Project Leadership
Richard Gershon, PhD
Dr. Richard Gershon is Division Chief of Outcome and Measurement Science in the department of Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. Gershon is PI for the NIH Toolbox for the Assessment of Neurological and Behavioral Function (NIHTB), where he created a large battery of instruments for clinical investigators to assess various areas within cognitive, motor, sensory and emotional health, for longitudinal, clinical and comparative effectiveness research. Dr. Gershon served as MPI for the Advancing Reliable Measurement in Alzheimer’s Disease and cognitive Aging (ARMADA) project, which aimed to validate the NIHTB among individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment, AD, and older adult normal controls age 65-85, and among the oldest of the old normal controls, aged 86+.
Sandra Weintraub, PhD
Dr. Sandra Weintraub is the Associate Director for the Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease. She is the Cognitive Domain Team leader of the NIH Toolbox for Assessment of Neurological and Behavioral Function (NIHTB), and Co-PI of the Assessing Reliable Measurement in Alzheimer’s Disease and Cognitive Aging (ARMADA). She has had a career in clinical neuropsychology since 1978, including the creation of several instruments that have been translated into many different languages.
Emily Ho, PhD
Emily Ho is a quantitative psychologist, behavioral scientist, and psychometrician. Her research broadly focuses three main areas: 1) validation of performance measures in computerized neuropsychological assessment across multiple domains (e.g., NIH Toolbox; cognition, emotion, motor, and sensation); 2) cognitive aging and digital biomarkers of preclinical Alzheimer detection; 3) improving medical decision-making through behavioral science. Her research has been funded by the NIH and NSF, and her work has been published in leading journals such as Alzheimer’s and Dementia, Nature Climate Change, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Management Science, Psychological Assessment, and Behavioral Science and Policy. She was named a Rising Star of Behavioral Insights by the Behavioral Exchange in 2018.
Berivan Ece, PhD
Berivan Ece (she/her) is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern University. As a cognitive psychologist, Dr. Ece’s research focuses on memory processes in general and autobiographical remembering in particular. Her research program primarily focuses on the lifespan retrieval of autobiographical memories, retrieval strategies and types employed in remembering earliest childhood memories. Berivan is further interested in assessment of autobiographical remembering as a potential individual difference independent of the recalled event. As part of the ARMCADA project, she will contribute to the scoping review, survey development to establish the ARMCADA Research Network, and manuscript preparation.
Zahra Hosseinian, MA
Ms. Hosseinian is Project Manager at Northwestern University. She has over 14 years of experience as PM for multiple neuropsychological and health informatics research projects. She has particular experience in network engagement, research design, survey methodology, community-based participatory research, measure development, quality improvement, and healthcare information technology. Previously, Ms. Hosseinian was project manager for Illinois Perinatal Quality Collaborative (ILPQC), HepCCATT, a national project with the Pew Charitable Trusts, which identified standard patient demographic variables to implement in policy, and projects with the University of Chicago, where she identified associations between religion-related factors and breast/cervical cancer screenings among American Muslims. She also served as a senior survey specialist at NORC.
Northwestern University Team
Miriam Novack, PhD
Miriam Novack is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern University. She researches cognitive change across the lifespan exploring both cognitive development in infancy and early childhood, and cognitive decline in aging populations. She has been involved in the Advancing Reliable Measurement in Alzheimer’s disease (ARMADA) study, which validated the NIH Toolbox (NIHTB) across the cognitive aging spectrum, and Mobile Toolbox (MTB), which developed mobile cognitive assessments for use across the lifespan. As a co-Investigator on the ARMCADA study, she serves as a domain manager, and contributes to all aspects of the project.
Elizabeth M. Dworak, PhD, MS
Dr. Elizabeth Dworak (she/her) is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern University. As a personality, development, and health psychologist, Dr. Dworak’s research focuses on the role of individual differences (personality traits, cognitive ability, and interests) in predicting and contributing to lifespan development of cognitive, emotional, health, and everyday outcomes. This work is complimented by her efforts as a psychometrician and statistician to develop, adapt, validate, and implement patient-reported outcomes and cognitive performance measures for various pediatric and adult populations and special clinical conditions.
Molly A. Mather, PhD
Molly A Mather, PhD (she/her) is a licensed clinical neuropsychologist in the Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. She obtained her doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2021. She completed her pre-doctoral internship training in adult neuropsychology at University of Chicago Medicine and her fellowship in clinical neuropsychology at the Mesulam Center. She has been involved in aging research for over a decade, ranging from tip-of-the-tongue experiences and emotional functioning in healthy older adults to neural markers of neuropsychiatric symptoms in early Alzheimer’s disease dementia.
Tatiana Karpouzian Rogers, PhD
Tatiana Karpouzian Rogers, PhD is a licensed clinical neuropsychologist in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, with a specific interest in cognitive aging. As a T32 Mechanisms of Aging and Dementia fellow, her research included examining semantic processing in primary progressive aphasia using eye movements and pupillometry. Additionally, she was involved in the Advancing Reliable Measurement in Alzheimer’s disease (ARMADA) study, which validated the NIH Toolbox (NIHTB) across the cognitive aging spectrum, and she continued to contribute to this project following her fellowship. As part of the ARMCADA study, her roles include serving as a domain manager and contributing to systemic reviews.
