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.
Joanne graduated from San Francisco State University with a BS degree in microbiology and is pursuing Clinical Laboratory Science (CLS) in the Kao Lab at UC San Francisco. She also helps manage the Biospecimens Core.
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.
Nina Djukic graduated from UC Berkeley in May 2018 with a BS degree in Environmental Health & Communications. She currently works with Dr. Joel Kramer, coordinating the Aging & Cognitive Decline project, a longitudinal study to identify the cognitive mechanisms and neural structures that underlie aging-related declines in executive functioning. She is also the study coordinator for Dr.
Ashley was born in San Francisco and raised in both New York City and Marin County. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in May 2021 with a bachelor’s degree in molecular and cell biology with a cellular developmental biology emphasis and a minor in dance.
Ashley now assists with PET/MRI processing and analysis to support the Rabinovici Lab’s efforts to image tau, amyloid and metabolism in Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative 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.
Alex started at the Memory and Aging Center as a staff researcher in the lab of Prof. Lea T. Grinberg in 2013. There, he developed interests in the factors that influence selective vulnerability and resilience at the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease and the neuropsychiatric manifestations associated with those stages. He now has dual roles as a researcher in the Grinberg lab and as a Ph.D. candidate in the Dept. of Integrative Biology in the lab of Prof. Daniela Kaufer at UC Berkeley's Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute.
Fanny Elahi is a board-certified neurologist with specific expertise in the evaluation and management of patients with cognitive and behavioral disorders due to degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and related disorders. She completed her bachelor's degree at Columbia University, her MD from Icahn School of Medicine, at Mount Sinai, and her DPhil from Oxford University.
Emma received her BA degree in biology from Swarthmore College in 2017. While at Swarthmore, she developed an interest in public health, which lead to her research on methods used by medical professionals to combat the stigma of schizophrenia in Valparaíso, Chile. After working as a medical scribe at CityMD in New York City for one year, she returned to her native Bay Area. At the Memory and Aging Center, Emma assists families with the donation process and acts as Dr. Bill Seeley’s administrative assistant.
Dr. Michael Erkkinen received his medical degree from Dartmouth College. He completed an internship in Internal Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, residency in Neurology at the combined Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Program, and fellowships in Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He was on the faculty at Harvard Medical School until 2020, when he re-joined the Memory and Aging Center team to serve as the clinic’s medical director.
