staff

Alison Walmsley

Clinical Research Coordinator

Shaista Afzal, BS

Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator

Shaista Afzal is a research coordinator for the Brain Aging Network for Cognitive Health (BRANCH) program.

Fade Chen (they/them), PhD, is a data analyst at UC San Francisco in the NeuroAI Lab at the Edward and Pearl Fein Memory and Aging Center. They earned their doctorate in cognition and perception from New York University, where they studied under the guidance of Dr. David Poeppel. Dr. Chen’s research investigates how semantic structures influence human memory and meaning-making, using computational tools to gain insights into language processing.

Kristine Yaffe, MD

Professor and Vice Chair

[email protected]

Kristine Yaffe, MD, is the Scola Endowed Chair and Leon Epstein Endowed Chair and Vice Chair, Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Epidemiology, and Director of the Center for Population Brain Health at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Professor Yaffe is dually trained in neurology and psychiatry and completed postdoctoral training in epidemiology and geriatric psychiatry, all at UCSF.

Finn Talmon, BS

Clinical Research Coordinator

[email protected]

Finn Talmon earned a Bachelor of Science degree in neurobiology, physiology, and behavior from the University of California, Davis, in June 2025.

Lynn Kurteff, PhD, MS, SLP

Postdoctoral Scholar

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Lynn Kurteff, PhD, CF-SLP, is a postdoctoral scholar in the ALBA Lab at the UCSF Edward and Pearl Fein Memory and Aging Center. Their research focuses on primary progressive aphasia (PPA), exploring the complex relationship between neurodegenerative diseases and the coordination of motor systems during speech production.

Ashley Heywood, MS

Neuropsychology Fellow

[email protected]

Emily Cheang, BS

Staff Research Associate

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Emily Cheang is a researcher in the Kao Lab at the Memory and Aging Center, where she contributes to advancing neuroscience and neurobiology research. Her work focuses on understanding molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying brain health and disease.

Crystal Luo, MS

Data Systems Analyst

[email protected]

Crystal Yixin Luo serves as a data systems analyst for the Multitudes project, a groundbreaking digital platform and research system dedicated to advancing literacy outcomes and brain health. Luo plays a critical role in managing and analyzing complex data to drive the project’s mission in these areas.

Rituja Bhowmik

Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator

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Rituja Bhowmik earned a Bachelor of Science degree in nutrition and metabolic biology from UC Berkeley in May 2025. During her undergraduate studies, she conducted wet-lab research and developed a passion for basic science, culminating in an honors thesis on transcription in the human placenta. She is dedicated to community health and previously worked as a bilingual community health worker, serving various patient populations in the East Bay, including at Highland Hospital.