Liz Taylor

Liz Taylor, founder & principal of Aging Well Consortium, is an award-winning journalist, speaker, consumer educator, and pioneer on a host of aging issues.

Through her writing, speaking and one-on-one consulting, she helps older individuals and their families deal with, and find solutions to, the enormous challenges of reaching  “a good old age.” She also hopes to encourage new ideas, new blood and refreshingly new attitudes in a profession that has long been stuck in the status quo.

Liz began her career in the early 1970s as a consumer fraud investigator for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). In 1976, Elizabeth Dole, an FTC Commissioner at the time, appointed Liz director of a nationwide investigation of the nursing home industry. Fascinated by what she found, she’s worked in the aging field ever since – almost 35 years.

In the 1980s, Liz established one of the first geriatric care management businesses in the Pacific Northwest, helping thousands of older adults and their families make good decisions about their aging, care and housing needs.

In the 1990s, her focus became intensely personal as she cared for both her parents for eight years. Her mom had Alzheimer’s disease, and her dad was blind, deaf, and very frail.  Although caregiving is rarely easy, Liz learned two important lessons: one, “do only as much as you can” – which means she didn’t burn out because other people were able to step in when she needed help; and two, caring for a parent is enormously rewarding, providing memories that last a lifetime.
 
In 2000, Liz coined the phrase, “Aging Deliberately,” to express her firm belief that most of us age “accidentally,” without planning or forethought. Instead, she said, we must face our aging head on, learning how to age on purpose –- deliberately! Only then will we have some control over what happens to us.

Creating a business with this name, Liz became well known for her work:
 

• From 1994 - 2008, she wrote an enormously popular weekly column on aging in The Seattle Times that attracted thousands of readers regionally and nationally (www.seattletimes.com). Today she’s expanded her column into a longer monthly e-newsletter, Aging Deliberately, that’s available via this website by subscription  (click here).

• Through her speaking engagements, she’s become established as a highly informed, engaging authority that makes aging more interesting and meaningful -- and often more fun.

• She consults one-on-one with families and older adults to help make wise choices.

• Deploring the outdated ways in which much of the business of aging is carried out   today, especially by government and eldercare providers, Liz calls for a wholesale change in their missions, values, and attitudes. Until that happens, she says, we’re not likely to ever see the seismic shifts we need that will allow most of us to age successfully. It’s another reason to be informed – so we can protect our own interests.

In 2009, Liz’ company, Aging Deliberately, became The Aging Well Consortium, expanding the platform for including many other voices, experiences and ideas. It’s an opportunity to bring professionals, citizens and experts from a broad range of disciplines and experiences together for our readers – to offer new and interesting ideas.

It also brings our readers together with carefully vetted partners, advertisers and vendors so they’ll have easy access to high quality businesses to serve their needs.
  
Today, Liz consults, writes and lectures widely on a variety of aging topics. Her mission is to educate families, older people, community planners, legislators, and providers on important issues that affect how we age.

In 2002, Liz was selected as one of 15 journalists to attend a weeklong conference on aging in New York City, sponsored by the International Longevity Center – USA and funded by The New York Times Foundation. In 2005, she was a delegate to the White House Conference on Aging in Washington, DC. In 2007, she received the American Geriatric Society’s Aging Awareness Media Award for outstanding reporting on health care for older adults and the Excellence in Media Award from the Washington Association of Housing & Services for the Aging.