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Planning Committee and Speaker Biographies

Hibah Awwad, Ph.D., is a program director in the Repair and Plasticity Cluster, Division of Neuroscience, at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Dr. Awwad manages oversight of the NINDS grants and cooperative agreements in the portfolio for basic and translational research for traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post-TBI Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Dr. Awwad works closely with the broader TBI research community, including federal agencies and national and international partners, to identify and address unmet research and health care needs. Previously, she served as a clinical assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and has been recognized with multiple awards for her excellence in teaching, mentoring, and research. Research interests include mechanisms of functional deficits and recovery following a mild or moderate TBI, and molecular, biochemical, neurological, behavioral, and imaging methods to study potential pharmacotherapies in rodent models of TBI. Dr. Awwad worked at the Gulf Pharmaceutical Industries in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, before earning her doctorate degree in pharmacology from the University of Houston, Texas.

Lisa L. Barnes, Ph.D., is the Alla V. and Solomon Jesmer Professor of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine and a cognitive neuropsychologist within the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center at Rush University Medical Center. She is also the Associate Director of the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. She joined the faculty of Rush as an assistant professor in 1999. Dr. Barnes has received many National Institutes of Health grants and has published over 300 manuscripts. She is internationally recognized

for her contributions to minority aging and minority health. Her research interests include disparities in chronic diseases of aging, cognitive decline, and risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease. She is the Principal Investigator of two longitudinal community-based studies of older African Americans, including the Minority Aging Research Study, which has been funded by the National Institute on Aging since 2004, and the African American Clinical Core, which she has led since 2008. She advocates for the recruitment of underrepresented groups into clinical studies and has received awards and fellowships from universities and organizations throughout the United States. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in biopsychology and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in cognitive neuroscience at the University of California, Davis.

Ernest J. Barthélemy, M.D., M.P.H., M.A., FCNS, is a neurosurgeon, global health scientist, and Chief of the Division of Neurosurgery at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University. He subspecializes in trauma and acute care neurosurgery, and his clinical practice focuses on surgical care for acquired brain injury, degenerative spinal conditions, and cancer affecting the central nervous system. Dr. Barthélemy is the founding director of the Downstate Global Neurosurgery Laboratory and cofounder and codirector of the Downstate Global Neuroscience Initiative. A Haitian-American native of Brooklyn, New York, Dr. Barthélemy completed his medical education and neurosurgery residency at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and subsequently completed postresidency fellowships in both clinical neurotrauma and in health equity at the University of California, San Francisco. From 2017 to 2019, he was a Paul Farmer Global Surgery Research Fellow at Harvard University, where he also obtained a Master of Public Health degree with concentrations in Global Health and Public Health Leadership. Dr. Barthélemy is the founding president of the Society of Haitian Neuroscientists, Chair of the Global Neurosurgery Committee of the American Society of Black Neurosurgeons (2024–2025), a member of the Global Neurosurgery Committee of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies for the 2024–2026 period, and a member of the Mission: BRAIN Medical Board.

Kevin Biese, M.D., serves as an associate professor of emergency medicine and internal medicine as well as a vice-chair of the Board of the University of North Carolina (UNC) Health Alliance and UNC Senior Alliance, the clinically integrated network across UNC Health’s care delivery system. He also serves as a consultant with West Health, a philanthropic organization based in San Diego dedicated to improving care for older adults. With the support of the John A. Hartford and West Health Foundations, he is the

coleader alongside Dr. Ula Hwang of the national Geriatric Emergency Department Collaborative, serving as Principal Investigator of the implementation arm. He is grateful to chair the first Board of Governors for the American College of Emergency Physicians Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation program, which has now improved the quality of care in over 475 emergency departments in 40 states and 4 countries.

