Dr. Kristine Yaffe is MPI of the Health & Aging Brain Study – Health Disparities (HABS-HD). She is the Scola Endowed Chair and Epstein Endowed Chair and Vice Chair as well as Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology and Epidemiology, and Director of the Center for Population Brain Health at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Yaffe is an internationally recognized expert in the epidemiology of Alzheimer’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) and cognitive aging and the foremost leader in identifying modifiable risk factors for AD/ADRD. Dr. Yaffe and her colleagues were the first to determine that potentially 30% of dementia risk is preventable. Her current research focuses on modifiable risk factors, the life course framework for AD/ADRD development, social determinants of brain health and AD/ADRD disparities, and translation of this epidemiological evidence to improving population brain health and prevention.

In recognition of these groundbreaking accomplishments. Dr. Yaffe has received several prestigious honors including the American Academy of Neurology’s Potamkin Prize for Alzheimer’s Research in 2017, election to the National Academy of Medicine in 2019, the NIH Robert S. Gordon, Jr. Award in Epidemiology in 2021, and the Department of Veterans Affairs John B. Barnwell Award for Achievement in Clinical Research in 2022.