ASA’s Public Policy Committee has the charge from ASA’s Board of Directors to select policy and advocacy initiatives that are appropriate for ASA to support within the context of its educational and nonpartisan mission. ASA recently joined with other members of the Leadership Council of Aging Organizations (LCAO) to sign a letter to U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D.-Ohio) and U.S.

The Spring 2013 issue of ASA’s quarterly journal Generations is set to hit member mailboxes or can be purchased from our website this week.

Guest edited by Frank Whittington and Suzanne Kunkel, and called “Our World Growing Older: A Look at Global Aging,” it answers the question: Why should we care about aging elsewhere in the world?

By Frank J. Whittington and Suzanne R. Kunkel, Guest Editors

Given the press of important issues facing professionals in the field of aging, readers of this global aging issue of Generations may well ask, “Why should we who work in aging services care about aging in other countries?” Or simply, “What’s in it for us to study global aging?”

The American Society on Aging joined in an amicus brief filed by Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE) on Friday, March 1, 2013 in the Supreme Court of the United States in support of Edie Windsor’s constitutional challenge to Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

By Jane Scobie

Population aging is no longer seen as a concern only for developed economies. It is now recognized as a global phenomenon: nearly 80 percent of the world’s older people will live in emerging and developing economies by mid-century.

Steve Lehman, the 65-year-old manager of the SCAN Senior Resource Center in Ventura, Calif., says he’s “pleased [that] my tendency to be a public servant matches my full-time employment.” As the center’s manager, he’s involved on every operational level, from setting up chairs for the elder yoga class (as he was when Aging Today caught up with him) to the more complex task of forging partnerships with other organizations to gain resources.

By Jeanette Takamura

Early each morning, thousands of children walk barefoot for as many as two hours along Ugandan roadways on their way to school. The same long trek is made home at day’s end, often in darkness. The children are tiny by U.S. standards, from malnutrition. And all too often they are orphans, cared for by grandparents whose children died from HIV/AIDS.

NOMA Co-Chairs Denise Stewart and Gene Varela look forward to seeing you at the 2013 Aging in America Conference, where the first ASA Diversity Summit will take place on Saturday, March 16.  Leading up to the Summit, the week is filled with topics around diversity and inclusion. Our thanks to both the LAIN and NEST constituent groups for creating two terrific programs.

“Connecting to Combat Alzheimer’s,” a collaborative effort of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the Administration on Community Living (ACL), is one of six finalists competing to win the People’s Choice Award of HHSinnovates.