Bluffton alumna to address aging, wellness in Carl Smucker Lecture

Dr. Elaine Ragsdale Schott, a professor and former director of the School of Social Work at Grand Valley State University, will discuss aging and wellness during a Bluffton University Forum at 11 a.m. Tuesday, March 20, in Yoder Recital Hall.

"Vintage Status: Shock, Awe and Awesome!" is the title of Schott's presentation, which is free and open to the public.

Schott, who earned a bachelor's degree in social work from Bluffton in 1966, is currently serving as interim director of the social work school at Grand Valley State, located in Grand Rapids, Mich.

She is a licensed master social worker who holds a master's degree from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. from Michigan State University. In 2004, she was among 35 professionals and educators from the United States and the United Kingdom who were invited to present at the Oxford Round Table at Oxford University in England.

Schott's Bluffton presentation is also the university's annual Smucker Lecture. The lecture series, which brings significant contributors to the field of social work to speak on campus, is named for Carl Smucker, who taught social work at Bluffton for 34 years beginning in 1944.

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