Presenter Bios 2009
Gordon J. Chelune, PhD, ABPP(CN)
Dr. Chelune is Professor of Neurology at the University of Utah School of Medicine and Senior Neuropsychologist at the University’s Center for Alzheimer’s Care, Imaging and Research. His research focuses on methods to discern changes in memory caused by disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease from those that occur with normal aging. Dr. Chelune has pioneered ways to assess cognitive changes in patients after epilepsy surgery, cardiopulmonary bypass surgery, anesthesia and drug interventions.
Christopher M. Clark, MD
Dr. Clark is the Director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center of Excellence for Research on Neurodegenerative Disease. He has been involved in clinical research in Alzheimer’s disease since 1985, first as Clinical Director of the Joseph and Kathleen Bryan Alzheimer’s Center at Duke University, and later as Director of the Penn Memory Center and Associate Director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Center at the University of Pennsylvania. His research interests include the evaluation of biomarkers for the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative causes of late-life dementia as well as the evaluation of new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.
Norman L. Foster, MD
Dr. Foster is Professor of Neurology at the University of Utah School of Medicine. He helped found the University’s Center for Alzheimer’s Care, Imaging and Research (CACIR), the first academic clinic in the Intermountain West solely devoted to the care of Alzheimer’s and related disorders. The Center has developed an innovative new model for clinical dementia care that is being implemented throughout the region. Dr. Foster’s approach illuminates how degeneration in specific brain regions corresponds to varied behaviors and differs among patients with different dementing diseases.
Howard Fillit, MD
Dr. Fillit is an internationally recognized expert in geriatric medicine and Alzheimer’s disease. He is Clinical Professor of Geriatrics Medicine and Professor of Neurobiology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, as well as founding Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of Aging.. Dr. Fillit is a fellow of the American Geriatrics Society, the American College of Physicians, the Gerontological Society of America, and the New York Academy of Medicine. He has authored and co-authored more than 300 scientific articles, abstracts and books, including the leading international Textbook of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology.
Kim Petersen, MD and Gail Petersen, PhD
Husband and wife team Drs. Kim and Gail Petersen have been caring for persons with dementia for over thirty years, as both professional and family caregivers Kim Petersen, MD is a geriatrician who has been the Director of the Memory Diagnostic Center of South Central Wisconsin. He has served as a Certified Medical Director for assisted living and long-term care. He is a founding board member of the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute and serves on the South Central Alzheimer’s Association board of directors. Dr. Petersen frequently provides medical-legal consultation for dementia and quality of care issues. Gail Petersen, PhD is an educator who was the cognitive specialist for the Memory Diagnostic Center of South Central Wisconsin. She and her husband compiled and edited the Memory Diagnostic Center, Tools and Protocols Workbook and have consulted fifteen communities throughout the country in establishing Memory Diagnostic Centers.
Martha Stearn, MD
Dr. Stearn is Executive Director of the St. John’s Institute for Cognitive Health in Jackson, WY. She is an adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor of Neurology at the University of Utah and a staff member of the Center for Alzheimer’s Care, Imaging and Research at the University of Utah.. She is also a practicing internist in Jackson Hole, and assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington. She is founder of the annual Cognitive Health & Memory Disorders Conference.
Carol Taylor, MSW
Ms. Taylor is a geriatric social worker. She is the former Chair of the Board for A Better Way Coalition, a nationally recognized organization promoting compassionate end-of-life care. She brings 30 years of experience as a noted clinician, educator and facilitator to health care professionals, patients and family caregivers. Ms. Taylor is the social worker, patient educator and case manager for the St John’s Institute for Cognitive Health, as well as a social worker in the Oncology Department at St. John’s Medical Center.
