Early registration deadline nears for Mid-America Institute on Aging and Wellness

The University of Southern Indiana and SWIRCA and More, the local agency on aging, will present the 14th-annual Mid-America Institute on Aging and Wellness (MAIA) in a live, virtual format on August 12 and 13.

The 2021 MAIA is a two-day, online gerontology conference for healthcare and social service professionals, healthcare administrators, clinicians, older adults or retirees, family members providing care for a loved one, students and anyone who wants to learn tips for leading a healthier life. Each year, national and local speakers provide practical tools and ground-breaking information related to successful aging and wellness.

The virtual conference this year will feature concurrent sessions on a variety of topics and four keynote speakers: Dr. Louise Aronson, Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco: Kimberly Paul, creator of the Death by Design podcast; Scherrie Keating, diabetes educator; and Dr. Stephen Post, Professor of Preventive Medicine and Director for Medical Humanity and Bioethics at Stony Brook University School of Medicine and author of the bestseller, Why Good Things Happen to Good People. Aronson and Keating both gave presentations during the 2020 Virtual MAIA webinar series.

Aronson is a leading geriatrician and author of Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, and Reimagining Life. After her 2020 presentation, one attendee commented that "Dr. Aronson's data on happiness, anxiety and life satisfaction encouraged me and helped me realize that I am at a wonderful time in my life!"

A graduate of Harvard Medical School and the Warren Wilson Program for Writers, Aronson has received the Gold Professorship in Humanism in Medicine, the California Homecare Physician of the Year award and the American Geriatrics Society Clinician-Teacher of the Year award. Her writing appears in publications including The New York Times, Washington Post, Discover Magazine, JAMA, Bellevue Literary Review and the New England Journal of Medicine, and her work has been featured on "TODAY," "CBS This Morning," NPR's "Fresh Air," Politico, LitHub, Kaiser Health News, and Tech Nation.

Keating, a registered nurse for over 36 years, founded Diabetes Kare Consulting, LLC, in response to the prediabetes epidemic in the United States. She offers healthcare professional, community and corporate wellness educational programs on proven lifestyle changes that help people prevent and manage insulin resistance diseases to include prediabetes, Type 2 Diabetes and Type 3 Diabetes. "Scherrie Keating's passion for the topic made her presentation so engaging," wrote an attendee on the 2020 MAIA conference evaluation. "It is comforting to know people like her are advocating for the geriatric population with diabetes."

During her presentation, Alzheimer's Disease: Diabetes of the Brain, Keating will give an overview of Type 3 Diabetes, a new form of diabetes linking brain insulin resistance to Alzheimer's Disease-like pathological changes leading to cognitive impairments. She will share the latest cutting-edge research, potential treatment options and lifestyle changes, and Ageless Grace brain health fitness tools.

In addition to the keynote, Keating will also lead two concurrent sessions: one on the role caregivers play in improving longevity and quality of life of older adults with diabetes, and one focusing on the link between chronic disease and products containing toxic chemicals.

Learn more about all of the speakers and concurrent session topics on the MAIA website.

The deadline for a reduced registration fee is August 1, 2021. After that date, the rate increases for one- and two-day registrations. There is a discounted rate for students and retirees. The link to register online is at USI.edu/maia.