Knoebel Institute for Healthy Aging

With so much public interest and research focused on issues surrounding aging, the University of Denver has decided to harness its resources and create a new research entity, opening this fall. Combining the natural sciences, the social sciences and engineering, it will work to improve the quality of life, wellness and community for the nation’s growing population of seniors.

“The name is the Knoebel Institute for Healthy Aging, because healthy aging is much more attractive and really where we want to get,” explains Lotta Granholm-Bentley, executive director for KIHA. “I’m very excited about the possibility of working side by side with many different disciplines.”

Granholm-Bentley joined the University of Denver in September 2015 as the founding executive director of KIHA. She is also a research professor in DU’s Department of Biological Sciences.

One of KIHA’s primary objectives is to encourage interdisciplinary coursework and research at DU, and collaborate with community partners on projects.

“The perfect project is Down syndrome,” Granholm-Bentley says. “We can get social work students and psychology students involved. We can get the pre-med students involved, and we can actually build a major task force in these different areas.”

The new institute already has a relationship with Colorado Neurological Institute, and they’re looking for more partnerships in the Denver community.