The Worldwide Face of Elder Abuse

Pamela B. Teaster, Ph.D. is a professor and the director of the Center for Gerontology at Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, VA, USA). She is the North American Representative of the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse, vice president of the Board of Trustees (Center for Guardianship Certification), and serves on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect and the Journal of Trauma, Violence, and Abuse Review. Dr. Teaster is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education and is a recipient of the Isabella Horton Grant Award for Guardianship (National College of Probate Judges), the Rosalie Wolf Award for Research on Elder Abuse (NAPSA), the Outstanding Affiliate Member Award (Kentucky Guardianship Association), and the Distinguished Educator Award (Kentucky Association for Gerontology).

Dr. Anetzberger has spent nearly fifty years addressing the problem of elder abuse, initially as an adult protective services worker and most recently as a researcher, administrator, and educator concerned with the dynamics and consequences of elder abuse situations.  She is the 2005 recipient of the Rosalie Wolf Memorial Elder Abuse Prevention Award—National Category.  In 2016 the USC Judith D. Tamkin Symposium on Elder Abuse named an award in her honor (The Georgia J. Anetzberger Award) to be given to persons chosen “based on their outstanding service to the field of elder abuse and their ability to exemplify the tenets of the award’s namesake”.   Dr. Anetzberger has participated in more than two dozen empirical studies, including pioneering inquiries into perpetrators and cultural variation. She has authored over one hundred publications on elder abuse or related interventions, including the books The Etiology of Elder Abuse by Adult Offspring and The Clinical Management of Elder Abuse as well as articles appearing in such journals as The Gerontologist, Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect, Violence Against Women, Generations, and Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology.  She was the Editor for the Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect 2006-2011 and has served on the Journal’s Editorial Board prior and subsequent to that period. 

Elizabeth Podneiks, Ed.D., has a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Toronto (Ontario, Canada), a Master of Environmental Science from York University, Toronto, and a Doctor of Education in Sociology from the University of Toronto. She is a professor at Ryerson University's School of Nursing in Toronto. She is the founder and chairperson of the World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, a leading member of the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse and the catalyst for both the Canadian and Ontario networks for the prevention of elder abuse. She is the author of numerous publications dealing with caregiver stress, abuse of older adults, and gerontological nursing.