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.
Karin (“Kari”) joined the Boxer Lab’s Clinical Trials team as a Project Manager in 2023. A San Francisco native (born at UCSF!), she has managed intervention research for over 15 years, the last ten aiming to reduce stress in family caregivers of people with dementia.
Nair completed a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in Neuroscience at UC Santa Cruz in 2021. As an undergraduate, Nair founded the National Alzheimer’s Buddies UCSC chapter and became the national Chief Operations Officer for the organization, helping to recruit new chapters and bridge intergenerational gaps in dementia care across the US.
Xavier graduated from UC Berkeley in May 2023 with a double major in Psychology and Social Welfare. During college, he worked in the Family & Culture Lab with Dr. Qing Zhou as a research assistant investigating the links among bilingual development, executive function, parent-child and teacher-child relationships, and socio-emotional development in young children from Mexican American and Chinese American families. He also worked in La Clínica de la Raza as an Integrated Behavioral Health Volunteer serving undocumented individuals in the East Bay.
Michelle received her master’s degree in Lifespan Developmental Psychology with a specialization in Gerontology from Louisiana State University. She has over 25 years of experience working with people with dementia and their care partners as a researcher, consultant, educator and program planner. Her areas of expertise include timely detection, early intervention and improving health care quality for people with dementia.
As a social worker at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center Clinic, Amanda Li assists with brief psychotherapy, resource coordination and education, and psychosocial assessment to work with the multidisciplinary team with identifying areas of support that she can provide and areas of strength/growth for patients and their families.
Nhật Bùi earned her master’s degree in nursing here at UCSF in 2016. She is certified as an Adult-Gerontology Nurse Practitioner by the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP). Nhật assists with the Alzheimer’s Dementia Research Center and clinical trial projects by conducting patient assessments and caregiver interviews for observational research studies and clinical drug trials.
Dr. Tobias Haeusermann is a sociologist in the UCSF Decision Lab with Dr. Winston Chiong, where his research aims to understand the ethical concerns in existing clinical applications of closed-loop neuromodulation in epilepsy, movement disorders and mood disorders.
Sarah Dulaney earned a Master of Science degree in gerontological nursing at UCSF and is certified as a Geriatric Clinical Nurse Specialist by the American Nurses Credentialing Center.
Cathy earned a master’s degree in social work from Columbia University in New York. Her extensive knowledge about social service systems is based on her work experience at the local, state and federal level. She was a consultant, training social workers in nursing homes to maintain state licensure. Cathy is also a registered yoga teacher and a Grief Recovery Specialist.
Cecilia Alagappan has been at UCSF Memory and Aging Center (MAC) since 2011 and is a clinical and research nurse. She has over 30 years of nursing experience caring for elderly patients with various medical conditions, including those with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, cardiac disease and cancers needing home infusion therapy and pain management. As a nurse educator in a home care agency, Cecilia trained caregivers to care for patients with dementia, including assisting the family with behavior management and activities of daily living.
