Dr. Michelle Sierpina, Founding Director of Osher Lifelong Learning Institute OLLI at UTMB Health in Galveston, Texas, began her work in eldercare in the 1960’s. Her Ph.D. in Humanistic Gerontology investigated the lived experience of life
story writing and sharing groups. Her Masters’ in Human Services Administration focused on non-profit organization management, with grant writing emphasis. UT System designated her a Distinguished Teaching Professor. She holds
adjunct faculty appointments in both the Schools of Nursing and Medicine.
Before launching UTMB’s Academy for Lifelong Learning in 2002, she developed The Pentimento Project—Lifestory Writing and Sharing Groups, a part of the Creativity Continuum with storytelling modalities across a wide
range of functional capability. Other researchers have published peer-reviewed randomized control trials studying her life story sharing protocol.
Beginning in 2005, the academy became OLLI at UTMB receiving three consecutive $100,000 annual grants from the Bernard Osher Foundation culminating in $1 million endowments in 2008 and again in 2016. She has taught at UT Houston Center on Aging,
University of Nevada, Reno, St. George’s Medical University in Grenada, and at conferences around the nation and in Australia, as well as in UTMB’s Institute for the Medical Humanities and School of Nursing Graduate Program. Her
life story protocols are practiced as far away as Tauranga, New Zealand. Sierpina has published peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on topics in gerontology, spirituality, and creativity in aging, most recently a chapter on Positive Aging in Oxford University Press’s Integrative Geriatrics.
Dr. Sierpina serves on the national Scientific Advisory Council, Alzheimer’s Research and Prevention Foundation. She is co-producer of training videos Bringing Stories to Life and Making Lives Visible and co-editor of the
book Burn Survivors Journey, published in English and Spanish and funded by one of four President’s Cabinet Awards she has received beginning in 2003.