Kristen Dams-O’Connor, Ph.D., is Director of the Brain Injury Research Center of Mount Sinai, a clinical neuropsychologist, and professor in the Departments of Rehabilitation Medicine and Neurology at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. She is also Director of the New York Traumatic Brain Injury Model System of Care and a Founding Board Member of the New York Neurotrauma Consortium. Her primary fields of clinical and research expertise are in long-term outcomes after brain injury, intersections of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and neurodegenerative disease, neuropsychological assessment, and cognitive rehabilitation for individuals with neurological diseases. Dr. Dams-O’Connor sees patients in the Rehabilitation Neuropsychology Faculty Practice for neuropsychological assessment and neurocognitive remediation. Under her leadership, the Mount Sinai Brain Injury Research Center develops and tests new treatments for TBI, investigates long-term health and functional TBI outcomes, and studies the mechanism and pathology of posttraumatic neurodegeneration and its relationships with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Her research is currently supported by federal grants from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research, Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and the Department of Defense. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical neuropsychology at Mount Sinai Medical Center, and a predoctoral internship in neurorehabilitation at the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine at New York University Medical Center. She received her Ph.D. from the University at Albany.

Neha Dangayach, M.D., M.S.C.R., FAAN, FNCS, FCCM, FCCP, is an associate professor of neurology and neurosurgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She serves as the Director of Neuroemergencies Management and Transfers (NEMAT) for the Mount Sinai Health System, and as the Research Director for Neurocritical Care and Recovery and Faculty Wellness Leader for the Mount Sinai Hospital. As the Principal Investigator of the NEMAT laboratory, she focuses on developing and implementing innovative solutions for preventing fragmentation of care for neuroemergencies, improving patient-centered outcomes and using technology for providing compassionate care from triage to recovery. She is a staunch advocate for patient-centered care, collaborative success, positive

thinking, mentorship, and life-long learning. Dr. Dangayach serves on committees for the American Academy of Neurology, the Society of Critical Care Medicine, the American College of Chest Physicians, Neurocritical Care Society, and the American Heart Association. She serves on the editorial boards of Chest, Critical Care Medicine, Neurology Clinical Practice, and the American Heart Association: Society of Vascular and Interventional Neurology Journal, among others.

Cindy Daniel is one of the nation’s leading experts in disability advocacy and awareness. With more than 25 years of involvement with disability law compliance and in developing and implementing policies and procedures for individuals with disabilities while she was on the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, she has become passionate about the prevention and treatment of brain injury. As the National Disability Coordinator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, she found there was a lack of expertise in disaster-related brain injury. Her experience makes her uniquely qualified to organize and disseminate best practices in the field of sports concussions. Having developed national protocols for people with disabilities enduring a disaster and then focusing on brain injury educational materials, Ms. Daniel now proposes to follow a similar process in the development of a Concussion/TBI Bill with a National Clearinghouse to provide vetted resources and information on brain injuries from national experts in the field of brain injuries. Her experience in the past years of topics that she presents about brain injuries ensures that people with disabilities, especially individuals who sustain a brain injury, have the resources and support they need to have a quality of life that they choose. She is a passionate advocate for the community that she represents and serves but most of all proudly belongs, working to address issues that for so long have gone unresolved.

Ramon Diaz-Arrastia, M.D., Ph.D., is professor of neurology, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, where he serves as Director of Clinical Traumatic Brain Injury Research. Dr. Diaz-Arrastia’s research interests have been focused for the past 20-plus years on understanding the molecular-, cellular-, and tissue-level mechanisms of secondary neuronal injury and neuroregeneration, with the goal of developing therapeutic interventions. Dr. Diaz-Arrastia received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at Baylor College of Medicine in 1988. After internship in medicine at Beth Israel Hospital/Harvard Medical School, he completed a residency and fellowship in neurology at Columbia University and Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. He served on the faculty at the University of Texas Southwestern from 1993 to 2011, and at the Uniformed Services University and the Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine from 2011 to 2016. Dr.

