BIO
Anabel Pelham, Ph.D. is president of the National Association of Professional Gerontologists (NAPG) https://www.napgerontologists.org and emeriti professor and founding director of the Gerontology Program at San Francisco State University. She is also Founding Director of the Center for Age-Friendly Excellence (CAFE) https://www.cfafe.org a project of the Los Altos Mountain View Community Foundation and a past member of the Foundation's Board of Directors. CAFE provides technical assistance to cities and communities to become AARP/World Health Organization (WHO) Age-Friendly. Dr. Pelham is a member of the board of directors of the Oregon Gerontological Association (OGA) and the immediate past president of OGA. https://www.oregongero.org and past president of the Board of Directors of the Council on Aging, Central Oregon https://www.councilonaging.org
Dr. Pelham is past president of the California Council on Gerontology and Geriatrics (CCGG) and is an active member of GSA, CAG and IAGG. She is a former Chair of the Senior Commission for the City of Los Altos/Los Altos Hills, where she led the successful initiative to make Los Altos and Los Altos Hills the first WHO certified Age-Friendly (City and Town) in California. She and CAFE have worked with scores of cities since then; guiding them to become Age-Friendly certified.
Dr. Pelham has expertise in global issues in aging and gerontology, Age-Friendly Cities and community development, community-based health and human services, qualitative research methods, graduate gerontology curriculum development, geriatric care management, life-long learning, and credentialing and accreditation in the field of gerontology. She teaches and advises doctoral students around the world.
Dr. Pelham's current interests are: creating Age-Friendly Cities and communities, professionalizing the discipline of Gerontology and compassion as a core value in aging. She recently contributed chapters: Creating Compassionate Communities: The Intersection of Resilience, Democracy and Age-Friendliness, in Sharing Compassion; and a chapter in Restorative Conscious Caring, Hunting for Human Nature with Artemis, Rainsford Press, Dublin, Ireland, 2018 and 2023.
Dr. Pelham lives in Bend Oregon and joyfully applies Gerontology around the world.