E. Percil Stanford, Ph.D, President

Dr. E. Percil Stanford became interested in the field of aging very early in life. As an undergraduate student in sociology and demography, he was involved in the first White House Conference on Aging, held in Washington, D.C.  That experience left him enamored with the possibility of an older population that would be the foundation of society.

Dr. Stanford began his career at Iowa State University, where he received his Ph.D in Sociology with an emphasis in Gerontology.  He served as Director for the Education and Training Program in the Administration on Aging as the Associate  and helped establish the first University-based education and training programs. He then received a Congressional Fellowship and worked as Staff Consultant to Congressman Shirley Chisholm and Senator Alan Cranston focusing on issues related to Veterans Affairs, Retirement and Pensions.  Upon returning to the Department of Health and Human Services, he worked in the office of the Secretary as an Operations Officer, responsible for oversight of Social Rehabilitation Programs in Federal Regions IV and VI. 

In 1972, Dr. Stanford went to San Diego State University, where he served as Professor of Gerontology and Director of the University Center on Aging. He was professor and Charter Director for the University’s Center on Aging and Department of Gerontology. He also served as the Director for the National Institute on Minority Aging, which he founded, and directed several other national programs under the umbrella of the University Center on Aging. He continues to serve as Professor Emeritus.

As the field of gerontology has evolved, Dr. Stanford has played a leadership role in the development of several gerontological and geriatric focused organizations.  His leadership in the field of aging extends to the role he played in the development of the American Society on Aging (ASA) which he served as president. He also had a significant role in the establishment of ASA’s New Ventures in Leadership program for minority leaders.  He has served as the Regional Director for the West Region for AARP since 2002 and as the interim director of the National AARP State Affairs Department working on state advocacy issues.  Dr. Stanford was named Chief Diversity Officer for AARP in December 2005. Throughout his varied career and particularly at AARP, he has distinguished himself as a team-builder whose core values embody both the spirit and the power of diversity and inclusion.

During the past two and a half decades, he has been an active leader in numerous professional organizations, and has been appointed to several commissions and task forces, including the White House Conference on Aging Planning Councils. Journal articles, books and book chapters authored and co-authored by Dr. Stanford have covered a wide range of topics, with core themes on Health Status, Retirement, Ethnicity and Diversity, Elder Abuse and Education and Training. He has set up gerontology programs for academic institutions, worked on long-term care, pension and retirement issues, and exposed members of the media to aging issues. Dr. Stanford is widely recognized for his expertise on issues associated with minority aging.  

Claire M. Fagin, PhD, RN

Dr. Claire Fagin’s career has blended an interest in consumer health issues with professional health and nursing issues and she is known for her efforts with consumers and health professionals to create a new paradigm for access and quality. Dr. Fagin is a consultant to foundations, developing national programs, and educational institutions. In June, 2005, she completed five years as Director of the John A. Hartford Foundation National Program (Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity). This program, which she helped the Foundation develop, supports Centers of Geriatric Nursing Excellence, invests in other schools of nursing building their geriatric expertise, and pre doctoral scholars and post doctoral fellows. The post doctoral fellows, named the Claire M. Fagin Fellows are supported by the Hartford Foundation and The Atlantic Philanthropies. Dr. Fagin served as dean of the School of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania from January 1977 to January 1992. During her tenure as dean the School developed landmark education and research programs, a privately funded research center, a PhD program, had the most faculty members of any nursing school in the American Academy of Nursing and the Institute of Medicine, and was ranked #1 by USNews and World Report. Dr. Fagin has received 13 honorary doctoral degrees and numerous alumni, civic and professional awards. She has published 15 authored/edited books and monographs and more than 100 articles. Dr. Fagin received the Bachelor of Science degree from Wagner College, the Master’s of Arts degree from Teacher’s College, Columbia University, and the Ph.D. from New York University.

Phyllis J. Holmen, Esq.

Phyllis Holmen is the Executive Director of Georgia Legal Services Program, a position she has held since June 1990. GLSP provides civil legal services to low-income Georgians who live outside the metro Atlanta area, through 14 locations throughout the state. Ms. Holmen began her legal career with GLSP in 1974, following graduation from University of Illinois College of Law. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the State Bar of Georgia Board of Governors, and is active with several State Bar committees, including the Advisory Committee on Legislation, the Access of Justice Committee, the Committee on Women and Minorities in the Profession, and the Individual Rights Section. She is a member of the Governor's Judicial Nominating Commission, the Supreme Court's Indigent Defense Commission, the Supreme Court's Blue Ribbon Commission on the Judiciary, and the Administrative Office of the Court's Committee on Pro Se Litigants. She is a member of the Georgia Association of Women Lawyers. She is a member of the Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants (SCLAID) of the American Bar Association. In addition to serving on NSCLC's board, Ms. Holmen is a current or former member of many national and community boards and organizations, including the National Legal Aid and Defender Association; the national Poverty and Race Research Action Council; CHRIS Homes, serving troubled children; the Women's Policy Group; Research Atlanta; Leadership Atlanta; and the ACLU of Georgia.

Robert K. Johnson, Esq.

Robert Johnson has been a partner in the law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson since 1970. He also has worked for the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division as a Special Assistant to the Assistant Attorney General and as an associate for Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. Mr. Johnson is a graduate of Harvard College (1961) and Stanford Law School (1964), where he served as an officer of the Stanford Law Review. He was born in New York, New York in 1939. Mr. Johnson is an active member of the American, California and Los Angeles County Bar Associations. He is a past member of the Board of Trustees of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and previously served as Chair of its Taxation Section and Chair of its Employee Benefits Committee and was the 1999 recipient of its Dana Latham Memorial Award. He also served as Chair of the Taxation Section of the State Bar of California and was the 1997 recipient of its V. Judson Klein Award. He has been a frequent author and lecturer on tax, executive compensation and employee benefits subjects. He is a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel and the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel and is currently listed in The Best Lawyers in America under Employee Benefits Law and Tax Law.