Diaz-Arrastia has published more than 300 primary research papers, as well as more than 50 invited reviews and book chapters. He has also served in several national committees related to traumatic brain injury research and practice, convened by the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

David A. Ganz, M.D., Ph.D., is a geriatrician at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System’s Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center, and the Center for the Study of Healthcare Innovation, Implementation, and Policy. He is also professor of medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles, and affiliated adjunct physician policy researcher at RAND. Dr. Ganz’s research program focuses on fall prevention, care coordination, implementation science, and quality improvement.

Janna Harris, Ph.D., has her doctorate in neurobiology and 20 years of experience in neuroscience research focusing on preclinical models of traumatic brain injury and aging. As a consultant with the Jackson Laboratory, Dr. Harris works collaboratively with clients to address the most pressing strategic and operational issues facing their research programs. Previously, she led the Brain Injury and Aging Laboratory and directed the Animal MRI Core resource at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Her research approach has combined animal models and translational neuroimaging with cellular, molecular, and behavioral neuroscience techniques. While working in the preclinical research domain, Dr. Harris has always maintained a strong connection to the ultimate goal of improving the lives of patients living with neurological injury and disease.

Stuart Hoffman, Ph.D., is Senior Health Science Officer for TBI and Brain Health, as well as the director for the TBI Actively Managed Portfolio for the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Research and Development (ORD). Dr. Hoffman is responsible for providing overall direction, program planning, development, and implementation for ORD TBI and brain health research; coordinating with ORD leads and federal partners in high-priority efforts in TBI and brain health; promoting TBI research data sharing; and working to expand the clinical trials network nationally to improve TBI treatments and diagnostics for veterans. Dr. Hoffman has authored over 45 peer-reviewed publications in translational research on neuroprotection and recovery of function after brain injury. Dr. Hoffman earned his doctoral degree in behavioral and molecular neuroscience at Rutgers University and completed his postdoctoral training in pharmacology at Virginia Commonwealth University’s medical campus.

Raquel C. Gardner, M.D., is a U.S. board-certified behavioral neurologist with additional advanced training in clinical research methods and biostatistics. Prior to relocating to Sheba Medical Center in 2022, she was a staff neurologist at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and associate professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco. She leads an international clinical research program focused on the intersections between traumatic brain injury, aging, and neurodegenerative disease. She is a Transforming Research and Clinical Knowledge in Traumatic Brain Injury (TRACK-TBI) investigator, Principal Investigator (PI) of the TRACK-GERI National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stro R01 study of acute TBI in older adults, former PI (prior to relocation) of the TRACK-VA Veterans Health Administration CSRD merit-funded study of acute TBI in older veterans, a prior Long-term Impact of Military-relevant Brain Injury Consortium/Chronic Effects of Neurotrauma Consortium (LIMBIC/CENC) Epidemiology Project co-investigator, and is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the International Initiative for TBI Research, where she leads the Special Populations Working Group.

Jeffrey Kaye, M.D., is the Layton Professor of Neurology and Biomedical Engineering at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). He directs the Layton Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease Center, ORCATECH (the Oregon Center for Aging and Technology), and ORCASTRAIT (the Oregon Roybal Center for Care Support Translational Research Advantaged by Integrating Technology). His long-standing research focus has been to advance methods to sustain healthy aging and treat conditions associated with aging. This work has been facilitated by a remarkable cadre of interdisciplinary colleagues and collaborators within OHSU, as well as many others at research centers around the world. Through these many associations, he has enjoyed extensive experience in team building, designing, conducting, and analyzing studies of aging and diseases of aging across a wide spectrum of environments (e.g., clinics, community residences, assisted living and nursing facilities, smart homes), designs (e.g., program projects, longitudinal natural history studies, proof-of-concept studies, randomized controlled trials, online surveys), and approaches (e.g., cognitive and behavioral testing, genetics, neuroimaging, biomarkers, in-home continuous assessment technologies). He leads or has led several longitudinal studies on aging and clinical trials including the Oregon Brain Aging Study, Intelligent Systems for Detection of Aging Changes, Ambient Independence Measures for Guiding Care Transitions, EVALUATE–AD (Ecologically Valid, Ambient, Longitudinal and Unbiased Assessment of Treatment Efficacy in Alzheimer’s Disease), DETECT-AD (Digital Evaluations and Technologies Enabling Clinical Translation for Alzheimer’s Disease), and the Collaborative Aging Research using Technology Initiative studies, all using pervasive computing

and sensing technologies for assessment and interventions. He serves on many national and international panels and boards in the fields of geriatrics, neurology, and technology and holds several major grant awards from federal agencies, national foundations, and industrial sponsors.

