Simple question: Do you miss human connection when you use self-checkout at the grocery store? Complex question: How is cogeneration threatened by AI, profit-driven “efficiencies,” and automation — and what can we do about it? Allison Pugh, author of the book The Last...
On Friday, May 15, I had the great honor to address the 2026 graduates of Drew University, including the undergraduate College of Liberal Arts, the Theological School, and the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies. I'm very grateful to Drew's remarkable President...
Across the country, young people and older people are stepping up as civic leaders. But too often, they do this critical work with peers, in age-segregated spaces. Young people work without the benefit of older generations who bring lived experience, networks, and a...
Is your organization ready to tackle one of the toughest but most transformative shifts in intergenerational collaboration? In this session, you’ll hear from three leaders spearheading efforts to diversify board involvement. This will be a learning-in-public...
Last year, Serena Bian and Ernest Gonzales became Encore Public Voices Fellows, a group of more than 60 activists and experts working with Encore.org and The OpEd Project to shape public conversation at the intersection of aging, longevity, intergenerational connection and social justice.
This year, both will be members of CoGenerate’s Board of Directors.
Serena Bian, an expert on loneliness and connection, is a mid-20s, Chinese-American Michigander focused on building intergenerational unity across America, both locally and nationally.
She was recruited by U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to conduct research for his New York Times bestselling book, Together: The Healing Power of Social Connections, where her own story of loneliness, solitude, and leadership is featured. More recently, she is helping lead and shape the Office of the Surgeon General’s work addressing loneliness, community, and connection, with a focus on cultural and systems change.
Serena also launched the Biden campaign’s Communities United program, a national effort to spark direct action across hundreds of American neighborhoods for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris while building lasting social infrastructure amongst communities.
Ernest Gonzales — a scholar in the areas of productive aging (employment, volunteering, and caregiving), health equity, discrimination and social policy — is an associate professor and director of the MSW Program at NYU Silver School of Social Work, and director of The Center for Health and Aging Innovation.
Ernest and his team at New York University’s Center for Health and Aging Innovation launched an intergenerational housing program in 2018 to promote housing and economic security among graduate students and older adults, reduce social isolation, and foster cross-generational cohesion. The program — which reflects the university’s efforts to bolster college affordability, and prioritize equity and aging — intentionally recruits first-generation students, racial and ethnic minorities, women, and individuals who live alone to share housing.
Dr. Gonzales is a first-gen Latinx gerontologist. His early life experiences growing up in El Paso, Texas with his loving maternal grandparents, parents, and uncles, inspired him to study how we age in a society that aspires for justice and equity but practices systemic racism, sexism, homophobia, and ageism.
Ernest’s research has been supported by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institute on Aging, U.S. Social Security Administration, AARP Foundation, The Eisner Foundation, Fan Fox and Samuels Foundation, and other public and private funders.
