Plenary Speakers

Adelina Comas- Herrera

Adelina Comas-Herrera works at the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She lead the LTCcovid.org initiative, linked to the International Long-Term Care Policy Network, that gathered international evidence on the impact of COVID-19 on people who use and provide long-term care and the policy and practice mitigation measures that countries were adopting. She is an economist with over 25 years of experience in long-term care research. Her work has involved analysis of health and long-term care policies, the development of models to make projections of future long-term care needs and expenditure and research on how to strengthen health and care systems to address the challenges posed by ageing and dementia globally. She has also worked as a consultant for the World Health Organisation and the Inter-American Development Bank and was co-author of the World Alzheimer Reports in 2016 and 2019.

Aravinda Meera Guntupalli

Dr Aravinda Meera Guntupalli started her career at the International Institute for Population Sciences, an autonomous organisation of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. In 2002, she moved to the University of Tübingen, Germany, to conduct her research on health inequalities in colonial and post-colonial India.

At the University of Southampton, she researched the association between morbidity and age using data from the Hampshire Friendly Society. Her work was further inspired by the Life Course perspective when working at the University of Southampton in the Life Course Epidemiology unit and the Centre for Research on Ageing. She later worked at the Open University (OU), where she chaired the Centre for Ageing and Biographical Studies (CABS).

As the programme lead of the MSc Global Health and Management, Aravinda's current research at the University of Aberdeen looks at three stands of work: 1. Cancer and diabetes-related inequalities among middle-aged and older adults in India, Nepal, and Uganda. 2. Food and fuel poverty along older adults in UK. 3. Nutrition among informal migrants an in informal settlements in India. During the COVID pandemic, she conducted extensive engagement activities to highlight inequalities faced by older adults in India. 

Karl  Pillemer

Dr. Karl Pillemer is the Hazel E. Reed Professor of Human Development at Cornell University and Professor of Gerontology in Medicine at Well Cornell Medicine. He is also the founding Director of the Cornell Institute for Translational Research on Aging, which is devoted to using research to improve the quality of care provided to persons with dementia in institutional settings. His current research, funded by the National Institute on Aging, examines the nature and extent of resident-to-resident aggression in long-term, care, as well as ways to prevent it. Dr. Pillemer also has a career-long research interest in family caregiving to persons with dementia. He is co-Director of an NIA-funded Roybal Center for Translational Research on Aging, jointly run by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell's lthaca campus, which focuses on non-pharacological treatments for pain among older people. Over the past fifteen years, he has conducted a program of research on the practical advice of older people, exploring how elder wisdom can hlep younger people live more fulfilling lives. This work lead to the publication of two books: 30 Lessons for Living: Tried and True Advice from the Wisest Americans,  and 30 Lessons for Loving: Advice from the Wisest Americans on Love, Relationships, and Marriage.