מנהלת המרכז

 

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 פרופ' אנה זיסברג

Professor Anna Zisberg, PhD, MA, RN, FAAN

Professor Anna Zisberg is Chair of the PhD Program at Cheryl Spencer Department of Nursing and Director of the Center of Research & Study of Aging at UoH. She completed her PhD in Nursing at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA. Her research contributes to maintaining function and quality of life of frail older adults. Professor Zisberg has published more than 60 articles in international geriatric and nursing journals and presented her work at over 70 national and international conferences.

 

Research Interests:

  • Understanding mechanisms that account for changes in functional and cognitive status in older adults during times of health challenges, such as hospitalization
  • Exploring the effects of organizational structure and quality of care on hospitalization outcomes 
  • Developing and validating instruments and assessment tools to evaluate responses of older adults, their family, and health care staff
  • Working towards an age friendly health care system and society

Keywords:

Acute care; LTC; Function; Hospitalization; Instrument development and testing; Mobility; Older adults; Personal routine; Quality of care; Palliative care; Age friendly

SDG Keywords:

Vulnerable; Disability; Mental health; Access to education; Global education; Vocational training; Ageism; Disabilities; Ethnicity

Recent Publications

 

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חברי המרכז

 

פרופסור (אמריטוס) אריאלה לבנשטיין

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Professor Ariela Lowenstein, PhD

 

Professor Ariela Lowenstein, Professor Emerita of Gerontology, was recipient of the 2021 Israel Prize in Sociology and Criminology. She is currently a member of the Center for Research & Study of Aging (which she established 20 years ago) at the Faculty of Welfare and Health Sciences, UoH. She has wide research collaborations in Israel and globally with scholars from the US, Canada, Europe, Japan, and Latin America. She received an MA in Public Administration from NYU and a PhD in Sociology and Criminology from Hebrew University, Jerusalem. Professor Lowenstein has published extensively, with close to 200 publications, including books. She is the recipient of numerous competitive research grants, scholarships, and awards, past Chair of the Social Science Section of IAGG–EU & Israeli Gerontological Society, an Honorary Fellow of GSA, and a member of the Advisory Board of the World Demographic Forum, IFA and INPEA (International Network for fighting elder abuse). She has been chair of a national advisory committee to the Ministry of Senior Citizens. For many years Professor Lowenstein headed an advisory committee for the Foundation assisting Holocaust Survivors in Israel and was recently asked to head a forum to advise Israel's Welfare Minister on issues related to elders.

Research Interests:

  • Elders, their functioning and needs
  • Family intergenerational relations
  • Elder abuse and neglect
  • Elders in old age homes

Keywords:

Elders’ quality of life; Family intergenerational relationships; Elder abuse and neglect

SDG Keywords: Ageism; Physical abuse

Recent Publications

 

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פרופסור טובה בנד-וינטרשטיין
 
 
 
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Professor Tova Band Winterstein, PhD

Dr. Tova Band Winterstein is a Professor at the Department of Gerontology, Faculty of Social Welfare & Health Sciences, University of Haifa, Israel. She is Chair of the Minerva Center on Intersectionality in Aging (MCIA) and the head of the PhD Committee at the Department of Gerontology. Her work combines knowledge generated from practice and theories aimed towards development of theory in gerontology, elder abuse, and intimate partner violence. She is an experienced qualitative researcher and addresses issues of health, family, and needs of older adults from a life course perspective. She has recently been doing qualitative research on marginalized older adults (e.g., families aging with disabilities, older person suicidality, older prisoners, and sexual assault in late life).

Research Interests:

Elder abuse and neglect, including self-neglect and intimate partner violence along the life course

Family members’ perspectives on intimate violence over the life course

  • The experience of older abused women in the therapeutic encounter; sexual assault in late life
  • Older parents’ experiences of their relationships with adult mentally ill abusive offspring
  • Intersectionality in old age
  • Cross-generational perspectives

Keywords:

Qualitative research; Elder abuse and neglect; Self-neglect; Intersectionality

SDG Keywords: Vulnerable; Marginalized; Gender equality; Sexual violence; Self-neglect; Intersectionality

Resent Publications 

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פרופסור גיל עצמון
 
 
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Professor Gil Atzmon, PhD

Professor Gil Atzmon is currently a faculty member in Epigenetics and Genomics at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, UoH, Israel. A graduate in Population Genetics from Hebrew University, he completed a fellowship in Human Genetics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine where he then joined as a faculty member and rose to the rank of Associate Professor. The foremost focus of Professor Atzmon's research career has been the understanding of the association of the whole genome to disease, performance, health, and longevity. He has had international collaborations with scientists and researchers across the world and has had more than 160 scientific publications in leading scientific journals. He has been invited to present his work at numerous international scientific conferences and meetings. He has been an expert reviewer for many leading scientific journals on genetics and genomics and serves on the editorial board of several journals.

