CCommittee Biographies

Dan G. Blazer, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D. (Chair), is the J.P. Gibbons Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus at Duke. He served nine years as chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Dean of Medical Education at Duke School of Medicine. Dr. Blazer's research interests include the epidemiology of late life substance use disorders and depression, psychosocial predictors of adverse health outcomes, and trajectories of health outcomes. He has worked on the Established Populations for Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly (EPESE) and the National Comorbidity Study. He is the author or editor of 36 books, including The Age of Melancholy: Depression and Its Social Origins and a research methods textbook for clinical psychiatry research. He has produced a second edition of Emotional Problems in Later Life and authored or co-authored more than 200 published abstracts and more than 450 peer-reviewed articles. Dr. Blazer was president of the American Association of Geriatric Psychiatry and is a current member of the editorial board of JAMA Psychiatry. He has been a member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) since 1995. Currently he is the chair of the IOM Board on the Health of Select Populations. He has served as a member or the chair of many past IOM committees. In 2014, he received the Walsh McDermott Award from the IOM for Lifetime Distinguished Service.

Kristine Yaffe, M.D. (Vice Chair), is the Scola Endowed chair and a professor of psychiatry, neurology, and epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and vice chair of clinical and translational research in the Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Yaffe was named the first holder of the Roy and Marie Scola Endowed Chair in Psychiatry. Dr. Yaffe is dually trained in neurology and psychiatry and completed postdoctoral training in epidemiology and geriatric psychiatry, all at UCSF. Dr. Yaffe serves as the director of the UCSF Dementia Epidemiology Research Group, which conducts research relating to cognitive function and dementia in aging populations throughout the United States. A primary focus of the group is determining predictors and outcomes of cognitive decline and dementia in older adults. Dr. Yaffe is also the principal investigator of the data core for the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at UCSF. In addition to her positions at UCSF, Dr. Yaffe is the chief of geriatric psychiatry and the director of the Memory Disorders Clinic at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center. In addition to her research and clinical work, Dr. Yaffe has greatly contributed to training fellows and faculty in clinical research and in career development and mentorship.

Marilyn Albert, Ph.D., is professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, with joint appointments in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Department of Neuroscience at the School of Medicine, the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the School of Arts and Sciences, and the Department of Mental Health in the School of Public Health. She is director of the Division of Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Neurology and director of the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. Dr. Albert's major research interests are in the area of cognitive change with age, disease-related changes of cognition (with a particular focus on Alzheimer's disease) and the relationship of cognitive change to brain structure and function, as assessed through imaging. She was a member of the Planning Committee to Organize a Workshop on Alzheimer's Diagnostic Criteria Validation: Exploration of Next Steps.

Sara J. Czaja, Ph.D., is the Leonard M. Miller Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. She is also the scientific director of the Center on Aging at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and the director of the Center for Research and Education for Aging and Technology Enhancement (CREATE), a National Institutes of Health–funded center that focuses on older adults and technology systems. Dr. Czaja's research interests include aging and cognition, e-health, caregiving, human–computer interaction, and functional assessment. She has published extensively in the field of aging, with several books, book chapters, and scientific articles. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Gerontological Society of America, and the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. In addition, she is the president of Division 20 (Adult Development and Aging) of the American Psychological Association. She is a member of the Board on Human-Systems Integration and served as a member of the National Research Council Committee on the Role of Human Factors in Home Health Care and was co-chair of the Panel on Human Factors Research Needs for an Aging Population. She is a member of the editorial boards for The Gerontologist, Human Factors, and The Journal of Applied Gerontology.

Donna Fick, R.N., Ph.D., FGSA, FAAN, is a distinguished professor in the College of Nursing and College of Medicine at Penn State and co-director of the Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence at Penn State. Her research focuses on improving detection and management of delirium superimposed on dementia in older adults and inappropriate medication use. She is principal investigator of two large National Institutes of Health–funded multisite randomized clinical trials to decrease the severity and duration of delirium and to improve nurse detection and management of delirium superimposed on dementia. She is board certified as a geriatric clinical nurse specialist by the American Nurses Credentialing Center, Editor of the Journal of Gerontological Nursing, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.

Lisa P. Gwyther, M.S.W., L.C.S.W., is an associate professor in the Duke University Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and directs the Duke University Center for Aging's Family Support Program, a state-funded first responder, clearinghouse, training, and technical assistance center for North Carolina families and professionals caring for people with Alzheimer's disease. She also directed education for the National Institute on Aging–funded Bryan Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at Duke Medicine for 26 years. Ms. Gwyther is a past president of the Gerontological Society of America, and she was the first John Heinz Senate Fellow in Aging and Health. Ms. Gwyther has published more than 144 articles, book chapters, and books on Alzheimer's care and family caregiving research. Ms. Gwyther was honored as 1 of 30 founders of the national Alzheimer's Association. Ms. Gwyther received awards for leadership in aging services and won national and state awards for documentaries on Alzheimer's disease, depression in late life, and creativity in Alzheimer's programming.

Felicia Hill-Briggs, Ph.D., A.B.P.P., is professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, with joint appointments in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in the School of Medicine, the Department of Health, Behavior and Society in the School of Public Health, the Department of Acute and Chronic Care in the School of Nursing, and the Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology, and Clinical Research. She is director of Cognition and Behavior for the Johns Hopkins–University of Maryland Diabetes Research Center and senior director of Population Health Research and Development for Johns Hopkins Healthcare. Dr. Hill-Briggs's research focuses on assessment and intervention strategies for chronic disease management in high-risk groups, populations of health disparity, and persons with functional impairment and disability. She has been a principal investigator on clinical trials of behavioral and educational interventions, with a focus on decision-making and problem-solving approaches to behavior change and self-management. She collaborates on multicenter epidemiologic and intervention studies examining cognitive and neuropsychological processes in chronic disease. Her research includes translation of research to clinical practice and community-based settings. She has won the Nelson Butters Award for Research Contributions to Clinical Neuropsychology from the National Academy of Neuropsychology.

Sharon K. Inouye, M.D., M.P.H., is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School (Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center), holder of the Milton and Shirley F. Levy Family Chair, and director of the Aging Brain Center at the Institute for Aging Research, Hebrew SeniorLife. Dr. Inouye is board certified in general internal medicine and geriatric medicine and trained in clinical epidemiology and biostatistics. Dr. Inouye's research interests include the epidemiology and outcomes of delirium and functional decline in older persons, reversible contributors to cognitive decline with aging, the interrelationship of delirium and dementia, and improving measurement methods for cognition. Dr. Inouye developed the Confusion Assessment Method, a widely used method for delirium screening, translated into more than 14 languages, and the Hospital Elder Life Program for delirium prevention, which has been implemented in more than 200 hospitals worldwide. She currently directs the Successful AGing after Elective Surgery study, a large program project from the National Institute on Aging exploring innovative risk factors and long-term outcomes of delirium. Dr. Inouye has authored more than 220 scientific articles and was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 2011. Her clinical practice includes dementia and functional assessment for geriatric and homeless populations. In addition to her ongoing clinical and research work, Dr. Inouye has mentored more than 90 students, fellows, and faculty in clinical research and aging.

Jason Karlawish, M.D., is a professor of medicine, medical ethics and health policy, a senior fellow of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, and a fellow of the Institute on Aging at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the associate director of and a practicing clinician in the Penn Memory Center. He is also director of the Penn Neurodegenerative Disease Ethics and Policy Program and the Alzheimer's Disease Center's Education, Recruitment and Retention Core. Dr. Karlawish's research focuses on ethical and policy issues in human subjects research and on the care of persons with cognitive impairment. He has investigated issues in Alzheimer's disease drug development, informed consent, quality of life, research and treatment decision making, decisional capacity, and voting by persons with dementia.

Arthur F. Kramer, Ph.D., is the director of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science & Technology and the Swanlund Chair and Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his Ph.D. in cognitive/experimental psychology from the University of Illinois in 1984. He holds appointments in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience program, and the Beckman Institute. Dr. Kramer's research projects include topics in cognitive psychology, cognitive neuroscience, aging, and human factors. A major focus of his labs recent research is the understanding and enhancement of cognitive and neural plasticity across the life span. He is a former associate editor of Perception and Psychophysics and is currently a member of six editorial boards. Dr. Kramer is also a fellow of the American Psychological Association, American Psychological Society, a former member of the executive committee of the International Society of Attention and Performance, and a recipient of a National Institutes of Health Ten Year MERIT Award. Dr. Kramer's research has been featured in a long list of print, radio, and electronic media, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, CBS Evening News, Today Show, NPR, and Saturday Night Live. He has been a member of multiple National Academies committees.

Andrea Z. LaCroix, Ph.D., is professor of epidemiology and director of the Women's Health Center of Excellence in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). She has an extensive research program devoted to studies on factors associated with healthy aging in postmenopausal women. She has conducted numerous randomized clinical trials and observational studies on the prevention of cancer, fracture, heart disease, and frailty in postmenopausal women, as well as large prospective studies of exceptional aging and maintaining function into later life. Prior to joining the faculty of UCSD in October 2013, Dr. LaCroix was co–principal investigator of the Women's Health Initiative Clinical Coordinating Center at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. Dr. LaCroix received her doctoral degree in epidemiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1984, and she completed a postdoctoral fellowship in cardiovascular disease at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1985. Before going to Seattle, Washington, in 1989, Dr. LaCroix was a federal government epidemiologist at the National Center for Health Statistics and then the National Institute on Aging. She served on the National Advisory Council on Aging for the National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Aging, from 2009 to 2012. In 2010, she received the McDougall Mentoring Award which recognizes and honors faculty members who demonstrate an outstanding investment in their mentees' professional development and success as independent researchers or clinical scientists. She has authored more than 260 scientific publications.

