David Gamse

CEO Emeritus at Jewish Council for the Aging (JCA)
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David Gamse is a gerontologist who works to help people age well. From 1990 until his retirement in 2020, he was CEO of the Jewish Council for the Aging® (JCA®), an award-winning service organization headquartered in Rockville, Maryland. Working with a multi-disciplinary staff and more than a thousand dedicated interns and volunteers, Gamse directed programs that helped more than 31,000 people a year in the Greater Washington, D.C. area to maintain independence, dignity, vitality, and self-respect. JCA programs also help people of different generations understand, learn from and care for one another. In December 2020, JCA named him CEO Emeritus.

Before coming to JCA, Gamse worked 15 years at AARP where he was a senior manager responsible over the years for the nationwide development and marketing of AARP’s educational and service programs and for international programs related to an aging workforce.

Earlier, Gamse had worked as an adjunct faculty member at the University of South Florida’s Aging Studies Program.

A frequent speaker on aging and on nonprofit association management, Gamse has led programs for the American Management Association, White House Conference on Aging and U.S. Department of Labor. He has appeared as a guest expert on dozens of radio and television programs throughout North America. He has represented U.S. policy on aging at international symposia in Israel and Canada. He has authored many articles on aging, and for several years was a columnist on aging for local newspapers.

Gamse’s volunteer work has included membership on several research advisory boards and board membership or other leadership positions with the Workforce Investment Board of Montgomery County, Maryland; WorkSource Montgomery; Age-Friendly Montgomery; and the Key Philanthropic Advisory Committee of the American Society of Association Executives.