Thirteenth Annual
Rocco C. and Marion S. Siciliano Forum:
Considerations on the Status of American Society

Global Aging in the 21st Century: Challenges, Opportunities and Implications for the U.S.

Organizers: Susan McDaniel, Prentice Institute, University of Lethbridge & Professor of Sociology
Zachary Zimmer, Institute for Public & International Affairs & Professor, Department of Sociology
With Mark Supiano, Director, Center on Aging & Professor of Geriatrics

Click here for VIDEOS of the 2009 Forum

Click here for information on the SYMPOSIUM

Click here to download the printable program for the Forum and Symposium

Population aging – a growth in the proportion of a population that is in the older ages - is now occurring in every region and nearly every country of the world.  The growth of older populations is among the important global phenomena of the 21st century.  Although aging poses both opportunities and challenges for societies and policies, they are far from uniform worldwide.  A number of dynamic factors are at work impacting on opportunities and challenges, for example, the rate and timing of population aging and the differing social, health, economic and policy situations within countries.  The Siciliano 2009 Forum will focus on three overarching themes related to global aging in the 21st Century.  The first is healthy aging, health care and support. Are societies getting healthier as they get older, and what are the implications of health care and supports?  The second is opportunities and challenges associated with an aging workforce, including issues related to retirement and the provision of pensions.  Are there ways that countries can take advantage of a growing older workforce, particularly considering the tacit knowledge experienced workers possess?  What are the challenges and opportunities involved in providing security in later years for growing numbers of older people?  The third is shifting intergenerational relations.  How are norms about generational obligations changing as societies become older?  How do multiple familial generations co-exist? And, what is the balance among family, market and public supports for older people?  These three themes are cross-cut by other dimensions that are intertwined with the dynamic process of aging, such as immigration, contrasting policy regimes and economic forces. 

The 2009 Siciliano and Center on Aging Forum will maintain an international focus, with discussion of implications of international trends for the U.S. There will be three keynote speakers, from different parts of the world and with different areas of focus in their own research.  One expert is from the United States, one is from Europe and one, from South America, will provide a comparative international focus that will cross-cut world regions. The keynoters are confirmed and brief biosketches follow.  Each keynoter will serve as discussant in the three focal sessions that follow in the academic conference: on healthy aging and health care, on aging workforce, retirement and pensions, and on shifting generational relations.  In each session, there will be specialists from around the world speaking to the topic, as well as local experts. The closing session will offer a discussion of the implications of international challenges and opportunities for aging in the United States.

This 2009 Siciliano Forum will spark new knowledge of international and U.S. challenges, opportunities and responses to the global issue of aging in the 21st century.  The new knowledge will lead into a book on aging and policy responses.

FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM: Dr. Sara Arber, Director, Institute Age, Generation and Everyday Life Department of Sociology, University of Surrey

Dr. Sara Arber is Professor of Sociology, and Co-Director, Centre for Research on Ageing and Gender (CRAG) at University of Surrey, UK. At Surrey she was Head of the School of Human Sciences (2001-04) and Head of the Sociology Department (1996-2002). Her research focuses on gender and class inequalities in health, ageing and later life and on sociology of sleep. Dr. Arber served as President of the British Sociological Association (1999-2001) and is a Fellow of the British Academy. She is President of the International Sociological Association Research Committee on Sociology of Aging (2006-2010).

FROM THE UNITED STATES: Dr. Eileen Crimmins, AARP Chair in Gerontology, Demography of Older Populations, Health and Mortality, and Director of Training, Multidisciplinary Research Training in Gerontology, The USC Davis School of Gerontology

Dr. Eileen M. Crimmins is AARP Professor of Gerontologyat the University of Southern California.  She is Director of the USC/UCLA Center on Biodemography and Population Health (CBPH) and Director of the Multidisciplinary Training Grant in Aging. Her research is on health trends, health change with age, healthy life expectancy, and health differences in the population, with a focus on how social, psychological, and biological factors affect health. Crimmins is a Co-P.I. on the U.S, Health and Retirement Survey, a study to incorporate biomarkers into the Chinese Health and Retirement Study, and a study of aging among the Tsimane of Brazil. She has served on a number of NIA Monitoring Committees and on the Board of Counselors of the National Center for Health Statistics. She is currently co-chair of a National Academy of Sciences Panel on Diverging Trends in Longevity. She holds a Ph.D. in demography from the University of Pennsylvania.