John H. Morrison, Ph.D., is dean of basic sciences and of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, professor of neuroscience, and the Willard T.C. Johnson Professor of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine (Neurobiology of Aging) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He served as chair of the Department of Neuroscience until 2006, when he was appointed as dean. Dr. Morrison earned his bachelor's degree and Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University and completed postdoctoral studies at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. He then served as a faculty member at The Scripps Research Institute until he joined the faculty at Mount Sinai in 1989 to develop and lead a new Center for Neurobiology. Dr. Morrison's research program focuses primarily on the neurobiology of aging and neurodegenerative disorders, particularly as they relate to cellular and synaptic organization of cerebral cortex. Dr. Morrison has published more than 300 articles on cortical organization, the cellular pathology of neurodegenerative disorders, the neurobiology of cognitive aging, and more recently the effects of stress on cortical circuitry. He has also edited five books on related topics. He is ranked among the most highly cited investigators in neuroscience (i.e., Institute for Scientific Information Highly Cited/Neuroscience) and has served on numerous editorial boards, advisory boards, National Institutes of Health committees, and the board of directors of the American Federation for Aging Research. Dr. Morrison has served as president of both The Harvey Society and The Cajal Club, and was elected to the Council of the Society for Neuroscience in 2010 and served in that capacity until 2013.

Tia Powell, M.D., founded and directs the bioethics master's program and directs the Center for Bioethics at Montefiore Health System and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where she is also professor of clinical epidemiology and clinical psychiatry. She has bioethics expertise related to public policy; dementia; decision-making capacity; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues; mediation and consultation; and public health disasters. She served 4 years as executive director of the New York State Task Force on Life and the Law, New York State's bioethics commission. She has served the Institute of Medicine on multiple workgroups. Dr. Powell was a 2013–2014 Health and Aging Policy Fellow; based on her work during that fellowship she continues as a senior advisor for the Department of Health and Human Services to assess and develop federal health initiatives related to dementia and ethics. She is a board certified psychiatrist and a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, the American Psychiatric Association, and the Hastings Center.

David Reuben, M.D., is the director of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Multicampus Program in Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology and director of the UCLA Claude Pepper Older Americans Independence Center. He is a geriatrician-researcher with expertise in studies linking common geriatric syndromes (e.g., functional impairment, sensory impairment, malnutrition) to health outcomes such as mortality. He also has extensive experience with interventional research (e.g., comprehensive geriatric assessment, practice redesign) that has focused on health care delivery to older persons. His most recent work focuses on developing a program of comprehensive, coordinated patient-centered care for patients with dementia and their families. He has served as a member of multiple committees at the Institute of Medicine.

Leslie Snyder, Ph.D., is professor of communication sciences and principal investigator at the Center for Health Intervention and Prevention at the University of Connecticut (UConn). She has master's and Ph.D. degrees in communications from Stanford University, and was director of the Center for Health Communication and Marketing, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Center of Excellence, at UConn from 2006–2013. She conducts research on media effects, communication campaigns, health, and international communication. Dr. Snyder is particularly interested in the intended and unintended effects of public communication and how individuals interpret messages. Under the CDC Center grant, Dr. Snyder directs a team testing a video game aimed at adults ages 18–26 in urban environments. She has funding from the National Cancer Institute to examine the effects of food ads on child and teen obesity. In the past, she was funded by the National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse to study the effect of advertising exposure on youth alcohol consumption. In addition, Dr. Snyder directs an ongoing meta-analysis project examining the effectiveness of U.S. and international media campaigns on a variety of health topics. She is currently examining the effectiveness of AIDS campaigns under a National Institute of Mental Health Grant and the effectiveness of nutrition campaigns. Dr. Snyder has also served as a consultant on a number of national campaigns, including the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) media campaign against youth drug abuse, the CDC's Verb campaign promoting youth activity, the March of Dimes and the CDC's folic acid promotion campaign, and NIDA's fetal alcohol syndrome campaign. She has also consulted for the National Academy of Sciences on diversity and campaigns.

Robert B. Wallace, M.D., is the Irene Ensminger Stecher Professor of Epidemiology and Internal Medicine at the University of Iowa College of Public Health and College of Medicine. He is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine, where he has previously chaired two boards and participated in many consensus committees. He has been a member of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and the National Advisory Council on Aging of the National Institutes of Health. He is a former chair of the Epidemiology Section of the American Public Health Association. He is the author or co-author of more than 400 peer-reviewed publications and 25 book chapters, and has been the editor of 4 books, including the current edition of Maxcy-Rosenau-Last's Public Health and Preventive Medicine. Dr. Wallace received the Walsh McDermott Award from the Institute of Medicine for Lifetime Distinguished Service. Dr. Wallace's research interests concern the causes and prevention of disabling conditions of older persons. He is a co–principal investigator of the Health and Retirement Study, a long-term prospective sample of older Americans exploring health, social, family, and economic policy issues, and is a co–principal investigator of the Women's Health Initiative, a national study exploring the prevention of important chronic diseases of older women. He has been a collaborator in several international studies of the prevention of chronic illness in older persons. Dr. Wallace is currently a member of the Advisory Board for the National Research Council's Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education.