Jeremiah “Jeremy” Kinsman, M.P.H., has more than 20 years of experience working as an emergency medical services (EMS) clinician in both prehospital and emergency department settings. As an EMS Specialist with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Kinsman supports the administration of the National EMS Information System and leads the Office of EMS’s analytics and research initiatives. He previously served as an Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health Public Health Fellow with NHTSA and as a research associate in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine. His contributions to peer-reviewed literature span the fields of emergency medicine, public health, and health information infrastructure. His research encompasses a variety of topics, including the use of EMS data for public health research and analytics, as well as the development of digital data systems to support emergency medicine research, clinical quality measurement, and patient care. Kinsman’s work has helped improve understanding of how emergency departments are used for mental health and substance use disorders and has contributed to efforts aimed at enhancing prehospital care through data-driven approaches. He received his Master of Public Health degree from the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in 2015.

Frederick Korley, M.D., Ph.D., is a professor and the associate chair for Research in Emergency Medicine at the University of Michigan. He is also the scientific director of the Massey TBI Grand Challenge sponsored by the Weil Institute at the University of Michigan, which distributes up to $750,000 annually to investigators with high-risk and high-reward ideas for developing novel diagnostics and therapeutics in traumatic brain injury (TBI). Dr. Korley has conducted pioneering work in uncovering and quantifying gaps in emergency department evaluation and management of TBI and developed novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to bridge these gaps. He is a Principal Investigator (PI) of the multicenter National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke–funded study of hyperbaric oxygen treatment in treating acute severe TBI and its blood-based biomarker ancillary study, which examines the role of blood-based biomarkers in monitoring response to therapy. He is also the PI of two Department of Defense (DoD)-funded studies validating brain injury biomarkers in TBI and another DoD-funded study that is developing a microfluidic device for point-of-care measurement of TBI biomarkers. Dr. Korley’s research has been published as first-author manuscripts in high-impact journals such

as NEJM, JAMA, JAMA Cardiology, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and Lancet Neurology. He is the recipient of the 2021 Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Mid-Career Investigator Award. He is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigators.

Rachel Lazarus, Ph.D., is a neuroscientist at AARP and leads the Staying Sharp program, which provides educational content about healthy brain aging. She also serves as an ex-officio member of the National Academies’ Forum on Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) on behalf of AARP, advocating for improved clinical research and evidence-based clinical guidelines for geriatric TBI. Previously, they served as the research portfolio manager for the Defense Health Agency’s Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, now called the TBI Center of Excellence. Dr. Lazarus has also volunteered for several years as a Grand Award Judge in Cellular and Molecular Biology for the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair and as an Evaluator and Judge for the Regeneron Science Talent Search. Dr. Lazarus earned her Ph.D. degree at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS), where her work investigated blood-based biomarkers and neuroimmunological changes following traumatic brain injury. Following her time at USUHS, she contributed to research at the FlyLight Lab at Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus, focusing on Drosophila-based brain mapping and novel methods in immunofluorescent tagging for confocal microscopy.

Michelle Diaz Nelson, RN, M.S., Ph.D., is a nurse scientist whose research and clinical focus is on improving health care outcomes for underserved populations, particularly older adults with traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) and their caregivers. Holding a master of science and Ph.D. in nursing from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), she currently serves as an adjunct assistant professor in UCSF’s School of Nursing, Community Health Systems department. She has held previous roles as a Polytrauma and TBI Research Fellow at San Francisco Veteran Affairs San Francisco and a postdoctoral fellow at UCSF. Dr. Nelson’s research is aimed at identifying and addressing health care gaps, developing evidence-based interventions, and reducing disparities in care for older adults and their caregivers.

