Paul Greenwood, a recently retired deputy district attorney from San Diego, will be the main speaker.

Greenwood will draw upon his 22 years of prosecuting serious elder abuse crimes to provide tips on how to reduce the risk of becoming a victim. He will give examples of cases that he personally prosecuted, such as physical, emotional and sexual abuse, neglect and fraud, and offer practical advice on how to stay safe from in-person and online predators as well as offer his experience on how elder abuse is targeting our most vulnerable populations.

“Every morning crooks get up and go to work with just one aim – how to rip off the next victim,” said Greenwood. “We have to fight back against this ever-escalating tide. Elder financial exploitation has been called the crime of the 21st century. We must stop being a target and instead become fraud fighters. And we can do that – by educating ourselves and others on ways to stay financially safe.”

The other panelists are: Migdalia Cruz, a volunteer at AARP CT; Dorian J. Long, social services program administration manager for the state Department of Social Services; Nicole Fidanza, a clinical assistant professor of occupational therapy at Quinnipiac; Erica Michalowski, community outreach director at AARP CT; Mairead Painter, state long term care ombudsman and co-chair of the Coalition for Elder Justice; Lauren Vumbaco, U.S. Postal inspector assigned to the Department of Justice’s Elder Fraud Strike Force; and Catherine Richards Solomon, a professor of sociology at Quinnipiac.

“This event provides the community and students from every background, area of study and profession the opportunity to learn an interdisciplinary approach to working on behalf of their client, customer, market and the overall community,” said Fidanza. “We have the opportunity to expand our knowledge, especially in the area of elder abuse, which is vital to serving the needs of the growing aging population.”

The program ladders up with Quinnipiac’s commitment to the Age-Friendly University (AFU) Global Network, which consists of 51 institutions of higher education around the world that have endorsed the AFU’s 10 principles and have committed to becoming more age-friendly in their programs and policies. The university joined the network in July.