Guilherme Moraes Balbim, MS Doctoral student in the College of Applied Health Sciences

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1 Winter 2018 Guilherme Moraes Balbim, MS Doctoral student in the College of Applied Health Sciences University of Illinois at Chicago HBRN Scholar May 2017 present Mentor: David X. Marquez, PhD I am from Brazil, where I earned my Bachelor of Science and Master s degree in Kinesiology. There, I held a temporary faculty position and was the instructor for five classes at a public university for two years. This time spent teaching provided a pivotal experience that opened my mind to broader issues related to aging and physical activity. In 2015 I was sure that a PhD would be my next challenge. In the past, my grandfather was diagnosed with Parkinson s disease and mild cognitive impairment, and physical activity was the treatment that provided the most positive impact for him. Putting together my experiences as faculty and those with my grandfather, I decided to follow the research area of aging, physical activity, and health disparities. After talking to a colleague who was a PhD student in this area, I contacted my current advisor, Dr. David X. Marquez. Our research interests matched and I came to Chicago as his PhD student in August Since then I have been diving into how physical activity can influence the health of older Latinos. On November 2017 I participated as a presenter in a Symposium at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine - Midwest Chapter. That was my first oral presentation in a conference as a graduate student in the U.S. What opportunities have you had to collaborate with other HBRN Scholars and with the HBRN more broadly as part of your work? I have been working with the HBRN memory messaging study. The study involved 4 HBRN centers. With the quantitative and qualitative data analysis now complete, we are writing up manuscripts. My mentor and I are specifically working on the Introduction of a manuscript in collaboration with the Oregon Health & Science University HBRN center.

2 Balbim (cont d) Being an HBRN Scholar has provided me with the notion of how important is to have a multidisciplinary team to promote cognitive health and healthy aging. I can see myself as a part of a big engine seeking to educate and empower the aging population on how one might achieve a better quality of life, by changing behavior. In the future as researcher and faculty (I hope!), I intend to put into action all the experiences I have been living with the HBRN. The HBRN has helped me build a strong network with experts on cognitive health and aging. Also, HBRN is providing research and collaborative skills which make clear the importance of partnerships and collaboration in the development of evidence-based science to apply to community-based approaches. What areas of work would you like to be involved in over the next year or two? I would like to be involved in understanding how physical activity can impact cognitive function, and brain structure and function, ultimately contributing to healthy aging and better quality of life. My motivation is to somehow contribute to healthy aging and help older adults become more physically active and aware of the importance of being active in their lives. I believe that we can make a difference in many lives with evidence-based research in physical activity promotion. In my free time I like to run, watch basketball and Brazilian Soccer, spend time with my wife, cook, and watch TV shows. Caroline Mills Bachelor of Science student in the Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and Bachelor of Arts student in Economics in the Eller College of Management University of Arizona HBRN Scholar May 2017 present Mentor: Jane Mohler, NP-C, MSN, MPH, PhD I grew up in the beautiful city of Denver, Colorado and I am passionate about aging research. I m interested in helping to develop screening tools for frailty and cognitive impairment, which is connected

3 Mills (cont d) to my personal experience with my aging grandmother. I m hoping to pursue a master s degree in epidemiology and continue research and elder advocacy through work with non-profits. An abstract I co-authored was accepted to the American Geriatrics Society Conference. What opportunities have you had to collaborate with other HBRN Scholars and with the HBRN more broadly as part of your work? During my year with the Healthy Brain Research Network, I ve had the chance to collaborate with other University of Arizona HBRN Scholars while working on a HBRN grant funded pilot study. The collaboration aspect has been great and I enjoy learning from other HBRN Scholars expertise and experience. Learning from HBRN engineers and epidemiologists alike at the University of Arizona has been extremely helpful. I m looking forward to contributing to projects in cognitive aging and looking at the effects of dual tasking in older adults. There is still much to learn about how dual tasking relates to fall risk, frailty, and longevity and this information can help inform clinical practice. The Healthy Brain Research Network has provided a wonderful opportunity to learn from experts in the cognitive aging field. My career goal is to continue aging research and the Healthy Brain Research Network has provided that opportunity by funding the research I participate in for my internship at the Arizona Center on Aging. My experiences have influenced my decision to apply to graduate programs with HBRN affiliation. What areas of work would you like to be involved in over the next year or two? I hope to be in graduate school pursuing research on cognitive aging. I would like to work more on screening tools for mild cognitive impairment that are also cost effective. My colleges are wonderful and I m so thankful to work every day with curious and smart people. I believe the research we do is important and thinking about how much I ve learned motivates me to keep pushing forward. I also have a personal connection to the research we conduct and with the growing population of older adults; there is a growing need for research-backed health practices. I love reading and I am currently going through the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov.

