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Zimmerman named co-editor of JAMDA

Sheryl Zimmerman, the School of Social Work’s associate dean for research and faculty development and a national leader in assisted living and long-term care research, has been named co-editor of JAMDA – The Journal of Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine.

She will share the editorship with UNC colleague Philip Sloane, a nationally recognized family physician and geriatrician, in the Department of Family Medicine. Zimmerman and Sloane are co-directors of the Program on Aging, Disability and Long-term Care at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research.

Zimmerman, a Kenan Distinguished Professor, has conducted groundbreaking research and intervention studies in nursing homes and assisted living communities and served as a clinician in a range of long-term care settings. Past chair of the Social Research, Policy, and Practice Section of the Gerontological Society of America, Zimmerman was recognized as the nation’s top-ranked social work scholar in the field of aging in 2016.

Sloane, the Elizabeth and Oscar Goodwin Distinguished Professor of Family Medicine, has had a varied career involving extensive service in nursing homes, dementia care units, group homes for persons with disability, hospitals, PACE programs, office practices, emergency departments, and more.

The UNC colleagues were selected for the editorial position largely for their impressive backgrounds, said Christopher Laxton, executive director of the Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine.

“The search committee chose Drs. Sloane and Zimmerman for their extensive experience and knowledge in the varied settings of post-acute and long-term care, their proven track records as mentors and published authors, and their vision for the future of JAMDA,” Laxton said.

JAMDA represents over 50,000 medical directors, physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other practitioners working in the various post-acute and long-term care settings. Historically, the journal’s editors have come from the medical field. Zimmerman sees her appointment as important recognition of the diversity of health care professionals working across the range of settings, including social workers.

“JAMDA is a leading journal in the field – the second most cited journal in Thomson Reuters’ Geriatrics/Gerontology category – and we’re honored to guide its future impact,” she said. “My goal is to further JAMDA’s benefit to medical providers, nurses, social workers, rehabilitation professionals, nutritionists, and others working in the field, as well as to those who teach, promote, and regulate care.”

Zimmerman and Sloane will succeed retiring editor-in-chief John E. Morley, MB, BCh, who has served in the post since 2007. The colleagues will publish their first issue of JAMDA in January 2018.

The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine contributed to this report.