Ken Ferraro
Please join me in congratulating Ken Ferraro, distinguished professor in the Department of Sociology and Director of the Center on Aging and the Life Course, on being one of two recipients of the 2016 Provost’s Award for Outstanding Graduate Faculty Mentor. Nominees for this prestigious award have contributed extensively to students completing their graduate coursework at Purdue as well as being innovative teachers to their mentees.
Last year, Ken mentored four graduate students, including an individual who is now completing a post-doctoral fellowship at Rice University. Since his first Ph.D. student graduated in 1996, Ken has played an active and passionate role in graduate education. Throughout his time at Purdue University, he has chaired 18 Ph.D. dissertation committees and 15 master’s degree committees that include theses. Several of Ken’s former students hold faculty positions at research universities including Case Western Reserve, Johns Hopkins, Minnesota, and Toronto.
Ken also created innovative curricular and programmatic offerings for interdisciplinary graduate education related to aging, including a dual-title Ph.D. degree in gerontology. In Sociology, he developed a departmental concentration on aging and health, which included the creation of two new courses.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Gerontology Program, Ken recently presided over a symposium that included “The Art of Aging,” an art exhibit featuring works by persons 55 years or older.
Congratulations, Dr. Ferraro!
David A. Reingold
Justin S. Morrill Dean
College of Liberal Arts