4 Coco Victoria Gomez Tirambulo, BS Research specialist in a pre-medical program within the School of Medicine University of Arizona Center on Aging HBRN Scholar May 2017 present Mentors: Jane Mohler, NP-C, MSN, MPH, PhD I was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona. I had an unusual upbringing as a child of Filipino immigrants, who opened an adult assisted living home. Early on, I was exposed to the stark realities of the social determinants of health, and the cultural and economic health disparities facing the older adults seeking long-term care in my family's assisted living home. It felt unfair to see how families with frail older loved ones struggled to find financial resources to help provide care. Through my many experiences at the care home, I realized the importance and the limitations of Medicare and the Arizona Long Term Care programs. I am aware that there are many vulnerable populations that encounter limitations in accessing healthcare every day, from veterans denied ready access to care and adequate behavioral health services; families undergoing bankruptcy after prolonged hospitalization; undocumented and homeless without access to care; and rural Arizonans without access. As a result, I have developed strong feelings of responsibility and commitment to advocate and serve these vulnerable populations in order to provide them the necessary healthcare that they deserve. I am currently volunteering at two clinics catering to the underserved and conducting research at the Arizona Center on Aging with the hopes of pursing medical school and continuing to serve my community. I am very excited to have been accepted to present at the Cognitive Aging Conference 2018 that will be held at the Georgia Institute of Technology. This will be my first experience presenting my research at a conference, representing the Arizona Center on Aging. What opportunities have you had to collaborate with other HBRN Scholars and with the HBRN more broadly as part of your work? Within the Healthy Brain Research Network, I have had the opportunity to work with Hossein Ehsani and Caroline Mills, who are both HBRN Scholars. Through our collaboration, we hope to uncover the neural correlates involved in cognitive-motor dual-task challenges for those with and without cognitive impairment. I hope to collaborate with the HBRN network more broadly in the future, so we can combine our knowledge and discover ways we can prevent and/or slow the cognitive aging process. As an HBRN Scholar, I see myself contributing to the field through our research on cognitive impairment and dual-task challenges. We are using functional magnetic resonance imaging, cognitive-motor dual-task

5 Tirambulo (cont d) challenges (i.e., walking and talking on the phone simultaneously), and neuropsychology assessments to discover the underlying correlates involved with dual-task challenge difficulty and how it relates to attentional limitations in cognitive aging and cognitive impairment. Since joining the Healthy Brain Research Network, I have been able to advance my educational and professional career. I have expanded my research interests in cognitive aging, fall risk prevention, frailty, and resilience in later life. In addition to strengthening my research skill sets, I have been privileged to work with many amazing individuals and connect with many research subjects. The Healthy Brain Research Network has tremendously helped me to continue to pursue my career goals of becoming a physician-scientist and solidified my interest and passion in contributing to research and advocating for the geriatric population. What areas of work would you like to be involved in over the next year or two? Over the next year or two, I am interested in continuing our research on cognitive aging and impairment. This research is so vital because the mechanisms of the underlying neural correlates are not well understood and defined. Discovering the neural correlates would help the medical research community create interventions and dictate what should be done for fall risk stratification and prevention. Research has become such an important part of my pre-medical journey and I hope to continue research in this field as a physician-scientist. My family, friends, mentors, co-workers, HBRN-collaborators, and our research subjects keep me motivated to do the work that we do. I am honored to be working with such compassionate, intelligent, and humble individuals. They make the work we do so much more fun and meaningful, that in the end it doesn t really feel like work. I love going on photography and food adventures with my friends and family. I am a big foodie and love trying new foods, especially at local restaurants. So, if you ever need food recommendations in Tucson, AZ, I have you covered. I also enjoy photography as a fun hobby because it allows me to be creative, express myself, and capture memories that my friends and I can look back on. But when I am super busy on the work grind, I like to do yoga or go hiking to de-stress and rebalance myself. Practicing self-care is super important, and I am trying to do it more often as well as remind those around me to practice it as well. The Healthy Brain Research Network (HBRN) was created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2014 to address a pair of growing public health challenges: promoting cognitive health and addressing the needs of increasing numbers of older Americans living with cognitive impairment. The HBRN Coordinating Center is located at the University of Washington. For more information, visit or contact HBRN@uw.edu.

