GLOBAL HEALTH AGING

“Setting boundaries and choosing gratitude are good lessons learned this year.”

NEW Writing Opportunities

We are grateful to announce that in addition to contributing to Forbes, we are now contributing to PBS Next Avenue and Senior Living Foresight. So far, we have covered topics ranging from life enrichment to employee engagement, leadership, and mental health for Senior Living Foresight, whose mission is to improve care delivery for older adults in senior living. Our latest article for Next Avenue, “The Experience of Menopause for People of Color,” was selected as an Editor’s Pick this month. Our first-ever Editor’s Pick focused on nursing homes and Covid-19, which was published in Forbes.

2022 also brought other opportunities like writing for AMAKA Studio, Blogchain, and recently, creating a scout report about cell phones and older adults for Wirecutter. We also published industry research and news from companies looking to improve brand image, promote thought leadership, and foster action. It led to a new nomination for the WEGO Health Awards in Healthcare Collaborator category. WEGO Health (now known as the Social Health Network) is the world’s largest network of patient thought leaders, health influencers, and advocates. Lastly, few of our articles have been translated into Japanese for Forbes JAPAN.

Since this year brought more writing opportunities, our Five Questions With series was on hiatus, but we plan to resume the series next year. We are also applying for a fellowship with the award-winning humanKINDER to continue working on the Recipes of HOPE manuscript — a food memoir about one family’s 16,000-mile journey around Europe, cooking in The Welcome Tent, an ex-army catering tent repurposed for peace. Recipes of HOPE focuses on the recipes, stories, hopes, and dreams of refugees and migrants during the Calais crisis. More updates in the new year!

We contributed a book chapter!

Uncharted: How Scientists Navigate Their Own Health, Research, and Experiences of Bias is an upcoming book with multiple stories from scientists with disabilities. We wrote a chapter about living with non-diabetic hypoglycemia (NDH), a rare medical condition of low blood glucose in people without diabetes. The book is under production with Columbia University Press and coming out in 2023. Ultimately, we hope that sharing a personal story will help patients feel more validated and less alone.

A personal essay on immigrants & multigenerational living

Whenever I hear multigenerational, I often forget that my immigrant family embodies the meaning. Even in our previous home in Nigeria, our grandmother was a frequent visitor in our household. The grandkids also spent many summers living in her home in the countryside, where we knew aunts, uncles, cousins and some family members who even lived there at specific periods.

So, when my family immigrated to the U.S. almost 20 years ago, it was the same affair, despite the challenges of living in a new country, culture shock and our triumphs and trials. But the coronavirus pandemic affected our lives, especially how my family cared for my sister after her diagnosis of long-haul COVID. Read more on Next Avenue!

What we are learning about pain and mental health

To be in the depths of despair to a point where living doesn’t seem like a good option is truly painful. Sadly, mental health is still stigmatized, and society pushes the common narrative of being happy, being put together, thriving etc., that we forget sadness is also a normal emotion. But we are more than our mental health and our painful moments.

This year, PBS produced a great documentary titled FACING SUICIDE. It combines the poignant personal stories of people impacted by suicide with profiles of scientists at the forefront of research to reveal new insights into one of America’s most pressing mental health crises. The documentary can help destigmatize suicide while revealing that there is help and hope for those at risk and their loved ones.

If you are considering suicide, you or someone you know is in emotional crisis, please call or text 988. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is a national network of local crisis centers providing free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress. Chat with lifeline here and remember to be kind to yourself and others.

Check out our latest talk!

During #BIGGweek22, we shared ideas and insights about leveraging the media to amplify the experiences of aging Black communities. #BIGGChat

We interviewed international fashion model Thando Hopa

Thando Hopa is an international model, a BBC Top 100 woman, and the first woman with albinism to appear on the cover of Vogue. During the interview, Hopa discussed her activism about social constructs of beauty, especially Black albinism. The interview was one of four cover stories of The Power Issue published by AMAKA Studio, a digital publisher honoring African female changemakers that make our world safer.

In other news, we are excited to see aging front and center!

We were featured on a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Trading Card, named a Columbia University Age Boom Academy Fellow, and a TEDMED Research Scholar. We were also profiled in a cover story, “Female Science Communicators Spread The Word,” by Diversity in Action Magazine. Thank you ALL for your support!

If you’d like to work with us, please send us a message!

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