Research Interests:

  • The role of epigenetics in diseases
  • Aging and longevity
  • Healthy longevity

Keywords:

Epigenetics; Genetic; Aging and longevity; Centenarian

SDG Keywords: Disability

Recent Publications

 

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פרופסור יובל פלגי
 
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Professor Yuval Palgi, PhD

 

Professor Palgi is a clinical psychologist, and professor at Department of Gerontology at the University of Haifa. He is the co-founder and co-director of the School for Psychotherapy with Older Adults and past chair of the Center for Research and Study of Aging and Department of Gerontology. His research focuses on the tension created by past adversities alongside physical and mental deterioration in old age, and on how subjective views of aging may enhance positive aspects of well-being. His studies include large-scale longitudinal data sets, diary studies, and trials of clinical interventions. He is the developer of two new theoretical concepts, life crossroads and positive solitude, and two measurement tools (Subjective Traumatic Outlook and Positive Solitude). His research has been funded by the Israel Science Foundation, the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Social Security Institute. He serves on several editorial boards and is a fellow in national committees.

 

Research Interests:

  • Post-traumatic stress disorder
  • Psychotherapeutic interventions
  • Subjective views of aging and wellbeing

Keywords:

Geriatrics; Gerontology; Subjective views of aging; Subjective distance to death; Holocaust; Psychiatry; Psychology; PTSD; Subjective well-being.

SDG Keywords: Agism, Vulnerable; Disability; Mental health.

Recent Publications

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פרופסור ישראל (איסי) דורון
 
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Professor Israel (Issi) Doron, LL, PhD

 

Professor Doron completed his Bachelor of Laws at Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Master of Laws  at Washington College of Law, Washington DC and PhD at Osgoode Hall Law School, Toronto, ON., Canada.  Dean of the Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa, Professor Doron is the former Head of the Center of Research and Study of Aging at UoH, Past President of the Israeli Gerontological Society, and Past Head of the Department of Gerontology. He has written extensively on such topics as socio-legal construction of old age and human rights of older persons and is the editor/co-editor of key books in the field.  Professor Doron is also the founder of an Israeli NGO, "The Law in the Service of the Elderly", which has been involved in key strategic-litigation regarding rights of older persons in Israel and in the international movement to promote a new International Convention for the Rights of Older Persons.

 

Research Interests:

  • Law and ageing
  • Social policy
  • Human rights of older persons
  • Ageism and medical care
  • International law and aging

Keywords:

Law; Elder policy; Elder law; International law; Law and aging; Ageism

SDG Keywords:

Ageism; Social Justice; Disadvantaged; Vulnerable; Human rights; Justice; Rule of law

Recent Publications

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פרופסור יצחק בריק
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Professor Yitzhak Brick, PhD

Professor Brick is a member of the Department of Gerontology at the University of Haifa where he lectures on Policy in the Field of Aging and is the director of the practicum program. He has lectured on Social Service Management at Bar Ilan and Hebrew Universities. He studied Sociology, Education, and Criminology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and has a PhD in Social Policy, Planning, and Administration from Brandeis University. Professor Brick held top positions in the Ministry of Welfare for 25 years, including Deputy Director-General of Israel’s Ministry of Labor & Social Affairs, and then served as a Director of JDC-ESHEL, the Association for the Planning and Development of Services for the Aged in Israel for 24 years. Professor Brick serves on many national and international boards and committees concerned with social planning and care of the aged (including the board of the Center of Study and Research on Aging). Professor Brick has been the Chairman of the Israel Gerontological Society since 2013. He is the chair of the advisory council to the Ministry of Equal Rights and Pensionaries and a board member of the Advisory Council to the National Insurance Institute. Professor Brick has edited numerous books, published many articles, and regularly gives lectures at national and international conferences.

