Webinar Series
Join us every fourth Tuesday of the month at 1pm for our webinar series.
We will cover an array of topics important service and care of Older Virginians.
Upcoming Webinars
Issues Revealed for Older Virginians by the Pandemic
Tuesday, June 23
1:00pm-2:15pm
Register Here
A panel discussion moderated by Pamela B. Teaster, Ph.D., Professor and Director of the Virginia Tech Center for Gerontology, will explore a variety of issues uncovered by the COVID-19 pandemic that older Virginians have faced/are facing–from isolation, to access to legal representation, to specific impacts of COVID-19 on long-term care facilities. Dr. Teaster will lead panelists Dr. Richard Lindsay, Joani Latimer and Veronica Williams, J.D., in a dynamic, hour long conversation framed by ethics and how to approach the treatment and care of older adults as we move forward. Using an interactive format, our speakers will share their experiences in their respective areas of expertise, the impact, and what they have learned during crisis management, followed by the steps needed moving forward to create a safer space and community for older adults and those working with and on behalf of them across the Commonwealth.
Moderator and Panel Members
Dr. Pamela B. Teaster, Ph.D., Moderator
Pamela B. Teaster is a Professor and the Director of the Center for Gerontology at Virginia Tech. She is the North American Representative of the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse, President of the Board of Trustees for the Center for Guardianship Certification and serves on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect and the Journal of Trauma, Violence, and Abuse Review. Dr. Teaster is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education and is a recipient of the Isabella Horton Grant Award for Guardianship (National College of Probate Judges), the Rosalie Wolf Award for Research on Elder Abuse (NAPSA), the Outstanding Affiliate Member Award (Kentucky Guardianship Association), and the Distinguished Educator Award (Kentucky Association for Gerontology). Former president of the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse, she has received continuous funding for over 20 years from public and private sources. Her areas of scholarship include the abuse of elders and vulnerable adults, guardianship, end-of-life issues, ethical treatment of older adults, and public policy and public affairs. She has published over 200 scholarly articles, reports, and book chapters and is the editor/author of 6 books.
Dr. Richard W. Lindsay, M.D.
Dr. Richard W. Lindsay is Emeritus Professor of Internal Medicine and Family Medicine and former Head of the Section of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center in Charlottesville. He is a graduate of Cornell University and received his MD degree from New York Medical College where he was elected to AOA. He received his training In Internal Medicine at the University of Virginia where he was the Chief Medical Resident. Following which he served 2 years of active duty as a major in the Army Medical Corps and head of the Medical Clinic at Womack Army Hospital at Ft. Bragg N. C. . He is Past President of the American Geriatric Society. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Jefferson Area Board for the Aging. He has served 8 Governors of the Commonwealth as a member of the Governor’s Advisory Board for Aging and the current Commonwealth Council on Aging. He serves on the Boards of the Senior Navigator, the Virginia Center on Aging at VCU and the Virginia Gerontology Center at Virginia tech. He is the co-founder of the Lindsay Institute for Innovations in Caregiving. He continues to teach in the Schools of Medicine and Nursing at UVa and lectures on Aging across the country. Dr. Lindsay also serves as the clinical director of the Summer Medical Leadership Program at the UVA School of Medicine. He has been the recipient of many honors and was most recently was named one of Next Avenue’s Influencers in Aging and the recipient of the 2016 Rhoda L Jennings award from the Southern Gerontological Society. He represented Virginia at two White House Conferences on Aging. He lives in Charlottesville, is a devoted Cavalier fan, a super skier and trumpet player has three grown children and four grandchildren.
Joani Latimer, M.S.
Following multiple roles dedicated to providing services and advocacy for older adults and their caregivers, Joani began service as Virginia’s State Long-Term Ombudsman in 2000. As the Virginia’s Ombudsman, she heads the statewide program that advocates on behalf of long-term care recipients to protect their health, safety, welfare, and rights. Building on long-standing community engagement and professional roles in quality assurance, geriatric care management, and elder justice/advocacy, Joani’s work in her current role orients around a deep commitment to the inherent dignity of individuals of all ages and abilities, and the belief that compassionate, high quality care and quality of life should be available to all persons.
Veronica E. Williams, J.D.
A native of the Virginia peninsula, Veronica Elizabeth Williams began her professional career in the United States Army where she served for five (5) years as a personnel officer. Her experiences included overseas duty and successful completion of the United States Army Parachutist Course (Airborne School). Upon completing her tour of military service, she entered law school at the College of William & Mary and graduated in 1993.
Veronica has limited her legal practice to a combination of Estate Planning, the Settlement of Estates, and Advocacy for the Elderly and Infirm, with a special passion for that part of Elder Law that deals with assisting caregivers to be more effective advocates for the loved ones they care for and serve.
Veronica served as her mother’s caregiver off and on for 21 years. Her mother was diagnosed with a long-term chronic illness and she knows how difficult it can be to care for a loved one with health challenges, and to balance that care with competing demands. Over the years, she has shopped for home health care providers, plowed through medical paperwork, puzzled over health care coverage, and experienced first- hand the frustrations of our fragmented health care system. She is professionally passionate about understanding life care planning and estate planning from the perspectives of the client and the caregiver.
Her representation, therefore, is exclusive to clients who seek the following types of legal services: Elder Advocacy, Powers of Attorney, Wills, Trusts & Estates, Asset Protection Planning, Guardianship Proceedings, Advocacy in Hospital Settings (challenging inappropriate hospital sponsored guardianships and involuntary notices of discharge), Long Term Care Coordination (Including Crisis Medicaid Cases), and End- of-Life Counseling and Advocacy.
In 2014, the Governor of Virginia appointed Veronica to serve four-year terms, as a board member, on both the Commonwealth Council on Aging, and the Virginia Public Guardianship and Conservatorship Board. In 2016, the Chief Justice of the Virginia Supreme Court appointed her to serve as an advisory member of the Virginia Working Interdisciplinary Network of Guardianship Stakeholders (WINGS). In 2017, she was elected to serve as the Chair of the Commonwealth Council on Aging (CCOA), and in 2019 she was re-elected to serve as Chair of the CCOA. In 2019, she was also elected to serve as Vice-Chair of the Public Guardianship & Conservatorship Advisory Board (PGCAB), and she was re-elected to serve as Vice Chair of the PGCAB in 2020.
She is a frequent teacher and speaker on the topics of Elder Law & Estate Planning, and has served as a presenter at various continuing legal education conferences. She has served as a board member for the Virginia Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, and her professional perspectives have been published in the Daily Press Newspaper, the Virginia Lawyers Weekly, and the Richmond Times Dispatch.