Advisory Board

Peggy Brenner, RN, MSN
Peggy Brenner, RN, MSN, serves as director of Education & Special Care Programs
ACTS Retirement-Life Communities. With more than 30 years of nursing experience in the clinical and educational arenas, she has been an associate professor of nursing in a baccalaureate nursing program and served as an adjunct faculty member in the nursing division at a community college. Her clinical experience has included medical-surgical nursing, acute care nursing, and long-term care, where she has served as a staff nurse, supervisor, director of nursing, and consultant. While at ACTS Retirement-Life Communities, she has been the regional director of nursing and presently serves as the regional director of education and special care programs. As an active volunteer for the American Cancer Society, she serves as a guest speaker and planner for various relays for life. Peggy has a bachelor of science from Trenton State College and a Master of Science in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania

Mario Cornacchione, DO, CMD, FAAFP
Mario Cornacchione, DO, CMD, FAAFP, is a clinical assistant professor of medicine at the Center for Successful Aging, University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford, NJ. Currently the medical director for a 350-bed county nursing facility, he has previously served as director of geriatrics for Penn State Geisinger Health Care System’s eastern region. With 20 years of clinical and administrative experience as a geriatrician and certified medical director in long-term care, Dr. Cornacchione has develop unique insight into clinical issues and education needs specific to geriatric care settings. As president of Geriatric Video Productions and the Geriatric Research & consulting Group, he has written and produced award-winning video educational programs in geriatrics.

Neal E. Cutler, PhD
Neal Cutler is vice president and dean of educational programs of the American Institute of Financial Gerontology, where he oversees curriculum development and certification standards. He held the Boettner/Gregg Chair in financial gerontology at Widener University, where he directed Financial Literacy 2000, a research program focusing on the impact of aging on issues of finance, health, retirement and families. He serves as director of survey research for the National Council on Aging. He is an associate editor of the Journal of Financial Service Professionals and serves on the editorial boards of The Gerontologist and the American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias. Between 1997-99 he was editor of Financial Gerontology Review, a publication of the National Institute of Financial Services for Elders. He was a consulting editor to the Encyclopedia of Financial Gerontology), and is co-author of Aging, Money, and Life Satisfaction: Aspects of Financial Gerontology and Can You Afford to Retire? He’s been published in more than 200 journals and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Kiplinger's Personal Finance, CBS News and NPR's "All Things Considered."

Margaret (Meg) Newhouse, PhD, CPCC
Meg Newhouse, a pioneer in third age life crafting, is a group facilitator, teacher, coach, and program designer. She coaches individuals, presents talks and workshops, writes, and consults with organizations, helping people create vital and fulfilling later lives. She is the founder and past president of the Life Planning Network (New England), a member of ICF and ICF-NE, and the author (with Judy Goggin) of Life Planning for the Third Age: A Design Guide and Toolkit.  Her clients include Civic Ventures and Tufts University. She recently co-taught a course on post-midlife development at the Brandeis BOLLI.  She holds a BA from Wellesley College, an MAT from Harvard University, and PhD in political science from UCLA.  Previous careers include high school and college teaching, academic administration, and career counseling at Harvard, where she wrote Cracking the Academia Nut and Outside the Ivory Tower.  

James Siberski, MS
James Siberski is coordinator of the Gerontology Education Center for Professional Development and an assistant professor of gerontology at College Misericordia, as well as an adjunct professor of psychiatry at Pennsylvania State University. He’s a former director of Misericordia’s Alternative Learning program. Prior to his retirement, he was director of staff development of Danville State Hospital. He’s certified in re-motivation therapy and gerontology instruction and has had extended training in several areas, including cybernetics of treatment, behavior modification, and geriatrics. He has presented more than 100 workshops nationally on various aging-related topics and has been published in a number of professional and trade journals. He’s a member of the board of trustees at Maria Joseph Manor and an affiliate of the American Association of Geriatric Psychiatrists.

Donald D. Vanarelli, Esq.
A certified elder law attorney, Donald D. Vanarelli has been a practicing attorney for 18 years. He specialized in areas of elder law, public benefits, disability and retirement planning, and estate planning and administration. He is certified by the National Guardianship Foundation as a registered guardian. He previously worked for the Social Security Administration where he adjudicated claims for benefits under the Social Security, SSI, Medicare and Medicaid programs. A graduate of Rutgers Law School, Mr. Vanarelli practices in Westfield, NJ.

Janice I. Wassel, PhD
Janice Wassel is director of the gerontology program and a member of the Department of Sociology faculty at the University of North Carolina - Greensboro. Her gerontology research focuses on how couples make decisions about retirement timing, post-retirement employment following forced retirement, cohort studies, pension wealth, the relationship of family caregiving and depression, and family structures and decision-making in caregiving relationships. She is a founding member of the North Carolina Gerontology Consortium, and at UNC-Greensboro, has been centrally involved in the creation of the dual MS in Gerontology/MBA Degree program, one of the first such programs in the country. She has been published in Social Forces, Research on Aging, The Gerontologist, and Journals of Gerontology. She frequently presents research at state and national conferences and remains involved in several professional associations, including the Population Association of America, Gerontological Society of America, Association for Gerontology in Higher Education, Southern Gerontological Society, and American Society on Aging. She serves on the North Carolina Western Chapter's Alzheimer's Association executive board and the Orange County Advisory Board on Aging, Human Services Advisory Commission, and Senior Services of Guilford's advisory board.  

Larry D. Wright, MD
Larry Wright is a geriatrician with nearly 30 years of clinical practice
experience in Northwest Arkansas. His formal post-graduate medical education includes internal medicine residency training and a fellowship in geriatric medicine. He’s board certified in both areas by the American Board of Internal Medicine. In addition to his clinical practice of geriatric medicine, he is medical director of Senior Health Centers of Northwest Health Systems, overseeing the medical care in four senior clinics and two community hospitals. He has served as director of the Schmieding Center for Senior Health and Education, a program of the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging and one of seven regional centers on aging of the Arkansas Aging Initiative. He’s an assistant professor at the Donald W. Reynolds Department of Geriatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.  He is co-director of the Caregiving Project for Older Americans, a national initiative addressing the in-home caregiver workforce crisis

Irene Zelterman, MSW, LCSW, C-ASWC
An experienced care manager and member of the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers, Irene Zelterman is the founder of Hearthside Elder Care in Brooklyn, NY. She is a graduate of New York University and earned her MSW from Hunter College School of Social Work. She received certification from the New York Society for Clinical Social Work in palliative and end-of-life care. She is a New York City Bar Association-trained court evaluator and guardian.