 

Research Interests:

  • Social policy for the aged
  • Ageing in place
  • Quality of life of the elderly 

Keywords:

Social exclusion; Geriatrics; Gerontology; Quality of life; Judaism; Poverty

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עמיתי מחקר

 מרכזת המרכז - דוקטור סיגל נעים (PhD)

 

 

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Dr. Sigal Naim is a lecturer at the Department of Human Services at Yezreel Academic College and the Department of Health Systems Management at Academic Center for Law and Science, Israel. She is also the coordinator of the Center for Research and Study of Aging at the University of Haifa. She finished her doctoral studies at the Department of Communication Studies, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel, under the supervision of Professor Galit Nimrod and her post-doctoral studies at the Department of Communication, Ariel University, Israel, under the supervision of Professor Azi Lev-On. Her PhD thesis topic was elders on SNSs (mainly Facebook) – motivations, patterns of use, benefits and risks, and her post-doctoral work dealt with digital literacy in old age.

Research Interests:

  • New-media and SNS in old age
  • Digital literacy in old age
  • Elders’ inequality, social exclusion/inclusion in old age
  • Elder abuse and neglect, including self-neglect
  • Aging policy

Keywords: Technological capabilities

Qualitative research; Technology; Policy; Elder abuse; Quality of life

SDG Keywords: 

Recent Publications

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דוקטור שושי קיסרי (PhD)

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Dr. Shoshi Keisari is a lecturer at the School of Creative Arts Therapies, University of Haifa, Israel. She is a member of the Center for Research and Study of Aging at the Emilie Sagol Creative Arts Therapies Research Center, University of Haifa, Israel. She earned her PhD on ‘Integrating Life-Review and Playback Theater for Community-Dwelling Older Adults: An Applied Theoretical Model’ from the Department of Gerontology, University of Haifa, Israel, under the supervision of Professor Yuval Plagi, Professor Anat Gesser-Edlsburg, and Dr. Dani Yaniv. She completed her post-doctoral work at the Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Pedagogy, and Applied Psychology (FISPPA), University of Padua, Italy, under the supervision of Professor Ines Testoni.

Research Interests:

  • Creative arts therapies for the older population
  • Psychotherapy and tele-psychotherapy for the older population
  • Arts and creativity in older age
  • Narrative gerontology
  • Social connectedness in the older population


Keywords:

Creative arts therapies; Drama therapy; Tele-health; Psychotherapy; Narrative gerontology; Social connectedness.

SDG Keywords: Marginalised; Mental health; Vulnerable; Emprowering women; Culture

Recent Publications

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 דוקטור שרון אוסט מור (PhD)

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Dr. Sharon Ost Mor is a research fellow at the Department of Gerontology, University of Haifa. She is also an active member of the Committee of Gerontology Promotion in Israel. She finished her doctoral studies at the Department of Gerontology, University of Haifa, supervised by Professor Yuval Palgi and Dr. Dikla Segel-Karpas. While in the process of her PhD studies, she coined a new concept: positive solitude ( סולנותin Hebrew). She studies the experience of positive solitude among older adults and other populations, as well as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the experience. Dr. Mor also has an MHA degree with honors from the Health and Welfare Faculty, University of Haifa. She is a gerontological occupational therapist.

 

Research Interests:

  • Positive solitude meaning
  • Leisure time and activities
  • Model of human occupation
  • Palliative care

 

Keywords:

Qualitative research; Older adults; Positive Psychology; Quality of life

 

SDG Keywords: Learning opportunities; Lifelong learning; Marginalised; Social inclusion; Workplace equality; Job creation; Productive employment; Ageism; Prison

 

Recent publications

 

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 דוקטור אורית הירש מצ'יאולס (PhD)

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Dr. Orit Hirsch-Matsioulas is an anthropologist specializing in human-animal relations and modern Greece. She is a lecturer at the Multidisciplinary Department at UoH and a research associate at the Tech4Animals Lab, Department of Information Systems at UoH. She is also a co-founder and a steering committee member of the Israeli Human-Animal Studies Academic Community and the human-animal relations research group at Tel Aviv University. She completed her doctoral studies at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ben-Gurion University, Beer Sheva, Israel, under the supervision of Professor Nir Avieli, Professor Nitza Berkovitch, and Professor Haim Hazan (Tel Aviv University). Her PhD topic was human-canine relations and politics of belonging in a Greek island during the economic crisis. Her post-doctoral study at the Buchmann Faculty of Law, Israel, under the supervision of Professor Daphna Hacker, focused on the sense of loneliness, welfare, and rights of elders and their companion animals in senior citizen housing.

 

Research Interests:

  • Human-animal studies (HAS)
  • Animal-computer interaction (ACI)
  • Multispecies ethnography
  • Politics of belonging and ‘otherness’
  • Sense of loneliness, welfare and rights of elders and companion animals
  • Anthropology of modern Greece

 

Keywords:

Human-animal relations; Multispecies ethnography; More-then-human animals; Animal-computer interaction; Old age; Belonging; Otherness; Modern Greece.

