Dr. Elizabeth Perkins receives Sue V. Saxon Outstanding Teaching Award
Congratulations to Dr. Elizabeth Perkins, who along with Dr. Sue Saxon and Dr. Mary Jean Etten received the Sue V. Saxon Outstanding Teaching Award, presented annually to the person or persons who provided the most outstanding education for students in the School of Aging Studies. This award was established in recognition of Dr. Saxon’s consistently outstanding teaching over 39 years in the Department of Gerontology.
The recipients were recognized for their textbook Physical Change and Aging: A Guide for the Helping Professions, Fifth Edition, a guide to the physical changes and common pathologies associated with the aging process, with special emphasis on the psychological and social implications of these changes in the lives of older adults.
Dr. Perkins is a Post-Doctoral Fellow within the University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities/Florida Center for Inclusive Communities (FCIC). She is also an RNMH, a registered nurse from Great Britain, who is trained specifically to care for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Her current work at the FCIC is concentrated on improving both access to and quality of healthcare for persons with disabilities. She is also involved with improving health promotion/prevention for adults across the lifespan.
Dr. Perkins is the President of the Gerontology Division of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, and is Chair of AAIDD's National Task Force on Aging and End of Life Issues. She is also co-convener of the Formal Interest Group on Developmental Disabilities for the Gerontological Society of America. Dr. Perkins has published in peer reviewed journals, including Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities and Critical Reviews in Oncology/Hematology, and is a co-author of the recently published textbook "Physical Changes and Aging: A guide for the helping professions". She is also an ad-hoc reviewer for Psychology Health & Medicine, Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities, Rehabilitation Psychology, European Journal of Surgical Oncology, and Archives of Internal Medicine.
A special profile of Dr. Perkins, Nurses Making a Difference, can be viewed at the National Organization of Nurses with Disabilities website.
The Department of Child and Family Studies (CFS) at the USF College of Behavioral & Community Sciences is committed to improving the well-being of individuals, children, and families within communities across the country through promoting respect, inclusion, development, achievement, mental health, and an optimum quality of life.