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.
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 focusing on jazz violin performance, after which he moved to Nairobi, Kenya, for two years, embedding himself in East African musical traditions and cultures.
Sean Coulborn is a postdoctoral researcher at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center under the mentorship of Dr. David Perry. His research focuses on improving the certainty of clinical diagnosis and predicting the pathological diagnosis in neurodegenerative diseases.
Noah attended college at UC Berkeley where he recently graduated with a BA degree in neurobiology. Currently, Noah is an Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator at the Memory and Aging Center for Dr. David Perry and Dr. Winston Chiong. Noah is interested in how reward processing and decision-making are impacted by neurodegenerative disease.
Dr. Jessica de Leon received her undergraduate degrees in neuroscience and Spanish at the Johns Hopkins University and an MD with thesis degree at UCSF. She then completed a medicine internship and neurology residency at UCSF, where she served as chief resident.
Aura coordinates the Pilot Awards program within the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI). She also works closely with the International Research Manager to support regional impact efforts, with a particular focus on subawards, contracts and vendor payments.
Dr. Mary De May received her medical degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She completed an internship in medicine and psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and subsequently did her psychiatry residency and fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. She joined the UCSF Memory and Aging Center in 2000, where she is the center’s Hellman Master Clinician and the Hellman Family Distinguished Professor of Neurology.
Kaan grew up in Istanbul, Turkey, and finished medical school at Istanbul University. Following medical school, he pursued a research fellowship at the Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, where he focused on Alzheimer’s disease genetics, transcriptomics, and blood-based biomarkers with a focus on underrepresented minorities. He did his neurology residency at the University of Iowa, being one of the chief residents in his final year of training.
Nikhil joined the Seeley Lab at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center in December 2023 as a Specialist. After completing his MSc degree in Neuroscience, Nikhil’s career has focused on developing digital solutions in diverse life-science environments, including academia (Columbia University), large corporations (Abbott Labs), and biomedical startups. Nikhil left Abbott in 2022 after 17 years; one of his accomplishments was leading the software organization that created the mobile app for the blockbuster FreeStyle Libre product.
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.
Sreya graduated from UC Santa Barbara in June 2022, where she majored in Biopsychology. At UC Santa Barbara, Sreya completed an independent research project studying the changes in vocal attractiveness in relation to the female fertile window and other reproductive cycle phases.
Sreya currently works as a Clinical Research Coordinator under Dr. Adam Staffaroni. She will be working on remote projects testing and validating a smartphone app designed for patients with frontotemporal dementia.
Valentina joined Dr. Joel Kramer’s lab as a research coordinator in September of 2021 and works primarily on the Healthy Brain Aging study as well as the Mechanisms of Executive Decline study. She graduated with a BA degree in Neurobiology from UC Berkeley in May of 2021 and has interests in neurodegenerative disorders with plans of becoming a neurosurgeon.
Dr. Dietz is originally from Penticton, British Columbia. He studied physiology and physics at McGill University in Montreal, where his research focused on characterizing candidate mechanosensitive ion channels using single-cell electrophysiology techniques. While at McGill, he became interested in neurology, neuropsychology, and brain-behavior relationships after reading the classic works of Drs. Wilder Penfield and Brenda Milner at the Montreal Neurological Institute.