Michael Kelly

In addition to serving for seven years on NSCLC’s Board of Directors, including two years as chairman, Mr. Kelly recently served as interim Executive Director of NSCLC. Mr. Kelly has served as the Dean of the University of Maryland School of Law, University Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Georgetown University, a visiting scholar at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a senior fellow at the Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Kelly also serves on the boards of the Union Theological Seminary and CareFirst Inc., the nonprofit Blue Cross/Blue Shield Company serving the Maryland and Washington, DC metropolitan area.

Barry Litt, Esq.

Barry Litt is a civil rights lawyer in Los Angeles. His firm specializes in handling complex civil rights and public interest cases. He has been lead or co-lead counsel in many landmark cases, including the largest slum housing recovery in the country, a case establishing that banks may be held liable for financing slum housing when they know that they are perpetuating such conditions, a case ending the practice of the Los Angeles Police Department of having its police dogs routinely find and bite suspects, the largest class action settlement ever entered into by Los Angeles County (for its policy of over-detaining and strip searching court releasees), and the establishment of public interest attorney’s fees in California for cases  where a public or private entity changes its policies in response to a lawsuit. He recently completed a six-month trial that resulted in the largest verdict ever recorded under the Fair Housing Act ($22.5 million against the City of Long Beach for preventing the opening of homes for Alzheimer’s victims in response to community opposition). He is currently litigating jail and prison class actions around the country involving, among other things, the practice of routinely over-detaining releasees, strip searching arrestees without cause, maintaining sub-standard jail conditions, and using x-rays on visitors to California prisons to electronically undress them. He and his past or present firms have received numerous awards for their civil rights and public interest work, including from Public Counsel (the largest pro bono law firm in the country), the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, and UCLA Law School.

F. William McCalpin, Esq.

F. William McCalpin is a retired partner and counsel of the St. Louis law firm Lewis, Rice & Fingersh, L.C. Throughout his career, Mr. McCalpin has been involved in a variety of leadership positions supporting both the private bar and legal services. From 1965-70, he served as Chairman of the American Bar Association Special Committee on Availability of Legal Services. During 1965-70, Mr. McCalpin was the Director of the Legal Aid Society of the City and County of St. Louis and a Member of the National Advisory Committee for the Legal Services Program of the Office of Economic Opportunity. He also was the Director of Missouri Legal Aid Society and a Member and past President of National Legal Aid and Defender Association. Mr. McCalpin first became a Member of the Board of Directors of the Legal Services Corporation in 1979. He served as Chair from 1980-81. President Clinton appointed him to the Board again in 1993, and he served until 2003. In addition, Mr. McCalpin served as the Chairman of the American Bar Association Commission on Legal Problems of the Elderly from 1996-2002.

Naomi Paley, MSW

Naomi Paley is a graduate of University of Bridgeport and received her MSW from Yeshiva University. She was a psychiatric social worker in the South Beach Psychiatric Center (New York) from 1975-1980. Ms. Paley was an adjunct Professor in Social Work, Family Therapy Program at Fordham University from 1983-1989. She was in private practice as a family therapist from 1975-2000. She has served on the Board of Governor's of the Ethical Culture School from 1968-1974; the Board of Congress of Racial Equality from 1964-1968. In addition to the NSCLC Board of Directors, Ms. Paley serves as a Trustee of the Bridgehampton Historical Society, and is a former Board member of Stephen Wise Free Synagogue.

Edward D. Spurgeon, Esq.

Past-President of the NSCLC Board of Directors

Edward D.(Ned) Spurgeon has been Executive Director of the Borchard Foundation Center on Law and Aging since 1998. He has also been both a practicing lawyer, including partner at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky and Walker in Los Angeles, and a legal educator at the University of Utah, the University of Georgia and Pacific McGeorge School of Law, where he currently is Distinguished Visiting Professor and holder of the Gordon D. Schaber Chair in Health Law and Policy. Professor Spurgeon served a combined total of 12 years as the Dean of the Univerity of Utah and University of Georgia law schools, and has been a visiting law professor at Stanford and New York University law schools. Since 1991, he has been a Commissioner and Special Advisor to the ABA Commission on Law and Aging, and he co-founded Utah Legal Services' Senior Lawyer Volunteer Project.

Stu Zimring, Esq.

Stuart D. Zimring graduated in 1968 from the University of California Los Angeles with a B.A. degree, from the UCLA School of Law in 1971 with a J.D. degree, and was admitted to the Bar in 1972. Mr. Zimring practices law in Hollywood, California. He specializes in Elder Law, Estate and Life Planning. Mr. Zimring lectured in Law for the Los Angeles Community College District from 1973 to 1983. He is a member of the Los Angeles Superior Court Probate Volunteer Panel and Mediation Panel. Mr. Zimring is a Fellow of both the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys and the American College of Trusts and Estate Counsel and is certified as a Specialist in Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law by the Board of Legal Specialization of the State Bar of California. He is the Co-Author of Tax, Estate and Financial Planning for the Elderly-California Guide, published by Matthew Bender, and has contributed to the Journal of the American Medical Director's Associations, and served as a guest editor for the Journal of the National Geriatric Care Managers Association.