SAGE Faculty
Dr. Periyakoil is an expert in geriatrics and palliative care. She is the founding Director of the Stanford Aging and Ethnogeriatrics Research Center; Core Director of the Outreach, Recruitment, and Education Core of the Stanford Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center; Director of the Stanford Inter-Professional Palliative Care Education & Training Program; Director of the Stanford Hospice & Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program. She is a study section member for the National Institute of Aging, the Senior Associate Editor of the Journal of Palliative Medicine and Associate Editor, the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. She is the Chair of the Ethnogeriatrics Committee of the American Geriatrics Society, was the founding Chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine’s Hospice & Palliative Medicine SEP Committee, Board member of the Council of faculty and Societies, founding Chair, Diversity Committee of the American Association of Medical Colleges. Her work has been and is funded by grants from NIH, HRSA, foundations as well as the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Dr. Etchemendy is the Denning Family Co-Director, Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence; Provost Emeritus, and Patrick Suppes Family Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford University. Dr. Etchemendy served as director of the Center for the Study of Language and Information from 1990 to 1993, senior associate dean in the School of Humanities and Sciences from 1993 to 1997, and chair of the Department of Philosophy from 1998 to 2000. He is a member of the American Philosophical Association, on the editorial boards of Synthese and Philosophia Mathematica, and a former editor of the Journal of Symbolic Logic.
Victor Henderson is a professor of Epidemiology & Population Health and of Neurology & Neurological Sciences. His research focuses on risk factors for cognitive aging and dementia, and on interventions to help prevent and treat these disorders. He directs the NIH Stanford Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and co-directs the master degree program in Epidemiology & Clinical Research. He is an Honorary Skou Professor at Aarhus University in Denmark.
Dr. Jo has been at the lead in developing pragmatic statistical methods based on the intersection of causal inference and latent variable modeling. She has published on various methodological topics such as treatment noncompliance, handling of nested data such as from cluster randomized trials, causal mediation, missing data, propensity scores, and longitudinal heterogeneity. Her current program of research is focused on developing statistical methods that jointly utilize latent variable modeling, causal inference, and statistical learning with the goal of advancing the field of personalized medicine. She is also actively involved in biostatics education and collaborative work in various fields of psychiatry/mental health research. She has been a leading member of American Statistical Association and Prevention Science Methodology group.
Dr. Helena Kraemer is an internationally renowned biostatistician and the primary biostatistics of the SAGE center. Dr.Kraemer became a fellow of the American Statistical Association in 1987. She is a member of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (1994) and the National Academy of Medicine (2003) She was awarded the Franklin Ebaugh Prize from Stanford University and the Harvard Prize in Psychiatric Biostatistics and Epidemiology (2001). In 2014, she was awarded an honorary degree from Wesleyan University. She served in NIH study section for many years and was a member of NIMH/NIH counsel. She serves as the primary biostatics expert for the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Dr. Mahaffey’s primary research interest is the design and conduct of multicenter clinical trials and analyses of important clinical cardiac issues using large patient databases. His research focuses on novel anticoagulation agents for the treatment of acute coronary syndromes and atrial fibrillation, the study of agents targeted to protect the myocardium during reperfusion therapy for acute myocardial infarction, and the evaluation of cardiovascular safety of diabetic therapies. I am also interested in the methodology of clinical trials. Current research activities include standardization of the definition of myocardial infarction used in clinical trials, the adjudication of suspected clinical endpoint events by Clinical Event Committees (CEC), and the efficient operational conduct of large multinational clinical trials.
Dr. Tian has considerable experience in statistical methodological research, planning large epidemiological studies, designing randomized clinical trials, and conducting applied data analysis. His methodological research interest includes survival analysis, resampling method, precision medicine, meta-analysis, and causal inference. Currently, Dr. Tian has servs as the leader of data management and statistical core of Stanford Alzheimer Research Center. Dr. Tian has published more than 200 peer reviewed journal articles and served as the Associate Editor of Statistics in Medicine, Biometrics, and Chance.
Dr. Tuljapurkar is Professor of Biology and the Dean & Virginia Morrison Professor of Population Studies at Stanford University. His research areas include stochastic dynamics of human and natural populations; life history evolution, especially senescence; prehistoric societies; and probability forecasts including sex ratios, mortality, aging and fiscal balance. Tuljapurkar directs Stanford’s Center for Population Research and the demography program at Stanford’s Center for the Demography and Economics of Health and Aging. He is a member of the Center for the Demography and Economics of Aging at the University of California, Berkeley. He has led a panel on aging for the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population and served on the Technical Advisory Panel to the US Social Security Administration.
