UofL names executive director of Sustainable Health and Optimal Aging

Anna Faul has been with university since 2000

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Feb. 19, 2015) – Anna Faul, associate dean of the University of Louisville Kent School of Social Work, has been named executive director of the Institute for Sustainable Health and Optimal Aging at UofL. Her appointment became effective Feb. 10.

The Institute for Sustainable Health and Optimal Aging (ISHOA) was established in September 2014 to examine the needs of the growing population over age 65. The institute is interdisciplinary, including faculty, staff and students from nearly every school and college comprising the University of Louisville, including arts and sciences, dentistry, engineering, law, medicine, nursing, public health and social work.

Faul is a tenured full professor who came to UofL in 2000 as assistant professor of social work. She became associate dean of academic affairs at the Kent School of Social Work in 2003. She also is a Hartford Faculty Scholar of the Gerontological Social Work Initiative, a national effort of the John A. Hartford Foundation to address gaps in social work education and research around the health and well-being of older adults. Faul has held a joint appointment as research associate and distinguished professor in the Department of Social Work of the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa, since 2012.

Faul has won numerous grants throughout her career from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Cancer Institute, Department of Health and Human Services, Kentucky Department of Aging and Independent Living, Passport Health Care, New York Academy of Medicine, Kentucky Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation and other sources. Her research focuses on five areas in the field of aging and management of chronic disease:

• The high prevalence and disproportionate impact of chronic health conditions on marginalized people in society
• The lack of health self-management and prevention programs that address cultural and complex community influences on people’s health
• The need for sophisticated effective health behavior and health care utilization
• The need for trans-disciplinary researchers and practitioners to help fill the workforce gap for an aging society
• The need for reforming long-term care and the promotion of “aging in place,” the concept of living out later years in the home with sufficient care provided rather than in a retirement home or health care facility.