ASA - American Society on Aging

1997 Awards Programs
Recognizing Excellence in the Field of Aging

Award Winners

1997 MEDIA AWARDS

NATIONAL LEVEL -- LONG-TERM ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Judy Foreman

Boston, MA
The Boston Globe

Judy Foreman has been one of a handful of journalists on the national scene who has overed the age beat with consistently illuminating, sensitive and factual reporting on issues of concern to an aging America. She has won ASA's National Media and Aging Award two times since its inception. This past year alone her body of work included stories on caregiving, "Love in the Twilight," loneliness, foot problems, thyroid problems, and firearm use. In recognition of Judy Foreman's consistently high-quality coverage of aging concerns that has expanded public awareness and understanding, ASA presents her with its first Long-Term Achievement Award in Media and Aging.

Judy Foreman, a staff writer at The Boston Globe since 1978 and a medical and science writer since 1985, graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Wellesley College in 1966. After three years in the Peace Corps in Brazil, she earned a master's in education from Harvard University Graduate School of Education. After getting her master's, Ms. Foreman taught junior high school for several years, began a doctoral program in psychology, then took a job as a reporter for the Lowell Sun in Lowell, Mass.

After moving to the Globe , she wrote for the Living section, then enjoyed a stint as a guest reporter at The Times of London for six months in 1982. After becoming a science and medical writer, she won a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1989-1990.

She now writes two columns for the Globe's "Health & Science" section, one called "Aging" and the other, "Health Sense," which offer reader-friendly, practical medical advice for consumers.

She has won numerous national journalism awards, including the Clarion Award and honors from groups such as the American Society on Aging, the National Women's Political Caucus, the American Heart Association, the Arthritis Foundation, the Associated Press Sports Editors among others.

For pleasure, she sings alto in the Boston's Back Bay Chorale, bikes and travels extensively with her husband.

NATIONAL LEVEL

Trudy Lieberman

New York, NY
Consumer Reports

Ms. Lieberman is the recipient of this year's National Media Award for her three-part series, "When A Loved One Needs Care," that covered the totality of the nursing home experience and other aspects of long-term care. For her report, Ms. Lieberman visited 53 nursing homes and 27 assisted living facilities and put herself in the shoes of someone actually looking for care. Part 1 presented ranking of nursing home chains based upon inspection reports from the Health Care Financing Administration. Part 2 examined the funding system for long-term care. Part 3 provided an in-depth look at assisted living facilities. The report was widely used in the debate on Medicaid block grants and showed how regulations already poorly enforced were likely to disappear.

Trudy Lieberman is a senior investigative editor of Consumer Reports , specializing in economic and financial reports. Recently she has concentrated her reporting on insurance, healthcare financing, and health coverage for the elderly. Many of these reports have had wide national impact, attracting the attention of policymakers, academics and the media.

She has won two National Magazine Awards, the Oscars of magazine publishing, and several other national awards. In 1993, Ms. Lieberman received a Fulbright Senior Scholar Award to study healthcare in Japan and a John J. McCloy Fellowship to study healthcare in Germany.

She is the co-author of How to Plan for a Secure Retirement published in 1992, and the author of Family Finance Workbook (1989), and Life Insurance: How to Buy the Right Policy from the Right Company at the Right Time (1988). She is also a contributing editor for Columbia Journalism Review and an adjunct instructor in journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

She serves on the board of directors of the National Committee for Quality Assurance, an organization that accredits health maintenance organizations. She has served on the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' (NAIC) Advisory Committee on Long-Term Care, and has written NAIC's pamphlet "A Shopper's Guide to Long-Term Care Insurance." She is a member of the Advisory Council for Health Beat sponsored by the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation.

