| staff Nurses & Counselors
Cynthia Barton received her basic nursing education at Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital in Hanover, NH. She then went on to get her Bachelor of Science in Nursing at UCSF and her Master of Science in Nursing from Duke University. She is certified as a Gerontological Nurse Practitioner by the American Nurses Credentialing Center. Her career has included clinical and management positions in the acute setting and primary care management in the long-term care setting. Ms. Barton is involved in evaluating patients at the San Francisco Veterans Administration Medical Center's Memory Disorders Clinic and coordinating a quality improvement project in the SFVA Nursing Home to improve the diagnosis and management of patients with dementia. She speaks in the community on the topics of cognition in the elderly, cognitive assessment and non-pharmacological management of behavior problems in dementia. UP 
Ms. Gearhart received her undergraduate degree in Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania. She began her nursing career at Johns Hopkins Hospital where she worked in acute care. Ms. Gearhart continued working in general medicine at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center where she was nurse manager. She received her Master's in Nursing Administration at UCSF and is certified as a Gerontological Clinical Nurse Specialist by the American Nurses Association Credentialing Center. Ms. Gearhart is a Clinical Nurse Specialist and the Administrative Nurse for the Memory and Aging Center. She is also Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Physiology in the School of Nursing. Ms. Gearhart works with families during the comprehensive diagnostic visits and cares for patients in the follow-up clinic. Ms. Gearhart focuses on optimizing the functional status of each patient and maintaining the quality of life for both the patient and caregivers. In addition to her clinical work, Ms. Gearhart has coordinated the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS) prevention drug trial and focuses her research interests on the study of people at risk for dementia and prevention of decline. She is very interested in investigating the impact of caregiving on families, particularly families involved in the care of frontotemporal dementia patients. UP
Robin received her Bachelor’s degree in nursing from UCLA and a Master’s degree in gerontological nursing from UCSF. Robin’s career has involved work in medical surgical nursing, psychiatric nursing and geriatric nursing. She has held research positions at both the UC Davis and UC San Francisco state funded Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers of California (ARCC). Her work at the ARCCs included expert clinical care as a Clinical Nurse Specialist and as a Clinical Trials Coordinator for patents and families participating in dementia research. Most recently, Robin worked in a quality assurance program at Northern California Kaiser Permanente managing data and tracking patients with breast cancer. 
Ms. Merrilees received her Master’s Degree in Nursing from the University of California, San Francisco and is certified by the American Nurses Association in Gerontological Nursing. She is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the UCSF School of Nursing and a Clinical Nurse Specialist at the Memory & Aging Center. Ms. Merrilees is part of a multidisciplinary team focused on the evaluation and management of people with cognitive and behavioral symptoms. She is the primary nurse for the NIH-funded program project grant entitled Frontotemporal Dementia: Genes, Emotions and Imaging. Ms. Merrilees coordinates outreach programs that serve Self-Help for the Elderly, an adult day program for elderly Chinese in San Francisco and Laguna Honda Hospital, the public long-term care facility serving the city and county of San Francisco. Ms. Merrilees is also involved in two clinical trials evaluating the use of memantine in dementia. Her work at the Memory and Aging Center focuses on behavioral symptoms in dementia and support and education for family caregivers. UP
Jennifer Ogar received her Masters of Science degree in Communicative Disorders from San Francisco State University in 2000. She has been consulting with the MAC clinic since 2001, evaluating patients with progressive speech and language impairments. Ms. Ogar also participates in ongoing research in the area of aphasia and related disorders. Ms. Ogar is the Acting Chief of the Speech Pathology Service at the Department of Veterans Affairs in Martinez, California, where she sees patients with a range of speech, language and swallowing disorders. UP
Joanne Robinson-Teran received her undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Gerontology at CSU Sacramento where she continued for her Masters in Counseling. She provided counseling, education and supportive services to family caregivers and individuals with neurological impairments while working at Family Caregiver Alliance, The ALS Association and the Alzheimer’s Association. Joanne joined the MAC in January 2006. She meets with families during the comprehensive diagnostic evaluation and is available during follow up visits to assist in questions and concerns regarding care planning. Joanne works with the MAC team to identify patient and caregiver issues and helps to identify available services and community resources that can assist in maintaining the quality of life for both the patient and family caregiver. She works to strengthen partnerships with local and national resources, particularly with patients and families affected by Huntington’s Disease. UP
Lea completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree at Dominican College in San Rafael, California, in 1998. She worked for five years in the Emergency Department setting before accepting a position in the Neurology Department at UCLA in 2003. At UCLA, Lea worked with physicians and nurses to start up and coordinate an NIH-funded, countywide clinical trial of a new treatment for acute stroke. Lea joined the MAC team in April 2005. She works with families during the comprehensive diagnostic evaluations and research visits. She also serves as the lead nurse for the ADRC research project, and the primary coordinator for the anti-amyloid antibody trial for patients with Alzheimer’s disease. UP 
Ms. Wyss-Coray graduated from Nursing College in Chur, Switzerland in 1987. She worked 6 years as a clinical nurse and charge nurse in a University hospital in Switzerland. In 1993, Ms. Wyss-Coray moved to the U.S. with her family and in 1996, she joined the Intensive Care Unit at UCSF, and in 1999, she came to the Memory and Aging Center. Ms. Wyss-Coray is a Clinical Nurse at the Memory and Aging Center. At the MAC clinic, Ms. Wyss-Coray meets with patients and families on the appointment day, evaluates caregiver issues, and performs functional, behavioral, and memory assessments. Ms. Wyss-Coray organizes and oversees follow-up appointments and follows patients and families through the course of enrollment at the Memory and Aging Center. UP
Ms. Zanko received her Masters Degree in genetic counseling from the University of California, Berkeley. She has a Bachelors Degree from Boston University in Education and Social Sciences and she majored in Cell and Molecular Biology at San Francisco State University. Andrea Zanko has been a Genetic Counselor at UCSF in the pediatric/adult genetics clinic for over 20 years, working with families suspected or known to be affected by or at risk for genetic disorders. She created the UCSF Huntington’s Disease Counseling & Testing Clinic in 1990 and continues to counsel individuals and families regarding Huntington’s Disease (HD) and the complexities of predictive DNA analysis. Ms. Zanko coordinates the HD clinic in association
with the multidisciplinary team at the USCF Memory and Aging Center.
She facilitates a monthly HD support group and participates in
HD clinical research designed to ascertain and interpret the myriad
expressions of Huntington’s Disease. UP
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