Mintu Turakhia is Associate Professor Of Medicine (Cardiovascular Medicine) At The Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Health Care System. Mintu Turakhia is a cardiac electrophysiologist, outcomes researcher, and clinical trialist. Dr. Turakhia has an active, highly funded multidisciplinary program in atrial fibrillation, where uses large datasets to examine quality, outcomes, and risk prediction for heart rhythm disorders. As the Executive Director of Stanford’s new Center for Digital Health, he is the principal investigator of several multi-center trials to test digital health tools and wearable devices to screen and manage heart rhythm disorders
Jerry Yesavage, MD is Jared And Mae Tinklenberg Professor And Professor, by courtesy, of Neurology. Dr. Yesavage directs several programs designed to examine changes in mental function across the lifespan. In particular we are concerned with Alzheimer’s Disease (senile dementia), Age-Associated Cognitive Decline (normal changes in cognitive function seen in older adults) and cognitive training to reduce the loss, depression in aging, sleep disorders in aging and lifespan changes in complex tasks such as aircraft pilot performance with funding in part from the NIH, the Veteran’s Administration, and the State of California.
| James Zou is an assistant professor of biomedical data science and, by courtesy, of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. He is also the Core Lead of the Methodological and Analyses Core of the Stanford Aging and Ethnogeriatrics Transdisciplinary Research Center. Professor Zou develops novel machine and deep learning algorithms that have strong statistical guarantees; several of his methods are currently being used by biotech companies. He also works on questions important for the broader impacts of AI—e.g., interpretations, robustness, transparency—and on biotech and health applications. He has received several best paper awards, a Google Faculty Award, a Tencent AI award and is a Chan-Zuckerberg Investigator. He is also the faculty director of Stanford AI for Health program and is a member of the Stanford AI Lab. |
Dr. Fuller is the Deputy Associate Chief of Staff, Extended Care Service of the VA Palo Alto Health Care System (VAPAHCS) in Palo Alto, CA. He is also the Medical Director of the Home-Based Primary Care (HBPC) program of the VAPAHCS. He has over 20 years of experience in the VA in Geriatrics and Palliative Care working primarily in the areas of end-of-life care and in the delivery of home care services. He is also a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine. He has served as a committee member and co-chair of the National Quality Forum Steering Committee in 2004 and 2008 establishing standardized home health care performance measures for the country.
SAGE Advisory Board
Dr. Charles von Gunten (Chair of the Advisory Board) is widely known as a pioneer in the new specialty of hospice and palliative medicine. He is the Chairman, Test Committee, Hospice & Palliative Medicine, American Board of Medical Specialties. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Palliative Medicine. He is Co-Principal for the Education for Physicians on End-of-life Care (EPEC) Project and its revision for oncology, EPEC-O and is an expert for the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) on developing hospital-based palliative care programs. In 2013, the American Cancer Society gave him its prestigious pathfinder in palliative care award. In 2014, he was recognized as one of 30 pioneers in palliative medicine by the American Academy for Hospice and Palliative Medicine. In 2015, he was named a top cancer doctor in Newsweek Health. He has been particularly interested in the integration of hospice and palliative care into standard medical care. He has published and spoken widely on the subjects of hospice, palliative medicine, and pain and symptom control.
Dr. Laurencin is a primary care physician in Santa Cruz specializing in Geriatric Medicine, Hospice and Palliative Care, and Complementary and Integrative Medicine. She graduated from the Boston University School of Medicine in 1982. Dr. Laurencin is affiliated with Sutter Maternity and Surgery Center of Santa Cruz, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, and the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center
Dr. Pizzo is a Pedicatric Hematology-Oncology Specialist in Palo Alto, CA and has over 51 years of experience in the medical field. He is a leader in academic medicine, championing programs and policies to improve the future of science, education and healthcare in the United States and beyond and is a Founding Director of the Stanford Distinguished Careers Institute. Before joining Stanford, he was the physician-in-chief of Children’s Hospital in Boston and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Prior to that, Dr. Pizzo was at the National Cancer Institute, eventually serving as chief of pediatrics and acting scientific director in the Division of Clinical Sciences. Dr. Pizzo is the author of more than 630 scientific articles and 16 books and monographs. He serves on several international boards. Dr. Pizzo received a B.A. from Fordham University and an M.D. from the University of Rochester School of Medicine.
