Academy for Learning in Retirement looks at ‘Medications and the Older Patient’ in February sessions

In four February sessions, New Mexico State University’s Academy for Learning in Retirement (ALR) will focus on “Medications and the Older Patient,” with Mark Stratton, Ph.D., professor emeritus in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Oklahoma.

Stratton will discuss the problems older people encounter when medications are used inappropriately, excessively and unnecessarily and how to use medications to minimize their risk, ALR said. The series will conclude with a presentation on managing chronic non-cancer pain with a focus on avoiding opioids. The presentations will be Tuesdays, Feb. 8 and 15 and Thursdays, Feb. 10 and 17. Each program begin at 10:30 a.m. Log in begins at 10 a.m.

Register at dacc.nmsu.edu/ALR. ALR will e-mail a Zoom link the evening before each presentation. 

The fee is $20 for each month’s four ALR presentations in February, March and May. The charge will be $10 in April when there will be only two presentations. 

Here are details about ALR presentations throughout the remainder of the spring:

• March: “Dutch Renaissance artist Hieronymus Bosch,” with Margaret Goehring, Ph.D., associate professor in the NMSU Department of Art. Goehring will discuss Bosch’s art, including the “Garden of Earthly Delights” in a series that will explore theories that have been proposed to explain his imagery. The presentations will be Tuesdays, March 15 and 22 and Thursdays, March 17 and 24.
• April: “Why Spain Was Able to Conquer Tenochtitlan,” with NMSU Anthropology Department Head Rani Alexander, Ph.D. Alexander will explore why Spain was able to conquer Tenochtitlan, the largest city in pre-colonial Mexico, in 1521. She will explore the pandemic that developed and spread during and after the conquest. The presentations will be Tuesday, April 12 and Thursday, April 14.
• May: “Climate,” with New Mexico Climatologist David DuBois, Ph.D., who is a member of NMSU’s Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences. DuBois will discuss what climate means and how we know that it is changing, impacts of climate change and how humanity can respond to it. The presentations will be Mondays, May 9 and 16 and Wednesdays, May 11 and 18.

Because of the pandemic, ALR shifted from live, in-person to Zoom presentations in fall 2020.

ALR is a nonprofit started in 1992 by former NMSU President Gerald Thomas, along with retired deans Thomas Gale, Virginia Higbie, Flavia McCormick and others, including former professor and teacher Clarence Fielder.