Scientific Advisory Board

Jeffrey L. Cummings, MD, ScD, is Founding Director, Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas, Nevada and Cleveland, Ohio. He is Professor of Medicine (Neurology), Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Cummings is Principal Investigator/Director of the NIH/NIGMS-funded Center for Neurodegeneration and Translational Neuroscience.

Dr. Cummings is a world-renowned Alzheimer’s researcher and leader of clinical trials. He has been recognized for his research and leadership contributions in the field of Alzheimer’s disease through the Henderson Award of the American Geriatrics Society (2006), the Ronald and Nancy Reagan Research Award of the national Alzheimer’s Association (2008), and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Society for Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology (2017). In 2010, he was honored by the American Association of Geriatric Psychiatry with their Distinguished Scientist Award. In 2018, he was honored with the Leadership and Achievement Award by the International Society of CNS Drug Development, and he received the Bengt Winblad Lifetime Achievement Award from the national Alzheimer’s Association. He was featured in the Gentleman’s Quarterly (June 2009) as a “Rock Star of Science.”

Dr. Cummings’ interests embrace clinical trials, developing new therapies for brain diseases, and the interface of neuroscience and society.

Dr. Cummings completed Neurology residency and a Fellowship in Behavioral Neurology at Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts. US training was followed by a Research Fellowship in Neuropathology and Neuropsychiatry at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, Queen Square, London, England. Dr. Cummings was formerly Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at UCLA, Director of the Mary S. Easton Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research at UCLA, and Director of the Deane F. Johnson Center for Neurotherapeutics at UCLA. He is past president of the Behavioral Neurology Society and of the American Neuropsychiatric Association.

Dr. Cummings has authored or edited 43 books and published over 725 peer-reviewed papers.

Dr. P. Murali Doraiswamy is a Professor of Psychiatry and Medicine at Duke University. He is the Director for the Neurocognitive Disorders Program, a Faculty Network Member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, an Affiliate of the Duke Initiative for Science and Society and a senior fellow at the Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development. He has served as an advisor to government agencies, patient advocacy groups and several health and technological businesses including Men’s Health Magazine and AARP Magazine. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Councils and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London. Most recently he joined the board of trustees of The Live Love Laugh Foundation (TLLLF). Dr. Doraiswamy is an expert in brain and behavioral sciences, health innovation and mobile medical technologies. He directs a clinical trials unit that develops novel technologies and therapeutic treatments for improving brain health. He’s published over 300 peer-reviewed articles, is co-author of the book The Alzheimer’s Action Plan and the e-book Living Well After a Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. His work has been featured in popular media outlets such as The New York Times, Oprah, CBS Morning, Dr. Oz Show, BBC, USA Today, Discovery, and NPR. Dr. Doraiswamy is the recipient of many honors and awards, including special Congressional recognition for his medical services throughout the community.

Dr. Joshua Grill is the Director of the UC Irvine Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurologic Disorders (UCI MIND) and Associate Professor, Psychiatry and Human Behavior and Neurobiology and Behavior at the University of California, Irvine. He serves on the Steering Committee of the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Maria Shriver’s Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement. He is also an essential part of a working group for the National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer’s Association to create a national strategy for recruitment to Alzheimer’s disease clinical research. His research focuses on improving clinical trial designs for Alzheimer’s studies, resolving barriers in clinical trial enrollment to maximize speed and growth of individual studies, understanding which participants are at a greater risk to be lost to follow-up and providing a guide to clinician scientists on retention strategies, and ethical challenges pertaining to diagnosis disclosure, genetic testing and biomarker results in Alzheimer’s clinical trials.

Dr. Craig Ritchie is a Professor of Psychiatry of Aging, Center for Clinical Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. He is Chair of the Scottish Dementia Research Consortorium (SDRC), which supports collaborative high-quality research on brain health and dementia throughout Scottland. He is also Co-coordinator of the EPAD (European Prevention of Alzheimer’s Dementia) Initiative, a collaborative effort by researchers across the world, to improve the likelihood of preventing Alzheimer’s dementia. He serves as principal investigator (PI) for Prevent Dementia, a UK-wide project to identify biological and psychological risk factors during middle age, that may increase the risk of dementia in older ages and late life. Most recently he was appointed Lead Editor for the Cochrane Collaboration’s Dementia and Cognitive Improvement Group’s section on Diagnostic Test Accuracy. Dr. Ritchies’ research is heavily focused on late life psychiatric disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, and delirium. Having worked with older adults with dementia for most of his clinical career, he is heavily invested in evidence-based medicine, and has led several clinical trials testing new drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer’s. His academic, clinical and charitable efforts focus on improvements in prevention, diagnoses, patient care and drug discovery for dementia.

Dr. Mary Sano is Professor of Psychiatry and the Director of the Alzheimer's Disease Research at New York City’s Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She is also the Director of Research and Development at the Bronx Veterans Administration Hospital and the current Director of CLASP (Cholesterol Lowering in Alzheimer's Disease to Slow Progression). Dr. Sano is a neuropsychologist by training and has been involved in designing and conducting clinical trials for Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and mild cognitive impairment of aging. In 1989 she received the Florence and Herbert Irving Clinical Research Career Award to develop methodologies for the assessment of therapeutic agents in Alzheimer's disease. In 1998 she received the Veris Award for her work on vitamin E and Selegiline as treatments to delay the clinical progression of Alzheimer’s disease. At present, she is the director of a new clinical study to determine if home based assessments can be used to assess treatments for the prevention of cognitive loss and dementia. She’s also just received a grant from the Alzheimer’s Association to study Resveritol, an active ingredient in red wine. Her additional research interests include economic outcomes in older adults with cognitive changes, the role of depression in dementia, womens’ attitudes towards prevention of memory loss and quality of life in people with age-related diseases.