The original goal of the endowed Minnesota Long-Term Care Chair in Aging, now called the Robert L. Kane Endowed Chair in Long-Term Care & Aging (hereafter referred to as Chair or LTC Chair for brevity), was to establish long-term care as an academic discipline. The Chair was to “attract other outstanding faculty colleagues, bright graduate and undergraduate students, and federal and private research dollars” (Hicks, 1987; personal communication). Dr. Robert L. Kane (the original holder of the Chair from 1990-2017) was internationally recognized as a scientist, geriatrician, and educator of long-term care. As Gayle Kvenold, the former CEO of LeadingAge Minnesota, noted in her obituary for Dr. Kane: “It is impossible to capture in just a few sentences Dr. Kane’s inestimable impact on long-term care policy and practice in the United States, and abroad and right here in our own backyard” (Gvenvold, 2017).
The mission of the current Chair (Joseph E. Gaugler, PhD) is to advance scientific excellence in long-term care and aging that shapes the practice, policy, and pedagogy of these critical areas of focus. The core objective of the LTC Chair is to serve as a catalyst to build aging-specific initiatives across and beyond the University.
Robert L. Kane, MD (1940-2017)
The LTC Chair is currently sponsoring the following initiatives:
- Two-year post-doctoral fellowships in aging, dementia, and long-term care (The Robert L. Kane Postdoctoral Fellowship);
- An annual lecture featuring distinguished scholars in long-term care and aging science (The Robert L. Kane Memorial Lecture);
- An annual community education conference that provides information, support, and education for adult children, spouses, parents, health and community care providers, and others concerned with caring for persons with memory loss (The Caring for People with Memory Loss Conference); and
- An annual scholarship that pairs University of Minnesota graduate students with interested community agencies to work on important aging service projects (The Robert L. Kane Chair in Long-Term Care & Aging Internship)
LTC Chair Supported Initiatives
- Center for Healthy Aging and Innovation
- The BOLD (Building our Largest Dementia infrastructure) Public Health Center of Excellence on Dementia Caregiving
- University of Minnesota Consortium on Aging
- N. Bud Grossman Center for Memory Research and Care
- Geriatric Research, Education & Clinical Center, Minneapolis VA Health Care System
- Minnesota Leadership Council on Aging
- Minnesota Northstar Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program
- The Center for Community Engaged Rural Dementia and Alzheimer’s Research
