Kate Lorig, Dr.P.H., professor emerita and
director of the Stanford Patient Education
Research Center, will serve as keynote
speaker at the Kent State University
Symposium on Aging that will take place
Oct. 28-29.

The second annual Kent State University Symposium on Aging will be held Oct. 28-29 at the Kent State University Hotel and Conference Center. The event is free and open to the public. Online registration for the event closes Oct. 21.

The theme of this year’s symposium is "Future Directions for Chronic Illness Self-Management Research, Practice and Policy." The symposium will showcase cutting-edge research, interventions and policy on the self-management of chronic illness.

“As we age, the likelihood of experiencing chronic illnesses increases,” says Kelly Cichy, Ph.D., associate professor in Kent State’s School of Lifespan Development and Educational Sciences. “Effective self-management allows older adults coping with chronic conditions to continue to live healthy, active lives while simultaneously reducing the healthcare costs associated with the burden of chronic disease.”

The keynote speaker at the event is Kate Lorig, Dr.P.H., professor emerita and director of the Stanford Patient Education Research Center, who will speak about “Self-Management of Chronic Conditions: A Developmental Task of Aging.” Lorig is one of the nation’s top experts on chronic disease self-management education for patients and caregivers, and she has published more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles in the field.

The symposium will showcase the work of Kent State faculty researchers from various disciplines who add to the university’s strength in research on aging.

One of the sessions illustrating how different colleges work together is “Thermochromic Liquid Crystal Fabrics for Early At-Home Detection of Diabetic Foot Complications,” which features speakers Margarita Benitez, M.F.A., Kent State’s School of Fashion Design and Merchandising; Jill Kawalec, Ph.D., Kent State’s College of Podiatric Medicine; and John West, Ph.D., Kent State’s Liquid Crystal Institute®. Benitez, Kawalec and West will present work on a sensor sock they developed for diabetic patients, using thermochromic liquid crystals that change color in response to changes in temperature.

“Chronic illness self-management requires an interdisciplinary perspective,” says Gregory C. Smith, Ed.D., Kent State professor of human development and family studies. Smith, also a presenter at the symposium, chaired the group of faculty who organized the event.

“There’s no one profession or discipline that could solely do an adequate job at trying to identify ways to best promote the self-management of chronic illnesses,” Smith says. “It requires a collaboration of disciplines, including public health, social work, health psychology, nursing and medicine, to name just a few.”

Other Kent State researchers presenting at the event include Joel W. Hughes, Ph.D., College of Arts and Sciences; Melissa Zullo, Ph.D., College of Public Health; and Lisa Marie Echeverry, D.N.P., College of Nursing.

Shirley Moore, Ph.D., from Case Western Reserve University, and Jessy Barron from Fairhill Partners also will lead sessions at the symposium.

For more information about this year’s Aging Symposium or to register, visit www.kent.edu/aging.