Profile: Wayne Caron
“Education is something that emerges when both teaching and learning are present in students’ classroom experience, and when we as teachers are learning things from students that only they know.”
Wayne Caron
Dr. Wayne Caron’s philosophy of education is apparent in his teaching, research, therapy, and community intervention projects.
Dr. Caron obtained an undergraduate degree in psychology and graduate degrees in Family Social Science from the University of Minnesota. He began teaching in 1991, at the U of M Medical School, while holding joint appointments in Nursing, Public Health, and Neurology. He has worked as adjunct professor at St. Mary’s University and the University of St. Thomas before assuming his current position as lecturer in Family Social Science. Dr. Caron teaches courses on family research, families and aging, and intimate relationships. He also coordinates the teaching internship program in Family Social Science.
He is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and has practiced therapy for 21 years in clinical areas such as domestic violence, divorce mediation, cross-cultural and immigrant family work, adolescent and family chemical dependency and progressive neurological illnesses. Dr. Caron’s interest in gerontology was piqued as a teenager as he volunteered at an area nursing home. In 1986 he became project director of Dr. Pauline Boss’ five-year longitudinal study funded by the National Institute of Aging. Dr. Caron’s years of work in hospital settings culminated in the establishment of the Family Caregiving Center for individuals and families with Alzheimer’s disease and end of life issues. Approximately 20 families meet each week with three facilitators with the aim of creating new knowledge about how to most effectively cope with incurable limitations.
“We are developing a community that consists of people who face 10 to 15 years of their lives without solutions to problems that must be lived with, such as dementia and chronic or terminal illness.”
Dr. Caron has provided training for nursing home medical directors, taught in foster care training programs and trained daycare workers. His frequent presentations have included such venues as the American Medical Directors Association, the Alzheimer’s Association, Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, National Alzheimer’s Disease Education Conference, and the Annual National Conference for Nurse Practitioners.
(This article appeared in the spring 2001 FSOS newsletter, Interactions).