People

Caroline Prioleau

Writer & Designer

Caroline Prioleau writes and designs content for the Memory and Aging Center and the Global Brain Health Institute. She is interested in using design and technology to share complex information and facilitate collaborations across clinical, research and non-medical groups. She also co-leads an oral history project, hear/say, that focuses on collecting personal stories about the experience of aging, dementia and caregiving.

Igor Prufer queiroz campos araujo

Behavioral Neurology Clinical Fellow

Igor Prufer Q.C. Araujo obtained his MD degree at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He completed his neurology residency at Texas Tech University in Lubbock Texas being the chief resident in his final year of training. His current research interests include the benefits of multilingualism to cognitive reserve, the neural basis of decision making and socioeconomic factors affecting dementia care.

Pongpat Putthinun, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Pongpat Putthinun is a health economist and postdoctoral scholar in the UCSF Memory and Aging Center. He joined the Decision Lab team, led by Dr. Winston Chiong, and is currently working on a project aimed at understanding how genetic predispositions to frontotemporal dementia influence decision-making in the pre-symptomatic phase. Through neuroeconomic methods, the research seeks to identify incidents of early impaired judgment that could lead to early intervention strategies to decelerate the onset of frontotemporal dementia.

James Qian

Clinical Research Coordinator

James was born and raised in Beijing, China. He graduated from Westmont College in December 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. His senior capstone project explored the effects of mindfulness meditation on people with mild cognitive impairment. 

After graduation, he worked as a program specialist at Friendship Center Adult Day Services in Santa Barbara, where he organized and led memory-strengthening activities for older adults with dementia.

Gil Rabinovici, MD

Professor

Dr. Gil Rabinovici holds the Edward Fein and Pearl Landrith Distinguished Professorship in Memory & Aging in the UCSF Department of Neurology. He received his BS degree from Stanford University and MD from Northwestern University Medical School. He completed neurology residency (and chief residency) at UCSF and a behavioral neurology fellowship at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center (MAC), where he cares for patients with cognitive disorders.

Kamalini Ranasinghe, MBBS, PhD

Assistant Professor

Dr. Kamalini Ranasinghe received her medical degree from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka and completed her internship training in general medicine and general surgery. She earned her doctorate degree in Cognition and Neuroscience from the University of Texas at Dallas, under the mentorship of Dr. Michael Kilgard.

Katherine Rankin, PhD

Professor & Neuropsychologist

Dr. Kate Rankin is a professor in the UCSF Department of Neurology who specializes in the neuropsychological, neuroanatomic and genetic underpinnings of human socioemotional behavior in healthy aging and neurodegenerative disease. She studied psychology at Yale for her undergraduate work and received graduate degrees from Fuller School of Psychology in Pasadena, including her PhD degree in clinical psychology and a master’s degree in theology.

Liara Rizzi, PhD, MSc

Postdoctoral Scholar

Oscar Robles-Archila

Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator

Oscar is the Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator at the Yokoyama Lab. He supports the research focusing on the genetic, structural and cognitive characterization of Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia in Central and South American populations.

Salma Rocha

Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator

Salma was born and raised in Orange County, California. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in May 2022 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Molecular and Cell Biology: Neurobiology and Spanish Linguistics. She is now working as an Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator to aid with various studies related to Alzheimer's disease in the Rabinovici Lab.

Anne Marie Rodriguez

Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator

Anne-Marie Rodriguez received her BS degree in biology & neuroscience and her BA degree in Spanish at the University of Portland. She works as an assistant clinical research coordinator for the Brain Health Assessment study with Dr. Katherine Possin. Anne-Marie’s interested in neurodegenerative diseases and TBIs, particularly working with the Spanish speaking population. 

In her free time, Anne-Marie enjoys wine-making and exploring the outdoors.

Julio Rojas, MD, PhD

Associate Professor

Julio Rojas is a neurologist who specializes in dementia, caring for patients with cognitive difficulties or behavioral changes resulting from conditions including Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy body dementia (a form of dementia that causes cognitive defects and Parkinson’s-like symptoms), frontotemporal dementia (a common cause of dementia in younger adults that features behavioral changes) and progressive supranuclear pa

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