Sarah Pila-Leiderman, PhD
Sarah Pila-Leiderman (she/her) is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Social Sciences. She holds a doctorate in Media, Technology, and Society from Northwestern University. Sarah also holds a Master of Arts in Child Study and Human Development from the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development at Tufts University. As a developmental scientist and researcher, Sarah is most interested in the intersection of technology and healthy lifespan development. In ARMCADA, she will serve as a domain manager and scientist involved in the systematic review and expert survey. Sarah has been published in such works as Computer & Education, Mobile Media & Communication, and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Media. Sarah is also proud to be on the Student and Early Career Advisory Council for the International Communication Association.
Steering Committee
Duke Han, PhD
Duke Han, PhD, is a Diplomate of the American Board of Professional Psychology in Clinical Neuropsychology, a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the National Academy of Neuropsychology, Director of the Neuropsychology Division in Family Medicine, and a tenured Professor of Family Medicine, Neurology, Psychology, and Gerontology at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. Dr. Han is interested in the factors that affect cognition and decision making in aging. He also has special interests in leveraging novel empirical approaches to better understand these factors, and in the advocacy of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion considerations in aging and neuroscience research.
Peter Lichtenberg, PhD, ABPP
Peter A. Lichtenberg, Ph.D., ABPP is the Director of The Institute of Gerontology and a Professor of Psychology at Wayne State University. He received his bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis, and his master’s and doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Purdue University. After his internship he completed a post doctoral fellowship in geriatric neuropsychology at the University of Virginia Medical School where he also became a faculty member. Dr. Lichtenberg, one of the first board certified Clinical Geropsychologists in the nation, has made contributions to the practice of psychology across a variety of areas and is a nationally recognized expert in the areas of financial capacity and financial exploitation among older adults. He has authored 7 books and over 200 scientific articles in Geropsychology. He served as the 2022 President of the Gerontological Society of America, and is the 2023 GSA Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Janel Hanmer, MD, PhD
Janel Hanmer, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Medicine and an Assistant Dean of Medical Student Research. She is a practicing general internist with a PhD in Population Health Science. Her research focuses on outcomes measurement, particularly patient-reported outcomes and health utility measurement. She was the primary developer of the PROMIS-Preference (PROPr) score. In addition, Dr. Hanmer is the Medical Director for Patient Reported Outcomes at UPMC. In this role, she oversees the integration of patient questionnaires in the electronic medical record and evaluates the impact and use of patient reported outcomes in clinical settings.
Luke Stoeckel, PhD
Dr. Luke Stoeckel directs the Mechanistic and Translational Decision Science in Aging Research Program at the National Institute on Aging (NIA). His work encompasses a broad range of areas including affective, reward/motivation, social, and decision neuroscience of aging. Dr. Stoeckel’s expertise lies in the intersection of aging, neuropsychology, and decision neuroscience, with a focus on behavior change mechanisms in normal aging and Alzheimer’s disease.
Melissa Trevino, PhD
Dr. Melissa Treviño is the National Institute on Aging (NIA) program officer for ARMCADA, and a program director in the Individual Behavioral Processes Branch within the Division of Behavioral and Social Research at the NIA. Dr. Treviño manages the cognitive aging and interventions grant portfolio. Research in this portfolio focuses on prevention science and measurement of mechanisms of behavior change and behavioral maintenance, to create sustainable efforts to promote cognitive health and brain health equity. This includes experimental and laboratory investigations of cognitive aging as well as longitudinal studies of cognitive aging, cognitive resilience, cognitive decline, MCI and AD/ADRD that examine the impact of stress, personality, early adversity, and other aspects of life histories and social exposures on cognitive trajectories.
Staff
- Adrianna Bassard, PhD
- Patricia Bucko, BA
- Evan Burleigh
- Micaela Castaneda, BA
- Joe Fellows, BA
- Laura Fenton, BA
- Latoya Hall, MSW
- Eva Marie Hentges, BA
- Yasmin Hussein, MA
- Gloria Lee
- Aaron Lim, PhD
- Tarry Nokuda Mkhize, BA
- Ezra Root, BS
- Andrea Yetzer, PhD
About Northwestern University - Medical Social Sciences Department
The Department of Medical Social Sciences (MSS) conducts multidisciplinary health outcomes management and patient-centered clinical research at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine (FSM). FSM is one of 11 colleges and schools at Northwestern University, an independent private institution founded in 1851. FSM is a research-intensive medical school and is ranked 15th among US medical schools by US News & World Report.
MSS bridges clinical activity and health outcomes research across multiple Departments, Centers, and Institutes at Northwestern University. This includes, but is not limited to, the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Communication Science and Disorders, as well as numerous Institutes and clinical Departments within FSM, such as the Institute for Public Health and Medicine, Institute for Policy Research, and Departments of Medicine, Psychiatry, Preventive Medicine, and Pediatrics. Our strong academic ties with these groups make possible comprehensive and state-of-the-art health outcomes development and assessment activity, including collaborations in disease management, prevention and control that utilize innovative health information technology applications.
The investigators within MSS have a strong record of receiving federal and non-federal funding to support our research agenda. Grants have been awarded to us for developing, validating, and equating health-related quality of life (HRQOL) instruments, as well as for implementing and assessing interventions aimed at improving HRQOL. Through support from the pharmaceutical industry, we have furthered our dual research agenda of expanding the use of HRQOL measures and deepening our understanding of treatment- and disease-related outcomes. MSS faculty have established themselves as national leaders in the application of clinical research to improve patient care and influence policy.