Meet the plenary speakers

We are honored to welcome a distinguished panel of plenary speakers to this year’s Prevention conference. Bringing with them a wealth of expertise and experience in dementia research and clinical practice, our speakers will address the major issues facing Alzheimer prevention and treatment today.

Julie Gerberding, M.D., M.P.H.
Linking Physical and Cognitive Health: The Importance of Prevention
Our opening plenary speaker, Dr. Gerberding is the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). Dr. Gerberding’s presentation will explore the public health impact of dementia – and how its projected growth has the power to devastate the global population in the coming years.

Marilyn S. Albert, Ph.D.
Lifestyle Factors and Cognitive Decline
Dr. Albert is director of the Division of Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Neurology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. Her research interests lie in the area of cognitive change with age, disease-related changes and the relationship of cognitive change to brain structure and function as assessed through imaging.

Douglas Galasko, M.D.
Biomarkers and Early Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease
Dr. Galasko is a professor in the Department of Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego. He is an investigator in the UCSD Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study. His research has included the application of knowledge about biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid as ways to monitor success of amyloid-lowering and antioxidant treatment for dementia.

Roger Lane, M.D., M.P.H.
Cholinesterases in Neurodegeneration: Have We Missed Something?
Dr. Lane is Disease Area Section Head for Dementia in the Clinical Research and Medical Affairs department at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. His current research interests include the application of biomarkers and pharmacogenomics in clinical drug development.

Kathleen A. Welsh-Bohmer, Ph.D.
The Challenge of Case Identification in the Large Populations
Dr. Welsh-Bohmer is director of the Joseph and Kathleen Bryan Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at Duke University Medical Center. She is a professor of medical psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Duke Medical Center, and a senior fellow in the Duke Center for Human Development and Aging. Her research interests are in preclinical Alzheimer detection and determining the predictors of cognitive dysfunction and decline in the aging nervous system.