Lisa Opanashuk, Ph.D., is the program director for the pathobiology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and AD-related dementias (ADRD) research in the Neurobiology of Aging and Neurodegeneration Branch in the Division of Neuroscience at the National Institute on Aging. Her research interests include the etiology and disease progression of AD, mechanisms underlying AD pathobiology and neuroinflammation, and the role of TBI in AD/ADRD pathogenesis. Previously, she served as a program manager for neu-

rodegenerative diseases in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Research and Development (R&D) in the Biomedical Laboratory and Clinical Sciences R&D Services and as faculty at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, where her research focused on environmental risk factors for neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases and disorders. Dr. Opanashuk earned her doctorate in toxicology from the University of Rochester. She completed her postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Kentucky, where she investigated neurodevelopment and neurodegeneration, and at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where she studied the effect of environmental exposures on peripheral neurodegeneration.

Monique R. Pappadis, Ph.D., M.Ed., FACRM, is a tenured associate professor and vice chair in the Department of Population Health and Health Disparities at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. She is a fellow of the Sealy Center on Aging, and currently the Accessing Under-served Populations Lead for the Institute for Translational Sciences. Dr. Pappadis is also an investigator and the Director of Dissemination and Cultural Humility at TIRR Memorial Hermann’s Brain Injury Research Center in Houston, Texas. Her research aims to advance health and decrease ethnic minority health disparities, particularly among persons with traumatic brain injury (TBI) or stroke, as well as improve care transitions and continuity of care following acute and postacute care. Her recent work aims to improve screening for elder mistreatment with emphasis on vulnerable, older adults with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, as well as the intersection between elder mistreatment and TBI. She has a continued interest in minority aging, gender/sex disparities in rehabilitation, health literacy of patients and caregivers, and psychosocial adjustment to disability. She serves on a number of national committees, working groups, and professional organizations related to rehabilitation medicine and brain injury. She is recognized nationally for her professional service, contributions to the medical rehabilitation field, and mentorship of scholars in the United States and abroad.

David Reuben, M.D., is the Archstone Professor and Chief of the Division of Geriatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Dr. Reuben is also Director of the UCLA Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care Program and Program Director of the UCLA Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience program. Additionally, he serves as a member of the National Advisory Council on Aging for the National Institute on Aging. Dr. Reuben continues to provide primary care for frail older persons, including attending the inpatient geriatrics unit and making house calls. In 2012, Dr. Reuben received one of the first CMMI Innovations Challenge

awards to develop a model program providing comprehensive, coordinated care for patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. In 2018, he was awarded a multisite Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute and National Institute of Aging–funded pragmatic trial (D-CARE) to compare the effectiveness of health system–based versus community-based dementia care versus usual care. Previously, he served as president of the American Geriatrics Society and director and chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine. His bibliography includes more than 220 peer-reviewed publications in medical journals, 39 books, and numerous chapters. Dr. Reuben earned his medical degree from Emory University. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Rhode Island Hospital and his fellowship in geriatric medicine at the UCLA School of Medicine.

Laurie Ryan, Ph.D., is Chief of the Clinical Interventions and Diagnostics Branch in the Division of Neuroscience at the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health. She oversees the development, coordination, and implementation of the division’s clinical therapeutic and diagnostics research programs and infrastructure. Dr. Ryan also directs the Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias pharmacological clinical trials research portfolio. Dr. Ryan received her B.A. in human development from St. Mary’s College of Maryland in 1986 and her master’s in psychology from Loyola College in Maryland in 1991. She undertook doctoral training in clinical psychology with specialty focus in neuropsychology at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. She completed a neuropsychology-focused psychology residency at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, and clinical neuropsychology fellowship at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia. After completing her fellowship, Dr. Ryan joined the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. In 2003, Dr. Ryan became the assistant director for research, where she was responsible for overseeing clinical research development and implementation with a particular focus on clinical trials. In September 2005, Dr. Ryan joined NIA as the program director for Alzheimer’s clinical trials. In December 2013, she was promoted to the branch chief position.

