Bobbie Sackman

Bobbie Sackman is a leading expert on issues facing the elderly and a well-known advocate for the importance of providing community-based senior services to diverse populations. Bobbie spent 10 years delivering direct services to the elderly, including a stint as Director of a senior center in Brooklyn, NY. She also served as a Legislative Analyst in the NYC Office of Management and Budget. Since 1989 she has been Director of Public Policy for Council of Senior Centers & Services of NYC (CSCS), and has been a leading force in ensuring this professional organization fulfills its mission to assist over 400 senior centers, transportation providers, meals programs and other service providers in delivering quality programs and services to more than 300,000 older New Yorkers.

Bobbie is a passionate voice for seniors, advocating for and winning millions of city, state and federal dollars for services for older New Yorkers, both in new funds and restoration of budget cuts. Each year, she trains and leads hundreds of seniors and service providers to speak directly to their elected officials. In 2008, she led a successful citywide advocacy campaign, generating 20,000 individually signed letters – in English, Spanish and Chinese -- from seniors, persuading the City of New York to withdraw its misguided plan to restructure and consolidate senior centers. Bobbie has coordinated the CSCS Senior Center Study, the largest of its kind nationally, with responses from over 3600 seniors in three languages. The findings will be released in December 2009.

Besides placing or being quoted in nearly 100 media stories on issues related to aging in America, including segments on WCBS-TV, WNBC-TV, and National Public Radio, as well as articles in The New York Times, New York Daily News, numerous state and local publications and online news sources, Bobbie now writes the “Power of Aging” Blog. She has also authored or edited numerous public policy papers including, “No Time to Wait: The Case for Long Term Care Reform (2009) and “Hunger Hurts (2007), archived at www.cscs-ny.org.

Bobbie is an expert on issues and advocacy related to aging, including: aging as a woman’s issue; community-based senior services as an effective support system for the aging; the need for community-based long term care in national and state healthcare plans; poverty and hunger among the elderly; grassroots advocacy; diversity among the elderly; and caregiving for the elderly. She has delivered presentations to the National Council on Aging, New England Conference on Aging, National Association of Nutrition and Aging Programs, and the Hong Kong Council of Senior Services, among others. She is also an active member of the National Council on Aging Public Policy Committee, the Advisory Committee to the Chairman of the NYS Senate Aging Committee, the NYC Senior Advocates Coalition, the Adult Protective Services Task Force, and the NYC Elder Abuse Network.

In 1996, Bobbie co-founded Pride Senior Network, a NYC organization advocating on behalf of LGBT seniors, serving as its president and as an editor of The Networker, the first national newspaper covering these issues. She was a contributing editor to “Outing Age,” the first publication on aging from the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force (2000), and initiated and co-edited the organization’s first paper on elder caregiving (2004).

Bobbie holds a BA from Hunter College and an MSW from Ohio State University. She was an adjunct professor in Hunter College’s Urban Affairs and Planning Master’s Program, and the Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Yeshiva University, NYC. Bobbie has received numerous awards for her advocacy work, including the Rose Kryzak Legislative Award, Queens Interagency Council on Aging; and the Henrietta Rabe Humanitarian Award, New York State Coalition on Aging.