The BG SIG committee are deeply saddened to learn of the recent passing of Amy Shaw. Amy was a wonderful behavioral gerontologist and doctoral student at Western Michigan University studying under Dr Jonathan Baker. This sudden and tragic event is not only a devastating loss to Amy’s family and loved ones, but a huge loss to the field of behavioral gerontology.

Amy was passionate about working with older adults from a behavioral perspective, she taught classes on the psychology of aging and worked with older adults with intellectual disabilities. Not only that, but Amy supervised masters students who were providing clinical services to older adults in a nursing home and she was passionate about pursuing a career in academia so she continue to disseminate behavioral gerontology and inspire the next generation of behavioral gerontologists.

We all thoroughly enjoyed her talk at ABAI about consent and assent when working with older adults with neurocognitive disorders such as dementia. In fact, this talk won the 2024 BG SIG student award; Amy is pictured (right) below receiving the award from BG SIG chair Dr Zoe Lucock at the ABAI convention in May this year. We know that Amy was destined for great things in behavioral gerontology and we send our deepest condolences to her partner, family, friends, and colleagues.

In honour of Amy, the Behavioral Gerontology Special Interest Group Committee have voted to rename our student award to “The Amy Shaw Student Award for Behavioral Gerontology”