Keefe Earns Academic Career Award and New Leadership Role at Massachusetts Gerontology Association

Bronwyn Keefe, research assistant professor and CADER/PEP director, recently received the Geriatrics Academic Career Award (GACA) from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), one of two inaugural social work awardees among twenty-six recipients nationwide.

The GACA is a four-year grant awarded to support the career development of junior faculty members providing interprofessional clinical training in aging. Keefe will focus on three primary goals while fulfilling her career award:

1. Develop interprofessional training related to mental health and substance use with an emphasis on person-centered care;
2. Create and disseminate curricula for students and interprofessional teams that will improve health outcomes for older adults;
3. Increase involvement with regional and national geriatric and social work organizations to educate the interprofessional geriatric workforce on mental health, substance use, and value-based care.

“GACA will provide a platform for me to develop, evaluate and implement curricula to train social workers and interprofessional healthcare providers with a geriatric focus,” says Keefe. “The need for a well-trained workforce in aging is more important than ever as the older adult population grows and care becomes increasingly complex,” says Keefe. “Through GACA, I will be able to develop and deliver training to a diverse, national workforce that’s focused on behavioral health and value-based, person-centered care.”

BUSSW’s Judith Gonyea will serve as Keefe’s primary mentor, alongside other mentors including Betty J. Ruth of BUSSW, and Boston Medical Center’s Hollis Day, MD and Megan Young, MD.

Vice President of Board at MGA

Keefe’s career award comes on the heels of her appointment as the new vice president of the board at the Massachusetts Gerontology Association (MGA), an organization co-founded in 1974 by BUSSW’s Lois Lowy, which now stands as one of Massachusetts’ top networks for aging professionals.

Keefe, who has developed nationally-acclaimed trainings for a variety of aging-related health providers, will continue to serve as director of BUSSW’s Center for Aging & Disability Research (CADER) and its Professional Education Programs (PEP), as well as principal investigator of the project “Prevention and Identification of Behavioral Health Issues in Older Adults: Skill Development Among Clergy Members.” The project, which recently received a grant renewal from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Suicide Prevention Fund, empowers clergy members to provide mental health support to aging members of their community.