Catherine Thurston

Catherine Thurston is the Senior Director for Programs at Services & Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Elders (SAGE), where she oversees all social services and community-based programming.  Since coming to SAGE, Catherine has overseen the launches of both the nation’s first federally-funded National Resource Center on LGBT Aging as well as the nation’s first senior center devoted to LGBT older adults.

Ms. Thurston has worked in the fields of aging and mental health for twenty-four years. Prior to joining SAGE in 2005, she was the Director of Alzheimer’s Programs at Cobble Hill Health Center in Brooklyn.  The first decade of Ms. Thurston’s career was spent at one of the nation’s first geriatric mobile mental health programs, providing case management and psychotherapy to homebound frail older adults.

Catherine has been published in the areas of aging and dementia as well as LGBT Aging.  She is a member of the American Society on Aging’s LGBT Aging Issues Leadership Council and was recently appointed to the steering committee of the National Resource Center on Nutrition and Aging as well as being a member of AARP’s Caregiver Advisory Panel.

Ms. Thurston holds a Masters in Social Work from Hunter College.