Katie Brandt - Keynote Presenter
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Katie Brandt is a national dementia care expert, integrating fifteen years of family caregiving experience with her professional role as the Director of Caregiver Support Services and Public Relations for the Massachusetts General Hospital Frontotemporal Disorders Unit. She is the Founder and CEO of Katie Brandt Advocacy, LLC, a consultancy that provides a platform for lived experience presentations and life science advising, bridging connections with clinicians, scientists, funders and policy makers. Katie has shared her family’s story of love, loss and resilience through print, television, academic publications, podcasts and her short film, Love Is Out There, which won runner-up at the 2016 American Academy of Neurology’s Neuro Film Festival.
Katie is known as a powerful public speaker, educator, fundraiser and advocate, with each aspect of her work aiming raise awareness, funds and hope that that the cure of tomorrow is not so far from the care of today for Alzheimer’s and related dementias.
Learn more at www.KatieBrandt.org.
Presenters
Bill van Nostrand
PhD
Co-Executive Director, George & Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience
Herrmann Professor of Neuroscience
Professor, Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences
University of Rhode Island
Louisa Thompson
PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry
Brown University
Jessica Alber
PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Science
University of Rhode Island
Cognitive Neuroscientist, Butler Hospital Memory & Aging Program
Zachary Kunicki
PhD
Assistant Professor of Health and Human Behavior
Brown University
Eric Jutkowitz
PhD
Associate Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice
Brown University
Ellen McCreedy
PhD, MPH
Associate Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice
Center for Long-Term Care Quality & Innovation
Center for Gerontology and Healthcare Research
Brown University
Claudia Fallini
PhD
Assistant Professor of Neuroscience, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology
Ryan Institute for Neuroscience
University of Rhode Island
Alvin Huang
PhD
GLF Translational Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology, Cell BIology and
Biochemistry
Center for Translational Neuroscience
Brown University
Theresa Shireman
PhD
Professor, Department of Health Services, Policy & Practice and Department of Epidemiology
Director, Center for Gerontology & Healthcare Research
Brown University
Kristen Cusato
Alzheimer’s Association Research Champion
Kristen Cusato, Alzheimer’s Association New England Region’s Research Champion and Communications Director for the Connecticut and Rhode Island chapters. Kristen Cusato
was a journalist for more than 20 years, 11 of which were spent at News Channel 8 in
New Haven, Conn. When her best friend, her mom Linda, was diagnosed with dementia,
their lives changed. Kristen became a caregiver for her mother, and helping others going through the same situation became her passion and purpose. She now works for the Alzheimer’s Association, raising awareness of the disease, sharing care techniques and
the very latest research towards prevention, new treatments and eventually a cure.
Kathy O'Neel Webster
CDP, CFPS, BS
Kathy O'Neel Webster is the owner of ShipShape. Kathy is also a fitness enthusiast and lifelong Rhode Islander, who is passionate about helping older adults enhance their quality of life both in body and mind. Kathy empowers people throughout the aging journey, to improve their mobility and strength through balance, breath and movement practices. With over 35 years experience in the health and fitness industry, Kathy has worked with adults to maintain their quality of life, as they age, through balancing healthy lifestyles and regular movement.