Everyone is invited to attend the free Feast for Your Brain healthy aging event that will feature performances, presentations, music, health services, games, mind-body exercises, and food, all organized to bring the community together and increase awareness about healthy aging practices as part of the Precision Aging Network, a project dedicated to improving the health of the aging brain.
Everyone is invited to attend the free Feast for Your Brain healthy aging event that will feature performances, presentations, music, health services, games, mind-body exercises, food, and a raffle for prizes. It will be fun for families, seniors, students, and guests of all ages!
The Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health organizes this annual event to bring the community together and increase awareness about healthy aging practices as part of the Precision Aging Network (PAN), a project dedicated to improving the health of the aging brain. The festivities will take place on Saturday, September 23, 10am to 3pm, in the Health Sciences Innovation Building (HSIB) on the University of Arizona Health Sciences campus. Free parking will be available.
Focused on healthy aging practices, the Feast For Your Brain event brings together healthy aging experts from across the University of Arizona Health Sciences, alongside community partners and health services providers, for a fun and informative day of connection. In particular, the event supports the Precision Aging Network, a program funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and empowered by the MindCrowd brain research project. In 2021, the University of Arizona was awarded a large grant to launch and lead the PAN project.
Zhao Chen, PhD, MPH, Distinguished Professor and Associate Dean for Research at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health (MEZCOPH) leads the community engagement, recruitment, and retention effort for the Precision Aging Network in Arizona and across study sites in the United States.
“September is Healthy Aging Month. What perfect timing for you and your family to join the second annual Feast for Your Brain event to celebrate healthy aging in Southern Arizona!” says Dr. Chen, “This event brings our researchers together with our community. We play brain-health games and share research findings, so we can empower our community to live a healthy life together. We’ll have performances from diverse cultural groups, presentations from researchers, and this year you’ll get to meet UA athletes and participate in creative dance and Tai Chi classes. We are also especially excited to present our program in both English and Spanish for the first time!”
This will be the second annual Feast For Your Brain gathering, following the successful inaugural event last year that welcomed more than 500 participants, young and old, who enjoyed performances, presentations, and mind-body exercises. You can see some images and learn more about last year’s event in this recap story.
At the event, older adults and their families can learn about healthy aging while participating in activities, and they can hear about the most up-to-date research. Graduate and undergraduate students are encouraged to join the event. They’ll be able to sign up for internships, gain experiential learning credits, and join the PAN student ambassador program for healthy aging and population health research.
A national scale research network established with funding from the NIH’s National Institutes on Aging, PAN was created to develop innovative community-engaged brain aging research that will help to close the gap between lifespan and brain-health span. With multiple partners and study sites, including UArizona, ASU, University of Miami, Emory University, Johns Hopkins University, and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (T-GEN), the PAN project brings a new scale to brain research across geographic regions and diverse communities.
Many University of Arizona organizations will partner with us for the Feast For Your Brain event, including Arizona Athletics; the Global Health Institute; the Healthy Aging Lab; MEZCOPH Mobile Health Units; the Skin Cancer Institute; the Nosotros Comprometidos a Su Salud program; the Environment, Exposure Science and Risk Assessment Center (ESRAC); the Center for Firefighter Health Collaborative Research; the Filipino American Student Association; the UA Guerrero Center; The Center for Sleep, Circadian and Neuroscience Research; the All of Us Research Program, and MexZona.
We are grateful for our community partners who have joined us for this event, including:
- African Americans in Life Sciences
- ArchWell Health
- Arizona Bilingual Newspaper
- El Rio Health
- Pilot Parents of Southern Arizona, Inc
- Pima Council on Aging
- Pima County Health Department
- PIMA Vaccine Equity Program
- Southern Arizona Pride
- The Coalition for African American Health and Wellness
- Tucson Chinese Cultural Center
- Tucson Jewish Community Center
- United Way: End of Life Care Partnership
We encourage everyone in our community to join us in September! For more information contact Carrasco, Carolina via email carolinacarrasco@arizona.edu.
Event Details
Free Event: Feast for Your Brain
Saturday, September 23, 2023
10:00am to 3:00pm
Health Sciences Innovation Building (HSIB) 1670 E. Drachman Street at the University of Arizona Health Sciences campus, Tucson.
Free parking available in surface lots near the HSIB building.
Get ready for fun games!
Be prepared for great performances!
Bring money for food trucks!
