The Claude Pepper Foundation has provided support to the Alliance for Aging Research since 2005 through its support of the Claude Pepper Award for Advancing Healthy Aging presented at the organization’s Annual Bipartisan Congressional Awards Dinner and Roundtable events to recognize a Democratic member of Congress who is leading the way for policies encouraging medical research, innovation, and care to benefit Americans as they grow older. The Alliance for Aging Research is a nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the pace of scientific discoveries and their application to vastly improve the universal human experience of aging and health.
The Alliance was founded in 1986 in Washington, D.C., and has since become a valued advocacy organization and a respected influential voice with policymakers. The Alliance believes that advances in research help people live longer, happier, more productive lives and reduce health care costs over the long term and that access to the latest scientific information empowers people to take control of their health. The Alliance strives to advance science and enhance lives through a variety of activities and initiatives—from policy issues to provider and consumer health programs—that generate knowledge and action on age-related issues. Since 1986, federal support for aging research has more than tripled, private research and development in aging-related health has reached an all-time high, and new discoveries are making a lasting difference to the lives of millions of Americans.
Following is a list of distinguished recipients of the Claude Pepper Award for Advancing Healthy Aging and the year in which it was received:
- 2021 – U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)
- 2020 – U.S. Representative Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ)
- 2019 – U.S. Representative James E. Clyburn (D-SC)
- 2018 – U.S. Representative Steny Hoyer (D-MD)
- 2017 – U.S. Senator Tom Carper (D-DE)
- 2016 – U.S. Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA-43)
- 2015 – U.S. Representative Diana DeGette (D-CO-1)
- 2014 – U.S. Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL)
- 2013 – U.S. Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC)
- 2012 – U.S. Representative Allyson Y. Schwartz (D-PA)
- 2011 – U.S. Senator Richard J. Durbin (D-IL)
- 2010 – U.S. Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr. (D-PA)
- 2009 – U.S. Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI)
- 2008 – U.S. Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA)
- 2007 – U.S. Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND)
- 2006 – U.S. Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN)
- 2005 – U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA)
2021: U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)
The 2021 Claude Pepper Award for Advancing Healthy Aging was presented by Thomas J. Spulak, Chair and President of the Claude Pepper Foundation to Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) at the Alliance for Aging Research, 28th Annual Bipartisan Congressional Awards event held virtually on Tuesday, September 21, 2021.