Trudy Lieberman holds a bachelor of science degree with distinction from the University of Nebraska and a certificate in economics and business journalism from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Honorable Mention

Wendy Schmelzer

Santa Monica, CA
National Public Radio

An Honorable Mention is awarded to Ms. Schmelzer for her coverage of aging issues for NPR's Science Unit. Among her stories this year, six are particularly highlighted. They are: Assisted Living (two parts), Volunteers, Medicare at Home, WWII Veterans, Sleep Changes with Age, and the Birthday Girls. The series gives voice to real concerns of the nation's elders. In addition, she explores issues of growing old with sensitivity and perspective. Her stories are accurate, balanced, thoughtful and thorough, including not only what experts have to say but also what is said by older adults. With a national audience, Ms. Schmelzer is expanding the awareness, sensitivity and knowledge of a nation of listeners to the concerns of an aging America.

LOCAL/REGIONAL LEVEL

Lucy Morgan

Tallahassee, FL
St. Petersburg Times

Lucy Morgan is this year's winner of the ASA Local/Regional Media Award. "What Price Dignity?" started as a first-person account of the struggles of Ms. Morgan to examine her own experience with her mother's end of life. Handling a first-person experience extraordinarily well, she presented the reader with a powerful, poignant story that captured the broader issues. She put a face on the problem, never slipping into ageist stereotypes. It grew into a series that examined the current state of living wills, advance directives and nursing home regulations, pointing out strengths and flaws. Generating a flood of responses and 300 participants at a follow-up free public forum on living wills, healthcare surrogates, and other end of life issues, the series also struck a responsive chord with U.S. Rep. Sam Gibbons, ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee who won approval of an amendment requiring Medicare trust-fund money be set aside for creating an inspector general's field office in every state to monitor expenditures and document abuse.

She has been a reporter with the Times since 1968. In 1973, she was sentenced to eight months in jail for refusing to reveal a source. In 1976, the Florida Supreme Court overturned the sentence and granted reporters a limited right to protect sources.

Her previous awards include the 1985 Pulitzer in Investigative Reporting and the 1982 runner-up for the Pulitzer in Local Reporting. She has been Capital Bureau Chief since 1986, Associate Editor since 1993 and a member of the Board of Directors of the Times Publishing Company since 1991. The board governs the operations of The Times, Congressional Quarterly, Florida Trend and Governing magazines.

Honorable Mention

Bernard Starr, PhD

New York, NY
WEVD-AM

An Honorable Mention is awarded to Bernard Starr for his coverage of a large range of aging issues for WEVD-AM serving metropolitan New York. Unique in commercial radio, his broadcasts are thought-provoking and encourage listeners to reflect on issues and ideas that they would not otherwise be exposed to. Called the "Longevity Report," the presentations cover a wide range of aging topics that call attention to the need for overall planning for an aging society and the longevity revolution and emphasize the need for initiatives in healthcare reform, long-term care policy, homecare, intergenerational issues, and quality of life. Forty-two reports were broadcast in fiscal year 1996.

Bernard Starr is a psychologist, college professor, talk radio host and writer who specializes in adult development and East-West psychology. He is founder and editor of a number of publications about adulthood: The Springer Publishing Co. Series on Adulthood and Aging, The Springer Series on Lifestyles and Issues in Aging , and The Annual Review of Gerontology and Geriatrics. Dr. Starr's other writing credits include a lifespan text (Human Development and Behavior: Psychology in Nursing), a popular book on sexuality in later life (The Starr-Weiner Report on Sex and Sexuality in the Mature Years --- hardcover by Stein and Day, paperback by McGraw Hill, and a book on infidelity in America, Stalemates: The Truth about Extra-Marital Affairs (New Horizon).

Dr. Starr has made many media appearances and has been featured on shows with Phil Donahue, Joan Lunden, Regis Philbin and others (complete list of media appearances available on request). Dr. Starr was professor of educational psychology at the City University of New York for 25 years, and currently teaches at Marymount Manhattan College where he directs the Gerontology Certificate Program, and teaches "The Spiritual Forum" in a program for people aged 50-plus (co-leader of the forum is Richard Schiffman, a journalist for National Public Radio). Dr. Starr is also producing and hosting a series of half-hour programs on the worldwide longevity revolution on Radio for Peace International, a United Nations-affiliated radio station broadcasting worldwide from Costa Rica. The first program in the series was aired in November 1996. Since April 1994, Dr. Starr has been the writer, producer and host of "The Longevity Report" on WEVD-AM Radio In New York City.