COMPARATIVE INTERNATIONAL: Dr. Alexandre Kalache, Senior Advisor on Global Ageing, New York Academy of Medicine & Former Director, World Health Organization's Programme on Ageing and Health

Dr Alexandre Kalache served as Director of the World Health Organization's Programme on Ageing and Health (Geneva) from 1995 to 2008. Prior to that, from 1975, he held academic positions at the Universities of London and Oxford. He is currently working at the New York Academy of Medicine where he is Senior Advisor on Global Ageing, and is developing a series of global projects which include "Age Friendly Cities" and "Ageing in a Foreign Land". Dr Kalache is a medical doctor originally from Brazil. He has a Master's degree in Social Medicine (University of London) and a Ph.D in Epidemiology (University of Oxford). He is the author of numerous publications related to ageing and health including Epidemiology in Old Age (co-authored), Promoting Health Among Elderly People, and articles on the compression of morbidity and active ageing.

ABOUT THE SICILIANO FORUM

“Unique” describes the Rocco C. Siciliano Forum: Considerations on the Status of the American Society at the University of Utah. In no other place has a program been designed to offer such an open, nonbiased forum for students, faculty, and the citizenry to focus their energies and attentions on the most important, current, long range public issues facing America today.

The ties that bind the forum’s founder Rocco C. Siciliano – public servant, business man, attorney, civic leader, and family man – to the University of Utah are strong indeed. It is no wonder, then, that he chose Utah’s flagship institution of higher learning as the home for the forum that bears his name and fosters thoughtful discourse on the many key issues facing America today. A Salt Lake City native, Mr. Siciliano graduated from the University of Utah in 1944 with an honors degree in political science and earned his law degree from Georgetown University in 1948.

The forum’s inspiration comes from Mr. Siciliano’s extensive involvement in both the public and the private sectors. He served in several presidentially appointed positions including assistant secretary of labor and then special assistant to President Eisenhower for personnel management in the White House and later the under secretary of commerce for President Nixon. He also was a member of President Nixon’s Federal Pay Board. He played a leadership role in corporate America as chairman of TICOR and chairman of the California Business Roundtable.

Leadership and public service have been the hallmarks of Mr. Siciliano’s distinguished career. He is chairman of the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles. This is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization that works to develop innovative ways to improve democratic self-government. He was president and then chairman of the Dwight D. Eisenhower World Affairs Institute, Washington, D.C.

After appointment by President Clinton, in April of 2001 he was elected chairman of the newly established national Eisenhower Memorial Commission. The Commission is charged with recommending a suitable enduring memorial for one of our great presidents.

Mr. Siciliano has served on many corporate boards and is a trustee emeritus of the Committee for Economic Development and the J. Paul Getty Trust. He has served as president and chairman of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and as a board member of the Museum for Contemporary Art.

As a young lieutenant during World War II, Mr. Siciliano led an infantry platoon of the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division in Italy. He received the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, the Bronze Star Medal for Valor, and the Army Special Commendation Award.

The Siciliano Forum sponsors a lecture series as the main focus of its annual programs. Participants include nationally recognized commentators, public officials, educators, and others qualified to address a specific issue. Each presentation is both oral and written and deals with at least one of the most pressing, least tractable issues facing America.

The topic addressed by the annual forum lecturer is woven integrally in to the academic and research curricula of a number of courses of study within fields such as political science, business, economics, ethics, anthropology, education, psychology, environmental studies, sociology, geography, family and consumer studies, sciences, arts, and others when applicable. In this way, students have the opportunity to gain the most from the lecturer’s perspectives.

In addition to the annual lecture, the most high profile of its events, the forum sponsors allied presentations and discussions involving faculty and students with other local, regional, and national commentators, and public officials, and educators. The overall purpose of the Siciliano Forum is to ensure opportunities for the thoughtful deliberations of the public trust and related issues. The inquiry is based upon the total available facts, but also may include ethical or spiritual considerations.

In all, the Rocco C. Siciliano Forum: Considerations on the Status of the American Society offers an uncommon opportunity for informed discussion of the major challenges facing the nation. It makes a significant contribution to the intellectual life of the College of Social and Behavioral Science and the University of Utah; indeed, the community, state, and nation as well.

Ever present in Mr. Siciliano’s work and life for 60 years is the artist Marion Stiebel Siciliano who fled Hitler’s Germany. Mrs. Siciliano’s paintings have been featured nationally and internationally as well as at the University of Utah Museum of Fine Arts. In Spring 2000, the Sicilianos were awarded Honorary Doctoral degrees from Gettysburg College, Pennsylvania; hers in Fine Arts and his in Public Service. Earlier, he had received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Hebrew Union College. In 2001, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Law degree from the University of Utah. The Sicilianos have five children: Loretta, Vincent, Fred, John, and Maria as well as six grandsons and one granddaughter.