Ariel Green, coordinator Inspired by the experience of living with her grandparents throughout her childhood, Ariel founded SAGE in the spring of 2004, as a first-year medical student at Johns Hopkins. She is currently also a student in the Master of Public Health program at Hopkins. She plans on specializing in internal medicine.

Kitty Poon, volunteer recruitment and retention Kitty graduated from the nursing program at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing in 2006, and is now in the graduate program. Before moving to Baltimore, she worked with older adults in her home state of California. She is very excited about the opportunity to be involved with that population here.

John R. Burton, M.D., An eminent leader in geriatrics, Dr. Burton directed the Johns Hopkins Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology for 20 years. While in this position, he founded the Hopkins Elder Housecall program and oversaw the development of a comprehensive, integrated continuum of health care services for the elderly. In addition to seeing patients, teaching and conducting research, he now directs the Geriatric Education Center at Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, which disseminates geriatric education to community-based health professionals in Maryland. Dr. Burton also conceived of the Hospital at Home program, which delivers hospital-level acute care to older patients in their homes, and he co-directs an initiative to increase geriatrics expertise in surgical and related specialties.

Special thanks also go to Jane Marks, R.N., associate director of the Geriatric Education Center (jmarks@jhmi.edu), who has provided immense support to SAGE by identifying and contacting Senior Mentors, accompanying students on their first home visits, and helping to coordinate our monthly seminars.

SAGE is currently looking for an events coordinator, to plan holiday meals, concerts and other group activities for the Senior Mentors, and a family resource coordinator, to create a guide to services that may be useful to community-living elderly people and their families. The guide will be available on this website and at community health fairs.

In addition, we are always looking for students to help with recruitment and retention of volunteers and Senior Mentors. If you have ideas for reaching out to socially isolated elderly Baltimore residents, we would love to hear from you.