Manly To Give Mahoney Lecture on Aging
Dr. Jennifer Manly, a neuropsychologist whose research is focused on structural and social mechanisms of inequalities in cognitive aging and Alzheimer’s disease, will deliver the next NIH Florence Mahoney Lecture on Aging on Wednesday, May 8 at 2 p.m. ET.
Manly’s presentation, “From Policies to pTau: Exposing Social and Structural Drivers of Alzheimer’s Disease and Opportunities for Brain Health Justice,” will take place in Lipsett Amphitheater, Bldg. 10 on NIH’s main campus in Bethesda and via https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=54115. She will discuss research that establishes connections between upstream institutional and social inequalities, including those reinforced by structural racism, and downstream disparities in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias biomarkers and cognitive decline. Her research also reveals potential sources of resilience to neuropathology and forms the basis for advocating for brain health justice and developing interventions to reduce Alzheimer’s and related dementias risk.
Manly is a professor at the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain; the G.H. Sergievsky Center; and the Columbia University Medical Center. Her team partners with the Black and Latinx communities in New York City and across the U.S. to conduct investigations of educational opportunities, socioeconomic inequality and discrimination toward understanding how these factors relate to Alzheimer’s and related dementias biomarkers and cognition later in life.
A key goal of Manly’s research is improving the diagnostic accuracy of neuropsychological tests when used to detect cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s among African-American and Hispanic older adults. This work also clarifies the independent influences of language, acculturation, educational experiences, racial socialization and socioeconomic status on cognitive test performance, with the goal of understanding more about the relationship between culture and cognition.
Manly earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1991, and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology with a specialty in neuropsychology from the University of California, San Diego/San Diego State University Joint Doctoral Program in 1996.
In 1998, she completed her postdoctoral research and joined the faculty at Columbia University, where she has risen through the ranks, serving as an assistant professor and associate professor. She was promoted to her current position in 2018.
Manly has received multiple awards in recognition of her research accomplishments, including the Early Career Award from the National Academy of Neuropsychology in 2006 and election to the National Academy of Medicine in 2021, along with numerous mentorship awards. She is an NIH grant recipient, currently serves on the NIH Council of Councils and is a past member of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) National Advisory Council on Aging.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of NIA, which Florence Stephenson Mahoney (1899-2002) helped establish through her advocacy. Named in her honor 37 years ago, Mahoney lectures are sponsored by NIA.