Laurinda was a nontraditional student and in some respects is a nontraditional educator and gerontologist:
Current Position
Laurinda is a Professor of Gerontology at American River College in Sacramento, California (August 2016 to the present). She serves as the Gerontology Department Chair and the Department Career Education Program Coordinator. She is also the primary author of the online course Ageism First Aid: Respectful, Effective, and Appropriate Communication Training, a project funded by a grant from the Retirement Research Foundation and supported by the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) and the Academic Program Development Committee of the Academy for Gerontology in Higher Education (GSA’s academic branch).
Career Summary
Laurinda’s career began with retail sales in the mid-seventies and over the decades, it expanded to include marketing and management in advertising, construction, and manufacturing. In the mid-nineties during volunteer work, her interest in the well-being of the elders in her community was kindled and by 2006, she had fully transitioned from the corporate world to geriatric care and began to retool for her encore career.
In 2009, Laurinda began her academic studies at Paradise Valley Community College and began with the traditional path toward becoming a speech pathologist, elementary and special education. Her interdisciplinary bachelors at Northern Arizona University was followed by a year of doctoral work at Arizona State University where she studied communication science and disorders and researched cross-modal learning/memory during relevant versus psychometric assessment.
During her year at ASU, Laurinda’s interest in ageism was sparked and led to a change in her major and her enrollment in the gerontology program at the University of Northern Colorado. Her research at UNC focused on attitudes about aging labels among people over age 50 who were employed, volunteering, and independently participating in programs and activities in the local community. Her research was presented at the annual meetings of the Academy for Gerontology in Higher Education and the American Society on Aging, and it helped inform Ageism First Aid grant application and course.
- Rather than entering college right out of high school or reentering in her 20s, 30s, or even her 40s, Laurinda was an encore learner, with decades of business and life experience behind her.
- She knows what it is like to be a modern learner with online and classroom coursework as part of her AA in elementary/special education (2010), an Interdisciplinary BS is in speech-language and hearing science, psychology, and cultural linguistics (2013), and a masters in gerontology (2016).
- Prior to returning to school, Laurinda had 10 years of geriatric care experience behind her, which provided context for all her coursework, helped focus her studies, and informed her interest areas and questions as a student.
- Most importantly, because her path into gerontology was health science rather than the traditional paths of psychology or sociology, she was able to study aging-related changes in the senses, cognition, and linguistic processes as she was experiencing them personally.
Current Position
Laurinda is a Professor of Gerontology at American River College in Sacramento, California (August 2016 to the present). She serves as the Gerontology Department Chair and the Department Career Education Program Coordinator. She is also the primary author of the online course Ageism First Aid: Respectful, Effective, and Appropriate Communication Training, a project funded by a grant from the Retirement Research Foundation and supported by the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) and the Academic Program Development Committee of the Academy for Gerontology in Higher Education (GSA’s academic branch).
Career Summary
Laurinda’s career began with retail sales in the mid-seventies and over the decades, it expanded to include marketing and management in advertising, construction, and manufacturing. In the mid-nineties during volunteer work, her interest in the well-being of the elders in her community was kindled and by 2006, she had fully transitioned from the corporate world to geriatric care and began to retool for her encore career.
In 2009, Laurinda began her academic studies at Paradise Valley Community College and began with the traditional path toward becoming a speech pathologist, elementary and special education. Her interdisciplinary bachelors at Northern Arizona University was followed by a year of doctoral work at Arizona State University where she studied communication science and disorders and researched cross-modal learning/memory during relevant versus psychometric assessment.
During her year at ASU, Laurinda’s interest in ageism was sparked and led to a change in her major and her enrollment in the gerontology program at the University of Northern Colorado. Her research at UNC focused on attitudes about aging labels among people over age 50 who were employed, volunteering, and independently participating in programs and activities in the local community. Her research was presented at the annual meetings of the Academy for Gerontology in Higher Education and the American Society on Aging, and it helped inform Ageism First Aid grant application and course.
