What began as a grant-supported effort to address gaps in care for medically underserved communities has grown into one of the area’s most consistent forums for sharing practical, evidence-based approaches to inclusive care.
On Wednesday, March 4, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s College of Nursing will bring together health professionals, community partners and caregivers from across the region for the 10th annual Inclusive Care Conference—a daylong virtual conference focused on one of health care’s fastest-growing needs: caring for older adults.
The event, which will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET, is free and open to the public, with optional continuing education units available for a fee. Registration is available at utc.edu/nursing/conference.
This year’s theme, “Caring for Aging Populations,” reflects a demographic shift already reshaping how providers, families and communities think about health, access and support across the lifespan.
The conference is co-sponsored by two projects funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration: the Clinical Academic Partnerships: Breaking Down Barriers to Care in the Family Nurse Practitioner program, and the AHEAD-RN project in the undergraduate program—which works to improve outcomes for underserved patients, including older adults.
By 2050, the number of Americans age 65 and older is projected to reach nearly 90 million, a more than 50% increase that is driving urgent demand for age-friendly care across allied health professions.
“As our population ages, every health professional will encounter older adults with complex, interconnected needs,” UTC College of Nursing Dean Chris Smith said. “This conference helps current and future providers build the knowledge and partnerships required to deliver age-friendly, equitable care across our community.
“What makes this event distinctive is the way it brings health care, social services and community organizations to the same table. By learning from one another, we strengthen the systems that allow older adults to remain healthy, supported and engaged where they live.”
This year’s Inclusive Care Conference speakers include:
- Senior Program Officer Jane Carmody, The John A. Hartford Foundation
- Senior Policy Development Manager Megan Wolf, Trust for America’s Health
- Assistant Dean of Graduate Programs and Adult Gerontology Acute Care Program Director Christi Denton, UTC College of Nursing
- Monica Crane, UT Health Science Center College of Medicine Division of Geriatrics
- Public Health Program Director Emma Davis, Tennessee Department of Health
- Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Program Director Jason Peter, UTC College of Nursing
- Age-Friendly Program Director Stephanie Blaine, UTC College of Nursing
- Administrative Director of Nursing Tammy Stokes, Maury Regional Medical Center
- Assistant Professor Jaewon Kang, Colorado State University Department of Occupational Therapy
- Michelle Hunter, First-Centenary United Methodist Church minister of congregational care
- Special Agent Chip Andy, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Medicaid Fraud Control Division
“From the beginning, this conference was designed to meet real needs in our community and give providers practical tools they can use immediately,” said Farron Kilburn, project manager for UTC’s Clinical Academic Partnerships: Breaking Down Barriers to Care program—and one of the Inclusive Care Conference’s original organizers. “What’s sustained it over time is the shared commitment from educators, practitioners and community partners to improve how care is delivered to our most vulnerable populations.”
Kilburn noted that community-centered care is reflected in how the College of Nursing approaches education, research and outreach tied to aging populations.
UTC offers an adult gerontology acute care nurse practitioner program led by Dr. Christi Denton.
Vicky B. Gregg Chair in Gerontology Dr Kristi Wick heads the interprofessional MobileMOC mobile outreach health clinic, which provides care for older adults in rural Southeast Tennessee communities and serves as a hands-on learning environment for students across health disciplines.
In addition to two federal projects, the UTC College of Nursing is home to three Tennessee Department of Health projects dedicated to caring for older adults: the AHEAD-RN project in the undergraduate program; EngAGING Communities, an initiative that equips congregations and community leaders to better support older adults and caregivers; and Connecting Community Partners: Breaking Down Barriers to Heart Health, which uses local partnerships to help older adults manage and maintain cardiovascular health.
The Inclusive Care Conference organizers (from left): Dr. Brooke Epperson, Maggie Duckworth, Dr. Amber Roaché and Farron Kilburn.
This year’s event also marks a milestone for the College of Nursing, which has built the Inclusive Care Conference into an annual interprofessional gathering point for clinicians, social workers, counselors, therapists, educators, students and community advocates focused on reducing health disparities.
Kilburn said the conference has remained intentionally interprofessional since its launch, bringing together campus and community voices to address persistent gaps in care for vulnerable populations across the region.
“It was born out of meeting the need in our medically underserved community in Hamilton County and the 10 surrounding counties,” she recalled. “How do we help our most vulnerable populations and augment our curriculum to better serve our communities around caring for those populations?”
Each year, the conference centers on a different population or challenge tied to health disparities, with past themes addressing rural and urban health, chronic pain, health care access, refugee and Indigenous communities, disability, and mental health and unhoused support systems.
This year’s focus on aging populations builds on that history while responding to demographic changes already affecting health systems, caregivers and communities nationwide.
The March 4 program reflects that scope. Sessions will cover age-friendly public health systems, dementia and primary care, late-life depression, palliative and hospice care, caregiving, home and interior design for aging in place, and how cities can become more age-friendly.
UTC Nurse Practitioner Program Director Amber Roaché said the goal is to provide both professionals and caregivers with practical tools they can use in real-world situations.
“Helping empower providers and caregivers to say, ‘I’ve noticed something different in the person I’m living with or caring for—this is who I need to take them to,’” Roaché said. “It’s also about helping the people providing those services recognize resources they may not have known were available.”
That emphasis on access and practical application has helped shape the conference’s structure and intended audience.
“I think it’s important that this conference is free, that it’s online and that it’s open to health care practitioners and interested community agencies,” Kilburn said. “The speakers are all nationally known and locally revered.”
Keeping the conference virtual was a deliberate decision. After moving online during the COVID-19 pandemic, organizers found attendance and engagement held steady while access widened.
“What we found is that the virtual platform makes it sustainable as far as affordability and also accessible for anybody who wants to attend from the community,” Kilburn said.
Roaché added that feedback reinforced the choice.
“We do surveys on the conference and we found that people really enjoyed the flexibility of it being online,” she said.
That accessibility also allows busy professionals to join individual sessions if they cannot attend the full day.
Beyond the annual event itself, the conference has produced lasting infrastructure for the region.
One result of that work is the Chattanooga Care Connector, an online directory of services used by social workers, providers, students and community members.
“The Care Connector brings free and low-cost health care resources into one place,” Kilburn said. “You can search by service or by location, which makes it easier for providers and community members to connect people with the help they need.
“The directory includes medical, dental and mental health resources as well as food, clothing and other basic needs, and it is updated several times a year so referrals stay current.”
The conference also serves as a front door for community partnerships, and organizers expect particularly strong participation this year from social service agencies and faith communities connected to healthy aging initiatives in the region.
“I think this serves as a really good outreach,” Roaché said. “It’s really neat to see the community folks be involved.”
Over the past decade, more than 40 local organizations have presented. Past conference presenters have included Clinica Medicos, Cempa Community Care, LifeSpring Community Health, the Chattanooga Area Food Bank, the Orange Grove Center and UT Health Science Center.
For Kilburn, who helped launch the first conference and has worked on four different grants supporting it, the 10-year mark is less a finish line than proof the model works.
“When I first started this, we had the hope and the seed that it would be sustainable,” she said. “So to see that come to fruition 10 years later is really exciting.”
At the beginning, she recalled, organizers worried that no one would show up.
“Ten years later, we don’t worry about that anymore,” Kilburn said. “There are people who email us and ask, ‘When is it coming?’”
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2026 College of Nursing Inclusive Care Conference
