UCSF’s innovative, collaborative approach to patient care, research and education spans disciplines across the life sciences, making it a world leader in scientific discovery and its translation to improving health.
Sana graduated from UC Berkeley in May 2023 with a major in Integrative Human Biology and a minor in English. During college, Sana founded BioethiCAL, a club where students explored ethical dilemmas in biomedicine. As an Honors Fellow in the Fung Fellowship for Health + Innovation, she co-designed an app to support people living with multiple sclerosis. As a Patient Support Corps intern at UCSF, Sana worked as a COVID Hotline Healthcare Navigator helping patients navigate testing, vaccines, antivirals and care during the pandemic.
Annie completed a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in Biology at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2023. As an undergraduate, Annie was a part of Dr. Andreas Schwingshackl’s lab, where she investigated the regulation of cell potentials with novel pharmacological drugs in mediating lung injuries and was awarded the 2023 Dean’s Prize for Research and Creativity. She founded the Language Interpretation in Healthcare Project at UCLA to promote health literacy and aid low-English proficiency communities in accessing adequate healthcare.
Erica is a pediatric speech-language pathologist in the UCSF Dyslexia Center. She has a BS degree in Human Development from UC Davis and an MS degree in Speech-Language Pathology from Boston University. Erica has worked with students with language-based learning disorders in both outpatient and school settings. Her research interests in developmental language and reading disorders are at the intersection of neurocognition, education, and clinical practice.
Janet Allen-Williams joined the UCSF Department of Neurology in 2015. Since April 2023, Janet has been serving as an Academic Assistant for the Memory and Aging Center, providing Academic Core Team services for the education team.
Maya graduated from UC San Diego in 2023 with a degree in Cognitive Science, Specializing in Neuroscience. As an undergraduate, she worked at the Center for Healthy Eating and Activity Research and the Zeidan Lab. At the UCSF Memory and Aging Center she works on the Frontotemporal Dementia: Genes, Images and Emotions study.
Aaron Colverson is a Doctor of Philosophy in Ethnomusicology, with partnering research in Neuropsychology. He graduated from Berklee College of Music with a BM degree in Professional Music focused on jazz violin performance after which, he moved to Nairobi, Kenya for two years, embedding himself in East African musical traditions and cultures. He received a fellowship to study music and prosocial interaction in Alzheimer’s disease and endeavors to build cross-disciplinary competency between ethnomusicology and neuropsychology in the context of gerontology.
Emily Paolillo, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center. She obtained her PhD degree in Clinical Psychology (emphasis in Neuropsychology) from the SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in 2021, which included a predoctoral clinical internship at VA Palo Alto Health Care System. Her research interests include evaluating digital health tools for early detection and monitoring of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
Xiuxiu is a Neuroimaging Data analyst in the RabLab at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center. She obtained her master’s degree in Biomedical Imaging from UC San Francisco. Currently, Xiuxiu works on processing and analyzing amyloid and tau PET data to further understand Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementias.
In her free time, she enjoys yoga, running and rock climbing as well as hanging out with her cat Sesame.
Dr. Kelly Atkins is a Clinical Neuropsychologist from Melbourne Australia, completing postdoctoral research at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center in the Department of Neurology. She graduated from Monash University in 2021 with a doctorate in Clinical Neuropsychology and completed her registrar training at St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, before moving to Weill Cornell Medicine on a postdoctoral Fulbright Fellowship. Kelly's research interests focus on the measurement of cognitive and neuropsychiatric changes in people with atypical neurodegenerative conditions.
