María P. Aranda, PhD, is a professor at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, executive director of the USC Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging, and director of the Outreach, Recruitment and Engagement core of the USC Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. She is also the Co-Lead for the Research Education Core of the USC AD-RCMAR. Her research specializations address the unique needs of middle-age and older adults with co-occurring medical, psychiatric, and neurocognitive illnesses, and their caregiving families from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. She focuses on psychosocial intervention development, and evaluation of bilingual, evidence-based interventions that are responsive to community needs. Dr. Aranda is a licensed clinical social worker with over 30 years of experience providing mental health services to middle-aged and older adults and their families including people with limited English proficiency. She has served on several national and state committees dedicated to elucidating research priorities and standard of care guidelines for individuals, families and communities affected by chronic diseases including Alzheimer's and related dementias.

Deborah Barnes, PhD, MPH, is an epidemiologist and health services researcher with broad expertise in research methodology related to the design and analysis of observational studies, clinical trials, and implementation studies. She has co-authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, including many in high-impact journals such as JAMA and Lancet Neurology. In addition, Dr. Barnes has received independent research support from a wide range of funders including the NIH, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense, and Alzheimer’s Association. Her research focuses on: 1) identification of modifiable risk factors for cognitive impairment and dementia in older adults; 2) development of dementia risk models to estimate the impact of risk reduction strategies and to target interventions toward those who are at greatest risk; and 3) development and evaluation of behavioral interventions to delay onset and slow progression of cognitive impairment and dementia.

Antonia Bennett, PhD, is a patient-reported outcomes methodologist and health services researcher. Her research investigates valid and reliable approaches for assessing patient-reported outcomes in longitudinal studies, in particular symptoms, physical function and quality of life. Currently, her research is focused on the use of patient reported outcome measures in patient populations where dementia may be present. The objective is to determine at what level of cognitive impairment can patients no longer provide valid and reliable responses. Dr. Bennett is director of the Measurement core of the NINR-supported Palliative Care Research Cooperative. She also investigates the potential value of activity trackers and other wearable device data in clinical trials and clinical care. Dr. Bennett is faculty director of the UNC Patient-Reported Outcomes Core (PRO Core), which provides consultation and software for administering PRO studies.

Partha Bhattacharyya, PhD, is the director of The Office of Research Resources (ORR) and program director in Population and Social Processes (PSP) Branch within the Division of Behavioral and Social Research (BSR). As the director for ORR, Dr. Bhattacharyya coordinates, directs, and implements initiatives related to research data and resources supported by BSR and the NIA. He is a project scientist for Understanding America Study, the largest internet panel survey jointly supported by NIA and the Social Security Administration. He advises NIA leadership on new developments in data collection, analysis, and data sharing, supporting the NIA mission. As a PSP program director, he primarily oversees NIA’s health economics, health services, behavioral economics, and pragmatic trials portfolios. He was instrumental in developing the behavioral economics and pragmatic trials portfolio for improving care for patients with AD/ADRD. In collaboration with multiple NIA divisions, Dr. Bhattacharyya leads the development of the IMPACT Collaboratory to improve care of persons with dementia.