Lee Ann Steffen Ferguson, Ph.D. is the Director of Graduate Programs and a Clinical Assistant Professor. She holds a Ph.D. in leadership and gerontology from Concordia University, Chicago. Her dissertation—Examining the Socio-Environmental Influences on Aging Among Bonacca Cay’s Island Community of Guanaja, Honduras: A Focused Ethnography—illustrates Dr. Ferguson’s lens as an Environmental and Geographical Gerontologist and her special interest in conducting research and helping to shape aging policy within Central American and the Caribbean. Dr. Ferguson also holds an M.A. degree in Gerontology, a graduate certificate from UNC Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health, and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of South Florida. She is the former executive director of the Southern Gerontological Society whose membership and programming spans the Southern region of the U.S. Throughout her tenure, Dr. Ferguson also maintained adjunct and visiting professor appointments at Lenoir Rhyne University, Caldwell Community College, and Appalachian State University. Dr. Ferguson actively volunteers in her community in Taylorsville, NC as a program manager and trainer of the Alexander County Community Emergency Response Team. She is a member of the Southern Gerontological Society, for which she serves on its disaster response and preparedness subcommittee, and the Gerontological Society of America.