EmergingAging NYC Leadership
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ALLISON COOK, Chief Strategiest
​Allison was originally drawn to the field of aging due to her experience in helping care for her grandparents and her volunteer work in nursing homes. While in college, she worked as a home health aide, which has greatly informed her understanding of the field of aging. These experiences motivated her to graduate with her Master of Public Health, with a focus on aging and policy, from Brown University. She then worked as an Education Associate at the Medicare Rights Center, where she distilled complicated Medicare information in educational programming and materials. She currently works as a New York Policy Associate at PHI, where she works to improve long term care by focusing on direct care workers, such as home health aides. She has been involved with Emerging Aging since 2012.​​

JOELLE LICHTMAN, Communications Coordinator
Joelle is a design consultant who creates environments to enhance user comfort, health and safety for older adults.  She has extensive experience performing home safety consultations for older adults in New York City, and providing them with simple and affordable solutions to create safer home environments.  Joelle often speaks on the topic of maintaining a safe home environment, previously at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the New York Public Library.  Joelle holds a Master of Arts in Interior Design and a Gerontology Certificate from Cornell University.  She is a Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist, LEED Accredited Professional and is a member of the American Institute of Architects Design for Aging Committee.  ​

ILANA MITTLEMAN, Secretary
Ilana is pursuing her Master of Public Health degree in epidemiology with a certificate in health of an aging society at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health.  Ilana first became interested in working with older adults during high school while volunteering with her dog at a pet therapy program in a nursing home.  Since then, she’s had a variety of experiences ranging from research on intergenerational programs to coordinating a capella concerts at an assisted living residence. Prior to Columbia, Ilana worked at JASA, a nonprofit agency serving seniors in NYC. She was responsible for coordinating volunteers and assisting with JASA’s advocacy program for seniors, facilitating trainings and workshops on civic affairs and social action.

KRISTEN CRIBBS, External Relations Coordinator 
Kristen is a PhD in Public Health candidate at the CUNY School of Public Health, where she's focusing in Health Policy and Management. Her current research explores how hospital nursing culture impacts the
quality of care older adults receive. Previously, she served as deputy director of educational services at the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, a national nonprofit organization headquartered in NYC, where
she managed the Foundation’s professional training and education initiatives and was involved in capacity-building and outreach. She has also worked on a national Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
initiative to standardize palliative care practice across VA inpatient care settings and on the development and implementation of programs for the Age-friendly NYC Initiative, part of the World Health Organization’s Global Age-friendly Cities Project. She received her MPH, with a concentration in Aging and Health, from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and is deeply committed to improving the health and well-being of older adults.