The John A Hartford Foundation

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Tell us about your role – or should I say roles, plural – at The John A. Hartford Foundation (and how long have you been there?) 

As VP of Communications, I’m honored to advance our foundation’s mission of improving care for older adults by leading our communication strategy alongside a fantastic team.  

As Senior Program Officer, I manage a grants portfolio focused on communications and special projects. I've been with the organization for 18 wonderful years, and my role has changed over time. I started as a Program Assistant and later oversaw grants to enhance geriatrics competence among specialist physicians. As a generalist at heart, I have loved each role along the way.  

What are the Foundation’s major funding priorities?  

We have three overlapping priority areas, all focused on advancing age-friendly care:  

Age-Friendly Health Systems: We work to create health systems that prioritize older adults’ needs, with safe, high-quality, and evidence-based care. In addition to our signature Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative, we fund several related programs that improve health care quality and connect to public health and community-based services.  

Family Caregiving: The foundation funds initiatives that help health systems and providers better meet the needs of family caregivers, advance policies that increase caregiver support, and partner with national efforts to create large-scale impact.

Serious Illness and End-of-Life Care: We fund programs that expand access to high-quality palliative care and support communication, community solutions, and policies that meet the needs of the seriously ill and their families.

The Foundation supports some interesting communications work. What are the goals of that strategy?

We believe that effective communication is an essential and powerful tool in advancing our programmatic goals. We’ve identified three primary aims for our communications:  

First, we focus on disseminating the resources that we and our grantees produce to improve care for older adults. This led us to create a resource center on our website that aggregates tools, training opportunities, and the latest research on age-friendly care. We use our email and social media channels to get these resources into the hands of clinicians, service providers, and older adults and caregivers.  

Secondly, we work to influence decision-makers who can advance age-friendly care by positioning our expert staff as thought leaders and by forming communications partnerships with other funders and policymakers.  

Third, we try to efficiently coordinate our communications internally (so that our communications and program work is fully integrated) and externally (which means we invest a lot of time and resources working closely with our grantees on joint communications).  

We did not have a communications department when I started, so it’s been great fun building out a team and an operation. We’ve engaged in public polling and media partnerships with groups like WebMD and NBC Universal. Like GIA, we’ve also been a big supporter of the Reframing Aging initiative, which helps us communicate effectively to counter ageism and gain more support for age-friendly programs and policies.

GIA appreciates the time and energy you put in as a member of our Board of Directors – and you serve on a few other boards as well. What do you enjoy about that and what would you say to another funder who might be considering Board service?

Joining the GIA board has been one of the great joys of my life. The group is incredibly smart and passionate about creating an age-inclusive world. I learn so much from each of them. I can honestly say that I laugh more at GIA board meetings than with any other group, too!  

What are you currently reading or binge-watching?

I’m a big sci-fi and fantasy fan. I’m finishing the last book in the Mirror Visitor Quartet, a French novel series by Christelle Dabos. And I’ve been loving All About Agatha.

What’s something you enjoy doing when you’re not working?  

Sleeping!!