TigerPlace, an independent living center in Columbia affiliated with the Sinclair School of Nursing, will celebrate its 10th anniversary 11 a.m.–2 p.m. Saturday. The public is invited to attend.
Marilyn Rantz, Curators Professor of Nursing, helped found the cutting-edge Americare center at 2910 Bluff Creek Drive. The center is dedicated to creating a healthful quality of life for seniors and an environment for MU research to examine ways to help seniors live fuller lives.
Rantz and her colleagues have received more than $50 million in funding for senior health care research. In 2012, the team received a $14.8 million research grant, the largest ever at MU, from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“If there was ever a time we could really advance the care for older people in America, it is now,” Rantz said at the grant announcement. “We are going to take this grant and run with it.”
Rantz has spent 30 years working with seniors and conducting research in long-term care and chronic illness management. She helped implement the national model Aging in Place, which offers care coordination by nurses to enable seniors to receive health care in their residence, rather than being transferred to nursing homes or acute care facilities.
In 2012, she was admitted into the Institute of Medicine, established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to honor health professionals who have demonstrated outstanding achievement and commitment to service. She’s been affiliated with the Sinclair School of Nursing since 1992. Rantz will be formerly honored with the Distinguished Faculty Award at this fall’s Faculty-Alumni Awards event.
Among the scheduled speakers are Rantz and Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin.