BILL'S ENCORE: A Call to Action

01/23/2008 - 11:31:58am

The countdown to Bill Gates' encore career has begun, with the Microsoft chairman set to leave his day-to-day responsibilities at the software company this summer to devote full time to his foundation's work on global health, poverty and education.

But the world's richest man is already laying down markers for what kind of encore it will be. He is set to give a speech Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland entitled, "A New Approach to Capitalism in the 21st Century."

Nurses for Newborns Saves Lives, Wins Awards

01/22/2008 - 05:19:06pm

Sharon Rohrbach. Photo by S. Smith Patrick.

2007 Purpose Prize winner Sharon Rohrbach's success in channeling her lifetime of experience into saving the lives of vulnerable newborns was recognized with a $70,000 prize from a major healthcare organization.

Rohrbach, 65 years old, is a St. Louis neo-natal nurse who founded Nurses for Newborns to provide home visits from nurses to underinsured mothers and their special-needs babies.

SF MAYOR: Expand Experience Corps

01/10/2008 - 04:58:06pm

Gavin Newsom. Photo by Paul Sakuma/Associated Press.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom became the latest political leader to call for the expansion of Experience Corps, the successful tutoring and mentoring program engaging adults over 55, as a way to improve public schools.

ATLANTIC MONTHLY: No country for young men

01/09/2008 - 05:13:25pm

From the movie, "No Country for Old Men."

In the category of "more nuanced perspectives" (see previous post) comes Megan McArdle's fine piece on the social challenges posed by the aging of the boomer generation. The piece is accompanied by a thoughtful online exchange between McArdle and Philip Longman of the New America Foundation and Clive Crook, a fellow editor at the Atlantic.

McArdle tries to take the discussion beyond the usual preoccupation with economic calamities by illuminating how "the retirement of the Boomers will transform the texture of our society." But in the end, she makes an economic argument about how the shrinking workforce, slowing productivity and rising health care costs will pinch living standards and stress the economy.

Unless -- surprise -- boomers work longer.

BOOMER MEDIA MANIA: No signs of slowing

01/08/2008 - 03:42:58pm

illustration by Felix Sockwell/The New York Times.

It started in earnest in 2006, when the first baby boomers (born in 1946) turned 60. This year they're turning 62 (and thus eligible for Social Security), setting off another round of media coverage.

This time, perhaps by virtue of the fact that so much has already been said, reporters and commentators appear to be offering deeper reporting and more nuanced perspectives.

BOOMER BASHING

01/04/2008 - 05:47:14pm

Actor Ken Osmond as Eddie Haskell on TV's Leave It to Beaver.
Paul Kleyman, national coordinator of the Journalists Exchange on Aging and editor of Aging Today, the newspaper of the American Society on Aging, published this commentary in Age Beat Online. Reprinted with permission.

Remember Eddie Haskell, Wally's selfish and conniving buddy on "Leave It to Beaver"? Nobody liked that phony. One would think that at least some in today's national media would equate the boomer generation more with the Beav himself: bright, open, curious. But the boomer bashing in mainstream media frames the boomers as the Eddie Haskell of generations.

DALLAS MORNING NEWS: Baby boomers go back to college

01/04/2008 - 01:51:39pm

Leigh Hoes, 51, trained to become a pharmacy technician in a one-year program at Richland College. She plans to work into her 60s or 70s. Photo by Randy Eli Grothe/Dallas Morning News.

Boomers are "rebooting" at Richland College in Dallas, one of the new wave of community colleges that are reshaping their programs to meet the new needs of career-switching baby boomers.

National service on the national agenda

12/18/2007 - 05:23:19pm

Photo by Christian Witkin/TIME

Universal national service – the notion that everybody who wants to serve the country or the community should have the opportunity to do so – is getting a surprising amount of attention on the presidential campaign trail.

Time magazine queued up the issue with a cover story last summer, and now several leading candidates have embraced it.

Online PhD Degrees in Nursing Under Discussion

12/14/2007 - 09:49:54am

It came as a surprise to me when I learned that the problem (at least a big one) underlying the nursing shortage in this country is a shortage of nursing faculty to teach students interested in entering the field. A solution that came to mind immediately was the opportunity for older nurses to take up encore careers as nursing faculty in greater numbers.

The latest Chronicle of Higher Education reports the positive outcomes of a study of online Doctorates for nurses.

CONFERENCE BOARD: Reinventing an Aging Workforce

12/13/2007 - 01:48:05pm

Dean McDermott is looking ahead to his next career. Photo by Jeffrey MacMillan/USNews & World Report.

Smart companies can turn the aging of the American workforce from a liability to a strategic opportunity if they plan carefully, concludes a new report from the Conference Board, the business research organization.

Industries that are already facing acute talent shortages have done the most to prepare for the demographic shift, says Mary B. Young, a senior research associate at the Conference Board and author of the report. The Center for Energy Workforce Development (CEWD), for example, pools research, resources and best practices across the industry, she says.