Lisa L. Barnes, PhD Rush University Medical Center, USA

Lisa L. Barnes, PhD is the Alla V. and Solomon Jesmer Professor of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine in the department of Neurological Sciences at Rush University Medical Center, and a cognitive neuropsychologist in the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center. She also has a joint appointment in the department of Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Barnes earned her B.A. from Clark Atlanta University and received her PhD from the University of Michigan. She completed an NIMH post-doctoral training program in cognitive neuroscience at the University of California, Davis, and then joined the faculty at Rush Medical College in 1999. Her research focus is on racial disparities in chronic diseases of aging including Alzheimer’s Disease and HIV. She is the Principal Investigator of three community-based cohort studies of older African Americans, and the Director of the Rush Center of Excellence on Disparities in HIV and Aging. One of her cohort studies, the Minority Aging Research Study, known as MARS, is nationally recognized as a premier study of minority aging and has been continuously funded by the NIA since 2004. This study follows close to 750 older African Americans who enroll without dementia, with almost half agreeing to donate their brain at the time of death. Dr. Barnes has been recognized for her contributions to minority aging and health disparities by many professional organizations and has received numerous awards including the Centennial Scholar Award by the Institute of Medicine of Chicago, and the Steve Whitman Research Award by Health and Medicine Policy Research. She was named a Leadership Institute for Women in Psychology Fellow in 2011 and completed the Hedwig van Amerigen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) fellowship in 2018. She has served as an invited speaker for NIH, the Alzheimer’s Association, the American College of Epidemiology, and several other colleges, universities, and professional organizations across the US. She has served on a number of expert panels and networks including The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, Medicine and the Society for Women’s Health Research. She has published extensively on risk factors for cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease in older African Americans with over 150 manuscripts to date. Finally, she is an advocate for education and recruitment of older African Americans into clinical research and has given over 100 community presentations to older African Americans and their families.