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.
Maria Luisa Mandelli leads the neuroimaging research within the language team of the Memory and Aging Center. Her research focuses on neuroanatomical changes caused by language and other neurodegenerative disorders. She has been working on brain magnetic resonance imaging for the past ten years, with the goal of better understanding of how the brain develops, changes over time, and how it makes us who we are.
Alyson is a practice coordinator that handles many sub-specialty clinics for the MAC such as Huntington’s disease, movement disorders and genetics. She graduated from CSU Long Beach with a bachelor’s degree in health science. She enjoys baking desserts, learning about the Korean culture and language, and has a passion for helping all those in need.
Originally from Sonoma County, Dolce attended college at UCLA, where she graduated with a degree in Psychology. While at UCLA, Dolce was a research assistant at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, studying the effects of behavioral therapy on children with autism spectrum disorder. She also served as a public speaker with the National Alliance on Mental Health, Westside LA, working to expand mental health awareness to young adults in the community.
Luis Martinez Roman, MD, MPH, completed his medical studies at Universidad del Rosario, Colombia. He worked in the “Cedesnid” public foundation for people with low economic resources, disabilities, and neurological diseases in Bogota, Colombia. Luis received his master's degree in Neurology from the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina. In the final year of his residency, he was selected to do a rotation in the Memory and Aging Unit at Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau in Barcelona, Spain.
Alex Martinez-Arroyo graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in psychology with a minor in neuroscience in May 2021. While at the University of North Carolina, he worked in Dr. Prinstein's lab where he studied adolescent interpersonal relationships, depression, and suicide. He looked for subjective biomarkers of stress and their effect on mental health. Alex also worked in Dr. Muscatell's Social Neuroscience Lab where he studied how the brain responds to health messages in people from different cultural backgrounds.
Kailey Mateo is the GBHI Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator based at UCSF. She works with the Monitoring and Evaluation team to provide ongoing support for the monitoring and learning activities of the program and is helping to expand into new arenas, such as evaluating social impact.
Mindy supports the learning environment at the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI), both online and in the classroom. She is adapting her expertise as a teacher educator from traditional classroom environments for a "flipped" class and remote learning while also supporting faculty to adapt content for this new environment.
Sarah McDonagh supports the Atlantic Fellows for Equity in Brain Health and faculty within the Global Brain Health Institute to implement research projects and new grant applications, with a focus on the ReDLat project.
Diana is a clinical research coordinator for the NIH-designated Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at the Memory and Aging Center, where she coordinates visits for Mandarin-speaking participants. She graduated from UC Davis with a Bachelor of Science degree in Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior.