Faculty Biographies
Cynthia Carlsson, MD, MS
Professor of Medicine, Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology
Louis A. Holland, Sr., Professor in Alzheimer’s Disease
Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor
Director, Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute
Clinical Core Leader, Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Madison, WI
Dr. Carlsson is Director of the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute. She is a geriatrician at the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin, where she treats veterans with dementia and memory issues. Dr. Carlsson is a faculty member of the Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology within the Department of Medicine and a Louis A. Holland, Sr., Endowed Professor in Alzheimer’s Disease. She serves as the Clinical Core leader in the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center; and she is a recipient of a University of Wisconsin Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professorship. Dr. Carlsson is a member of the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging (NIH/NIA) Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers Clinical Task Force. Her research focuses on early detection and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease dementia, focusing on the role of vascular risk factors in disease onset and progression. Her research has been supported by NIH, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and other institutional and philanthropic organizations.
Sanjay Asthana, MD
Associate Dean for Gerontology
Professor and Head, Division of Geriatrics & Gerontology
Director, NIA/NIH Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center
Duncan G. and Lottie H. Ballantine Endowed Professor of Geriatrics
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Madison, Wisconsin
Dr. Asthana received his medical degree at the University College of Medical Sciences, University of Delhi in New Delhi, India and completed his residency training in internal medicine at the University of Saskatchewan School of Medicine in Canada. He obtained his Geriatric Fellowship training at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed an additional Senior Staff Fellowship in Alzheimer’s disease research at the Laboratory of Neurosciences of the National Institute on Aging (NIA).
Dr. Asthana is internationally recognized for his research on the neurobiology of estrogen and related gonadal hormones and their effects on cognition in healthy postmenopausal women and those with dementia. His additional area of research interest includes preclinical biomarkers of AD. For over 25 years, Dr. Asthana’s research program has been supported by multiple peer-reviewed grants from NIH, the US Department of Veterans Affairs, and various philanthropic organizations. He has published over 350 peer-reviewed papers to date, with several published in high-profile journals.
Paris Adkins-Jackson, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Sociomedical Science
Columbia Mailman School of Public Health
New York, New York
Paris “AJ” Adkins-Jackson, PhD MPH is a multidisciplinary community-partnered health equity researcher and Assistant Professor in the Departments of Epidemiology and Sociomedical Sciences in the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. Dr. AJ’s research investigates the role of structural racism on healthy aging for historically marginalized groups like those racialized as Black and Pacific Islander. Her primary project examines the role of life course adverse policing exposure on psychological well-being, cognitive function, and biological aging for older adults racialized Black and Latinx/e. Her secondary project tests the effectiveness of restorative, art-based, anti-racist, multilevel, structural interventions to increase community health and institutional trustworthiness through multisector and community partnerships. Dr. AJ is an HBCU alumna of the psychometrics doctoral program at Morgan State University and a board member of the Society for the Analysis of African American Public Health Issues.
Barbara Bendlin, PhD
Professor, Department of Medicine
Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology
Research Education Component Leader, Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center
Deputy Director, UW Center for Health Disparities Research (CHDR)
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Madison, Wisconsin
Dr. Barbara Bendlin is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the director of the Neuroscience and Public Policy Graduate Program, and Deputy Director of the UW Center for Health Disparities Research. Her NIH funded research examines why some people may have elevated or decreased risk for dementia, including factors such as diet, physical activity, social determinants of health, and gut microbiome.
Beth Fields, PhD, OTR/L, BCG
Department of Kinesiology
University of Wisconsin – Madison
Madison, Wisconsin
Dr. Fields is a board-certified occupational therapist, an Assistant Professor of Kinesiology, and a geriatric health services and caregiving researcher. She went to Colorado State University and the University of Pittsburgh for occupational therapy and postdoctoral training. Her research focuses on developing, testing, and implementing person and family-centered assessments and interventions in the hospital and home settings. Dr. Fields is passionate about finding ways to improve the quality of care and life of aging adults and their caregivers/partners.
Jana E. Jones, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Neurology
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Madison, Wisconsin
Dr. Jones is a clinical neuropsychologist. She is the Director of the Neuropsychology Section in the Department of Neurology and conducts memory clinic evaluations for the UW Health Memory Clinics in Geriatrics and Neurology.
Mary Kerwin MSSW, APSW
Clinical Social Worker
UW Health Hospital & Clinics Memory Assessment Clinic
Madison, Wisconsin
Mary Kerwin, MSSW, APSW is a social worker at UW Health Geriatric Clinic, which provides memory assessments and follow-up care for patients ages 65 and older, as part of an interdisciplinary team. Her practice also includes working with geriatrics primary care patients.
