of America has published his text book on aging policy.

From 1984-1989, he served as Executive Director of the Mississippi Council on Aging, and assumed the position of Executive Director of the West Virginia Commission on Aging on October of 1989. In June of 1992, he became the Director of the West Virginia Office of Aging. He served on the Board of Directors of the National Association of State Units on Aging and the Advisory Board of the Center for Social Gerontology. He holds the prestigious Vernon Dahmer award from the NAACP.

Dr. Brown was appointed by President Clinton to the 1995 White House Conference on Aging National Advisory Committee, and sat on Vice-President Gore’s Committee to Re-Invent Government through the Administration on Aging.

He holds the rank of Professor in the Department of Community Medicine.

Publications by Dr. Brown..




R. Turner Goins, PhD - Associate Professor


Dr. Goins is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Community Medicine, West Virginia University.  She received her MS and PhD in Gerontology from the University of Massachusetts- Boston.  She was an NIA post doctoral fellow at Duke University Medical Center’s Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, with an emphasis in epidemiology.  The major focus of Dr. Goins’ research has been on health and access to health care for rural elderly populations.  She recently completed a two-year career development grant with the Native Elder Research Center at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, which extended her program of research to reservation-based American Indian elderly.

Dr. Goins' Research Interests..

Publications by Dr. Goins..





Mary W. Carter, PhD - Assistant Professor


Dr. Carter’s work explores factors that contribute to variations in healthcare utilization and quality of care among older adults.  Her particular research interest includes the extent to which structural and organizational factors of healthcare markets and providers (e.g., profit status, chain membership, operational expenses, nurse staffing patters) contribute to (1) ambulatory care-sensitive  hospitalizations, (2) highly discretionary hospitalizations and (3) poor nursing home quality performance and resident outcomes.  As a health services researcher, Dr. Carter’s work utilizes large, national data bases and analytical research methods for longitudinal data. Currently, she is collaborating on a project supported by the Alzheimer’s Association investigating factors contributing to ambulatory care-sensitive hospitalizations among nursing home residents with a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.  Additionally, she is exploring how resident risk of hospitalization varies in relation to facility performance on select quality indicators (e.g., decubitus ulcers; physical restraint use), as well as examining visit rates to emergency departments and outcomes of these encounters by elders presenting with ambulatory care-sensitive conditions.   Dr. Carter received her degree in gerontology from the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Following completion of her doctoral studies, Dr. Carter was selected as a National Institute on Aging Postdoctoral Fellow with the Division of Health Services Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota’s school of Public Health, where her research explored factors associated with improved quality of care and health outcomes in nursing homes.

Dr. Carter's Research Interests..

Publications by Dr. Carter..


Bei Wu, PhD - Assistant Professor


Dr. Wu received her Ph.D. degree from the Gerontology Center, University of Massachusetts Boston in 2000.  She was a Senior Research Associate at the Health Economics Research, Inc. and Center for Health Economics Research from 2000 to 2002.  Her main research interests are Access to care and health services utilization (including dental care utilization), dementia and caregiving, and minority and international aging. She has experience in conducting quantitative, qualitative, and evaluation research.   She was the co- investigator on the two national dementia caregiver intervention policy evaluation studies funded by the Retirement Research Foundation and the Helen Bader Foundation.    As a Co-PI and project coordinator, she was also extensively involved in a small demonstration of in-home individualized interventions for Chinese dementia caregivers funded by the Boston Foundation.   She participated in Medicare Risk-Adjustment Study for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  As a part of the study, she took the lead in developing rates as possible benchmarks for Congestive Heart Failure and these rates were provided to a national panel of clinicians making recommendations about quality indicators.  As a Principal investigator, she is current working on two projects related to immigration impact on Chinese elders’ health and health services utilizations, and evaluation of long-term care system in rural areas of China.   In addition, as a PI, she is taking a lead on conducting a pilot study on cognitive function’s impact on oral health of older adults in West Virginia.

Dr. Wu's Research Interests..

List of Publications by Dr. Wu..

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 

  
 
 
 

  
 
 
 

  
 
 
 

  
 
 
 

  
 
 
 

  
 
 
 

  
 
 
 

  
 
 
 

  
 
 
 

  
 
 
 

  
 
 
 

  
 
 
 

  
 
 
 

 
  
 
 
 

  
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
WVU Center on Aging | Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center
Suite G103 HSC North | PO Box 9127 | Morgantown, WV 26506-9127
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