David Lansdale Named VP, Training Development, at SeniorNet; SeniorNet Selects Nationally Recognized Expert to Lead Education Efforts.

Business Editors/Internet Writers

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 19, 2000

SeniorNet, the premier online and offline destination for seniors, today announced the appointment of Dr. David Lansdale as the organization's Vice President, Training Development.

Prior to joining SeniorNet, Dr. Lansdale, 49, launched a nationally recognized program, Linkages, through which frail older adults learned to use e-mail and the Internet to promote community amongst themselves and their family, friends and healthcare providers. The program has been successfully introduced in a variety of settings, including a senior center, HUD independent living communities, continuing care and assisted living facilities, a board and care facility, and a nursing home.

Over the past three years, Dr. Lansdale also developed a nationally recognized program, Geriatrics in Primary Care, through the Stanford Faculty Development Program. Physicians from across the country come to Stanford University for a month-long program and are trained as facilitators to teach geriatrics for the primary care setting. Using a train-the-trainer dissemination model, they then return to their home institutions where they teach fellow faculty and medical school residents the content of seven seminars.

"I am delighted to join SeniorNet the nation's premier online and offline training organization, for doing what I love best -- equipping seniors to train their peers to master and benefit from the latest technology," said Dr. Lansdale, who has worked with seniors for more than a decade. "With its huge and well-established network of more than 200 Learning Centers across the U.S. and an unparalleled, award-winning online destination, SeniorNet provides the perfect forum for leveraging my training expertise to reach many more people than I could have through any other channel.

"SeniorNet, which has already trained more than 100,000 seniors nationwide and is currently training more than 60,000 a year," Dr. Lansdale added, "has proven that it, more than any other organization, has developed a truly scalable model of the sort required to grow without bounds and to reach every older adult in need of our services. The organization's 15 years of hands-on market research, rich proprietary content and tools, extensive roster of long-term blue-chip corporate sponsors, deep domain expertise, a pool of loyal and enthusiastic volunteers and dedicated staff, and enormous trust and credibility among its target audience all combine to make SeniorNet the organization best positioned to both close the Digital Divide and, as our motto states, bring wisdom to the information age."

Dr. Lansdale's work with the LinkAges program was first presented to a national audience through the SPRY foundation conference on Older Adults, Health Information and the World Wide Web in Bethesda, Maryland, in March 1998. In November 1999, at the annual Gerontological Society of America conference in

San Francisco, Dr. Lansdale presented some of the results of his research, and was featured in an Associated Press article in November 1999 that appeared in the New York Times and was discussed in radio programs across the country. Since that time, the program has also been featured on CNN, CBS Marketwatch, and KQED. Dr. Lansdale presented additional findings of the program at the Gerontological Society of America in November 2000 in Washington D.C. Coverage of the program has generated multiple requests from individuals, groups and organizations across the country interested in replicating the program in their facilities, their communities, and their geographic regions

"SeniorNet has had an explosive year, with the opening of more than 45 Learning Centers and the addition of thousands of new members," said SeniorNet President and Chief Executive Officer Ann Wrixon. "And just this week, we won our third consecutive Yahoo! Internet Life "Best 100 Sites of the Year" award for Best Senior site on the Web, which further complements the Webby we garnered for Best Community Site. With his exceptional experience in the fields of aging and community-based education, David fits perfectly into the SeniorNet family. He is a proven and tested educational innovator who has built an extraordinary track record of integrating an understanding of seniors and their needs with a thorough grasp of the technology training they need to gain access to a world of information and people. We're setting the pace in the seniors technology training arena right now, and an educator of David's caliber will help take SeniorNet to the next level."

Dr. Lansdale has had extensive experience in the assisted living space, having served as director of residential services in an assisted living facility for more than four years. He also has worked as a director of educational outreach and family services for the Alzheimer's Association in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Dr. Lansdale has a Bachelor of Arts from Oberlin College, and a Master's, Evaluation Specialist, and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University's School of Education.

About SeniorNet

SeniorNet (http://www.seniornet.com) is based on the belief that computer literacy not only gives older adults access to a world of information and people, but also allows them to share their knowledge and wisdom with the world at large. Based in San Francisco and founded in 1986, SeniorNet is now a major international nonprofit organization that teaches older adults to use computers and the Internet (SeniorNet has trained more than 100,000 people at its nationwide Learning Centers) and enriches the lives of millions more through its award-winning Web site. With a thriving online community and a nationwide network of more than 200 Learning Centers staffed by more than 4,000 volunteers, SeniorNet provides an online/offline, "bricks and clicks" destination to a segment of the population too often neglected in the Information Revolution. With sponsorship by major corporations and foundations, private and public donations, and a backbone of individual members and contributors, SeniorNet continues to grow and offer new opportunities to those touched by its mission.