Who We Are - CAPABLE

Meet the Investigators

Sarah L. Szanton, PhD, CRNP, Principal Investigator, JHU School of Nursing	David Bishai, MD, PhD, JHU Bloomberg School of Public Health
Cynthia M. Boyd, MD, MPH, JHU Bloomberg School of Public Health	Laura N. Gitlin, PhD, JHU School of Nursing
Jack Guralnik, MD, PhD, University of Maryland School of Medicine	Bruce Leff, MD,  JHU School of Medicine
David Roth, PhD, Center on Aging and Health	Elizabeth K. Tanner, PhD, RN, JHU School of Nursing
Roland J. Thorpe, Jr., PhD, JHU Bloomberg School of Public Health	Jennifer Wolff, PhD, JHU Bloomberg School of Public Health

Meet the Clinicians and Staff

• Gary Felser
  Gary Felser heads up CAPABLE’s relationship with Civic Works, the organization which implements the hone improvements for the program.  After graduating with degrees in Planning and Architecture, Gary worked for the Baltimore City Planning Department.   After leaving the Planning Department, he left to create his own custom cabinet business, which ran successfully for over 35 years.  In 2011, Gary began working for Civic Works, in the Cities for All Ages program, providing home repairs for low-income senior home-owners throughout Baltimore City.  He supervises Civic Works construction leaders and helps train our AmeriCorps apprentices.  Mr. Felser holds a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland and is in the process of soon becoming a Certified Aging in Place Specialist, with an improved skill-set to better help our seniors.
• Allyson Evelyn-Gustave
  Allyson Evelyn-Gustave has been practicing as an OT for 31 years. She graduated from Towson University in 1986. Her career started in New Jersey in various settings including in-patient and outpatient rehab, driver training, a residential and community head trauma program and her private practice, Rehab Options, specializing in cognitive remediation. Allyson moved to Baltimore in 1994 and worked primarily in home health and acute care before venturing into the world of research as an interventionist for Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. She continues to provide OT consultation services to research participants as well as develop curriculum and train occupational therapists to be CAPABLE interventionists.
• Jill Roth

  Jill Roth, RN, co-designed the nursing aspects of CAPABLE which included helping develop the policies, procedures, program and training materials, for the program.  She has developed training curriculum and trained and supported clinicians in multiple States as they learn how to provide the CAPABLE program.  Roth combines her love of working in the community with her love of geriatric nursing in her work on CAPABLE.

  Prior to joining CAPABLE, Roth worked for seven years as an RN at St. Joseph’s Medical Center as well as at Chase Brexton Health Services; Johns Hopkins Hospital; and Healthcare for the Homeless.

  She also worked for Americorps teaching women’s health issues and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Liberia, West Africa.

  A Mother of two teenagers and two dogs, Roth holds a Bachelors Degree in Nursing from Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Michigan State.  In her spare time, she enjoys hiking in the woods, traveling, watching her kids play sports and making pottery in her studio.