Old School Anti-Ageism Clearinghouse with Kyrié Carpenter and Ryan Backer

Ageism, according to the World Health Organization, refers to how we think, feel and act towards others or ourselves based on age. It affects people of all ages and exists in our institutions, our relationships and ourselves. Many of us have experienced the effects of Ageism when it comes to older adults in the workplace, in hospitals, in public, in nursing homes, and in both the media and the entertainment industries. 

Kyrié Carpenter was trained as a therapist and works as a facilitator and public speaker, specializing in ageism and dementia. She is the editor of the Changing Aging blog, author of Healing Dementia, and is adjunct faculty at USI and Pacifica Graduate Institute,

Ryan Backer is an age activist, public speaker and self-proclaimed old person in training. Ryan was a fellow with Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research’s Antibigotry Convening. Ryan does care work, organizes interage events and groups, writes zines, and sits on the board of two community-based nonprofits .Ryan has an undergraduate degree in Gerontology with a minor in Black Studies from York College, City University of New York.

Old School curates, creates, commissions and disseminates free resources to educate people about ageism and how to end it; hosts and facilitates spaces where age advocates around the world can connect; collaborates with other pro-aging organizations; and shows up for other social-justice movements.

Old School is working towards a world where everyone has the opportunity to live long and to live well. We are advancing the movement to dismantle ageism, and we are leveraging the fact that everyone ages (and experiences age bias) in order to address the intersectional nature of all oppression—and of all activism.