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Conference Workshops

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  • GSA 2025 Workshops

GSA 2025 Workshops 

The GSA 2025 Annual Scientific Meeting features a series of workshops offering intensive, in-depth learning experiences. Led by top experts in the field, these sessions give attendees a chance to build practical skills, connect with peers, and explore the latest trends in aging and gerontology.

Sign up and Participate

Workshops will be held each morning of the four-day meeting from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM. GSA 2025 attendees can take part in interactive, hands-on learning sessions designed to build practical skills. Each workshop is $45 and requires separate registration. 

Spots are limited, secure yours today! 

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Wednesday, November 12

Use music as an opportunity to enhance cognitive engagement with older adults. The workshop will identify various AI apps that can help in identifying contemporary and/or relevant music to engage clients across cultures and generations. This workshop is for both professional and non-professional caregivers, caretakers, and family members of older adults!

How might you facilitate deep listening to self and others, weave a tapestry that represents your unique life’s journey, and tap into personal and collective wisdom to create legacy? What opportunities exist in your community of practice to share these insights, educate others, and contribute to the well-being of global societies? Join co-editors of a radical new volume on women’s aging, leadership, and wisdom to explore multiple perspectives on elder women’s leadership, synthesize gaps between knowledge and practice, and reclaim a paradigm of women’s wisdom. Workshop attendees will be invited to examine seven leadership perspectives, introduced to a leadership model that explores intersectional capabilities, and participate in a transformative Wisdom Circle practice. This workshop will enable participants to co-create systemic change in their communities of practice while advancing the collaborative goals identified by World Health Organization partners and UN Decade of Healthy Ageing initiatives.

Aging services organizations have a critical opportunity to expand their impact by engaging in value-based care models. However, many struggle with navigating partnerships, structuring contracts, and demonstrating value to healthcare providers, ACOs, and payers. This interactive workshop, led by TFA Analytics, will equip Aging Network leaders with practical strategies for engaging in value-based contracting. Participants will hear from industry experts and real-world case studies showcasing successful collaborations between AAAs, CBOs, and healthcare entities, including organizations actively participating in the GUIDE Model for dementia care. Attendees will also take part in small-group exercises to assess their organization’s readiness and identify next steps toward sustainable value-based partnerships. Whether you’re looking to initiate new partnerships, optimize existing contracts, or position your organization for long-term financial sustainability, this workshop will provide the insights and tools you need to mobilize the Aging Network effectively.

Understanding and addressing the misalignment of care demands for an aging population given the shortage of healthcare workers in the US requires research-ready data for studying caregiving with attention to both providers and recipients. IPUMS (ipums.org) provides free access to high-quality, population datasets that are uniquely valuable for caregiving research and include covariates that support studying caregiving alongside myriad topics. Harmonized IPUMS data simplify analyzing change over time, pooling multiple years of data, and situating individuals in family and community contexts.


The workshop will review IPUMS data that are relevant to caregiving, features to streamline data management, analytical considerations, non-caregiving topical coverage, and using these data to identify:

  • informal adult caregivers (residential and non-residential)
  • co-residential grandparent caregivers
  • individuals receiving home health care
  • the healthcare workforce


The workshop will include presentations from data experts, demonstrations and guidance for building custom data files, hands-on exercises, and individual consultations.

This interdisciplinary workshop will bring AI robotics developers from industry and academia and various stakeholders of eldercare robots to exchange ideas and information with an overarching goal of fostering a living lab model for AI robotics development for eldercare. This workshop fosters a bidirectional dialogue between researchers, healthcare professionals, caregivers, and industry leaders, ensuring that robotics development aligns with real-world eldercare needs. Through invited talks, breakout discussions, and interactive demonstrations, this session will provide a collaborative platform to shape future research, development, and implementation of AI-enabled eldercare robots. Attendees will leave with actionable insights into how robotics can enhance caregiving, improve quality of life, and drive innovation in aging care.

Thursday, November 13

In today’s competitive and shifting landscape, gerontology and aging programs must embrace business strategies to secure funding and build long-term sustainability. This workshop will help researchers and program leaders apply branding and marketing principles to their program initiatives. Attendees will explore essential topics like brand strategy, business positioning, and effective communication techniques. Through hands-on exercises, participants will learn how to craft a compelling brand essence, create a strong positioning statement, and apply marketing strategies to engage stakeholders and drive funding. By the end of the session, attendees will be equipped to enhance their program’s visibility, build trust, and effectively communicate their impact, ensuring lasting success in a challenging environment. Whether you're a researcher, healthcare leader, or marketing professional, this workshop will provide actionable tools to strengthen your program's presence and secure the support it needs to thrive.

