Melissa Lamar, PhD, is a Professor in the Division of Behavioral Sciences at Rush University Medical Center, and a Clinical Neuropsychologist in the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center. She received her PhD in Clinical Neuropsychology from Drexel University and completed her postdoctoral training in cognitive neuroscience within the intramural program of the Laboratory of Behavioral Neurosciences at the National Institute on Aging. She worked at the Institute of Psychiatry King’s College London and the University of Illinois at Chicago prior to joining the Rush faculty in 2016. Her research focuses on modifiable risk and resilience factors as they relate to brain aging and cognition with a particular focus on older Latino and African American adults. Dr. Lamar employs novel geospatial and neuroimaging approaches and incorporates digital technology into her work assessing cognitive functioning. The overarching goal of her work is to identify modifiable risk and resilience factors to reduce health disparities and increase health equity. Dr. Lamar has published extensively, is the PI of several NIH grants, and has received numerous honors and awards for her work including Fellows status of the American Psychological Association and the Arthur Benton Award for Mid-Career Research from the International Neuropsychological Society, as well as from the International Society to Advance Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment’s Diversity and Disparities Professional Interest Area.
