LEADERSHIP
Anabel Pelham, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Anabel Pelham, Ph.D. is past-president of the National Association of
Professional Gerontologists (NAPG) and
emeriti professor and founding director of the Gerontology Program at San
Francisco State University. She is also Founding Director of the Center for Age-Friendly Excellence (CAFE), a project of the Los Altos
Mountain View Community Foundation and a past member of the Foundation's
Board of Directors. CAFE provides technical assistance to cities and
communities to become AARP/World Health Organization (WHO) Age-Friendly.
Dr. Pelham is a member of the board of directors of the Oregon Gerontological
Association (OGA), the immediate past president of
OGA, and past president of the Board of Directors of
the Council on Aging, Central Oregon.
Dr. Pelham is past-president of the California Council on Gerontology and
Geriatrics (CCGG) and is an active member of GSA, CAG and IAGG. She is a
former Chair of the Senior Commission for the City of Los Altos/Los Altos Hills,
where she led the successful initiative to make Los Altos and Los Altos Hills the
first WHO certified Age-Friendly (City and Town) in California. She and CAFE
have worked with scores of cities since then; guiding them to become Age-Friendly certified.
Dr. Pelham has expertise in global issues in aging and gerontology, Age-Friendly
Cities and community development, community-based health and human
services, qualitative research methods, graduate gerontology curriculum
development, geriatric care management, life-long learning, and credentialing
and accreditation in the field of gerontology. She teaches and advises doctoral
students around the world.
Dr. Pelham's current interests are: creating Age-Friendly Cities and communities,
professionalizing the discipline of Gerontology and compassion as a core value
in aging. She recently contributed chapters: Creating Compassionate
Communities: The Intersection of Resilience, Democracy and Age-Friendliness,
in Sharing Compassion; and a chapter in Restorative Conscious Caring, Hunting
for Human Nature with Artemis, Rainsford Press, Dublin, Ireland, 2018 and 2023.
Dr. Pelham lives in Bend Oregon and joyfully applies Gerontology around the
world.
Roy Earnest, MSW
Associate Director
Roy Earnest has served as a gerontological social worker and program administrator since 1978 in a wide variety of community based non-profit senior services. This broad range of experience gives him an in-depth perspective on the continuum of senior services in the United States. In 2002, he was selected to serve as a program officer for the Northern California office of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), the federal agency that funds AmeriCorps, VISTA and Senior Corps volunteer programs. His work gave him valuable insights in the federal grant seeking process, the training needs of grantees and the important impact volunteers can have in addressing community needs. Since retiring from CNCS in 2018, he continues to give back to the community through volunteering as the Chair of Pacifica’s Age Friendly Community Task Force, as an advisory council member for UC Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare’s MSW-Aging Services concentration and other volunteer projects. In August 2019, he joined the staff of the Center for Age Friendly Excellence (CAFÉ).
A lifelong surfer, Roy teamed up with filmmaker David L. Brown to produce “Surfing for Life” (1999), a documentary that explores healthy aging through the unique perspective of 10 surfers ranging in age from 60 to 90 who continue to surf and remain vitally connected to their communities. The film won numerous awards at international film festivals and was broadcast on PBS throughout the country. www.surfingforlife.com.
Roy received his BA in Psychology with a minor in gerontology from Richard Stockton State University, Pomona, NJ in 1977 and then completed his Masters-of-Social-Welfare with a focus on aging services at UC Berkeley in 1982. He currently lives in Pacifica, CA.
Ann O’Brien Keighran, MSN
Strategic Alliance Lead
Ann O’Brien Keighran is a retired Councilwoman of the City of Burlingame and is a four- time Mayor. She has served the City of Burlingame from 2005-2022.
She was an acting City Liaison to the School District, Chamber of Commerce, Central County Fire Board and a member of the Community Center Master Plan Advisory Committee. She helped establish the Economic Subcommittee in 2007 and has been quite active. She was also invited on behalf of the Board of Supervisors Blue Ribbon Task Force on Adult Health Care Coverage Expansion. Which established recommendations to ensure health care access by many of its most needy community members.
Ann also served on the Planning Commission for almost eight years prior to the City Council.
Ann also was a legislative aide to San Mateo County Supervisor David J. Canepa and focused on older adult issues. She worked in collaboration with Supervisor Canepa in saving Seton Hospital in Daly City and served as a liaison to the Commission on Aging, Middle Income Seniors and CAFÉ. Ann has been an integral part of the CAFÉ core team in certifying cities in San Mateo County to become Age Friendly.
Ann has a Masters and Bachelors Degree in Nursing from the University of San Francisco.
Ann O'Brien Keighran
CAFE
650-522-0877
Cynthia Nakayama, CPG
Deputy Director
Cynthia is a Credentialed Professional Gerontologist. She began her gerontology
career with Stanford Geriatric Education Center where ethnogeriatrics was the focus. Education of healthcare professionals about cultural competency and promoting the well-being of diverse elders was priority. She later joined the Center for Age-Friendly Excellence and was instrumental in working with Santa Clara County to assist in guiding all 15 cities and the County to become age-friendly designated under the World Health Organization. CAFE currently has a partnership with the County of San Mateo and Cynthia has valued and been inspired by the passion and motivation of those she has worked with.
Prior to gerontology, her professional experience in the corporate sector was in
industries including finance, biometric security, technology and telecommunications requiring management of mission-critical, often confidential, international data center contracts at Google. With her experience in both corporate and nonprofit worlds, Cynthia’s work with CAFE has involved both community work and various business aspects. This has included work in guiding cities toward becoming age-friendly certified and currently assisting cities to create formal action plans toward implementing their age-friendly projects.
Responsibilities have also included grant management ensuring the organization’s completion of contract requirements and financial aspects including budgets, expenses, and cash flow. Cynthia is delighted and inspired by the growth of CAFE. This is allowing her to now focus her efforts towards CAFE’s work in helping communities to increasingly provide livable environments serving all ages, with a much needed emphasis on older adults.
She was honored to co-author a publication with Ph.D. Fellow Pauline Martinez for
the Journal of Gerontological Nursing: “Age-Friendly Communities in a Time of
COVID”.
Cynthia firmly supports the belief that we need to develop living environments that are enriching for older adults and support their continued ability to be vital and pursue their interests for as long as possible. This was reinforced during the time she oversaw her father’s aging transitions.