Research Group

Richard H. Fortinsky, PhD
Director of Research

Richard H. Fortinsky, PhD, is a Professor in the Center on Aging and Department of Medicine, University of Connecticut Health Center (UCHC); where he also holds the Physicians Health Services Endowed Chair in Geriatrics and Gerontology. Presently, his major areas of investigation are: physician and family care for persons with dementia living at home; health-related outcomes and resource use among older adults receiving home health care; evidence-based community interventions to help prevent falls in the older population; and health-related effects of transportation alternatives for older adults who have stopped or curtailed driving. His research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Administration on Aging, the Alzheimer's Association, and The Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Foundation. Recent publications have appeared in The Gerontologist, the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, and Medical Care. He is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, and serves as Co-Chair of the Task Force on Aging of the American Public Health Association. He received his doctoral degree in sociology in 1984 from Brown University.

Alan Fried, MS

Alan is the Chief Information Officer at ITNAmerica. He is the architect of the ITNRides enterprise software system used and developed at ITN. Alan has over ten years of experience in software development, database programming, research, and data analysis. Before joining ITN, he worked for a public health consulting company, where he did database modeling, data analysis and software application development.

In 2004, Alan was a presenter at the Transportation Research Board's annual meeting on The Role of Technology in Volunteer Management; he spoke on Transportation Options for Seniors at the Senior Mobility Forum in Orlando, FL in 2006; and in April, 2008 presented at the Microsoft Health & Life Sciences Developer’s Conference in Atlantic City, NJ with a talk titled Tales from the Frontier: Senior Transportation, Social Entrepreneurs, and Software plus Services. He holds a bachelor's degree from Princeton University and a Masters of Science in Natural Resources from the University of New Hampshire, with a specialty in Geographic Information Systems.

Richard Marottoli, MD, MPH

Richard Marottoli is Associate Director of Medicine at Yale University School of Medicine, Director of the Adler Geriatric Assessment Center at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and staff physician in the Geriatrics and Extended Care section at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System. He received his undergraduate, medical, and public health degrees from Yale University and completed an internal medicine residency at the University of Rochester's Strong Memorial Hospital and a fellowship in geriatrics at Yale. He is a current member and former chairperson of the Transportation Research Board's Committee on the Safe Mobility of Older Persons. His research interests include enhancing clinicians' ability to identify individuals at increased risk for driving difficulties, interventions to enhance these drivers' safety, and identifying ways to ease the transition to driving less or not at all when that is necessary.

Desmond O'Neill, MD

As a medical undergraduate of Trinity College Dublin, Professor O'Neill spent a year in Marseilles as a volunteer with an NGO working with older people. He subsequently trained as a geriatrician in Dublin and the University of Bristol, UK. Currently he is the senior academic in Medical Gerontology at the TCD campus at the Adelaide and Meath Hospital in Tallaght. His focus of research is rooted in gerontology and the neurosciences, with a strong emphasis on the humanities.

Desmond's major field of research is that of transportation, ageing and older drivers. Professor O'Neill is the TCD partner in the Healthy Ageing Research Project, Ireland's first iteration of a longitudinal study on ageing. He was a co-founder of the Irish Heart Foundation Council on Stroke in 1997 and remains its chairman. He has been the chair of both the Irish government working group on Elder Abuse and the subsequent National Implementation Group for Services for Elder Abuse. He is a founder board member and current secretary of the European Union Geriatric Medical Society.

His interest in the humanities and ageing is based in a strong belief in their key role in understanding ageing and in particular societal responses to ageing. Activities include a major symposium and symphonic concert in 2004 with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland on the theme of music and age-related neurological disease ("A Stroke of Genius"), as well as the production of a CD of music composed in later life.

Germaine L Odenheimer, MD

Germaine L Odenheimer, MD, is board certified in neurology and fellowship trained in geriatric medicine. She was a MacArthur Foundation Scholar with the Research Network on Successful Aging, a founding member of the National Transportation Research Board's Committee for Safe Mobility of Older Persons, and co-founder and past chair of the Geriatric Neurology Section in the American Academy of Neurology. She has served on medical advisory boards to driver licensing agencies in three states. Her academic interests relate to how aging and diseased brains impact our ability to function in our homes and communities. The primary area of her clinical research has been in the area of driving safety in the elderly and what roles the driver, family, doctor and state play in determining driving safety and privileges.

Nina M. Silverstein, PhD

Nina M. Silverstein, PhD, is a Professor of Gerontology at the University of Massachusetts Boston, College of Public and Community Service. She received her PhD in 1980 from Brandeis University. Since 1984, she has worked closely with the Alzheimer's Association on projects relating to the Association's Helpline, its Safe Return Program, respite care, support groups for family caregivers, home safety adaptations, and environmental and behavioral issues in special care units for people with dementia. She is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America. She has co-authored two books: "Dementia and Wandering Behavior: Concern for the Lost Elder" and "Improving Hospital Care for Persons with Dementia" (both with Springer Publishing: NY). Recent publications have appeared in The Gerontologist, Gerontology and Geriatrics Education, Geriatrics and Aging and the Journal of Women and Aging. Technical research reports on transportation available through the Gerontology Institute, University of Massachusetts Boston include: "Driving in Massachusetts: When to Stop" and Who Should Decide" and "Promoting Safe Mobility among Elders by Increasing Awareness of Vehicle Modifications." In 2005 she spent a sabbatical year in Washington, DC where she divided her time between the Department of Transportation and the Alzheimer's Association Public Policy Division.

Loren Staplin, PhD

Loren Staplin, PhD, is the founder and principal partner of the consulting firm TransAnalytics, LLC. He has successfully led over 20 research grants, contracts and subcontracts, with a recent focus on the relationship between driver functional abilities and traffic safety and its implications for transportation policy and practice. Significant products of Dr. Staplin's work in this area include the "Safe Mobility for Older People Notebook"; the Highway Design Handbook for Older Drivers and Pedestrians; the "Model Driver Screening and Evaluation Program: Guidelines for Motor Vehicle Administrators"; and two chapters in the 2004 Transportation Research Board publication Transportation in an Aging Society: A Decade of Experience.

Jackie Vine, MS
Evaluation & Research Manager

Jackie Vine, MS, is the Evaluation & Research Manager at ITNAmerica. Jackie is implementing a variety of research projects, each addressing a different topic related to older drivers and alternative transportation. Current research topics include: the impact of ITN on the quality of life of older adults, family members, and volunteer drivers; how the availability of ITN impacts the physician's willingness to address the driving issue with patients; mapping the older driver evaluation process; mobility patterns among older adults who stop or limit their driving; and an update of Daniel Foley's 2002 driving life expectancy study.

Jackie moved to Maine in 2006 from New York City where she gained valuable research experience conducting national public opinion studies with the Public Policy Team at Harris Interactive, well known for the Harris Poll, and Public Agenda, a non-profit organization. Jackie holds a Master of Science degree in Applied Social Research from Hunter College and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from Montclair State University.