Alzheimer’s Disease: Research, Caregiving, and Community (hybrid)
Overview
Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia. Many people are affected by AD over their lifetimes, whether as a patient, as a caregiver for a loved one, or through their work as a health professional/social worker. Join UVA experts Ishan C. Williams, Carol Manning, and George Bloom to hear about the different stages of AD, the impact on care partners, and future directions in Alzheimer’s research.
Speaker Biographies
Ishan C. Williams, PhD, FGSA, Associate Professor of Nursing, School of Nursing
Ishan Williams is Associate Professor at the University of Virginia, School of Nursing. Her background and PhD are in human development and family studies. She also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Institute on Aging at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, focused on recruitment and health care inequities among older adults and family caregivers. Her current research focuses on quality of life among older adults with dementia and their family caregivers, chronic disease management for older adults with Type 2 diabetes, and culturally appropriate community-based interventions among African American/Black adults. Her research further concentrates on understanding the healthcare needs of older adults and their family caregivers within social, cultural, and geographical contexts. Her research has been published in various peer-reviewed journals (e.g., Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, Journal of Applied Gerontology, The Gerontologist, and Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health). She has been an active member in the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) and is a Fellow of GSA.
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Carol Manning, Harrison Distinguished Teaching Professor of Neurology; Director of Memory Disorders Clinic, Department of Neurology, UVA Health
Carol Manning, Ph.D., ABPP-CN, is Director of the Memory Disorders Clinic, Co-director of the Virginia Alzheimer’s Disease Center, Harrison Distinguished Teaching Professor of Neurology, Director of the Neurobehavioral Assessment Laboratory, and Associate Chair for Faculty Development in the Department of Neurology at the University of Virginia. Manning is a board-certified neuropsychologist. Her clinical interests include diagnostic issues in dementia, cognitive and behavioral changes associated with dementia, and the well-being of caregivers. She has been involved in over 30 funded clinical trials. She has received research funding from the National Institutes of Health, The Department of Defense, the Administration for Community Living, as well as the Alzheimer’s Association, and several Virginia state funding agencies.
George Bloom, Professor of Biology, Cell Biology, and Neuroscience, Department of Biology, College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
George Bloom is a Professor of Biology, Cell Biology and Neuroscience at the University of Virginia (UVA), where he also served as Chair of the Department of Biology from 2017-2020. Trained as a cell biologist, he has a long track record studying fundamental aspects of cellular behavior, such as how cells move and change shape, and how cells transport materials internally. During the past 20 years, however, his lab gradually transformed into a research center that emphasizes a cell biological approach to study neurodegeneration, most notably seminal processes that convert healthy neurons into Alzheimer’s disease (AD) neurons. One important outcome of that effort has been the discovery of numerous pathological processes that occur during the earliest, pre-symptomatic stages of AD, and depend on the coordinated activities of two proteins, amyloid-beta, and tau, which are the respective building blocks of the plaques and tangles that accumulate in AD brain.
Bloom earned a BA in Biology and History, and a PhD in Biology from the University of Pennsylvania, and then received postdoctoral training at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology (since merged with the University of Massachusetts Medical School). Beginning in 1984, he rose through the faculty ranks at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, where he finally served as a Professor in the Department of Cell Biology before moving to UVA in 2000. Bloom has been on grant review panels for the NIH, the Alzheimer's Association, the American Cancer Society and the Department of Defense, and he has published more than 100 scientific papers, is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and a Zenith Fellow of the Alzheimer’s Association.
More Than the Score
This program is part of the More Than the Score faculty lecture series. On the mornings of home football games, hear from some of UVA’s top minds. Lifetime Learning in the Office of Engagement partners with the Alumni Association in offering these faculty lectures. All talks are free, open to all, and held at 10 am in Alumni Hall when available.
Parking
Parking for Football Games has gone cashless! You can pay using the ParkMobile App
Parking is available in the Central Grounds Garage and the Emmet/Ivy Garage for $15 on home football game days.
Free general public parking is available in the John Paul Jones Arena (JPJ) parking lot on a first-come, first-served basis.
Complimentary parking at Alumni Hall is reserved for Alumni Association Contributing Members on a first-come, first-served basis. Contributing Members must show their membership cards (available digitally through the UVA Alumni Association Member App, which can be found on the App Store and Google Play) to access the parking lot.