Pamela Teaster, a professor in the Department of Human Development at Virginia Tech, has been named director of the university’s Center for Gerontology. She previously served as the associate director for research at the center.

Before joining Virginia Tech’s faculty, Teaster served as director and chairperson of the Graduate Center for Gerontology/Department of Gerontology as well as the director of doctoral studies and associate dean for research for College of Public Health at the University of Kentucky.

She established the Kentucky Justice Center for Elders and Vulnerable Adults and the Kentucky Guardianship Association and was its first president. She is the secretary general of the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse.

She serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect and Frontiers.

Teaster is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education. She has served as both board member and president of the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse.

She is a past recipient of the Rosalie Wolf Award for Research on Elder Abuse, the Outstanding Affiliate Member Award of the Kentucky Guardianship Association, and the Distinguished Educator Award of the Kentucky Association for Gerontology.

She has received funding from The Retirement Research Foundation, the Administration on Aging, the National Institute on Aging, the Kentucky Cabinet for Families and Children, the National Institute of Justice, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, the Health Resources and Services Administration, and the Office of Victims of Crime.

Her areas of scholarship include the mistreatment of elders and vulnerable adults, public and private guardianship, end-of-life issues and decision-making, ethical treatment of vulnerable adults, human rights issues for vulnerable adults, public policy and public affairs, public health ethics, and quality of life. She is the coauthor or coeditor of several books and more than 100 peer-reviewed articles, reports, and book chapters.