Max B. Rothman, JD, LL.M, has spent more than fifty years working at the intersection of aging, public service, law, education, research, and community leadership. He understands both the systems that shape later life and the human stories behind them.
He was a Peace Corps volunteer in Venezuela, where from 1966 to 1968, he worked in underserved barrios, helping communities plan roads, schools, clinics, and basic services. That work took him from community service to public administration and then to Florida International University, where he founded the Center on Aging. Along the way, his focus became the needs of older adults.
Since 2010, as President and CEO of Alliance for Aging, Max B. Rothman has stayed focused on the same core questions: How do we plan for an aging population? How do we keep people connected, fed, safe, and independent? And how do we treat aging as a shared community responsibility rather than a private crisis?
His story is less about the positions he has held. It’s about a man who has spent decades helping people find the support they need to live with dignity.
If you or someone you love needs help navigating aging services in Miami-Dade or Monroe Counties, the Elder Helpline is a good place to start: 305-670-HELP or 1-800-96-ELDER.
We met Max 30+ years ago when we were working on “What It Feels Like to Grow Older“, our first Telling Stories Through Visuals (TSTV) project. At the time, Max was District Administrator for the former Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. Max answered many of our questions so that we better understood the aging process as we led our intergenerational, interactive story-telling and art-making sessions. As a result, WLRN-TV produced a documentary that featured what became our model program. And now that are producing What It Feels Like to Grow Older – Part II, Max, once again, is answering many of our questions!
What It Feels Like to Grow Older – Part II video Documentary is a new Telling Stories Through Visuals project being produced by Center for Folk and Community Art, a 501c3 nonprofit outreach organization co-founded in 1989 by Stewart Stewart and Dena Stewart, both artists, directors, and lead program facilitators.