In this hands-on workshop, explore the key elements for success in naloxone education and harm reduction training. Presenters will share real-world examples of using community advisory boards, knowledge assessments, and other tools to capture the effectiveness of harm reduction and naloxone training for both trainers and community members. You’ll learn how to integrate these research techniques to better assess knowledge gained and ensure that your harm reduction education efforts are achieving their intended outcomes. This session is perfect for healthcare professionals, educators, and researchers who want to improve their opioid education programs and make a tangible impact on community health!

Participants in this workshop will experience the IMPROVment® movement method: an improvisational movement class curriculum designed to encourage joyful and judgement-free movement and improve mobility, balance, cognition, and quality of life in older adult and intergenerational populations.


Participants will leave the workshop with a solid introduction to our inclusive movement philosophy and curriculum and experience the ways it engages people with diverse ages and physical and cognitive abilities. Together, participants will experience a progression of exercises in a typical IMPROVment® class and determine how these exercises can support the populations they serve.

To best meet the needs of the aging population, interventions (behavioral, biobehavioral, biomedical, and social-structural) must not only be effective, but also reach the population they are designed to impact. Prevailing methods for intervention development fall short of this goal. This workshop will provide an introduction to an innovative approach to intervention development: intervention optimization, and specifically the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST). An optimized intervention is one that strategically balances effectiveness against affordability, scalability, and efficiency. This workshop will provide an introduction to MOST, and provide participants an opportunity to design their own conceptual model and optimization trial through activities. At the end of the workshop, participants will be prepared to seek funding to optimize interventions. A new generation of optimized interventions has the potential to best meet the needs of the aging population and achieve public health impact.

This workshop responds to these gaps by helping attendees develop “hands-on"" community engagement techniques and equipping them with the tools to disseminate their research for communities of interest. In this session, you’ll learn the basics of community-engaged research, developing and implementing recruitment plans, establishing community partnerships, and strategies for disseminating research to the community. Participants will be able to develop a work plan and apply new learnings through guided activities in breakout groups. You will leave this workshop with the skills needed to engage with the community for real-world impact.

Friday, November 14

Join us for an interactive workshop on advancing dementia education, research, and practice through the innovative BRIDGE training program — Building Resilience through Interprofessional Dementia and Geriatric Education. This training is built upon the nationally recognized Dementia and Palliative Education Network (DPEN) model, which was originally developed to strengthen dementia care competencies among registered nurses. The program has since been expanded to support comprehensive interprofessional training for healthcare teams across disciplines.


This session will explore evidence-based strategies for integrating dementia-focused content into interprofessional education programs for nurses, physicians, social workers, and allied health professionals. BRIDGE emphasizes scalable, team-based approaches that prepare the workforce to meet the complex needs of people living with dementia.


Through expert presentations, real-world case studies, and interactive discussions, participants will gain practical tools to:

  • Enhance team-based dementia care and interprofessional communication
  • Implement effective interprofessional education (IPE) frameworks in clinical and academic settings
  • Translate research into sustainable improvements in care delivery and health outcomes


Designed for gerontology researchers, educators, clinicians, and healthcare leaders, this workshop will offer actionable strategies to strengthen the interprofessional workforce, elevate the quality of dementia care, and build systems prepared for population aging. Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with leading experts, foster interdisciplinary collaboration, and drive innovation in geriatric education and practice. Preview a sample module from the training here: Intro to Comprehensive Dementia Care Module

Educators in all fields are experiencing the impact of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it is transforming teaching pedagogy, student learning, and how to incorporate course policies that promote responsible and ethical AI use. This workshop addresses the transformative impact of AI on gerontological education, focusing on integrating AI tools into gerontology related courses and curricula. This workshop will introduce AI and various generative AI models, demonstrating how AI can be leveraged as a teaching tool and ally. Participants will explore practical applications of AI in developing teaching strategies, student assignments, classroom activities, and research projects. Lastly, ageism caused by AI algorithmic discrimination will be addressed. The workshop format includes an expert panel presentation, interactive small group activities, and large group discussions to foster interprofessional collaboration. Please join us for practical, classroom-level strategies for integrating AI tools into gerontology education in ways that enhance our teaching and students’ learning.

Research in the gerontological sciences often rely on sources of long-term longitudinal data, making new data collection for replication and generalization purposes untenable. Coordinated data analysis (CDA) is one methodological approach to replication and generalization in lifespan sciences that can harnesses the unique features of existing longitudinal data to answer key fundamental questions. This workshop will teach the basic rationale and process of CDA and provide a working knowledge of how to use this methodological approach. Presentations from experts in the field will cover topics including the general rationale and process of CDA, data harmonization, and methodological considerations for specific research designs (e.g., complex longitudinal models, conceptually harmonizing across various operationalization and time metrics). Participants will be shown a worked example of a CDA before being broken up into small groups to conduct a small CDA of their own using pre-processed data and prepared analytic scripts.

