Stony Brook Center for Healthy Aging
April 13, 2023
Dear Stony Brook Faculty, Staff, and Students,
The Presidential Innovation and Excellence (PIE) Fund was announced in 2021 to enhance our externally funded research on campus. In the update I provided last December, I detailed projects supported by these funds and indicated there would be future investments.
It is my pleasure to announce that we are investing $10 million in PIE Fund monies to transform the care of the aging in Suffolk County and across Long Island through the creation of the Stony Brook Center For Healthy Aging (CHA). This research center will be a hub of basic, translational, and clinical research.
As Baby Boomers age, the number of older people is rapidly increasing, and the opportunities to discover advances in health and well-being for this population is a critical unmet need that the CHA will address. One in six New Yorkers is age 65 or older and that number has been growing steadily in recent years. In Suffolk County alone, the 65+ age group increased 33 percent from 2010 to 2021, and people over 90 are the fastest-growing age group as a percentage of our population.
Under the direction of Hal Paz, MD, Executive Vice President, Health Sciences, and CEO, Stony Brook University Medicine and Peter Igarashi, MD, Dean, Renaissance School of Medicine, the CHA will be a truly transformative and collaborative effort that will encompass multiple areas across campus including the Long Island State Veterans Home, all five of the health science schools, the program in public health, the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the College of Arts and Sciences.
Fully supported by philanthropic gifts, the Presidential Innovation and Excellence Fund continues to present exciting possibilities to invest in our ambitions and respond to society’s greatest needs. The Center for Healthy Aging has the potential to catapult Stony Brook to the forefront of leadership in addressing the care and quality of life of our aging population.
Sincerely,
Maurie McInnis
President