Centre staff and committees

Biography

Dr. Porter is the Director of the Centre on Aging at UM, a position she has held since 2015. She is a leader in the global age-friendly university movement and has been instrumental in championing age inclusivity activities at Canada’s first age-friendly university. She is co-lead of the North American Region for the Age-friendly University Global Network and is part of the Age Inclusivity in Higher Education Working Group of the Gerontological Society of America. Dr. Porter has held executive positions with provincial and national community organizations, including chairing the Transportation Options Network for Seniors (TONS) in Manitoba and holding many positions with Active Aging Canada.

Throughout her career she has studied many aspects of aging, including physical activity, neuromuscular function, mobility, older drivers, age-friendly environments, ageism, long-term care, vaccination decision-making and age inclusivity in higher education. For two decades she has been involved with an international research team (Candrive) studying older drivers. Her highly cited research has been funded by many agencies, including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and Canada Foundation for Innovation. For her many contributions to gerontology, she attained Fellow Status with the Gerontological Society of America in 2018.

Biography

As Associate Director, Nicole Dunn facilitates the research of Centre on Aging Research Affiliates; assists the Director and Research Affiliates with grant applications; conducts Centre-based research with the Director, staff/students of the Centre, Research Affiliates as well as with or for community/government; and produces reports or fact sheets on aging for the Centre and its stakeholders.

Nicole has a Bachelor of Arts Degree (Advanced) with a Major in Psychology and a Minor in Sociology, as well as a Bachelor of Recreation Studies, from the University of Manitoba. She completed her Master of Arts at the University of Georgia, where she studied therapeutic recreation and leisure education in older adults. Nicole most recently worked with the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management in the Health, Leisure and Human Performance Research Institute as Associate Director (Administration), a position she held for five years.

Her prior research experience includes being: a Research Project Manager at St. Boniface Research Centre, Research Director at the Wellness Institute, a Survey Research Coordinator/Program Coordinator for the Wellness Institute Services Evaluation Research (W.I.S.E.R.) program, and a Research Associate at the Centre on Aging where she was involved in the evaluation of Adult Day Care in Manitoba.

Biography

As the Administration and Communications Coordinator, Rachel is responsible for developing and overseeing the communications strategy for the Centre on Aging including disseminating Centre research and the contributions of the Centre’s research affiliates through the Centre’s biweekly updates, newsletters, web site, and social media; developing reports and communication materials; coordinating the annual Spring Research Symposium; and providing support for the Students Targeting Aging Research (STAR) group supported by the Centre.
Within the area of gerontology, she has over 14 years’ experience working on project teams focusing on aging issues in the areas of age-friendly communities and gerontology. Her experience developing communication materials for 15 years includes designing and distributing dissemination materials to project partners and the general public. Rachel has served as newsletter editor for four organizations (academic and non-profit) and has developed a variety of documents for academic, non-profit, and government audiences.

She completed her certificate in Graphic Communications, and received her Technical Communications Diploma (Honours) from Red River College Polytechnic. Prior to that Rachel completed her Bachelor of Arts Degree (Anthropology) at the University of Winnipeg.