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Nancy is a professional social worker who has specialized in gerontology since completing her master's degree from the University of Chicago 35 years ago. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine-Section of Geriatrics and Assistant Director of the Huffington Center on Aging at Baylor College of Medicine and is also affiliated with the Baylor-Veterans Affairs Center of Excellence in Health Services and local academic programs in nursing and social work. Her practice, research, and education interests focus on advancing interdisciplinary models of mental health and long-term care service delivery to elders and families coping with chronic illness including depression, dementia and anxiety. Nancy has a long history of community service and leadership in aging services and community long-term care in Houston/ Harris County, including serving as Director of the Houston site of the National Long-Term Care Channeling Demonstration Project. For the past six years, Nancy has served as the chair of the Governing Council of Care for Elders, a community partnership of over 90 organizations supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and several Houston area funders. Most recently as the leader of an interdisciplinary academic-community team, she spearheaded the development of Healthy IDEAS, an evidence-based model program for depression in older adults, which received support from the John A Hartford Foundation and the Administration on Aging (AoA) Evidence-Based Prevention Program and an inaugural Science and Service award from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Care for Elders and Baylor are spearheading the dissemination of Healthy IDEAS in collaboration with the Center for Healthy Aging of the National Council on Aging with support from AoA and SAMHSA. To date the Healthy IDEAS team has worked with over 45 organizations in 13 different states around the implementation of Healthy IDEAS in agencies funded through the Older American’s Act, United Way, local foundations, Mental Health Block grants and others. Nancy has co-authored or co-edited over 35 publications. For seven years she served as Practice Concepts Editor for The Gerontologist, and she currently serves on a number of national advisory or action committees including ones for the Hartford Geriatric Social Work Initiative and the Institute for Geriatric Social Work. She was privileged to serve as a member of the Late Life Depression Special Interest Project Panel funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through the Prevention Research Centers' Healthy Aging Network (PRC–HAN). |
Alixe McNeill is Vice President for Program Development and leader of mental health and substance abuse work with the National Council on Aging (NCOA), based in Washington, DC. As part of the NCOA Center for Healthy Aging, Ms. McNeill works with the Administration on Aging (AoA), the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), major foundations, states and local agencies to encourage adoption of evidence-based prevention and early intervention programs for older adults. In 2008 she led the development of the plans for diffusion of community depression care management programs and practices, the Healthy IDEAS and PEARLS programs. She earlier collaborated with researchers, health specialists and community agencies in Houston to develop and test the Healthy IDEAS. Ms. McNeill was recently elected Chairperson of the National Coalition on Mental Health & Aging (2009-2011). Ms. McNeill led the development of the NCOA-SAMHSA-AoA toolkit “Get Connected: Linking Older Adults to Medication, Alcohol and Meal Health Resources” to educate service staff and older consumers about mental health and substance abuse issues and resources, and, the promising practice study “Promoting Older Adult Health: Aging Network Partnerships to Address Medication, Alcohol and Mental Health Problems” and other efforts to encourage linkage across aging, mental health and substance abuse service networks. She has local and state aging services experience from work in Wisconsin. She holds a master's degree in public administration from the University of Minnesota. alixe.mcneill@ncoa.org www.ncoa.org and www.healthyagingprograms.org
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Nancy L. Wilson 
Alixe McNeill, MPA