Marilyn Luptak, an associate professor at the University of Utah College of Social Work, has been selected by the Association for Gerontology Education in Social Work to receive the organization’s Leadership Award. This prestigious national award recognizes a distinguished social work scholar who has made outstanding contributions to the field of aging through research, teaching and scholarship.
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of the College of Social Work
Dr. Marilyn Luptak, recipient of the Association for Gerontology Education in Social Work 2015 Leadership Award.
“Dr. Luptak has distinguished herself as a dedicated and rigorous researcher, a passionate and inspiring instructor and a respectful and respected colleague,” said Hank Liese, dean of the University of Utah College of Social Work. “She has been recognized for over two decades as a promising and talented scholar who embraces every opportunity with dedication, skill and generosity.”
Troy Andersen, executive director of the W.D. Goodwill Initiatives on Aging at the U’s College of Social Work, nominated Luptak for the honor. “This award acknowledges not only her tremendous scholarly contribution to the field,” said Andersen, “but also her leadership and mentoring of social work students, including me! Dr. Luptak helps our students develop a genuine love and passion for helping the older adults in our local, national and global communities.”
AGESW will formally present Luptak with the award in November during the Gerontological Society of America’s 2015 Annual Scientific Meeting in Orlando, Florida.
More about Marilyn Luptak
Luptak is the chair of the MSW Aging Concentration and associate director of research for the W.D. Goodwill Initiatives on Aging at the University of Utah College of Social Work. Her research focuses on improving the health, mental health and end-of-life care for vulnerable older adults, their families and caregivers, as well as interprofessional education and collaborative practice.
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of the College of Social Work
Dr. Marilyn Luptak and social work Ph.D. student Kara Byrne.
Soon after joining the University of Utah faculty in 2005, Luptak helped establish an interdisciplinary research work group at the Salt Lake City VA to address the unique health care delivery challenges experienced by older veterans and their family caregivers. She was selected from a competitive pool of candidates to serve as a J.A. Hartford Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholar (2008-2010), and in 2012, was named as a national mentor and consultant to the Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education-Veterans Health Administration (HPPAE-VHA) project. HPPAE began as an initiative of the Social Work Leadership Institute and is now administered by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) Gero-Ed Center. As a direct result of her scholarly activities, Luptak was invited to moderate a CSWE-hosted panel on the new expectations for health care during a White House briefing in Washington, D.C. in 2013. The following year, she was named a fellow in the Gerontological Society of America’s Social Research, Practice & Policy Section.
At the University of Utah, Luptak has been awarded the College of Social Work’s Mary Shields McPhee Award for Faculty Excellence in Teaching, and served as the Belle S. Spafford Endowed Chair – a funded research position. Luptak also serves on the U’s Center on Aging Steering Committee, the University Neuropsychiatric Institute Ethics Committee and on the editorial board for the Journal of Social Work in End of Life and Palliative Care.
About AGESW
The Association for Gerontology Education in Social Work provides leadership in the areas of gerontological social work education, research and policy, and fosters cooperation, collegiality and an exchange of ideas among social work educators, researchers and students committed to or interested in gerontology. AGESW maintains an international membership of hundreds of educators who teach, conduct research and promote gerontology at all levels of programs of social work education.