H. Asuman Kiyak, PhD

Faculty Information:

H. Asuman Kiyak

Phone: 206.543.5197

Fax: 206.616.1539

Professor
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

Adjunct Professor
Department of Psychology
Department of Architecture

Director
University of Washington Institute on Aging

Background

Dr. Asuman Kiyak is a psychologist with a specialty in gerontology. Since 1994, she has served as director of the UW Institute on Aging. She first joined the UW as a faculty member in 1977, and is currently a professor in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, and adjunct professor in the UW Departments of Psychology and Architecture. She is co-author with Dr. Nancy Hooyman, dean emeritus at the UW School of Social Work, of the widely used textbook, Social Gerontology: A Multidisciplinary Perspective, now in its sixth edition. Dr. Kiyak's work as director of the Institute on Aging has allowed her to bring together a wide range of faculty and students interested in interdisciplinary teaching and research. She has conducted several large studies of oral health promotion among older persons, age and ethnic differences in health service use (especially in the area of oral health care), and adaptation among older persons with Alzheimer's disease. Currently, she is Principal Investigator of a large multi-center clinical trial with older persons funded by NIH and an intergenerational oral health promotion project funded by the CDC.

Dr. Kiyak has taught "Psychology of Aging" through the Department of Psychology and through UW Extension since 1984, with a few years off between 1987 and 1993. She currently teaches this course and an on-line seminar series, "Critical Issues in Aging" as a distance learning course in the Certificate Program in Gerontology. She also coordinates the geriatric dentistry program at the School of Dentistry, teaching a didactic and extramural clinical series of courses in geriatrics for 3rd and 4th year dental students.

Education

PhD, Social/Environmental Psychology, Gerontology, Wayne State University, 1977
MA, Social Psychology and Urban Planning, Wayne State University, 1974