Our Team

Clare Luz, PhD, Director

Clare Luz, PhD, is an Assistant Professor, MSU-College of Osteopathic Medicine, Department of Family and Community Medicine and founding director of AgeAlive and IMPART Alliance. She is a nationally recognized gerontologist with over 40 years of experience, starting out as a direct care worker followed by fifteen years as a clinical social worker, all with older adults in long-term care settings, then twenty plus years in academia, first as lead research director for the MSU College of Human Medicine then as a gerontologist conducting research, primarily on the direct care workforce and the intersection of the arts, humanities and health. She was the Research PI for the HRSA-funded Building Training…Building Quality ™ (BTBQ™) project, a comprehensive PCA training program. ​

Shannon Harkins-Padgitt, MLIR
Projects & Operations Coordinator

Shannon Harkins-Padgitt, MLIR, MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine, Department of Family and Community Medicine is the Projects and Operations Coordinator for AgeAlive and IMPART Alliance. Shannon has worked in outreach and continuing education for more than 25 years and specifically in the aging field for 20 years, most recently for the Area Agencies on Aging Association and the Michigan Society of Gerontology.  Her deep appreciation for direct care workers stems in part from the many compassionate caregivers who assisted her father while he was living with dementia.  
Ms. Harkins-Padgitt is responsible for operations, project coordination, supporting research activities, reporting and supervising volunteers.  ​