About me
Jeanette Leardi is a social gerontologist, community educator, writer, editor, public speaker, and aging wellness leader who has a passion for older adult empowerment and finds special personal fulfillment helping Boomers and older generations identify and share their wisdom with others.
Her decade of experiences as the primary caregiver to both of her parents inspired her encore career goals of changing perceptions about the aging process and helping people appreciate elders’ inherent dignity, wisdom, and unique value as mentors and catalysts for social change.
She accomplishes this through her articles for such online and print outlets as Next Avenue and 3rd Act Magazine, appearances on national broadcasts, and successful presentations and classes in journaling, spiritual writing, memoir writing, brain fitness, health literacy, ageism, intergenerational communication, creativity, and caregiver support to people of all ages.
Jeanette’s publishing experiences include positions at Newsweek, Life, People, Condé Nast Traveler, and Sesame Street magazines and The Charlotte Observer. She has a master’s degree with honors in English from Rutgers University and a graduate certificate in gerontology from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
What changed for you after age 50?
I found my encore career as a gerontologist.
What would you tell the 20 or 30-year-old YOU?
Life contains many more options than you realize.
What do you think you’ll tell yourself in retrospect at the end of your life?
I have absolutely no idea; my answer here would only reflect what I tell myself now, and I am continuously changing.
Who or what inspires you and why?
I am inspired by the social consciousness and drive of some of the younger people I know. They show us that stereotyping by age or generation is a futile and actually harmful thing to do.
