Anthony Williams graduated from Miami with a Master of Gerontological Studies in 2012.

Anthony William MGS ‘12 worked with Miami faculty and researchers to publish work based on his master’s thesis in The Gerontologist, a national journal on aging. After graduating, Anthony was approached about publishing his thesis work by Robert Applebaum, Miami faculty, researcher for Scripps Gerontology Center, and chair of Anthony's thesis committee.

“Anthony, you have to publish this. People in the industry will want to know what you found,” Applebaum told him not long after graduation. Anthony received his master degree in gerontological studies in 2012 from Miami and now works as a Project Manager at Otterbein Senior Lifestyle Choices, a senior housing and healthcare organization.

The article is titled, “The Nursing Home Five Star Rating: How Does It Compare to Resident and Family Views of Care?” In the publication, Williams, Applebaum and their coauthors compare the 5 star nursing home rating system used by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to nursing home satisfaction data. They found that the star rating system used by CMS does not adequately reflect resident and family satisfaction and recommend that a consumer component be added to the star system.

Reflecting on his ongoing relationships at Miami, Anthony said, “The faculty and staff at Scripps Gerontology Center work to build a relationship with their students that lasts beyond the commencement ceremony. To this day, I still find myself in frequent communication with the Scripps team to get the latest quality data and resources available to those of us serving Ohio’s elders.”

The close affiliation of the Scripps Gerontology Center and the gerontology graduate programs often fosters collaborations between researchers, faculty, and graduate students. In the 2013-14 academic year, gerontology faculty and research staff coauthored 16 publications with graduate students. Miami is well known for its higher ed programs in gerontology as one of only nine universities worldwide offering an undergraduate, masters, and PhD program in gerontology.

“We encourage our students to tackle highly applied work with their thesis. I encouraged Anthony to take this topic head-on and he did fantastic work.” Applebaum concluded.

Dr. Jane Straker, Senior Research Scholar at the Scripps Gerontology Center and Dr. Douglas Noe, Associate Professor in the Department of Statistics also served on Anthony's thesis committee and were significantly involved in writing the publication.

The journal article can be found online.