An Example from an Age-Friendly University
The College of Nursing at the University of Utah is taking steps to increase age inclusiveness. As faculty and staff embrace being an Age Friendly University, leadership recognized that commitment needed to be more than a designation on paper. After completing a college-wide assessment of age inclusivity, they turned to the National Center to Reframe Aging as a central partner in making that commitment real.
Nurses play critical roles in the well-being of people across the lifespan; there is great power in fostering an inclusive mindset about aging in nursing. The College of Nursing is home to the Gerontology Interdisciplinary Program, making this project a natural extension of the College’s commitment to prepare students to work with older people across care settings. Additionally, many aspiring nurses enter nursing school in their late 20s and 30s, so their places of study need to think differently about how to support them to succeed. The College of Nursing understood this and, in Spring 2025, launched the Excellence Across the Lifespan Initiative. Twelve staff and faculty, known as Lifespan Champions, were selected to participate. This diverse set of participants, who vary in age and by role, completed the rigorous Core Elements to Reframe Aging course. Then, they applied the principles and tools to reframe aging to undertake mini projects to improve age inclusivity within their scope of work.
What bloomed from that one course is nine distinct, meaningful projects. Their efforts ranged from making intentional shifts in how researchers communicate about older adults in their studies to revising materials for incoming nursing students to acknowledge that students of diverse ages have varying needs. One member of the college media team identified a need to diversify photos on websites and in nursing program materials to be more inclusive. Taken together, these projects illustrate something important: reframing aging is more than a moment of awareness; it is a lens that, once adopted, changes how people see and do their work.
The College of Nursing highlighted the work of the Lifespan Champions at college-wide meetings and at the Gerontological Society of America’s 2025 Annual Scientific Meeting. The College wants to be a model for other colleges seeking to move beyond age-friendly commitments and embed these principles to create institutional change.
Questions:
- Is your institution's age-friendly commitment reflected in the everyday work of your faculty and staff?
- How could reframing aging equip your team with the tools and language to move from age-friendly commitments to action?
- How can you partner with the National Center to Reframe Aging to build a culture of age inclusivity within your institution?