Revolutionize gerontological education through Opening Minds through Art (OMA)! This transformative workshop offers higher education professionals a comprehensive roadmap for integrating innovative, intergenerational art programs. Designed for educators, administrators, and community leaders, the session provides practical strategies for implementing OMA across academic settings. Participants will gain insights from universities successfully implementing OMA, engage in collaborative problem-solving workshops, and experience the program's unique, person-centered approach firsthand. Through expert presentations, interactive breakout sessions, and hands-on artmaking, you'll learn to develop cutting-edge curriculum, secure funding, recruit students, and create meaningful community partnerships. Discover how OMA challenges stereotypes about aging, fosters empathy in students, and provides immersive learning experiences that transform both student education and elder care. Don't miss this opportunity to reimagine aging and creative engagement in higher education!

Data doesn’t speak for itself—people interpret it through the lens of culture and experience. Without intentional framing, even the most compelling data can be misinterpreted, overlooked, or dismissed. The Fundamentals to Reframe Aging: Harnessing Data to Tell a More Complete Story About Aging workshop, hosted by the National Center to Reframe Aging, provides a foundational understanding of the evidence-based principles to reframe aging and explores the critical role data plays in shaping public perceptions. Participants will gain practical skills to apply these principles in their work, ensuring that data-driven communications effectively convey the story we want to tell. Join us to learn how to integrate framing strategies that make your messages more impactful, memorable, and aligned with efforts to advance a more complete and accurate narrative about aging.

Saturday, November 15

This workshop explores strategies for strengthening an age-friendly campus network and integrating age-inclusive practices into higher education.

Effectively including patients’ caregivers in clinical and health services research is a skill that will be essential for the general internist of tomorrow to provide high value, patient-centered care as part of multidisciplinary teams. In this workshop, presenters will draw on their experiences across multiple populations and study design to share strategies to engage family caregivers in research and provide consultation to attendees on their own projects.

Close, dyadic relationships powerfully shape health, and are of particular relevance in aging research (e.g., individuals with dementia/informal care partners, couples facing chronic illness). Unfortunately, the burgeoning literature on dyadic theory and research has not been matched by a similar increase in training opportunities for dyadic data analysis. This oversight can lead to (1) lack of correspondence between dyadic theory and hypothesis testing, leading to invalid study conclusions; (2) failure to capitalize on unique insights offered by dyadic analysis; (3) inability to analyze data when no outside statistical support is available; and (4) incorrect analyses that violate statistical assumptions. This workshop comprises didactics and experiential learning on dyadic data analysis in R, filling the substantial gap in training for dyadic research. Attendees will leave with a foundational understanding of managing, processing, and analyzing dyadic data, and will be able to apply these skills to their own research.

The National Core Indicators - Aging and Disabilities (NCI-AD) data is the largest state-based survey of individual-level data among older adults and people with disabilities receiving publicly funded home- and community-based services (HCBS). This hands-on workshop will provide access to sample NCI-AD data related to dementia HCBS and guide participants through analyses that support state-level quality improvement efforts. Researchers from ADvancing States, Brandeis University, Brown University, Emory University, Human Services Research Institute, and University of Minnesota will guide attendees in quantitative analyses to answer key research questions about improving the quality of life for HCBS consumers. Goals of the workshop are to increase the number of researchers familiar with NCI-AD, accelerate data analysis, provide networking opportunities, and identify research priorities that state policymakers and advocates need to improve the delivery of HCBS. The NCI-IDD will also be introduced for participants interested in HCBS among people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Navigating Collaborative Research with Hard-to-Reach Populations: Lessons from Engaging Older Latine Adults with Disabilities.


Discover effective strategies for fostering genuine collaborative research partnerships with hard-to-reach populations in this workshop. Drawing from an ongoing oral history project with older Latine adults, participants will: 1) Understand the limitations and obstacles encountered in developing community-research collaborations; 2) Examine the expectations and values upheld in collaborative endeavors; ​3) Consider factors influencing the feasibility of various collaboration types, given professional and personal constraints.​ Engage in case study analyses, group discussions, and action planning to enhance your capacity for community-engaged research. This workshop is ideal for researchers, practitioners, and students aiming to effectively engage marginalized communities in their work.

Find these sessions and more on the GSA 2025 program website. The GSA 2025 program website will be available September 15!

2025 Program Website Available 9/15

Already registered for GSA 2025 but want to register for a Workshop?

  • Log into your GSA 2025 Account.
  • Click on "My Dashboard" in the top right corner.
  • Under “My Upcoming Events”, select "GSA 2025 Annual Scientific Meeting" and click "View Registration".
  • Select additional items to add to your registration (e.g., workshops, continuing education, or social events like pickleball), and follow the prompts to proceed to checkout.
  • Finalize your registration by selecting the "Update Registration" button.
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Gerontological Society of America
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