Unsung Heroes: How Senior Centers Have Adapted to Provide Essential Services in the Face of COVID-19

This presentation will describe the ways in which senior centers in Massachusetts have adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Three surveys (distributed in April, August, and November, 2020) were conducted with 342 senior centers in the state to learn about current operations through the pandemic, challenges faced, and steps taken to solve those challenges. Results suggest that almost all senior centers (91%) continued to provide limited programming or essential services during the pandemic. Senior centers are prioritizing socialization and nutritional needs as critical services, but are changing the way they operate to continue to meet those needs. Despite facing uncertainty about the future, senior centers continue to adapt to changing conditions as they seek to meet their core mission. This presentation will discuss effects of COVID-19 on how senior centers will continue to operate through and post-pandemic times as well as local and state policy implications.

Factors determining the operational self-sufficiency of microfinance institutions

The main aim of this paper is to explore the factors determining Microfinance institutions (MFIs) self-sufficiency. The data on selected variables for this research were obtained from the public MIX Market Database and cover the year of 2017. The empirical model is constructed with application of a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Logistic regression analysis. Sample is consisted of 342 MFIs from all around the world, with 21 independent variables grouped into eight factors/components, and OSS (operational self-sufficiency) as dependent variable. The obtained results suggest that higher revenue and MFIs profitability combined with decrease of credit risk lead to higher probability of MFI to be self-sufficient. These results also confirm widespread belief that MFIs will not be able to achieve their social goals without achieving sustainable profitability. In addition, results also confirm importance of MFIs core mission as with increase in outreach, probability of MFIs achieving self-sustainability also increases.

The Division of Aging Biology on Basic Research in Health Disparities

The core mission of the Division of Aging Biology is to explore the molecular and cellular mechanisms of aging. Work supported by the Division is best known for research using laboratory animals, but we have a less well-recognized program of research engaging human participants. With a goal expanding our presence in clinical research and the hope that we can have an impact on health disparities, this talk will provide an overview of how our grantees approach basic mechanistic questions of aging in human communities. In addition, a forward-looking but speculative presentation will be made on ways in which laboratory animals might be used to study health disparities from the perspective of hallmarks of aging.

Seeing Self: The CAMPOS Model

Building an inclusive community that diversifies the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is a daunting task, all the more so given the low numbers of Latinas and other underrepresented minority groups (URM) who enter academic STEM disciplines. This chapter takes an in-depth look at one of the novel ADVANCE initiatives—the Center for the Advancement of Multicultural Perspectives on Science (CAMPOS). The center fosters sustainable institutional transformation by collaborating with traditional campus committees to recruit, retain, and promote excellent faculty committed to inclusion while also engaging the broader UC Davis STEM community. Its core mission is to support the discovery of knowledge though multicultural perspectives. CAMPOS creates an environment that is diversity-driven, mentorship-grounded, and career-success-focused. It recognizes the barriers that URM STEM scientists endure within academia and seeks to mitigate those barriers, highlighting the accomplishments of CAMPOS faculty scholars and making URM STEM scientists visible role models. The center is committed to transforming STEM by developing the leadership skills needed to sustain institutional transformation in laboratories, departments, and universities locally, nationally, and globally. The CAMPOS model can be replicated at other universities seeking to change the face of STEM.

Emerging and Innovative Technologies

To provide acute unscheduled care 24 hours per day and 7 days per week is the core mission of emergency medicine. Emergency telehealth is evolving in scope and complexity, no longer constraining care by the walls of the emergency department (ED). Current audio- and video-based communications will advance to support a complex interplay between enhanced video communication, remote patient monitoring, augmented reality, and machine learning. Many of these technologies already exist or are under development for near-term implementation. For those deploying or planning the deployment of emergency telehealth services, this chapter highlights near-term technologies and applications to be considered.

Leveraging the organizational mission statement to communicate identity, distinctiveness and purpose to primary and secondary stakeholders during COVID-19

PurposeThis study examines comprehensiveness and responsiveness of mission statements for the top 100 retailers on the 2020 National Retailers Federation list in order to (1) evaluate how effectively they communicate organizational identity, values and purpose, (2) underscore a distinctive commitment to stakeholders and (3) what extent these efforts are reflected in revised mission statements or addenda to meet global pandemic challenges.Design/methodology/approachThe study employs a 4-question metric to measure comprehensiveness and a two-pronged qualitative method of analysis consisting of keyword searches followed by content analysis.FindingsRetailer statements are considerably comprehensive in describing purpose and audience yet very few articulate stakeholder value, differentiate themselves as distinctive or substantively reaffirm their core mission and values. Retailers seem more invested in strategic communication around diversity, equity and inclusion, based on web content in their consumer, job seeker and investor touchpoints.Research limitations/implicationsCoding and interpreting language through content analysis methods may introduce some level of subjectivity, particularly when dealing with unstructured data. Implications for how organizations acclimated in order to survive and thrive, while maintaining focus on stakeholders and strategy. Examining organizational mission statements and their contexts yields perspective into how organizations define themselves and what they do during times of crisis.Originality/valueThis study provides insights into the content, structure and functions of the statements against a specific comprehensiveness metric and reveals patterns about the texts and their contexts during a pandemic and strong cultural and societal movements.

