America is an aging nation – and how to age well is a complex question that University of Maryland’s Center for SUNSHINE (Center for Seniors Uniting Nationwide to Support Health, INtegrated care, and Economics) is entirely dedicated to. On April 15, the Center held its first annual symposium at UMD with a focus on “Advancing Aging Resilience Through Research, Partnership, and Practice.”
"The number of Americans aged 65 and older is higher than it’s ever been and is projected to keep growing, according to the Population Reference Bureau.
“We seek to build our systems for aging people resiliently, so everybody can age with a good quality of life and positive aging and wisdom, and also can happily live in their community for as long as they want,” said Dr. Jie Chen, co-director of the Center for SUNSHINE and chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the UMD School of Public Health (SPH).
Co-led by faculty from SPH and the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), and funded by the National Institute on Aging, the Center for SUNSHINE aims to bring communities and experts together to maximize the well-being of older adults. The event brought out around 75 attendees from across disciplines and institutions.
Research presentations by several UMD and UMB researchers included a presentation by SPH Assistant Professor Dr. Dahai Yue, “When Did the Rich Begin to Live Longer than the Poor? Income Gradients in Life Expectancy, 1900-1950,” in which he investigated disparities in longevity by linking census data to death records.
“We're lucky to have some kind of data we can use to observe people's age and death and lifespan and to investigate the potential drivers behind why some people live longer and some people’s lives are shorter,” Yue said.
Dr. Jennifer Albrecht, a UMB School of Medicine Department of Epidemiology and Public Health professor, researched traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) in older adults and how to better treat them. Palliative care focuses on symptom management for these types of injuries, but Albrecht’s studies found that not everyone properly receives it.
“We found that non-Hispanic Black individuals were much less likely to receive a palliative care consult relative to non-Hispanic white older adults,” Albrecht said.
Dr. Hillary Edwards, director of research for the PATIENTS program at UMB discussed directly bridging people with lived experience in aging and resilience to clinicians and policymakers to build better research questions.
“I hope that by partnering with people with lived experience, that we make research more relevant, more meaningful and more impactful for all individuals who have to navigate the healthcare system,” Edwards said.
Chen presented on AI in healthcare, discussing resilient aging health systems and moving from prediction of a person’s needs to coordinated, system-level care.
Yue said this inaugural Center for SUNSHINE event was an excellent way to establish a community in aging research, and there are plans to expand the center’s reach in the future.
“SUNSHINE events like this really connect people,” Yue said. “The discussion facilitates translation of scientific evidence and makes a real-world impact.”
— Rachel Kebler ‘27
