Linda Barbarotta

As senior communications associate for Better Jobs Better Care (BJBC), a national $15.5 million Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Atlantic Philanthropies grant designed to reduce direct care worker turnover, Linda is responsible for developing, implementing and coordinating communication strategies and activities, which includes writing and editing articles, presentations, news releases, issue briefs and the BJBC newsletter Insights.

Prior to joining IFAS, Barbarotta was an independent consultant/writer focusing on health care and older adults and worked as a project manager at AARP on health education campaigns. She is the author of several training manuals, publications and articles for print and the Web on Medicare and long-term care.

Barbarotta has a bachelor of arts in sociology from the State University of New York at Cortland.

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Natasha Bryant, MA

Natasha Bryant is the Managing Director of Better Jobs Better Care (BJBC)and Senior Research Associate at the Institute for the Future of Aging Services (IFAS). At the Institute, she manages and conducts research projects on workforce and health-care issues and supportive services for older adults. She manages the day-to-day program operations of the Better Jobs Better Care program, an initiative to improve the recruitment and retention of direct care workers. Prior to joining the Institute, Bryant was the Project Director at Charleton Research Company where she designed research projects, analyzed data and provided recommendations to improve corporate images and address specific issues or crises facing organizations. Ms. Bryant received a Master of Arts in Experimental Psychology from DePaul University and a Bachelor of Science from Syracuse University.

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Sherry Giles

Sherry Giles is the IFAS program associate, responsible for promoting effective program management support, coordination and communication across the multitude of organizations and individuals associated with Better Jobs Better Care (BJBC) and IFAS. Prior to coming to IFAS, Giles worked at the Presbyterian Church (USA), Washington office as a senior administrative assistant for programs and projects/outreach, where she served as a key liaison between the Washington office and Presbyterian constituents. Giles has a bachelor of arts in English from Coppin State University in Baltimore, MD.

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Janice Heineman, PhD

Janice Heineman, PhD, is a senior research associate at IFAS, focusing on long-term care workforce development, cultural competency and diversity in the aging services field, emergency/disaster preparedness for long-term care organizations and chronic disease management in community-dwelling older adults. Prior to joining IFAS, Dr. Heineman worked as a postdoctoral fellow within the Institute for Healthcare Studies (IHS) at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. There, she conducted research on multiple chronic disease management in older adults and received training in public health and health industry management. Heineman has experience in teaching undergraduate gerontology courses, as well as health and aging course modules to medical students. She is knowledgeable in both quantitative and qualitative and mixed-methods research design and analysis. Heineman holds a doctorate in gerontology from the University of Kentucky.

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Felita Kamara

Felita Kamara, executive administrator, provides administrative and programmatic support to the IFAS director. Prior to joining IFAS, Kamara had dual roles as the executive assistant to the president and development associate for a small nonprofit organization. She brings to IFAS extensive work experiences in travel coordination, file maintenance, accounts payable, office management and working with top-level officials in the nonprofit environment. She is a graduate of the Yorktown Business Institute.

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Helaine Resnick, PhD, MPH

Helaine Resnick holds degrees in Health Policy and Epidemiology from Yale University and the University of Michigan and received support from the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health for both her pre-doctoral and post-doctoral training. Dr. Resnick is a clinical epidemiologist with expertise in the epidemiology of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Her specific interests focus on the impact of these chronic conditions in the elderly and in minority populations. She is the author of more than 80 scientific papers and book chapters, with her current work focusing on diabetes and obesity in long term care. Dr. Resnick is the recipient of funding from the American Association of Gerontology in Higher Education, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation, the National Institute on Aging, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Policy. She maintains active collaborations with diverse organizations and groups including numerous academic medical centers, rural Native Hawaiian communities and American Indian communities. Dr. Resnick reviews manuscripts for more than 20 scholarly journals, she is on the editorial board of Diabetes Care, and has sat on numerous NIH study sections. Dr. Resnick has mentored master's, PhD and post-doctoral students and maintains an active interest in the professional development of young investigators in aging research.

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Adrienne Powell Ruffin, MBA

As deputy director, Adrienne Powell Ruffin is responsible for the day-to-day operations and overall administration of IFAS. She has more than 20 years of experience in financial and grant management positions, with the last 10 years in the nonprofit sector.

Prior to joining IFAS, Powell was director of the $42 million Lilly Endowment Historically Black Colleges and Universities Grant Program at the United Negro College Fund (UNCF). Prior to that, she was director of the Fiscal and Strategic Technical Assistance Program, which provided management consulting services to UNCF member institutions.

She has a masters of business administration from Johns Hopkins University and a bachelor of science in economics from Virginia Commonwealth University.

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Alisha Sanders, MPAff

Alisha Sanders is a policy research associate focusing on IFAS' affordable housing and supportive services initiatives. Sanders also works with AAHSA's Affordable Housing Finance Cabinet, which is exploring new possibilities for preserving and producing affordable housing opportunities for low-income seniors. In addition, she manages the Joan Anne McHugh Academy for Long-Term Care Nursing, which supports the development of quality nurse managers and leaders across long-term care settings. Before coming to IFAS, Sanders was associate director of public policy for Aging Services of California (ASC), where she advocated for improved affordable housing opportunities for California's lower-income seniors and provided technical assistance to ASC housing members. In other positions, Sanders has worked on various issues related to affordable housing, including homelessness, inclusionary zoning and predatory lending. She holds a masters degree in public affairs from the LBJ School at the University of Texas.

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Robyn Stone, Dr. P.H.

Robyn Stone, Dr. P.H., IFAS executive director, is a noted researcher and leading international authority on aging and long-term care policy. She joined the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA) to establish and oversee IFAS.

Dr. Stone came to AAHSA from the International Longevity Center-USA in New York, NY, where she was executive director and chief operating officer. Previously, she served the White House as deputy assistant secretary for disability, aging and long-term care policy and as assistant secretary for aging in the Department of Health and Human Services under the Clinton Administration. Dr. Stone was a senior researcher at the National Center for Health Services (now known as the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) and at Project Hope's Center for Health Affairs. She was also the major long-term care staff person for the 1989 Bipartisan Commission on Comprehensive Health Care (the Pepper Commission) and the 1993 Clinton Administration Task Force on Health Care Reform.

Dr. Stone has published widely in peer review journals and the popular press on issues related to the financing and delivery of long-term care, family caregiving, long-term care workforce development, affordable senior housing, managed care for chronically ill elderly, nursing home quality improvement and consumer direction in home and community-based care. She has served on numerous editorial and nonprofit boards and has held leadership positions in both the Gerontological Society of America and the American Society on Aging. Stone is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and the National Academy of Social Insurance.

She holds a doctorate in public health from the University of California, Berkeley.

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