Dr. Gene Cohen

Creativity Discovery Corps

Gene D. Cohen, M.D., Ph.D. co-founded the Creativity Discovery Corps, the mission of which is to identify and preserve the creative accomplishments of under-recognized talented older adults. The first Director of the Center on Aging, Health & Humanities at George Washington University, Dr. Cohen is also Professor of Health Care Sciences and Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Some of Cohen’s previous appointments include: Founding Director of a think tank on aging – the Washington, DC Center On Aging; Past-President of the Gerontological Society of America; Acting Director of the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health; and Chief of the Center on Aging of the National Institute of Mental Health. He also coordinated the Department of Health and Human Services’ planning and programs on Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Cohen was the primary investigator of a 25-year longitudinal study of ill older adults with problems ranging from depression to dementia, who were living independently in the community. He also conducted extensive longitudinal research on both healthy older adults and those residing in nursing homes. He is presently conducting research on creativity and aging, retirement, and residential settings for older adults, as well as innovative intergenerational interventions for Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Cohen is a graduate of Harvard College (with Honors) and the Georgetown University School of Medicine and has a doctorate in gerontology from The Union Institute. The author of more than 150 publications in the field of aging, he recently released two major new books on creativity and aging for the general public: The Creative Age: Awakening Human Potential in the Second Half of Life was published by Harper Collins/Avon Books in 2000. The Mature Mind: The

Positive Power of the Aging Brain, was released by Basic Books in January 2006.

Born in 1907 and a graduate of New York City public schools, the Yale School of Architecture and the Beaux Arts Institute of Design, Mr. McLaughlin worked on designs for exhibits for the 1939 New York World’s Fair, suburban department stores and the interior design of Tiffany’s 57th Street store in Manhattan. A career highlight was when Mr. McLaughlin led the team that developed the design for the United Nations emblem in 1945.

McLaughlin had a long architectural career that focused primarily on creating exhibits for a broad spectrum of organizations, including for the federal Government (National Cancer Institute) and trade associations (the American Clockmaker’s Society). He also worked on the graphic design for the early Pepsi bottle, among other projects. In 2003, he entered the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition. Mr. McLaughlin’s World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition entry.

Dr. Rice is a retired professor of social work with a distinguished and varied career that included teaching, clinical practice with the mentally ill and their families, community organization, supervision of mental health practitioners, and program development. She holds graduate degrees from both Columbia University and Catholic University.

After the death of her husband, Dr. Rice began to use the arts to explore the changes in her life and to express her feelings about being an older adult. Dr. Rice had studied painting in her youth and was able, with the help of the Creativity Discovery Corps, to start a new career in the second half of her life. It was especially meaningful for Dr. Rice to use her paintings to explore the legacy of breast cancer in her family. In the spring of 2004, Dr. Rice’s collaboration with the Corps resulted in her work being part of the Arts in the Senate exhibit by older adults entitled Creative Aging: Beyond Words, an Exhibition of Artwork by Older Americans. The exhibition was co-sponsored by Senators Frist (R-TN) and Mikulski (D-MD), and Dr. Rice was a key speaker at the opening reception. She continues to exhibit and sell her work in the Washington, D.C. area.

For more information

The Creativity Discovery Corps

New Research on Aging by Dr. Gene Cohen and the Center on Aging, Health & Humanities at the George Washington University Medical Center

Books

The Creative Age: Awakening Human Potential in the Second Half of Life by Gene D. Cohen (ISBN: 0380800713)

The Mature Mind: The Positive Power of the Aging Brain by Gene D. Cohen (ISBN: 0465012035)