Stanford ADRC Administrative Core
The Stanford Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) supports the National Alzheimer’s Project Act by serving as a shared resource to promote, enable, and enhance interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research on Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease related dementia. The Stanford ADRC strategy of deep phenotyping draws together multiple levels of biological data from individual volunteers with and without cognitive impairment, who are followed over time.
The Administrative Core provides the administrative structure needed to direct and facilitate the Stanford ADRC mission. It establishes the overall scientific direction, provides a forum for planning, ensures optimal use of clinical and scientific resources, and assures compliance with institutional policies and those of the National Institutes of Health. The Administrative Core is led by Dr. Victor Henderson (ADRC director) and Dr. Katrin Andreasson (ADRC associate director), and Dr. Patricia Rodriguez Espinosa directs the ADRC program for justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.
Victor W. Henderson, MD, MS
Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health
Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences
ADRC Director
Dr. Henderson directs the Stanford ADRC and co-directs the Stanford master degree program in epidemiology and clinical research. His research emphasizes risk factors for cognitive aging, Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders, and therapeutic strategies to maintain and improve cognitive abilities affected by cognitive aging or dementia. Dr. Henderson obtained his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University and master's degree in epidemiology from the University of Washington School of Public Health. He trained at Duke University (internal medicine), Washington University (neurology), and Boston University (behavioral neurology). He has been a visiting scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, visiting professor at the University of Melbourne (Australia), and is Honorary Skou Professor at the University of Aarhus (Denmark). He has served in leadership roles concerned with late-life cognitive disorders (chair of the Geriatric Neurology Section of the American Academy of Neurology) and midlife cognitive health (president of the North American Menopause Society; general secretary of the International Menopause Society). He serves on editorial boards and scientific advisory boards, and he has authored more than 300 scientific articles and chapters.
Katrin Andreasson, MD
Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences
ADRC Associate Director
Dr. Andreasson is Professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, and is a neurologist who treats patients with dementia and who is also engaged in basic research in neurodegenerative disorders. Dr. Andreasson received her M.D. degree at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, completed her residency in Neurology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and carried out her postdoctoral training in the Johns Hopkins Department of Neuroscience, where she began her research studies on the function of brain inflammation in development of neurodegenerative disease. The objectives of her laboratory research are to identify specific inflammatory pathways that may be targeted to prevent and treat neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.
VJ Periyakoil, MD
Professor of Medicine (Primary Care and Population Health)
Palliative Care Program Director
Dr. Periyakoil received her medical degree from the University of Madras (India) and trained in internal medicine. She completed a geriatric medicine fellowship at Stanford University and is board certified both in geriatric medicine and in hospice and palliative care. She serves as the director of Outpatient Palliative Care at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System and directs fellowship programs in palliative care at Stanford University and the Palo Alto VA. Dr. Periyakoil is a nationally recognized leader in geriatrics and palliative care, and her research focuses on well-being in the context of ethnogeriatrics and end-of-life care. In her research, she has explored barriers to advanced care planning in diverse patient groups; promoted quality of care for diverse, seriously ill patients; and used mobile health technology to understand and mitigate health disparities in multi-ethnic, multilingual populations.
Patricia Rodriguez Espinosa, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Population Health
JEDI* Program Director for the ADRC
Dr. Rodriguez Espinosa is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology & Population Health and serves as the Associate Director of Research for the Office of Community Engagement at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Her research aims to decrease health inequities among racial and ethnic minority populations, particularly Latinxs and immigrant communities, through transdisciplinary and community-engaged scholarship. She uses community-based participatory research and related approaches to understand factors that create and maintain health inequities, such as residential segregation. She uses these insights to develop novel multi-level interventions and health promotion programs that address the inequity gap. Dr. Rodriguez Espinosa is a native of Habana, Cuba, and a clinical psychologist by training.
