Sarah Dys: Board of Directors, Terwilliger Plaza
Sarah Dys PhD, MPA
Board of Directors,
Terwilliger Plaza
Welcome to the Terwilliger community. How is it that you came to join the Board of Directors?
Currently, I am a Research Associate at the Institute on Aging at Portland State University, which I joined after earning my doctorate in community health from the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health in gerontology.
I first began to know about Terwilliger Plaza through Dr. Diana White, a colleague of mine at the Institute on Aging. Dr. White, who is in the process of retiring, always talked about the people at Terwilliger and how magnificent they were. It was evident that she felt Terwilliger Plaza was a special place.
Your appointment continues a legacy of Terwilliger Plaza Board Members from the Institute on Aging at PSU.
Dr White served three terms on the Board, first joining in 2013. She was introduced to Terwilliger by another Institute on Aging Faculty member, Dr. Margaret Neal who served on the Board prior to Dr. White.
What drew you to the field of gerontology?
Public Health drew me to this field.
During an internship at the Department of Public Health in Worcester, MA, I worked on different types of program implementations. One project was called Healthy Markets which built connections between small convenience stores and business owners throughout the city with local farmers and distributors in the outer areas of Central Massachusetts to offer produce at a reduced price. The goal was to intervene on what is referred to as “food deserts” – urban areas or neighborhoods where it is difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food.
I went on to get my master’s degree in public administration with a specialization in non-profit management. It was a very applied degree with a focus on public service. Much of my course work and learning was related to public policy, and I wanted to connect my course work to public policies that could influence health outcomes. The policy area that I focused on specifically, was community-based falls prevention for older adults.
From a public health injury prevention perspective, I was extremely interested in how social science and public health could be used to intervene upstream. At that time, I thought the only way to intervene on people’s health was in the doctor’s office. Once I learned about public health and the principles of population health and upstream structural interventions, I was hooked.
You mention that injury prevention brought you into the world of gerontology.
I was very interested in community-based falls prevention programming and how to bolster intergenerational connections. Our communities, our cities, and the way our built environment has evolved has segregated us from a generational standpoint. We have urban areas that are well mixed but cater to working people. Then we have the suburbs that cushion these high urban centers built out with families and single-family homes. What I wanted to explore is how we interconnect, to bring in a diversity of experience in the city and inject connections within the existing built environment.
My writing sample for my doctorate program applications was on community-based falls prevention programming, focused on older adults and my approach to analyzing people's lives within structural, social, and cultural contexts. In the field, this is referred to as a life course perspective.
And it was your writing sample that piqued the interest of the Institute on Aging at PSU?
Portland State University was one of the schools that had a community health program in their burgeoning School of Public Health. My application materials, which included my writing sample, came across the desk of Dr. Paula Carder, who is the Director of the Institute on Aging. We began talking and she conveyed an offer, that if I had an interest in older adults and gerontology there was a home for me in the Community Health program.
That’s what brought me from Massachusetts to Oregon. That’s what brought me to the field of gerontology. Because of Dr. Carder’s work – a national policy and organizational expert for assisted living and residential care – that’s how I became not only interested, but networked into the field specific to assisted living, residential care, and uniquely in Oregon, our adult foster care program.
Within your position as a Research Associate with the Institute on Aging, what are your primary responsibilities?
My focus is on improving quality of life and quality of services across the life course, for older adults specifically. That manifests in my work on housing and housing with services options. This represents a broad spectrum of scenarios from affordable housing units where services can be brought in to long-term care continuum, nursing care, or continuing care retirement communities, such as Terwilliger Plaza.
From a policy perspective, we partner on many projects with the Oregon Department of Human Services, the office of Aging and People with Disabilities, City of Portland, and Multnomah County and Washington County. Across various levels we are working with different types of practitioners – from city planners, clinicians, program developers to program implementors. We are part of this large Venn diagram that interacts together. In my role, I provide research, data, and analysis to support proposed initiatives.
This approach also aligns with the Portland State University motto.
“Let knowledge serve the city.” That was part of what attracted me to Portland State University and the Institute on Aging. I have always wanted to be a researcher, but from an applied perspective.
What influenced your decision to join the Board of Directors at Terwilliger Plaza?
As a researcher – while not an older adult, I study older adults and those who live in independent living, assisted living and memory care communities. It is important for those of us who do research, on and with people who work and live in these settings, to truly understand the environment, the communities, and to have operational insight.
These insights will further strengthen my expertise as a researcher, while I hope, my gerontologist perspective will offer a valuable contribution within the Terwilliger Board.
Can you speak to ageism, where we are as a society in this collective conversation?
It really depends. In the larger discourse there is still so much stigma, stereotypes, and many people not wanting to acknowledge getting older. In some areas we are making monumental movements forward. And in other areas it seems like we are going backwards, particularly in the public discourse about our current president where critiques on his ability are always referenced in relationship to his age.
The barrier that we are cracking but have yet to break is the homogenous image of the older adult. It’s not a one size fits all experience. Where you were born, how you grew up – the privileges or disadvantages you had growing up, all impacts your aging experience.
An important component that could be more pervasive in our cultural and societal awareness is that we are all aging from the minute we’re born, and aging is a varied experience. You have people in their 90’s living on their own, traveling, hiking and some in their 50’s who have severe mobility limitations that require lots of assistance. One’s interpretation of aging is so individual.
You speak of gerontology as infinitely interconnected throughout society.
What I find fascinating about gerontology and aging is that everything intersects, even seemingly unrelated disciplines. Aging is a very holistic term, encompassing biological components as well as mental, physical, cultural, and social.
Gerontology, or the study of aging - is one of the most interdisciplinary fields out there. Aging intersects with business, art, music, workforce housing, the built environment, technology, entrepreneurship, architecture, and more. In all these sectors, gerontology is connected.
To me, aging is about moving through life. There is an attitude attached to it, positive or negative. What I have found at Terwilliger Plaza is that there is a positive attitude – with an energy and pride within the community. That’s not true of every organization. I am truly looking forward to contributing and learning from this unique environment.