Exploring the Future of Healthy Aging: An Intergenerational Perspective

Greetings, and welcome to my exploration into the dynamic realm of?healthy aging.

Embracing My Heritage & the Influence of Family History

I am Courtney Jordana Burton. My given name is “WEE-EE-EAT-ASSUMG-GUI, MATT-AH-KI-WEEN, AC-QUA-HICK’’ (translation: Pretty Face Warrior Woman) of the Nanticoke Tribe. Gifted by an elder relative, my name signifies a cunning warrior spirit who champions her people, and it captures the way I aspire to navigate the world.

Born as the youngest daughter to a Black mother and an Indigenous father, my sister and I are the sole grandchildren in our family. This dynamic led us to form a unique bond with our elders and to intentionally preserve our histories and traditions to pass down to future generations.

My maternal grandparents, Nana and Poppop, of Birmingham, Alabama were born in the early 1930s during the Jim Crow era. Throughout the years, they moved across states to Massachusetts, Upstate New York, and Vermont before settling in Maryland. I recall their vivid stories of resilience, told while I sat crisscross apple sauce on their iconic green couch. On the other side, my paternal grandparents, Grandmom and Poppop, resided in Millsboro, Delaware, the ancestral lands of the Nanticoke Tribe, known as the ‘people of the tidewaters’ in the Algonquian language. Visits to Millsboro meant huddling around the kitchen table and soaking in the rich tribal history and traditions shared by the elders.

The narrative of my family, imbued with grit and tenacity, has endowed me with a profound understanding of my privilege and has shaped my perspectives. Drawing on my deep-rooted connection to my previous generations, I’ve developed a great reverence for the wisdom of older adults.

My Education & Career Path

My higher education journey began at Georgia Tech, where I earned a Bachelor of Science in Operations & Supply Chain Management. Afterward, I ventured into Strategy & Operations consulting, specializing in healthcare. By addressing the environmental, social, and economic aspects beyond clinical care that impact health and well-being, I shaped recommendations that aimed to promote a more equitable and resilient health ecosystem. During my consulting tenure, I had the privilege of collaborating with a dedicated team to envision and launch the Deloitte Health Equity Institute. This social innovation organization seeks to address health disparities through community collaboration, investment, and knowledge development. Currently, I am pursuing an MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) and a joint Master of Science degree in Environment and Resources at the Doerr School of Sustainability.

My personal, academic, and professional experiences have synthesized into a bold vision:?to catalyze a sustainable future where equitable, healthy aging is not a privilege, but an undeniable right.?My interest in this field revolves around five interconnected pillars:

1. Health and well-being
2. Food systems
3. Financial wellness
4. Continuous learning
5. Community building

These pillars are interwoven with our shared environment, thus highlighting the urgent need for?climate justice ?in our pursuit of a healthy, equitable world for all.?I view healthy aging as not merely an individual pursuit but as an integral part of the wider sustainability agenda.?It is not just about aging well, but aging well within a world we are striving to protect and sustain for generations to come.

One of my recent academic experiences at the GSB, a course titled “Longevity: Business Implications and Opportunities”, shone a light on critical mental shifts required when working in the longevity space. This includes the necessity of “designing with instead of designing for,” which emphasizes involving older adults in creating solutions for their unique challenges. It’s also time we moved away from an “us versus them” mentality, as we will all age and benefit from solutions designed for older adults.

One of the surprising learnings from this course was that loneliness is more prevalent in the 18–24 age group, rather than the older population.?Older adults are least likely to be lonely and tend to have higher emotional well-being and life satisfaction. One of my course professors,?Dr. Laura L. Carstensen , the Director of the Stanford Center on Longevity, recently was on the?Hidden Brain? podcast to highlight this phenomenon. Her insights led me to think about the emotional resilience that comes with aging and how we can foster intergenerational connections and knowledge sharing to enhance this characteristic across age cohorts.

I am currently spending my summer as a Product & Strategy MBA Associate at?Koltin , a seed-stage startup in Mexico City. Koltin seeks to redefine the healthcare experience of older adults (“grandes personas”) in Mexico by taking a data-driven approach to prevention and lowering health insurance costs to allow greater access for aging populations. This internship experience has underscored the importance of thoughtful and collaborative innovation across generations.

My Exploration of the Future of Healthy Aging

I created this blog to share insights, explore interests, and foster meaningful conversations about healthy aging with a broader community. As I delve into this space, I hope to collaborate with diverse stakeholders to use my experiences to help?reshape the landscape of aging? and craft a future where everyone can age with dignity, regardless of their background.

As I undertake this journey, I find myself wrestling with a variety of questions, such as:

1. How can we foster intergenerational living and knowledge sharing to promote healthier aging?
2. How can we broaden access to independent living for older adults, and what does dignity in aging look like in terms of providing equal access to resources and opportunities for all?
3. How does climate change impact the aging process, and what measures can we take to mitigate its effects?
4. How can we ensure nutritional equity for older adults, and how can we innovate our food systems to prioritize nutrition, access, and sustainability for healthier aging?
5. With increasing living costs and evolving economic landscapes, how can we redefine financial literacy and security for older adults to ensure dignity and autonomy?
6. How can we leverage the health benefits of outdoor activities for the aging population to encourage greener lifestyles and a more sustainable world?
7. How can we promote digital literacy and continuous education in the aging population?
8. As we explore innovations in healthy aging, what new developments are on the horizon, and how might they shape the future of care? Specifically, how could AI, robotics, and automation revolutionize aging-in-place and the delivery of health services?
9. What innovations in healthy aging are currently being developed, and how might they shape the future of care?
10. How can we build resilient, inclusive communities that promote healthy aging, prioritize home-based and community-centered care, and uphold respect for every individual?

Through investigating these and other questions, I seek to explore collaborative pathways to paint a new portrait of aging — one where growing older is seen as an immense opportunity instead of a burden. Here’s to our collective journey toward reimagining healthy aging!

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This is an excerpt from the conversations that I am having about the future of healthy aging. To read more about my exploration of healthy aging, check out my Medium site here .?