Gavin W. Hougham, PhD, is Senior Program Officer and medicine program manager at the John A. Hartford Foundation.  The medicine program at the Foundation is one of four major areas of focus, which also includes grantmaking in nursing, social work, and integrating and improving services.

Since joining the Foundation in 2005, Dr. Hougham’s work has included expanding the nation’s output of medical school geriatrics faculty (through the Hartford Centers of Excellence in Geriatric Medicine); preparing the nation’s surgical and related medical specialists to care for older adults (with the American Geriatrics Society); integrating geriatrics into the specialties of internal medicine (with the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine); training physicians in residency (with the Association of Directors of Geriatric Academic Programs); expanding the pool and output of medical researchers in aging-related fields (with the National Institute on Aging and the American Federation for Aging Research); increasing the numbers of medical students interested in and competent in the care of older adults (with the National Institute on Aging, the American Federation for Aging Research, and the American Association of Medical Colleges); and leading the Foundation’s early work resulting in the publication of the Institute of Medicine’s report, Retooling for an Aging America.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Dr. Hougham was director of research in the Section of Geriatrics at the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he also taught in the School of Social Service Administration.  He was previously with the State of Wisconsin's Division of Public Health.  He has published and presented widely on health workforce preparation, medical research ethics, informed consent in dementia research, palliative care in dementia, control at the end of life, social determinants of health and illness, and cross-cultural (Japanese) gerontology.