 

SDG Keywords:  Justice, Ageism and Speciesism; Marginalised; Knowledge sharing; Reducing mortality; Disability; Vulnerable; Social protection

Recent Publications

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דוקטור אודליה סעד (PhD)

 

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Dr. Saad is a lecturer and head of Community Nursing Division at the Nursing Department, Lev Academic Center, Jerusalem, Israel. She is also an active member of the Seniors Association of Binyamin and Bet-El. She finished her doctoral studies at the Department of Nursing, University of Haifa, Israel, under the supervision of Professor Anna Zisberg and Professor Leehu Zysberg on the topic: ‘Development of and Examination of a Multi-dimensional Model of Quality of Life in Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment: The Impact of Emotional Intelligence’.

 

 Research Interests:

  • Community dwelling older people
  • Ageing in place
  • Well-being of older people
  • Successful ageing

 

Keywords:

Older adults; Well-being; Ageing in place; Dementia; Positive psychology; MCI; Theory development and testing.

 

SDG Keywords: Vulnerable; Disadvantaged; Disability; Mental health; Disabilities.

 

Recent publications

 

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    ד"ר קסניה שולייב (PhD)

 

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Dr. Ksenya Shulyaev is a social psychologist and researcher at The Cheryl Spencer Institute of Nursing Research, Minerva Center on Intersectionality in Aging, Center of Research & Study of Aging, University of Haifa, and lecturer at Gordon College of Education, Haifa. She completed her doctoral research on intergenerational family relationships in modern Russia at Moscow State University, Russia, and her post-doctoral research at the Department of Nursing, Faculty of Welfare and Health, University of Haifa, Israel, under the supervision of Professor Anna Zisberg. Dr. Shulyaev combines qualitative and quantitative skills of data collection and analysis. During her post-doctoral fellowship, she was responsible for data management and analysis of a Big Data set coming from numerous sources and participants focusing on psychological and cultural aspects of patients and their family caregivers affecting clinical outcomes.

Research Interests:

  • Depression in later life
  • Personal relationships and attachment in old age
  • Family caregiving
  • Social gerontology
  • Cultural differences
  • Intersectionality in aging


Keywords:

Depression; Attachment; Caregiving; Culture; Minority

SDG Keywords: Vulnerable; Disadvantaged; Disability; Mental health; Disabilities; Ethnicity; Global education; Vocational training.

Recent Publications

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דוקטור טל קוחלי חיילבסקי (PhD)

 

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 Dr. Kochli Hailovski is a social worker and Lecturer at the Department of Nursing, Yezreel Valley Academic College. She is also an independent researcher. She has a BA in social work and an MA and a PhD in gerontology from the University of Haifa. Her PhD thesis “Grandparents’ Regular Grandchild Care: A Mixed-Method Study Examining the Stress Process and Its Implications on Grandparents’ Well-Being and Physical Health” was under the supervision of Professor Miri Cohen.

Research Interests:

  • Stress in old age
  • Quality of life in old age
  • Ageism
  • Life transitions
  • Family relations and social network in old age
  • Formal and informal care


Keywords:

Stress outcomes; Heart rate variability (HRV); Family relations; Community support; Family caregivers

SDG Keywords: Mental health; Access to education; Disability; Ethnicity

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גברת ויקטוריה מינקוביץ מועלם

 

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Viktoria is a doctoral student in the Philosophy Department, the University of Haifa, under the supervision of Professor Iddo Landau. Viktoria completed an MA in Biological Studies from the Open University, with a thesis on zoos ethics, and an MA in Philosophy from UoH, with a thesis on subjective therapeutic approach to treating schizophrenia patients. She is currently leading the Friends at the Time of Old Age project of Matav NGO, with the cooperation of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry for Social Equality. In addition, she managed the Afula and Valleys branch of Matav NGO and was involved in ensuring the rights of the elderly in nursing care. 

Research Interests:

  • Meaning of life
  • Human-animal relationships
  • Well-being
  • Animal welfare
  • Ecology
  • Older adults

 

Keywords:

Meaning of life; Quality of life; Human-animal relations; Animal welfare; Ecology

 

SDG Keywords: Mental health; Ageism; Disability

 

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נציג רשות המחקר

מר תמיר פרנק

רשות המחקר, אוניברסיטת חיפה

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נציג מנהל

גב' רחלי בליפנטה-אפוטה
מנהלת הפקולטה למדעי הרווחה והבריאות, אוניברסיטת חיפה

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מרכזת המרכז

ד"ר סיגל נעים

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