6 Fall 2017 Seul Ki Choi, PhD Post-doctoral Fellow in the School of Public Health University of South Carolina HBRN Scholar April 2016 present Mentor: Daniela Friedman, PhD I spent most of my life in Seoul, South Korea until I came to South Carolina. I studied nutrition in my undergrad years and became interested in health disparities, so I did my masters and doctoral programs in public health. During my doctoral program, I met Dr. Friedman and learned about the importance of health communication. At the same time, my grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer s disease and my grandfather was suffering from cognitive impairment, but it seemed that my entire family did not know what to do. So it was natural that I decided to join Dr. Friedman s team to work on aging issues and health communication. I was asked to give a research talk at the university where I completed my MPH. It was my first time presenting my research there as a graduate. What opportunities have you had to collaborate with other HBRN Scholars and with the HBRN more broadly as part of your work? I have been collaborating with other SC-HBRN Scholars on aging-related messages in social media. It is great that I could work on messages in various platforms this wouldn t be possible if I worked alone. I have just started a research project that focuses on the health information seeking behaviors of caregivers of individuals with Alzheimer s disease and related dementias. Little is known about how caregivers seek health information for themselves. I hope my research will be helpful in understanding caregivers own challenges when they need to take care of themselves and in finding strategies to meet the caregivers health information needs. Since I have joined the HBRN, I have expanded my research interests to older adults health issues and health communication. I believe that working with HBRN will help me pursue my research interests in health issues in vulnerable populations (including older adults).

7 Choi (cont d) What areas of work would you like to be involved in over the next year or two? I am interested in food insecurity issues among older adults. I would like to work on research to understand what makes some older adults food insecure and if food insecurity is related to cognitive decline/dementias. All the great people, including SC-HBRN Scholars and mentors I am working with, are my motivation to do my (our) work. Their positive energy and enthusiasm keep me motivated. I love travel. I love to explore new places, whether a new country or just a new small town I have not yet visited. I try to visit as many places as possible. When I have spare time, but not enough for travel, I enjoy looking at my travel diary and photos. Weizhou Tang, MSW Currently enrolled in a Doctoral Program within the College of Social Work University of South Carolina HBRN Scholar May 2015 present Mentors: Daniela Friedman, PhD and Sue Levkoff, ScD, MSW, SM I was born and raised in a beautiful city Hangzhou in mainland China. I am interested in studying and helping caregivers for persons with chronic diseases, which is related to my personal experience of being a caregiver of my mother who suffered from cancer 5 years ago. During the time that my father and I took care of my mother, we experienced a lot of challenges, physically and mentally. That experience made me aware of issues related to caregivers and caregiving, and motivated me to pursue a career in this field. Recently, a paper out of my practicum for the Health Communication Certificate was accepted and published by a journal. What opportunities have you had to collaborate with other HBRN Scholars and with the HBRN more broadly as part of your work? During my two years with the SC-HBRN, I ve had the opportunity to collaborate with South Carolina scholars to write manuscripts, plan events, and review journal submissions. I ve also worked with HBRN Scholars from other centers in developing manuscripts and presenting our research at national

8 Tang (cont d) conferences. I ve received a lot of valuable feedback from HBRN Scholars on presentation slides, manuscripts, and target journals for submitting our work. I really like the way we work together as a group! As an HBRN Scholar, I have collaborated with other scholars on different research topics. We conducted research on people s concern about developing Alzheimer s disease, and the likelihood they agree to be screened or tested. This information will be useful in developing communication strategies to address public concern about the disease. We also examined Alzheimer s disease messages disseminated through social media. The findings will be useful to government agencies, researchers, and NGOs that promote information about the disease and in providing useful and accurate health messages for the public. The HBRN has provided me with great opportunities to get to know and learn from experts in the cognitive health and aging fields. My career goal is to do research in an NGO or a research institute, and HBRN has helped me build my research skills. This great network also teaches me the value of teamwork and collaboration. What areas of work would you like to be involved in over the next year or two? Over the next few years after graduation, I want to be involved in research related to Asian family caregivers for persons with Alzheimer s disease and related dementias, and in work to help them address their needs in order to improve both their well-being and that of their loved one/care recipient. I also would like to conduct research on Chinese older adults living in the community, including their needs, challenges, and health. My motivation for pursuing a career in the field of aging and caregiving is mainly from my parents. I always think about my father who currently lives alone in China, and he reminds me about those elderly who live independently in their homes. In China, the number of people aged 60 or above is growing rapidly. More elders need care while there are fewer caregivers in the family due to the one-child policy. Caring for older adults is an important topic and I hope more research will be focused on it. In my spare time, I love to play board games with my friends; games such as Werewolf, The Resistance: Avalon, and 7 Wonders. The Healthy Brain Research Network (HBRN) was created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2014 to address a pair of growing public health challenges: promoting cognitive health and addressing the needs of increasing numbers of older Americans living with cognitive impairment. The HBRN Coordinating Center is located at the University of Washington. For more information, visit or contact HBRN@uw.edu.

