Full Name
Katherine (Katy) Abbott, PhD, MGS
Credentials
PhD, MGS
Role
Health Care System (HSC) Core
Primary title
Professor of Geontology
Primary Institution
Miami University
Complete Titles
Professor of Gerontology
Executive Director, Scripps Gerontology Center
Bio
Katherine (Katy) Abbott, PhD, MGS, is executive director of the Scripps Gerontology Center and a professor of gerontology at Miami University in Oxford, OH. Her research and teaching focus on preference-based person- centered care and the social networks and health of older adults receiving long-term services and supports (LTSS). She co-founded Preference Based Living, a collaborative organization with the mission to conduct studies that build understanding of individual preferences through a valid and reliable assessment called the Preferences for Everyday Living Inventory for people receiving LTSS. Also, she leads an interdisciplinary team providing training and guidance to LTSS providers on ways to integrate preferences into care, communicate preferences to care partners across disciplines and shifts, and evaluate efforts through quality improvement frameworks.
Full Name
Margarita Alegría, PhD
Credentials
PhD
Role
Member, External Advisory Panel
Primary title
Chief, Disparities Research Unit
Primary Institution
Massachusetts General Hospital
Complete Titles
Chief, Disparities Research Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital
Professor, Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School Harry G. Lehnert, Jr.
Lucille F. Cyr Lehnert Endowed Chair, Mass General Research Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital
Bio
Margarita Alegría, PhD, focuses her research on the improvement of health care services delivery for diverse racial and ethnic populations, conceptual and methodological issues with multicultural populations, and ways to bring the community’s perspective into the design and implementation of health services. Among her three NIH-funded projects, Dr. Alegría is currently the principal investigator of an NIA-funded research study examining how to successfully implement collaborative research for mental health and disability prevention treatments for racial and ethnic minority elders in community-based organizations. The findings from this investigation have been published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry (Alegría et al., 2019, Alegría 2021), the Journal of Applied Gerontology (Zhang et al., 2021) and the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (Saadi et al., 2021). From 2010-2014, Dr. Alegría served as a member of the advisory board for the Summer Research Institute in Geriatric Psychiatry at Dartmouth College. Dr. Alegría also served as a member of the National Academy of Medicine’s Committee on Developing a Behavioral and Social Science Research Agenda on AD/ADRD from 2019-2021. The committee’s recent consensus report, Reducing the Impact of Dementia in America: A Decadal Survey of the Behavioral and Social Sciences (2021), synthesizes the latest empirical research in the area of AD/DRD and highlights key research priorities.
Full Name
Heather Allore, PhD
Credentials
PhD
Role
Core Leader, Design and Statistics Core (DSC)
Primary title
Professor
Primary Institution
Yale School of Medicine
Complete Titles
Professor, Yale School of Medicine
Professor, Yale School of Public Health
Bio
Heather Allore, PhD, founded the field of gerontological biostatistics to help researchers have the tools necessary to understand how to design and analyze research relevant and important to the lives and well-being of older adults. Led by Dr. Allore, the Design and Statistics Core connects these methods to all aspects of the IMPACT Collaboratory. Dr. Allore previously served as director of biostatistics at the Yale Program on Aging. Additionally, her research collaborations and methodological work include being the leader of the Data Management and Statistics Core of the Yale Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. Her international collaborations, which help to improve the lives of people living with dementia, covers Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
Core/Team Associations
Full Name
María Aranda, PhD, MSW, MPA, LCSW
Credentials
PhD, MSW, MPA, LCSW
Role
Associate Team Leader, Health Equity Team (HET)
Primary title
Professor
Primary Institution
USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work
Complete Titles
Professor, USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work
Executive Director, USC Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging
Director, Outreach, Recruitment and Engagement Core, USC Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC)
Co-Lead, Research Education Core, USC Alzheimer's Disease-Resource Center for Minority Aging Research (AD-RCMAR)
Bio
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.
Core/Team Associations