Beer

When I was a teenager, my grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. I learned early on that caring for someone with dementia is profoundly challenging. If my grandmother were alive today, her care would look very different, thanks to the integration of technology into health care. But with our increasingly technological world, it’s crucial for health care to be user-centric, address patients’ needs, and encourage healthy behavior change.

As an engineering psychologist, my research focuses on how people interact with health care technology. I’ve dedicated my career to developing and evaluating technology interventions for individuals with dementia and their caregivers. My work spans mobile apps, robotics, telehealth, smart homes, and assistive devices.

When I joined UGA in 2017, I connected with neuroscientist Lisa Renzi-Hammond. Our professional relationship is unique. Lisa’s grandmother, like mine, had dementia. We shared a passion for impactful research and a focus on neurological diseases. Together, we envisioned a center we wished had existed when our families were navigating the challenges of caregiving.

Collaborating with colleagues across the University of Georgia, including public service and outreach units, we created the Cognitive Aging Research and Education (CARE) Center. The CARE Center focuses on expanding access to dementia prevention, diagnosis, and support across rural Georgia through in-person and technology-enabled public health interventions.

The CARE Center is a place to provide education, evidence-based prevention strategies, access to screening and diagnosis, and social support for families post-diagnosis. As a faculty member in the College of Public Health, I am acutely aware of the inequities in health care access. Rural counties are disproportionately affected, so we knew the CARE Center had to serve the entire state.

It is one thing to do meaningful research; it is a whole different thing to apply that meaningful research to people’s lives. Translational research absolutely must be interdisciplinary, and UGA is a unique environment that breaks down silos and encourages collaboration. Now, thanks to that collaboration, what began as a fleeting idea in 2017 has grown into a significant, interdisciplinary effort, making a difference far beyond what any single researcher could achieve alone.