Rita has been actively working on health and access issues for older adults since her early education in New Delhi, India.  She completed her Masters, M. Phil and PhD from the Delhi and the Jawaharlal Nehru Universities and post-doctoral research at Stanford University.  Working extensively in the field of aging with direct care, research and education, she is currently the Founder, Director of Aging101, an entity developed for education and building infrastructures in aging. Rita was the Founder, Director of Aging Adult Services at Stanford University Medical Center from 2004-2017, where she directed multiple programs such as Care Coordination, Geriatric Health, Home Technology, Memory Support, Caregiver Education, Chronic Disease Self-Management to name a few. Rita worked with the founder of the National Institute on Aging, Dr. Robert Butler at the International Longevity center in New York and was the CEO for 14 years of ‘Older Adults Care Management’ (OACM), a multi-site health care company funded by Eugene and Rose Kleiner (of Kleiner Perkins).  At OACM she designed few caregiver support and dementia care protocols. Rita has won multiple awards (including the Isaac Stein and Malinda Mitchell awards at Stanford), is a published psychologist/gerontologist and is Board member/advisor for entities such as the NIH-Stanford Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC), TeleVisit, a technology company, Silicon Valley Age Friendly, Dementia Friendly initiative, few Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRC’s) and health systems. Rita teaches several courses nationally and internationally on navigating health systems, dementia support, delirium, caregiver health, care transitions, women’s preventive health, and healthy aging. She has authored several chapters and articles, conducts research, and is involved in policy planning towards making communities age friendly.

Email:  rita@optimalagingcenter.com