Jim McAleer, MPA

Jim McAleer began his career in the nonprofit world at age eighteen while pursing an undergraduate degree in Savannah, Georgia. For the next 22 years, McAleer worked in leadership roles with non-profit organizations assisting individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Since 2004, Jim has held the role of President/CEO of Alzheimer’s Orange County, serving the 84,000+ people living in OC with, or at risk of, dementia. He manages 13 million dollars in income and a staff of 160. He has presented more than 100 professional presentations and has served on five nonprofit board of directors including Cal Optima.

Deborah Levy

Deborah is an award-winning television news journalist and nonprofit executive with a broad and diverse background leading some of the world’s most recognizable and respected charities. She has raised more than $100 million during the course of her career for organizations that improve the lives of children and families, cancer research, and important capital projects. Deborah joined the Alzheimer's Association as executive director for Orange County in April 2021.

Joshua Grill, PhD

Dr. Grill is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry & Human Behavior and Neurobiology & Behavior at UCI. He serves as Director of UCI MIND, Associate Director of the UCI Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, and Leader of the Recruitment & Retention Unit for the UCI Institute for Clinical and Translational Science. His research focuses on clinical trials across the spectrum of Alzheimer’s disease, and he has published a number of important findings on trial design, recruitment and retention, and research ethics.

Elizabeth Head, PhD

Dr. Head received a Masters in Psychology and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Toronto, Canada. She received postdoctoral training at the Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders (UCI MIND) at the University of California – Irvine. Dr. Head moved to the University of Kentucky in January of 2009 and was a Professor and Associate Director of Education at the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging. After returning to the University of California at Irvine in 2019, she is now a Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine. Dr. Head has published over 200 peer reviewed papers, over 30 review papers and book chapters. She is active in mentoring and education and serves on the UCI MIND Alzheimer disease research center Research Education Component Executive Committee. Dr. Head has dedicated over 25 years to the study of aging and Alzheimer disease with a focus on people with Down syndrome using multidisciplinary and translational approaches.

Katherine Possin, PhD

Kate Possin holds the John Douglas French Foundation Endowed Professorship at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center, where she is the ADRC Clinical Core Associate Director. Her research program is focused on improving the detection, diagnosis, and care for people with neurodegenerative disease. She has designed and developed cognitive measures for early diagnosis and disease monitoring, including tablet-based measures that are easy to use in everyday clinical and research settings. In addition, Dr. Possin directs the Care Ecosystem, a telephone-based collaborative care model for people with dementia and their caregivers that improves patient quality of life and caregiver well-being, while reducing emergency visit use.

Lee A. Jennings, MD, MSHS

Lee A. Jennings, MD, MSHS, Associate Professor and Chief, Division of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, is a geriatrician and health services researcher whose work focuses on improving models of care delivery for dementia and aligning care received with patient health goals. She is the Director of the Oklahoma Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program, PI for the ACL-funded Oklahoma Falls Prevention Program, and a multi-PI for an AHRQ-funded grant to reduce opiate use disorder and improve chronic pain management in Oklahoma primary care practices. She is a co-investigator on dementia models of care research funded by PCORI, NIA, and the Hartford Foundation and co-chairs the AGS Women in Geriatrics Section.

Jessica Langbaum, PhD

Peter Ljubenkov, MD

Ahmad Sajjadi, MD, PhD

Prashanthi Vemuri, PhD