*JEDI: Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
Nusha Askari, PhD
ADRC Executive Director
Dr. Askari has extensive clinical research, teaching and administrative experience in neuropsychology and neuropsychiatry, with special focus on dementia. During her time with the ADRC, she has actively engaged in research, education, and outreach efforts with caregivers of persons with chronic depression and persons with dementia. These include caregiving psychoeducational facilitation programs, an equine guided support program, and she volunteers as a medical qigong instructor through the Neuroscience Supportive Care Program for persons with dementia, stroke, cancer, Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders as well as healthy adults. She is well versed in traditional mindfulness, meditation and healing practices and brings an East meets West integrative perspective to helping and healing. Dr. Askari is former professor and chair, department of Clinical Psychology & Gerontology (Notre Dame de Namur University). She has served on numerous research projects and chaired thesis and dissertation committees. She is a licenced psychologist and speaks English, Farsi, Spanish and French.
Jamie Cramer, BS, MS
Administrative Associate
Jamie Cramer joined the Stanford University Department of Neurology in 2023 with a Bachelor of Science in Hospitality Studies and a Master of Science in Education from Colorado State University. We are pleased to have her join the Stanford ADRC team. With Jamie’s diverse scope of work over the past ten years, she’s obtained strong grant writing, organization and time management skills, along with a passion for developing connections with populations served. She’s always felt a strong pull from organizations like Stanford University where she can be a part of a larger unified community working to better the lives of others each day.
Elizabeth E. Hoyte, BS
ADRC Communications Manager
Elizabeth Hoyte, communications manager for the Stanford Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, has worked at Stanford University for over 25 years. She manages websites at Stanford for the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, as well as over 30 neuroscience research labs in addition to social media for Neurology & Neurological Sciences. When not developing and managing websites and curating content for social media, she is raising two young boys with her husband in the beautiful state of Colorado.
Mike Jaime, BS
Financial Administrator
Mike has been at Stanford for 22 years and is responsible for the financial management of both the ADRC grant as well as department ADRC support. Mike lives in Stockton, CA with his wife and younger son and has an older son in college.
Ana Marquez, BS, MPH
Clinical Research Coordinator/ Palliative Care Program Coordinator
Ana Marquez received her BS in Nutritional Science and graduated from San Jose State University with a Master’s degree in Public Health. She is passionate about health and about serving the community to improve population health, disease prevention and the connection of individuals to services. Her professional experience includes reaching diverse populations for government nutrition programs, providing nutritional education, and coordinating a diabetes prevention program. She believes in strong partnerships to advance health and program participation and believes that programming approaches should be culturally sensitive and appropriate.
Claudia Padula, PhD
Instructor (Affiliated) at Stanford Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Health Research Science Specialist at the VA Palo Alto Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC)
Dr. Claudia Padula is a clinical psychologist with specialty in neuropsychology. Her clinical and research interests focus on the unique risk factors associated with military service that impact disease development and progression, as well as understanding individual differences such as the intersection of gender and psychiatric co-morbidities. In her role at the ADRC, she hopes to align cutting edge clinical research with the needs of Veterans, with the ultimate goal of improving precision care
Executive Committee
Victor W. Henderson, MD, MS
ADRC Director, Administrative and Clinical Cores
Katrin Andreasson, MD
ADRC Associate Director, Administrative and Biomarker Cores
Frank M. Longo, MD, PhD
Administrative Core
Tony Wyss-Coray, PhD
Administrative and Biomarker Cores
Jerome Yesavage, MD
Administrative Core
Maria Inmaculada Cobos Sillero MD, PhD
Neuropathology Core
J. Kaci Fairchild, PhD, ABPP
Research Education Component
Lisa Goldman Rosas, PhD, MPH
Outreach, Recruitment, & Engagement Core
Michael Greicius, MD, MPH
Imaging Core
Zihuai He, PhD
Data Management & Statistics Core
Elizabeth Mormino, PhD
Imaging Core
Kathleen Poston, MD, MS
Research Education Component and Clinical Core
Patricia Rodriguez Espinosa, PhD
Administrative and Outreach, Recruitment, & Engagement Cores
Birgitt Schüle, MD
Neuropathology Core
Sharon Sha, MD, MS
Clinical Core
Lu Tian, ScD
Data Management & Statistics Core
Kyan Younes, MD
Clinical Core
Maya V. Yutsis, PhD, ABPP-CN
Clinical Core