Ongoing Research:

• Implicit memory and normal aging.  I am interested in priming, a type of implicit (unconscious) memory and how it changes across the adult lifespan and in age-related memory disorders.  While explicit (conscious) memory declines with health aging, priming often remains intact in older adults or shows smaller declines.  I am also studying which aspects of brain function and structure underlie preserved priming in old age, as well as age-related changes in priming.
• Neural Basis of Cognitive Reserve.  I am interested in how individual differences in the efficiency, capacity, and speed of neural processing mediate age-related changes in cognition, as well as the clinical expression of age-related brain pathology.
• Preclinical Alzheimer's Disease.  We are investigating the cognitive and brain changes that precede the onset of cognitive impairment associated with Alzheimer's Disease (AD).  The goal is to identify biomarkers that predict which healthy individuals are at risk for AD as early as possible.

Education and Employment:

• 1998, BA, Psychology with Highest Honors, Oberlin College
• 2002, MA, Psychology, Columbia University
• 2005, PhD, Psychology, Columbia University
• 2005-08, Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Columbia University
• 2008-09, Post-doctoral Researcher, Cognitive Neurology/Neuropsychology Group, The Johns Hopkins University
• 2009-11, Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Massachusetts
• 2011-present, Assistant Professor of Neurology, The Johns Hopkins University