Dr. Quill is a Hospice & Palliative Medicine Specialist in Rochester, NY. He is the Georgia and Thomas Gosnell Distinguished Professor of Palliative Care, and Professor of Medicine, Psychiatry, Medical Humanities and Nursing at the University of Rochester School of Medicine (URMC). He was the Founding Director of the URMC Palliative Care Program and is the Acting Director of the URMC Paul M. Schyve Center for Bioethics. Dr. Quill has published and lectured widely about various aspects of the doctor-patient relationship, with special focus on end-of-life decision making, including delivering bad news, non-abandonment, discussing palliative care earlier, and exploring last-resort options. He is the author of several books on end-of life, including Physician-Assisted Dying: The Case for Palliative Care and Patient Choice and Caring for Patients at the End of Life: Facing an Uncertain Future Together, as well as numerous articles published in major medical journals, including “Death and Dignity: A Case of Individualized Decision Making” published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
National Institute on Aging Program Officers
Dr. Bandiera is an epidemiologist whose research has focused on tobacco use among special and vulnerable populations, especially ethnic minorities, people with mental disabilities, and populations with drug addictions. He served as an assistant professor at the University of Texas School of Public Health, where he examined the complex interdisciplinary relationships among tobacco use, substance use, and mental health in diverse populations. Specifically, Frank has investigated mortality among persons with substance abuse and mental health challenges, and the difference in tobacco use among special populations. Frank also served as a Tobacco Regulatory Science Fellow at FDA. Frank received his BA in psychology from the University of Miami, his MPH from the University of Florida, and his PhD from the University of Miami. He completed his postdoctoral fellowships at the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of California System. His portfolio includes minority health and health disparities.
As the Director for ORR, Dr. Bhattacharyya coordinates, directs, and implements initiatives related to research data and resources supported by BSR and the National Institute on Aging (NIA). He also advises NIA leadership on new developments in data collection, analysis, and data sharing, supporting the NIA mission. As a Program Director within DBSR, he primarily oversees NIA’s health economics, health services, behavioral economics, and pragmatic trials portfolios. He was instrumental in developing the behavioral economics and subsequent pragmatic trials portfolio for improving care for patients with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (AD/ADRD). In collaboration with multiple divisions across NIA, Dr. Bhattacharyya leads the development of the AD/ADRD Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory, which will bring together health systems, health insurance companies (e.g., managed care plans), home health care providers, and nursing homes systems for research to improve care of persons with dementia.
SAGE Scientists
Dr. Alexander is an Assistant Professor of Medicine (Cardiovascular Medicine). He is also a member of the Stanford Amyloid Center and Stanford Cardiovascular Institute. He is on the editorial board for Circulation Research. He currently serves on the American Heart Association (AHA) Basic Cardiovascular Sciences Early Career Committee and the Association of Black Cardiologist COVID-19 Task Force.
Clinically, he specializes in advanced heart failure and transplant cardiology. His primary research interests lie in cardiac amyloidosis and pathologic cardiac aging. He is particularly interested in studying these conditions in African American and elderly populations. He has received funding for his work from the National Institutes of Health, American Heart Association, as well as other institutions.
Dr. Juan M. Banda works on building machine learning, and NLP methods that help generate insights from multi-modal large-scale data sources with applications to precision medicine and medical informatics. His research interests include using structured data, alongside concepts extracted from millions of unstructured clinical notes, to build predictive models and mine for potential multi-drug interactions. Dr. Banda’s has published over 60 peer reviewed conference and journal papers and serves as an editorial board member of JAMIA, and a reviewer for JBI, nature Digital Medicine, PLOS One, and several other journals. Prior to being an assistant professor of Computer Science at Georgia State University, Dr. Banda was a postdoctoral scholar, and a research scientist at Stanford’s center of Biomedical Informatics. He is an active collaborator of the Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics and his work has been funded by the VA, NIA, as well as NASA, NSF and NIH.
Dr. Alesha Heath is a Postdoctoral Scholar at Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford School of Medicine and the MIRECC the VA Palo Alto. Her research goal is to apply a transdisciplinary approach to the treatment Alzheimer’s disease (AD), by understanding the cause and identifying potential biomarkers, as well as investigating the mechanisms of neuromodulatory therapies. Her research is focused on the mechanisms and applications of brain stimulation therapies, in particular repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, which involves both basic and clinical components with the aim of improving the efficacy of these therapies in AD. She also studies genetic influences on AD, specifically the impact of Variable Number Tandem Repeats, an under-researched genetic polymorphism, for which she has developed novel analysis techniques to identify new predictive alleles and potential disease-causing genetic loci.
