Q: How long have you been a GSA member?
A: Since 2003. It’s been so long I had to look it up! GSA was my first professional home after becoming an Assistant Professor.
Q: How specifically has membership in GSA benefitted you?
A: Membership in GSA has benefitted me mostly through networking opportunities. I have met so many wonderful scholars across the country at annual meetings, by presenting my own work, going to presentations and posters of others outside my specific area of expertise, and participating on Committees for GSA.
Q: How did you get interested in the field of aging?
A: I always had a deep interest in memory, particularly memory loss due to brain injury or pathology. When I was an undergraduate, I had the opportunity to test patient H.M. on various experimental memory tasks, who at that time was already considered an older adult. That experience solidified my motivation to work with older adults to uncover the keys to memory loss. That motivation eventually matured into a desire to prevent cognitive decline and promote brain health for older adults, especially adults from minoritized backgrounds where the research is very limited.
Q: What projects are you working on in your current position?
A: I run 2 community based longitudinal cohorts of aging in older African Americans. One project, called MARS, has been ongoing for 20 years. I’m also a multi-PI for the RCMAR-6 National Coordinating Center along with GSA. Also, I was recently funded as a multi-PI with investigators at Boston University to add cognition to the Black Women’s Health Study.
Q: What do you love most about your line of work?
A: The thing I love most about what I do is the ability to share brain health education and raise awareness of dementia for older adults from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds.
Q: What was the best piece of advice you got early on in your career you’d like to pass on to emerging gerontologists?
A: Do what you love! You will face many challenges and obstacles in your career, and you will hear the word “no” more than you want to. But if you are passionate about your research and love what you do, you will be able to withstand the rough waves of academia and not be defeated by the obstacles.