Construction of DU’s Knoebel Institute for Healthy Aging, situated on the east side of Olin Hall off of Iliff Avenue is forecasting completion by early August 2016. This center will serve to resolve aging issues, through research, education and outreach of DU’s students. According to Lotta Granholm, executive director of the Knoebel Institute for Healthy Aging (KIHA), while faculty and staff will begin to move in early this summer, the DU community can expect an opening event in September that will feature the many different programs and projects in which this new institute is engaged.
“Named in recognition of a $10 million gift from Betty Knoebel, widow of Denver food services pioneer Ferdinand ‘Fritz’ Knoebel, the Institute will act as the overall umbrella for cooperation and partnerships between natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, the arts, lifelong learning and the university’s professional research and education programs in law, business, social work and psychology,” Granholm stated.
As executive director, Granholm is leading the development of this institute. She describes her responsibilities as including anything from designing furniture colors, hiring faculty, coordinators and writers, to conducting research and to being the founding vision of KIHA. The mission of this institute is expressed clearly as “Quality in Life, Wellness, and Community”—a description of the center’s main goal, which Granholm describes is fourfold.
According to Granholm, the institute aims to provide interdisciplinary research teams with inventions that can make a difference; secondly, to participate in policy making and attitude change around aging and ageism; thirdly, to enhance and expand entrepreneurialism related to aging; and fourthly, to enhance the knowledge and preparedness of future and current workforces serving older populations.
“[The Knoebel Institute] is an experiment that is especially suitable for students of today,” Granholm continued. She believes that by connecting the millennials with the aging and experienced baby-boom generation, countless successes will be underway. There will be many opportunities for student involvement at the Knoebel Center; in fact, they are already presenting themselves: the institute is hosting a student logo competition, seeking submissions through March 1 for the chance to win a “$500 prize and an opportunity for global industry recognition,” according to their Facebook page. Furthermore, Granholm said the DU community can expect KIHA to dispense projects like intergenerational music and arts programs, expanded interdisciplinary research projects and community immersion projects and internships.
Granholm further explained, “The laboratory hub of the Knoebel Center, scheduled to open in the summer of 2016, will occupy its own floor in the $60 million complex housing the Daniel Felix Ritchie School of Engineering and Computer Science.” The institute will address issues related to aging, including things like dementia, isolation, elder law and research with the potential to revolutionize the care of older adults. On Feb. 10, at DU’s Center for Professional Development’s monthly “Brain Rounds” lecture, Granholm discussed that very few other universities around the United States are equipped in the way that DU’s KIHA will soon be to approach these topics.
More information about the institute can be found on their Facebook page, “Knoebel Institute for Healthy Aging – University of Denver,” or Mary B. Cullen, the coordinator, and Granholm can be contacted directly.
