New Center to Address the Graying of America

A portion of a $17.5 million gift from Betty Knoebel, widow of Denver food-services pioneer Ferdinand “Fritz” Knoebel, promises to ease the West’s graying population into its golden years.

Up to $10 million of the donation is slated to fund the Knoebel Center for the Study of Aging, a wide-ranging initiative designed to build on DU’s current research and expertise while positioning the University as a regional and national resource on age-related issues.

“We expect this to be a center of excellence in this area,” explained James Herbert Williams, dean of the Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW), who co-chaired a Center for the Study of Aging ideas group. “What that means is that it will be a place that will have an impact on the world of aging science, social science and education; where people and scholars will want to come to participate in the center’s activities; where there’s a synergy of knowledge development and training. We need to advance the knowledge and training in this area because of changing demographics.”

The numbers are especially compelling in the West, where some of the largest increases in the elderly—and cases of Alzheimer’s disease—are expected to occur. DU’s location in the heart of the Rocky Mountain region, combined with its research expertise and research partnership with Denver Health, position the University to contribute to the knowledge base and the education of direct-service providers and new scholars.

Already, researchers in DU’s Eleanor Roosevelt Institute are doing cutting-edge work on age-related diseases including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, cancer and diabetes. In the School of Engineering and Computer Science’s Center for Orthopaedic Engineering, engineers are evaluating joint mechanics and working on wearable health-sensing systems, such as Corinne Lengsfeld’s device to detect irregularities in gait. And through collaborations with Denver Health and other health care institutions, students in DU’s bioengineering program can engage in clinical research projects.

On other parts of campus, scholars are making strides in non-science-related areas. In GSSW’s Institute of Gerontology, for example, co-director Colleen Reed is running a three-year research and training project funded by the Colorado Health Foundation on evidence-based practice in settings that offer social services to older Colorado residents. And in the Sturm College of Law, faculty have published books on wills, estates and trusts.

This is only the beginning, said Lynn Taussig, co-chair of the Center for the Study of Aging ideas group. “We have an opportunity to be creative here,” he explained. “The Knoebel Center can encompass a lot of things, from the molecular life sciences and social services to music, art, law and business. We feel here is an opportunity to develop a significant program that could take the University one big step forward in research and education.”