Zeisel, Dr. John

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http://www.thehearth.org/

Dr. Zeisel, President and co-founder of Hearthstone Alzheimer Care, Ltd., has a background that includes sociology and architecture. He received a Ph.D. from Columbia University and a Loeb Fellowship at Harvard's Graduate School of Design. Dr. Zeisel focuses his attention at Hearthstone on new development, design, teamwork and research. He serves on committees for the Massachusetts Alzheimer's Association, the New York City Office of Aging's Alzheimer's Unit, the International Healthcare Institute, and Centre for Health Design.

John has been on the faculty of Harvard University's Department of Architecture, and received a fellowship at the National Institute for Advanced Studies near The Hague in the Netherlands. He has also taught at Yale and McGill Universities and at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. In 1994 he lectured at the University of Minnesota Architecture School as its Cass Gilbert Visiting Professor.

Before cofounding Hearthstone, John consulted to the senior housing industry, carrying out needs analyses, strategic planning, facility design programs, design review and market feasibility studies. Dr. Zeisel has carried out research into the needs of seniors through basic and applied research, including post-occupancy evaluations and policy research studies. He was Principal Investigator on a three-year National Institute on Aging study to determine the relationship between environmental design characteristics in Alzheimer's Special Care Units and health and well-being outcomes of residents in such settings.

John's research and practice over two decades has resulted in award-winning design and planning guidebooks, successful developments, award-winning prototype facilities, as well as books and articles used by developers, designers and service providers internationally.

John is the author of Independence through Interdependence: Congregate Housing for Older People as well as two volumes of design guidelines, Lowrise Housing for Older People and Midrise Elevator Housing for Older People. Numerous articles on and by Dr. Zeisel have appeared in US and European publications. In 1990 the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), an organization of over 40 million members, published his consumer guide - Selecting Retirement Housing.