A-45 Closing the Gap in the Neuropsychology Pipeline Via Mentorship Focusing on African American Students

Objective A core mission of the Society for Black Neuropsychology (SBN) is to increase the representation of neuropsychologists, students, and scholars from diverse backgrounds. As such, SBN developed a 12-month mentoring program for trainees at all levels. The SBN Mentorship Program includes four components: mentoring where mentees are paired with a mentor based on interest and needs; professional development webinars; application materials resources; virtual social hours. Methods First, a call for mentors and mentees was distributed via SBN’s and related listservs and social media. Second, pairings were based on mentee training level, clinical/research interest, needs (e.g., applying to doctoral programs, cultural competency, securing funding), and additional preferences (e.g., matched on the same racial/ethnic background, sex/gender, geographical location). Surveys will be distributed at 6-months and upon completion of the mentorship program to evaluate pairings, webinars, and overall impact of the program. Results A total of 60 mentors from diverse backgrounds and different levels of training enrolled. Thirty-five underrepresented minority (URM) trainees were matched with mentors based on their level of training, interest, and needs. The mentee cohort comprised of undergraduate/post-baccalaureate (30%), masters (5%), and doctoral students (60%), and post-doctoral fellows (5%). The cohort was approximately 77% female and all mentees identified as an URM in academia (URM: 85.7% Black, 14.3% Latinx). Conclusion Mentorship programs represent a vital but often overlooked component of trainee success. Mentorship programs sponsored by organizations such as SBN can help increase the number of URM students in neuropsychology and provide the mentorship needed to navigate barriers URM students often encounter in academia.

What Russian University Stands for: Analyzing Socially Embedded Vision and Values

Summary The present investigation is a response to the discourse analytical methodology expanded by corpus linguistic techniques. Within a discursive approach the university’s identity is seen as existing in and being constructed through discourse. The research interest is in how ideology and the obligation models set by the state construct the university’s self-image and university-based research as its core mission. The study is generally consistent with current trends in social constructivism where identity is considered as the process of identity construction rather than a rigid category. It is presumed that key factors are developed within a definite socio-cultural practice, which then shape the concept of collective identity. Detecting and analyzing such factors on the basis of Russian realities and modern Russian university is becoming a new research objective. The focus of the given article is on how certain values can be foregrounded in texts representing university strategies to the public. The research employs corpus linguistic methods in discourse analysis. The organization of the paper is as follows. First, it outlines the socio-political context in which the transformation of academic values and organizational principles of Russian national universities are embedded. Second, it discusses corpus findings obtained from an original research corpus which includes mission statements posted on the websites of Russian national research and federal universities. Conclusions concerning the university mission statements reflect ongoing transformations of the universities’ role in the society. The rhetoric of the statements is declarative and foregrounding new values. The linguistic data analysis shows their socially constructive nature as they build a framework for currently relevant uniformed ideas and concepts.

Progress, but at the Expense of Male Power? Institutional Resistance to Gender Equality in an Irish University

Gender equality is a whole-organization endeavor. Building on Agócs (Journal of Business Ethics, 1997, 16 (9), 917–931) concept of institutionalized resistance this article undertakes a feminist critique of policy and practice around internal promotions to the equivalent of Associate Professor level in one Irish university (called the Case Study University). This university was selected because of its low proportion of women in senior academic positions. The methodology is a single case study design, employing documentary analysis, including secondary data. Since 2013 the proportion of women at Associate Professor in the Case Study University increased significantly (bringing them close to the national average): this being associated with increased transparency, with the cascade model in the background. However, men’s “chances” have varied little over time and at 1:4 are the highest in Irish universities. This article uses Agócs (Journal of Business Ethics, 1997, 16 (9), 917–931) stages of institutional resistance to show that while some changes have been made, ongoing institutionalized resistance is reflected in its failure to accept responsibility for change as reflected in its refusal to challenge the “core mission” and restricting the focus to “fixing the women”; and its failure to implement change by focusing on “busy-ness” which does not challenge power and colluding with foot-dragging and slippage in key areas. It is suggested that such institutional resistance reflects the enactment of hidden or stealth power. The article implicitly raises questions about the intractability and the covertness of men’s power and privilege and the conditions under which women’s “chances” are allowed to improve, thus providing insights into the extent and nature of institutional resistance.

What Did Communist Regimes Have in Common?

This chapter delineates common features of all communist states. The sixteen communist regimes all had in common, during their early years in power, a commitment to revolution and to the use of revolutionary violence to consolidate their power, a determination to build socialism on the Stalinist model, membership in a world communist movement led by Moscow, and commitment to anti-imperialist struggle as the core mission of that movement.