Advisory Board

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.  

Debra Sanders, PhD, RN, GCNS-BC
Debra Sanders, PhD, RN, GCNS-BC, is an assistant professor in the department of nursing at Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania where she teaches senior nursing students advanced medical-surgical nursing. Her areas of clinical expertise include chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, and sleep. She is board certified as a gerontologic clinical nurse specialist and maintains a part-time practice as a pulmonary clinical nurse specialist at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pa. She has made presentations at the local, state, and national levels on a multitude of topics and maintains membership in several professional organizations, including the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists, the National Gerontologic Nursing Association, and the Pennsylvania Sleep Society. In 2009, she was selected to attend the Geriatric Nursing Education Consortium Institute sponsored by the John A. Hartford Foundation, joining approximately 800 nurse educators from across the country for specialized training in enhancing the gerontology content in senior-level baccalaureate nursing courses.

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.

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