Monroe Kennedy III is an assistant professor in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. He leads the Assistive Robotics and Manipulation laboratory (arm.stanford.edu), which will develop robotic assistants by focusing on combining modeling and control techniques together with machine learning tools. Together, these techniques will improve performance for tasks that are highly dynamic, require dexterity, have considerable complexity and require human-robot collaboration. Monroe is an associate editor for a special issue of Journal of Field Robotics. Prof. Kennedy received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics and Masters in Robotics at the University of Pennsylvania, advised by Dr. Vijay Kumar, with a focus in robotics in the GRASP Lab. He was the recipient of GEM and NSF graduate fellowships. During his graduate studies, his research focused on increasing the abilities and effectiveness of robotic mobile manipulators performing complex service tasks in unstructured environments with considerations for working alongside human collaborators.
Dr. Iván Mejía received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He received postdoctoral training and served as Associate Specialist in the Department of Demography at UC Berkeley. Before coming to Stanford, he was Research Associate at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies and served as a consultant to the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. His primary interests are statistical modeling for population health research; understanding the social determinants of health and mortality of minority populations, population aging and intergenerational transfers; lifespan inequality, child mortality, and maternal and child health in developing countries. His SAGE Pilot Project is focused on minority health and aging: how to age and location interact with other factors obtained from emerging technologies?
Róbert Pálovics is a Postdoctoral Scholar at Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford School of Medicine. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics in Hungary. His research lies in the intersection of machine learning and data science with a strong focus on extracting key insights from large-scale datasets. At Stanford, Róbert analyzes massive data from single-cell sequencing experiments and develops computational methods in order to understand aging and rejuvenation at the cell level.
Fátima Rodriguez, MD, MPH is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at Stanford University. She is a practicing noninvasive and preventive cardiologist. Dr. Rodriguez’s research interests include a range of issues relating to racial and ethnic disparities in guideline adherence, cardiovascular disease prevention, health promotion and leveraging technology to improve the care of diverse patients. She has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications on these topics and has been a two-time winner of Stanford University’s Alderman Award for Excellence in Clinical Research and the Department of Medicine Chair Diversity Investigator Award. Her work is funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the American Heart Association. Dr. Rodriguez is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association and she is the Co-Chair of the National Minority Cardiovascular Alliance. She serves as an Associate Editor for the New England Journal of Medicine Journal Watch Cardiology.
Dr. Shivley-Scott is a postdoctoral research fellow at the VA Palo Alto Sierra Pacific Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center (MIRECC) and the department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford School of Medicine. He earned his PhD in Clinical Psychology with specialization in Neuropsychology from Fordham University where his research focused on interactive relationships between medical, psychological, sociocultural, and neurocognitive outcomes in older adults. At VA Palo Alto, Dr. Shivley-Scott’s postdoctoral research focuses on understanding the impact of environmental and biological factors that influence neuroanatomical substrates associated with mood regulation in older adults and Veterans with traumatic brain injury.
Seungmoon Song is a postdoctoral researcher in the Mechanical Engineering Department of Stanford University and a recipient of an NIH K99 award. His research focuses on modeling the neuromechanics of human movement and applying it to rehabilitation and robotics. As a postdoc, he is working on improving human walking performance with exoskeleton assistance using human-in-the-loop optimization. During his Ph.D. at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University, he proposed a reflex-based control model that could explain various aspects of human locomotion including diverse locomotion behaviors of healthy adults, responses to unexpected disturbances, and performance degradation in aging. He is also the lead organizer of the Learn to Move competition, which is an official competition of the NeurIPS conference.
Dr. Tamang uses machine learning, natural language processing and other artificial intelligence techniques to help solve important population health problems, with a focus on the management and measurement of complex, high-needs patients with chronic disease. She has over fifteen years of experience developing solutions to challenging healthcare problems, using large and diverse population health datasets such as electronic medical records, administrative claims, activity monitoring data, population-based surveys, and national registers, in the US and in Denmark; also, working with a variety of healthcare and biomedical knowledge graphs. Dr. Tamang’s training in computer science, biology, and health services research, paired with the practical skills and knowledge that she has gained through working within integrated delivery systems across the US, it what allows her to build next generation tools to support health systems and policy makers. Dr. Tamang’s work with SAGE is focused on the intersection of opioid safety and health disparities.
