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VOL.34, NO.12
A passion for teaching technology
Spreading the word Green grew up in Buffalo, New York, and her grandparents lived nearby. “Growing up, I was always very comfortable around older adults,” said Green, now 58. “I was very close to my grandparents and I always helped them. It was just natural for me.” She attended Northwestern University with aspirations of becoming a doctor or a
DECEMBER 2022
I N S I D E …
PHOTO BY MARK GREEN
By Margaret Foster Say you call a loved one who lives alone, just to check in, but they don’t pick up the phone. As it rings and rings, you wonder if they’re okay. What if the worst has happened? At times like those, technology may save the day, or at least save an in-person safety visit. A quick video call to a device called an Amazon Echo Show, for instance, can give you a live view inside your loved one’s house using its home monitoring function. It even swivels to show you a better view. Many new devices — Echo Dots, Ring doorbells, GrandPads — can make life better for older adults and their families. But how to find out about them? Who can teach you what’s out there? That’s where Joan Lipman Green comes in. A former speech pathologist based in Potomac, Maryland, Green now spends most of her time teaching older adults about technology, both in classes and oneon-one. Green, author of four books, calls herself an online tech coach. “Older adults can be tremendously helped by all of this technology, and there’s nowhere to go to get that kind of help,” she said. “So many of the tools that used to cost a lot of money people don’t have to pay a penny for now. You just have to know that it’s there and how to set it up,” Green said.
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Joan Lipman Green started her career as a speech therapist, but now she enjoys teaching older adults how to use technology to improve their lives. Green offers group classes and one-on-one sessions that “can change the trajectory of somebody’s quality of life,” she said.
teacher. She ended up majoring in speechlanguage pathology and got her first job at what was then Fairfax Hospital, helping people recover from strokes or head injuries. “I was always looking for ways to do things more efficiently,” Green recalled. “I got into technology, and I saw it as a tremendous tool.” She routinely passed along technology tips to her fellow speech therapists and clients.
When the first of her four children was born 30 years ago, Green established her own practice, Innovative Speech Therapy. Over the years, she started helping her parents and other older adults implement technology into their lives. “There are very few places that they can go to learn how to use tech,” Green said. See TECH COACH, page 12
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