I am a bilingual cultural neuropsychologist. My research program investigates the sociocultural and environmental determinants of disparities in cognitive aging and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) primarily among the Hispanic/Latino/Latinx communities (hereafter Latinx). My current research focus has been on determining factors of reserve and resilience to ADRD among Latinx adults such as understanding the role of bilingualism. Leveraging my training as a clinical neuropsychologist, another extension of my research program has been to work with international studies of cognitive aging leading efforts with the harmonization of cognitive data and development of diagnostic algorithms for the classification of mild cognitive impairment and dementia.

My work leverages ongoing studies of cognitive aging both within the United States (i.e., the Washington Heights Inwood Columbia Aging Project [WHICAP], the Offspring Study, and the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke [REGARDS] study), and internationally (i.e., Mexican Health and Aging Study [MHAS], Longitudinal Aging Study in India Diagnostic Assessment of Dementia [LASI-DAD] and others associated with the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP) Network) to better understand the sociocultural factors associated with cognitive risk and resilience across Latinx individuals residing in the US and abroad.