Andrea Schneider, M.D., Ph.D., is an assistant professor of neurology in the Division of Neurocritical Care with a secondary appointment in the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Informatics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. She received her M.D. in 2014 from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and received her Ph.D. in epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2012. She completed a neurology residency and neurocritical care fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 2020. She is a

neuroepidemiologist who has authored over 115 peer-reviewed publications. Her research program is centered on traumatic brain injury (TBI) epidemiology and the prevention of TBI-related sequelae, with a focus on the prevention of TBI-related neurodegeneration and dementia. Dr. Schneider is the Principal Investigator of a National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke K23 grant and two Department of Defense grants. She is the recipient of the 2023 Derek Denny-Brown Young Neurological Scholar Award in Clinical Science from the American Neurological Association and the 2023 Rising Star Award from the National Neurotrauma Society.

Mary Tinetti, M.D., is the Gladys Phillips Crofoot Professor of Medicine (Geriatrics) and Public Health and emeritus Chief of Geriatrics at Yale School of Medicine. Her current research focus is on the net benefits and harms of commonly used treatments for older adults in the face of multiple health conditions. She is also leading a national effort to develop, test, disseminate, implement, and spread an approach to health care decision making, Patient Priorities Care, that focuses on aligning the care of older adults with multiple conditions on their individual health priorities. She chaired an Institute for Healthcare Improvement–led national group of advisors helping health systems become age friendly and is a faculty member for the Age Friendly Health System initiative. Her previous research focused on identifying the causes and consequences of falls and fall injuries, as well as preventive strategies for reducing their occurrence. Dr. Tinetti has published more than 250 articles. She completed her undergraduate and medical degrees at the University of Michigan. She has received numerous awards, is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, and is a MacArthur Foundation Fellow. She provides care to older adults at Yale New Haven Health.

Dana Waltzman, Ph.D., is a behavioral scientist on the traumatic brain injury (TBI) team in the Division of Injury Prevention at the Injury Center at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Her work focuses on understanding the public health burden, etiology, long-term effects, and prevention of TBI among children and adults. Her specialties are statistical analysis, cognitive neuroscience, and neuroimaging. Dr. Waltzman earned her doctorate in cognitive neuroscience with a minor in developmental psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles. She completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of California, San Francisco, and Stanford University.

Kristine Yaffe, M.D., is a Scola Endowed Chair, Epstein Endowed Chair, Vice Chair, and Distinguished Professor of psychiatry, neurology, and epidemiology at the University of California, San Francisco. She is an internationally recognized expert in the epidemiology of dementia, and cognitive

aging, and the foremost leader in identifying modifiable risk factors for dementia. Dr. Yaffe and her colleagues were the first to determine that potentially 30 percent of dementia risk is preventable, and her team has also been at the forefront of research investigating connections between traumatic brain injury and cognitive aging. She has served on several National Academies’ committees, including service as cochair of the Committee on the Public Health Dimensions of Cognitive Aging. With over 700 peer-reviewed articles dedicated to improving population brain health, her work has formed the cornerstone for dementia prevention trials worldwide. In recognition of these accomplishments, Dr. Yaffe has received several prestigious honors, including the American Academy of Neurology’s Potamkin Prize for Alzheimer’s Research in 2017, election to the National Academy of Medicine in 2019, the NIH Robert S. Gordon, Jr., Award in Epidemiology in 2021, and the Department of Veterans Affairs John B. Barnwell Award for Achievement in Clinical Research in 2022. Dr. Yaffe earned her medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania.