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.
Carmen Hart is the Program and Events Coordinator for the Global Brain Health Institute. She works closely with the Executive Director and GBHI senior staff to coordinate, manage, and plan key aspects and activities of GBHI and the Atlantic Fellows program. She brings extensive expertise in event planning, project coordination, marketing and sales in the healthcare, media, technology and luxury hospitality industries. Before joining GBHI, she managed a contact center team at George P.
Dr. Joanna Hellmuth is a neurologist with sub-specialty training in cognitive and behavioral neurology. She practices at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center, where she evaluates and manages patients with mild cognitive impairment; neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, Lewy body disease, frontotemporal dementia, vascular dementia; and patients with HIV-related cognitive changes. Dr.
Cesar holds bachelor’s degrees in psychology and ecology from the University of California, Davis and a Master of Public Health in epidemiology from Boston University. Prior to joining the UCSF Memory and Aging Center, Cesar worked in the Women’s Health Clinical Research Center (WHCRC) at UCSF managing data for the San Francisco Mammography Registry (SFMR) database and various clinical trial studies.
Joe Hesse joined the Memory and Aging Center in 2002 and serves as the center’s Director of Innovation. His focus is the development of informatics and computational infrastructure in support of precision medicine. He works in collaboration with many groups and faculty across UCSF with the overall goal of delivering technology solutions to clinicians and researchers that are both scientifically agile and regulatory compliant.
Brandon Holmes, MD, PhD, is a Memory and Aging Center clinical fellow and post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry. He is currently in the laboratory of James A. Wells, PhD, where he studies how microglia, the innate immune cells of the central nervous system, alter their proteome in the context of neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation.
Maria joined the Memory and Aging Center in February 2021 as Administrative Manager to provide operational, analytical and administrative support to the Neurodegenerative Disease Brain Bank. She has a BA degree in education, with minors in mathematics and Spanish literature from the University of Pennsylvania. Before joining the MAC, Maria managed education programs, business solutions and strategic initiatives in the healthcare, insurance and financial services industries, both nationally and internationally.
Ji-Hye Hwang, PhD, joined the Seeley Selective Vulnerability Research Lab in March 2013 as a research associate and assists with human neuropathological experiments. She holds a PhD degree in neuroscience from Eulji University School of Medicine, South Korea, where her focus was on the histopathology of Alzheimer’s disease. Before joining the Seeley Lab, Ji-Hye served as a researcher at DGIST (Daegu-Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology), South Korea.
Ashley is transitioning from a former career as a ballet dancer to a field of medicine, science and groundbreaking clinical research. She graduated magna cum laude with a performing arts degree in the Liberal Education for Arts Professionals (LEAP) program at Saint Mary’s College of California. While focusing on her artistry as a ballerina, she enjoyed traveling the world and experiencing unique cultures.
Shireen coordinates the HIV research program at the Memory and Aging Center, including a number of domestic and international protocols focused on studying the impact of HIV infection on cognition. She also supports the Atlantic Fellows for Equity in Brain Health and faculty within the Global Brain Health Institute to facilitate research studies aiming to understand neurodegeneration and test strategies to reduce the global impact of dementia.
