Victoria Rizzo Named Director of UAlbany’s Center for Healthy Aging

Four people stand together outdoors. The woman in the center, wearing a purple and white patterned jacket and glasses, smiles at three female students facing her. A tree and red brick building are in the background.

Rizzo speaks with students outside the School of Social Welfare on UAlbany's Downtown campus. (Photo by Patrick Dodson)

ALBANY, N.Y. (Oct. 31, 2024)—University at Albany’s Victoria Rizzo, senior vice dean of the College of Integrated Health Sciences and director of the School of Social Welfare, will lead UAlbany’s new Center for Healthy Aging as its inaugural director.

The Center for Healthy Aging is a university-wide initiative focused on promoting healthy aging, addressing ageism and conducting interdisciplinary research and education on aging-related topics. Housed within the Institute for Social and Health Equity, the Center will leverage the University’s longstanding strengths in biology, public health, social welfare, and public administration and policy in order to address and improve all aspects of aging.

“Dr. Rizzo brings the expertise and vision needed to lead the Center for Healthy Aging, uniting UAlbany’s diverse faculty and researchers across different disciplines to address the urgent and evolving challenges of aging,” said Vice President for Research and Economic Development Thenkurussi (Kesh) Kesavadas.

“The center will pursue holistic, innovative and equitable solutions to promote healthy longevity. These efforts are especially urgent amid global crises — such as climate change, health disparities, and economic instability — that intensify aging challenges. UAlbany’s strength in interdisciplinary research and community partnerships will be crucial in driving impactful change in this domain. We are excited to have Dr. Rizzo spearheading this important initiative, and I have no doubt the center will make a significant impact under her guidance,” he said.

By bringing together researchers and community partners, the center will serve as a hub to advance knowledge about aging, and translate that knowledge into practice, education and workforce development. UAlbany’s existing partnerships with state and local governments, nonprofit organizations and hospitals, and its 40-year relationship with the New York State Department of Health, will bolster and enrich these efforts.

Meet Victoria Rizzo

With over 35 years’ experience in clinical, research, academic and leadership roles, Rizzo has a strong background in gerontology and a longstanding commitment to working with and advocating for older adults.

Rizzo began her career as a social worker at Sunnyview Hospital in Schenectady, where most of her clients were over the age of 55. There, she worked with people living with cardiovascular disease, COPD, rheumatoid arthritis, ALS, spinal cord injury and neurological conditions such as those experienced after a stroke.

Rizzo is a two-time UAlbany alum, holding a PhD in Social Welfare and a Master of Social Work, both from the School of Social Welfare. While pursuing her PhD, Rizzo used medical records from Sunnyview Hospital to better understand the influence of social support services on the physical rehabilitation outcomes of stroke. This work included data on things like efficient use of rehabilitation services and total hospital charges.

The study revealed that higher levels of informational support — providing people with information about illness or available services — was associated with lower total hospital charges. This led Rizzo to undertake a systematic review of interventions at the intersection of social work and aging commissioned by the New York Academy of Medicine. This publication has been widely cited and helped establish her national reputation in the field of gerontology. She and her co-author published an updated version in 2016.

Rizzo’s career has focused on research that examines the impact of interventions delivered to older adults by care teams consisting of people from multiple different professions, including social workers. These interventions address health, health care utilization, quality of life and behavioral health outcomes for older adults coping with chronic illnesses, elder abuse and caregiving-related challenges (such as relying on relatives for care in the absence of professional services). She also studies what these findings mean for health care policy, and financing health and human services for older adults and their caregivers.

Rizzo has received funding from the John A. Hartford Foundation as a Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholar and as the principal investigator of Columbia University’s Geriatric Social Work Internship Program.

Asked what drives her in this work, Rizzo said, “My answer is going to be one that a lot of gerontologists will give, and that is that I love older people. I had an extraordinarily close relationship with my maternal grandmother, and she was a really significant part of my life. She was like a second mother.

“I’m from this area originally, and part of the reason why I returned is because my mother had had a stroke, and my grandmother had dementia and needed to be placed in a nursing home. I visited her often, until she passed away at the age of 99, just before the pandemic. It was this relationship that helped me see the value, the wisdom and all of the resources that older adults bring to the world, to society, in very positive ways.”

Aging is a good thing

A key thrust of the center, Rizzo explained, is reframing the conversation around aging to focus on the positives.

“Our society tends to be very ageist. But aging is not all about pathology. There are many people who, into their 90s, are extremely productive,” Rizzo said. “They volunteer, they take care of their grandchildren, they have hobbies, they have second careers. As a Center for Healthy Aging, we must strive to enhance the positive aspects of aging and provide opportunities and interventions to help people live rich, fulfilling lives as they grow older.

“Projects, such as designing education and intervention programs aimed at older adults, conducting studies to understand the basic science of aging such as senescence and oral health, and creating adaptive equipment, are some of the projects we are hoping to implement at UAlbany through the Center for Healthy Aging.”

Workforce training to meet new needs

From the cellular level, up to population scale interventions, advancing healthy aging requires a multidisciplinary approach. Through research and academic programs, the center will engage students and researchers across campus, blending expertise in social work, psychology, nursing, public health and social sciences, with signature fields such as cybersecurity, emergency preparedness, climate science and RNA research.

“The population of New York State is the fourth oldest in the country, and this trend is set to continue. It is therefore critical that we build a workforce equipped to address the changing needs of New Yorkers,” Rizzo said. “This requires training students across varied fields in skills that support these needs.

“By situating the center within the Institute for Social and Health Equity, which spans all schools and colleges, we hope to bring greater visibility to the programs and research opportunities that address all aspects of aging — from designing cutting-edge technologies to advance pharmacological, nutritional and social interventions, to developing strategies to improve caregiving and mental health counseling, and facilitate social and intellectual engagement, among older adults.”

A campus-community effort

The Center for Healthy Aging has come to fruition thanks to the vision and dedication of many faculty and administrative partners across campus and in the community. This includes the core steering committee: Victoria Rizzo, Andres Melendez, Elizabeth Vásquez and Paul Morgan; sponsors Carol Kim and Kesh Kesavadas; coordinators Theresa Pardo and Tianning Huang; and members of the Community Advisory Committee.