The Department of Applied Gerontology at the University of North Texas is a truly remarkable place to prepare for a career in the field of aging.

Founded as the Center for Studies in Aging in 1968, the new unit quickly established its own faculty, students, and budget, making it one of the first academic departments of gerontology in the country. The creation of the Center represented a collaboration between three key groups:

	This collaborative model, which produced one of the country's premier professional training programs in the field of aging, was largely the vision of three individuals: Drs. Hiram Friedsam (then head of sociology at UNT), Herbert Shore (an innovative nursing facility administrator), and Cora Martin (a nurse-gerontologist). They realized that the advent of Medicare, Medicaid, and the Older Americans Act in the mid-1960s would dramatically expand and transform health and social services for older persons. They knew that the quality of these services would depend on the availability of professionally trained administrators and other practitioners with knowledge, skills and perspectives grounded in the growing body of gerontologic knowledge.

Despite many changes in personnel, programming, and funding over the past three decades, the department retains this fundamental commitment to "Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice." Today, five full-time faculty, affiliated faculty in other UNT departments, four adjunct faculty, and a variety of volunteer faculty from the practice community deliver four nationally recognized degrees and a graduate certificate to approximately 60 masters students and 30 bachelors students each year:

	Masters Degree in the Administration of Long-term Care and Retirement Facilities
	Masters Degree in the Administration of Aging Organizations
	Masters Degree in Studies in Aging
	Graduate Specialist Certificate in Aging
	Bachelors in Applied Gerontology

These programs feature core training in gerontology (including social gerontology, health and aging, and programs for the aged), additional training by practicing administrators in the field of aging, a capstone course on "applications in practice," and an intensive internship in a facility or agency serving the aged. Students in the Long-term Care program minor in business administration and are eligible to sit for the licensure examination for nursing facility administrators in Texas and many other states.

	The research activities of Applied Gerontology faculty also reflect the department's practice orientation. Recent studies and projects include innovative work in: intergenerational programming for the elderly, self-managed work teams and mediation techniques in long-term care, community-based needs assessment for aging populations, and intervention techniques with older women. Service activities in the department are heavily directed to facilities, agencies, and programs serving the aged, and to their professional associations. Faculty serve as members of their community boards, provide them with technical assistance, and participate in their educational programs on a regular basis.

Continuing growth of non-profit services for the aged, the advent of for-profit services directed to the "mature market," and the aging of the baby-boom generation will fuel a demand for more and better trained aging specialists in the coming years. Our department is committed to meeting this need by making its programs more widely available in Texas and across the country through increased scholarship support for full-time students and distant learning programs students who cannot come to North Texas. A proposed doctoral training program will prepare individuals to plan and evaluate aging services in the comprehensive service systems that are developing under managed care.