Building Equity. Together.

Jennifer Molinsky is a Senior Research Associate at the Center and a Lecturer at the Graduate School of Design. Jennifer manages the Center’s work on housing for older adults and was lead author on the Center’s publications on older adults, including The State of the Nation’s Housing for Older Adults 2018 and 2019; Older Households 2015-2035: Projections and Implications for Housing a Growing Population (2016); and Housing America’s Older Adults: Meeting the Needs of an Aging Population (2014).  She speaks widely on the importance of suitable and affordable housing for America’s older adults and has written about the role of housing in wellbeing and health in older age. Jennifer’s work has also touched on housing affordability. She was a co-editor of the 2018 book A Shared Future: Fostering Communities of Inclusion in an Era of Inequality and the 2014 book Homeownership Built to Last: Balancing Access, Affordability, and Risk After the Housing Crisis.

Having served as Past President of the International Union of Architects, and Past Secretary-General of the African Union of Architects, Mr. Siew is an avid world traveler, experiencing over 500 cities across 105 countries including most of Africa. He has worked on national projects for various governments on the African continent, namely Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Senegal, Seychelles, and Swaziland. For his contributions to the Architectural and Urban world, he was awarded several honorary memberships and fellowships and elevated to the rank of Grand Officer of the Order of the Star and Key of the Indian Ocean by the Government of Mauritius, and elevated to the ranks of Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite, and de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Republic.

Naomi Hoogervorst is a senior urban planner at UN-Habitat’s Urban Lab falling under the Planning, Finance and Economy Section (PFE Section). She is managing the Prosperity Fund Global Future Cities Programme and is the PFE Section's focal point on Social Inclusion and Human Rights. She holds a Master of Science in Architecture, Urbanism and Building sciences from the Technical University of Delft (NL). She has 14 years of professional experience from UN-Habitat (Afghanistan and Palestine), the private sector and Non-Governmental Organisations in managing programmes/projects and as a technical expert within architecture and sustainable and inclusive urban development on neighbourhood, city and national level. 

Dr. Bill Thomas is a physician, professor, entrepreneur, playwright, and performer whose wide-ranging work explores the terrain of human aging. His dedication to culture change and innovations for well-being led the Wall Street Journal to highlight Dr. Thomas as one of the nation’s “top 10 innovators” changing the future of retirement in America and US News and World Report named him to its list of “America’s best leaders.”

He began his career in the field in the early 1990s when he co-founded The Eden Alternative (with Jude Meyers). This model humanized nursing homes using Care Partner teams that work to enhance the well-being of staff and residents by eliminating the three plagues: loneliness, helplessness, and boredom. In the early 2000’s he launched The Green House Project which Provider Magazine called the “pinnacle of culture change.” In 2007, Dr. Thomas developed the Senior ER model of care in partnership with the Trinity Health system.

Also in 2007, Dr. Thomas co-founded (with journalist Kavan Peterson) ChangingAging.org a live/digital platform designed to address the endemic ageism within American culture. In 2012 his one-act play “Play What’s Not There” premiered at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. The play using magical realism to explore the life challenges physicians confront while juggling practice, self-fulfillment and family. In 2013, he starred in the award-winning documentary Alive Inside. The film’s “joyous cinematic exploration of music’s capacity to reawaken our souls” won the 2014 “People’s Choice Award” at Sundance.

In 2014, Dr. Thomas collaborated with Kavan Peterson, to create the ChangingAging Tour. The ChangingAging Tour directly addressed damaging myths about aging and featured two non-fiction theater performances in a “pro-aging festival” over the next four years this tour performed in over 130 cities across North America.

Hundreds of conversations held during the ChangingAging Tour had a profound impact on the path Dr. Thomas’ career as he learned that an overwhelming number of people, living all over the country, shared a primary concern; housing. This discovery led to his latest mission: research and improve housing that builds resilience and independence so that people of all ages and abilities can live their best lives on their own terms.

Stephanie Firestone is a global thought leader advancing livable communities for all people of all ages and abilities. She leads AARP International’s global initiatives to promote enabling, equitable, and multigenerational housing and communities, and collaborates with international institutions such as the World Health Organization—leading efforts such as AARP’s engagement in the Decade of Healthy Ageing. As a 2015-2016 Health & Aging Policy Fellow, Stephanie worked with the American Planning Association and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, helping local leaders think regionally about how to create more inclusive communities and expand affordable housing opportunities for vulnerable residents. Stephanie has led international social and environmental justice efforts, founding Israel’s first Jewish-Arab environmental nonprofit organization and coordinating that country’s sustainability agenda, including representing the country’s efforts toward the World Summit on Sustainable Development at the United Nations General Assembly. Stephanie holds a Master of Urban & Environmental Planning degree from the University of Virginia.

A catalyst for positive change through design, Esther Greenhouse is a built environment strategist and environmental gerontologist.  People, places, communities, and organizations benefit from her expertise in the impact of the built environment on all types of people, especially older adults. Considered a visionary for her unique and beneficial perspective, Ms. Greenhouse is the creator of the concept “Enabling Design”--a powerful approach to design and planning which harnesses the features of the built environment to enable all people to thrive. 

As a consultant for AARP International, she is creating a quantum leap in age-friendly housing and multigenerational communities through her facilitation and initiative development work. Ms. Greenhouse also serves as the Strategic Director for one of the first Age Friendly Centers for Excellence.  At Cornell University, she is shaping the field as an industry scholar for the Cornell Institute for Healthy Futures and an adjunct lecturer in the department of Design & Environmental Analysis.  She contributes to successful community planning with workshops and consulting nationwide, and co-authored the American Planning Association’s Aging in Community Policy Guide.  Her expertise was requested for such projects as the book Independent for Life, for two PBS series on design for aging, and for the design of the nation’s first senior-focused emergency department. In the building industry, she has been recognized as an award-winning instructor and leader in Universal Design and aging in place by the National Association of Home Builders.