Maximizing Cognitive and Functional Abilities (Innovative Designs in Environments for an Aging Society, Inc.)

Margaret P. Calkins, Ph.D., M.Arch.

Margaret P. Calkins, Ph.D., is President of I.D.E.A.S. Inc. (Innovative Designs in Environments for an Aging Society), a consultation, education, and research firm dedicated to exploring the therapeutic potential of the environment—social and organizational as well as physical—particularly as it relates to older adults who are frail and impaired. She is also Senior Fellow Emeritus of the Institute on Aging and Environmental at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Dr. Calkins holds degrees in both psychology and architecture. A member of several national organizations and panels that focus on issues of care for older adults with cognitive impairment, she speaks frequently at conferences nationally and internationally. She has published extensively, and her book Design for Dementia: Planning Environments for the Elderly and the Confused (National Health Publication, 1998) was the first comprehensive design guide for special care units for people with dementia.

Dr. Calkins is Director and a founding member of SAGE (Society for the Advancement of Gerontological Environments), and has been a juror for numerous design competitions