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Stein Institute for Research on Aging & Center for Healthy Aging Center for Healthy Aging
  1. Center for Healthy Aging
  2. About
  3. Steering Committee

Steering Committee

Peter D. Adams

Director NCI-Designated Tumor Initiation and Maintenance Program
Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute

  • Research focus on driving epigenetics as a cross-cutting scientific theme and promoting access to single cell technologies at the Institute.

Steven R. Cummings, PhD

Director, San Francisco Coordinating Center
Research Scientist, California Pacific Medical Center Research InstituteProfessor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, EmeritusUniversity of California San Francisco

  • Research focus on the biology of human aging, efficient design and execution of clinical trials, and pathophysiology/ epidemiology of osteoporosis and prevention of fractures.

Colin A. Depp, PhD

Professor, Department of Psychiatry
Director of Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute (ACTRI) Education, Training and Career Development
University of California San Diego

  • Research focus on technology-based longitudinal assessment and real-time interventions in mental health, in particular mobile technology applications in serious mental illnesses.

Lisa T. Eyler, PhD

Professor, Department of Psychiatry
Director of MIRECC Mental Health in Aging Unit, Clinical Research Psychologist
Director of the Center for Empathy and Compassion Training in Medical Education
University of California San Diego

  • Research focus on understanding individual differences in cognitive and emotional functioning using neurobiological measures including structural and functional brain imaging.

Joe Garbanzos, MPH, EMBA

State President (volunteer), AARP, AARP-CA
Deputy Director, Filipino Veterans Recognition Education Project
CEO/Executive Director and Chairman, Samahan Health Centers
Lecturer, CA School of Management & Leadership, Alliant International University

Steven Hornberger, MSW

Professor, School of Social Work
Director, Social Policy Institute, School of Social Work
Co-Director of the Center for Excellence in Aging & Longevity
San Diego State University

Maile Young Karris, MD

Associate Professor, Department of Medicine
Co-Director San Diego Center for AIDS Research Clinical Investigations Core
Divisions of Infectious Diseases & Global Public Health and Geriatrics & Gerontology
University of California San Diego

  • Research focus on biologic and psychosocial co-morbidities of HIV, implementation of interventions that address social and structural disparities of health, community based participatory research with a focus on justice and equity, empathy and compassion.

Ellen E. Lee, MD

Associate Professor In Residence, Department of Psychiatry
Division Chief of Geriatric Psychiatry, UC San Diego
Staff Psychiatrist, VA San Diego Healthcare System

  • Research focus on the inflammatory mediators of sleep disturbances in older adults with serious mental illnesses.

Paula Lemkuil

Director of Business Development, Belmont Village Senior Living

  • In 2018 Belmont Village was selected by UC San Diego Center for Healthy Aging and Mather LifeWays Institute on Aging for pilot research study Positive Psychological Intervention to Enhance Resilience in Older Adults, designed to test the effectiveness of an intervention to enhance resilience in older adults.

Ramesh R. Rao, PhD

Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Director of the Qualcomm Institute, UCSD division of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) Qualcomm Endowed Chair in Telecommunications and Information Technologies in the Jacobs School of Engineering.
University of California San Diego

  • Dr. Rao is involved on a day-to-day basis with a wide variety of research initiatives at QI, leading several interdisciplinary and collaborative projects while PI on federal-, state-, foundation- and industry-funded grants.

Geert W. Schmid-Schoenbein, PhD

Distinguished Professor, Department of Bioengineering
Director of the UCSD Microcirculation Laboratory – Center for Autodigestion Research.
University of California San Diego

  • Research focus on mechanism for disease and death due to digestive enzymes, design of new instrumentation to detect digestive enzymes, monitoring their transport and activity, and developing new approaches to reduce their destructive actions.

Aladdin H. Shadyab, PhD

Associate Professor of Medicine and Public Health
Division of Geriatrics, Gerontology, and Palliative Care, Department of Medicine
Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science
University of California San Diego

  • Research focus on the epidemiology of aging and science of healthy aging in identifying strategies to lengthen health span and prevent disease and disability in older adults. Interests include geroscience (study of biological aging), aging biomarkers, multi-omics, healthy longevity, and Alzheimer's disease.

Lindsey Yourman, MD

Associate Professor, Division of Geriatrics, Gerontology, and Palliative Care,
Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego
Veterans Affairs Staff Physician and Geriatrics Consultant, VA San Diego Healthcare System
Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Scholarly Lead and Age Friendly Advisor.

  • Research focus on quality improvement and implementation science to close the evidence- practice gap and bridge the divide between traditional healthcare and public health services.  Dr. Yourman was the inaugural fellow of the West Health Institute- UC San Diego Geriatrics Quality Improvement Science Fellowship, UCSD’s first Medical Director of Geriatrics Quality Improvement, and the nation’s first Chief Geriatrics Officer of a County Health and Human Services Agency. To improve shared decision-making with older adults, she co-founded and continues to co-develop eprognosis, an online compendium of prognostic tools based on a systematic review published in JAMA (first author) with approximately 15,000 users/month, 85% of whom are clinicians (Google analytics, 2023).