Tamara LeCaire, MS, PhD
Scientist III
Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Madison, Wisconsin
Dr. LeCaire is a Scientist with the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute. She leads the Data Analysis and Evaluation team to support the Dementia Diagnostic Clinic Network, Educational and Public Health teams and Community Engagement programs led by WAI. Dr. LeCaire is also leading the WAI team supporting evaluation of the statewide Dementia Care Specialist program for the Department of Health Services CDC BOLD program grant and serves as an evaluation partner for the Fox Valley Memory Project’s Administration for Community Living grant. Dr. LeCaire received her MS in Preventive Medicine and PhD in Population Health Sciences at the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health and has worked as a Research Scientist in the School for the past 30 years. Dr. LeCaire’s research interests include program implementation approaches, outcomes research and quality improvement work with WAI, for determining the effectiveness of programs to improve health outcomes for persons at risk for or living with Mild Cognitive Impairment or dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease or related dementias.
Meghan K. Mattos, PhD, RN
Associate Professor of Nursing
University of Virginia School of Nursing
Charlottesville, Virginia
Dr. Mattos is a PhD-prepared nurse scientist from the University of Virginia with training in gerontological nursing, dementia care and management, sleep, and digital health, and clinical expertise in the care of patients with neurological disorders. Dr. Mattos received her Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing and a Certificate in Health Equity from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. She practiced as a nurse in acute and critical care settings, trained with an NIH-funded Center for Technology and Chronic Disease and F31 Fellowship, and developed her research with older adults with mild cognitive impairment from descriptive to intervention work. Dr. Mattos is currently PI on an NIH-NIA-funded randomized controlled trial to evaluate the impact of an Internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia intervention on sleep and the extent to which it contributes to cognitive health in individuals with mild cognitive impairment.
Brian Patterson MD MPH
Associate Professor
BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine with affiliate appointments in Industrial and Systems Engineering, Biostatistics and Medical Informatics.
UW Health Physician Administrative Director for Clinical AI
Madison, Wisconsin
Dr. Patterson graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a bachelor of science in bioengineering and went on to complete a master’s degree in public health and a medical degree at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He continued at Northwestern for his residency training in emergency medicine, where he served as chief resident. Dr. Patterson’s research interests are in clinical informatics and geriatric emergency medicine. His work aims to use routinely collected clinical data to generate actionable insights to improve the quality and safety of emergency care for older adults. To achieve these goals, Dr. Patterson works in collaboration with investigators from the business and engineering schools as well as in the department of biostatistics and medical informatics. His current work focuses on automated risk scoring to identify older adults at high risk for falling after ED visits and automating referral to interventions to prevent future falls.
Dr. Patterson is a tenured Associate Professor, as well as the inaugural Medical Informatics Director for Predictive Analytics and Clinical Decision Support at UW Health. In this role, Dr. Patterson works with hospital leadership to best use information technology to support clinical, educational, and research priorities. He advises on a range of issues, including optimizing the design, implementation, dissemination, evaluation, and routine use of clinical data and information systems to improve healthcare quality, operational efficiency, educational programs, and research.
David A. Wolk, MD, FAAN
Professor of Neurology
Director, Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center
Co-Director, Penn Institute on Aging
Co-Director, Penn Memory Center
Division Chief, Cognitive Neurology
Department of Neurology
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Dr. David Wolk is Professor of Neurology, Chief of the Division of Cognitive Neurology, Director of the National Institute of Aging funded Penn Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Co-Director of the Penn Institute on Aging, and Co-Director of the Penn Memory Center. His primary clinical interest has been in the diagnosis and care of individuals with a variety of neurodegenerative conditions. His research has focused on the cognitive neuroscience of memory decline associated with aging and Alzheimer’s Disease using techniques including behavioral testing, structural and functional MRI, and FDG and molecular PET imaging. Much of this work is also directed at examining biomarkers, including behavioral and neuroimaging, that differentiate healthy aging from the earliest transition to AD and their potential role in understanding disease mechanisms and incorporation into treatment trials. Another related thread of his work has been to better understand, classify and predict sources of heterogeneity in AD. Dr. Wolk has had sustained NIH support since 2003 and has been the principal or co-investigator on numerous local, national and international studies, including therapeutic trials.
Dr. Wolk completed his medical training at Johns Hopkins University, a Neurology residency at the University of Pennsylvania, and clinical Fellowship training in Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School; where he also completed a post-doctoral research fellowship studying memory in Alzheimer’s Disease. Amongst a number of honors, he is the recipient of the American Academy of Neurology’s Norman Geschwind Prize in Behavioral Neurology.