9 Summer 2017 Kate Olscamp, MPH University of South Carolina HBRN Scholar Mentors: Daniela Friedman, PhD; Lisa O Neill, PhD, MPH; Katherine Leith, PhD I was born and raised in western New York. After working in the marketing field for a few years, I returned to school to study kinesiology. I d always been drawn to physical activity, but was never interested in traditional sports or PT so I hadn t considered a career in physical activity. After taking my first class related to physical activity in aging, I knew I had found my niche. Here was a whole group of people who were moving for the same reasons that I do because it makes you feel good, supports quality of life, and it s fun! This summer I completed a practicum with the National Physical Activity Plan Alliance, and as of last week I can officially say that I ve completed all of the degree requirements for my MPH. What opportunities have you had to collaborate with other HBRN Scholars and with the HBRN more broadly as part of your work? During my year+ with the SC-HBRN, I ve had the opportunity to collaborate with several other South Carolina scholars, in addition to scholars and advisors at other universities. I ve worked with others to collect and analyze data, write manuscripts, plan events, and review journal submissions. As part of the terminology project, I ve been able to participate in group brainstorms and data collection. The biggest learning experience for me was definitely participating in the group writing process; it s much different than solo writing and really strengthened the way I will approach my own writing now. The experience within the research field as an HRBN Scholar over the last year really solidified my desire to pursue a career in public health practice rather than higher academia or professional research. Working alongside experts in the field really opened my eyes to the type of passion, dedication, and hard work that is required to conduct good research. These experiences also highlight the importance of quality partnerships between research and practice; I hope to become a steward of these partnerships from the practice side as I move forward in my career. (continued on next page)

10 Olscamp (cont d) The HBRN has helped me establish professional relationships within the aging field while also building my skill set as a researcher. Working within a partnership network like the HBRN will inform the collaborative work I ll be asked to do as part of my upcoming ORISE Fellowship. A group may be small and diverse, but it is also mighty! I genuinely love working with older adults and seeing people enjoy life through movement. Recently, I had the opportunity to volunteer at the National Senior Games in Birmingham, AL. That weekend was so inspiring! Seeing adults from all over the country of all ages, shapes, sizes, and experience levels challenge themselves and accomplish their goals filled me with enthusiasm and motivation to keep pushing forward and helping to create a world where all people are active. I spend as much of my free time as possible outdoors. I love to walk, run, bike, swim, kayak, hike, and explore new places and neighborhoods. I also enjoy spending time with a good fiction book on my porch or sitting by the closest body of water. Jonathan Medina-Beckwith, BSN, CCRN, RN Currently enrolled in a Doctor of Nursing Practice Program University of Washington HBRN-de Tornyay Center Scholar Mentor: Basia Belza, PhD, RN, FAAN I was born in Alaska, but spent most of my life in Eastern Washington. I was originally drawn to the field of nursing in high school, where I spent 6 months shadowing nurses and found a passion for caring for people at the bedside. I briefly pursued a different career in international economics, but after spending a year in rural Brazil working with adolescents on health promotion projects and seeing health disparities first hand, I decided to return to my original passion of nursing. I have worked as an ICU nurse for the past three years and I am currently a Doctor of Nursing Practice student who is specializing in Family Practice. I hope to be a rural primary care provider at a family clinic. Last year, I travelled through Alaska and was able to hike through Denali National Park and climb a glacier. What opportunities have you had to collaborate with other HBRN Scholars and with the HBRN more broadly as part of your work? I recently was in contact with HBRN members at UPenn and University of South Carolina who reviewed my Extraction Criteria for my scoping review. (continued on next page)

11 Medina (cont d) As an HBRN Scholar, I will be completing a scoping review of existing data on how to reduce stigma associated with Alzheimer s disease and related dementias (ADRD) with a particular focus on rural communities. I hope that this work will produce valuable insight into approaches to reduce stigma across communities and have wide-reaching implications for state and local governments. My future career goal is work in a rural setting as a primary care provider. I think that my project as an HBRN scholar will help me address stigma that persons with ADRD live with. I think this project will strengthen me as an advocate for both persons with ADRD and their careers and help me understand how I can better address the often uncomfortable topic of dementia with my patients. My motivation for pursuing a career in primary care stems from a desire to reduce health disparities in rural communities. I have spent much of my life in smaller towns, and after spending a year in rural Brazil and seeing firsthand the great discrepancies of health systems, I knew I needed to work to make change.. In my spare time, you can either catch me reading in a park or out for a hike in the Cascades. I also love to spend time with my nephews.