Home for the Holidays: Building Healthy Minds for Life

Event Details

Holiday memories can fade, especially for those experiencing worrisome memory problems. Prepare for the holiday season with tips for self-care and family caregiving. Join experts to bust common myths about memory changes for you, family members, and friends as we grow older.

Take the test at http://mindcrowd.org/holidays

Co-Hosts: David W. Coon, PhD, Precision Aging Network and Kinsey McManus, MS, Alzheimer’s Association

Presentations include:

Prepping for Holiday Revelers – Dr. Angela Allen
Plugging In to Age-related Memory Changes – Martha B. Burruel
Prioritizing Holiday Self-Care – Dr. David Coon
Picturing Your Family Tree – Dr. Matt Huentelman

Dr. Angela M. Allen

Clinical Research Program Director and Community Based Participatory Researcher

Dr. Angela M. Allen has a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from Arizona State University College of Healthcare Innovation, a Master of Education/Educational Specialists (EdS), a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) and a Bachelor of Science (BSN).

Dr. Allen serves a dual appointment as the Associate Clinical Research Program Director of Research at Banner Alzheimer’s Institute-Banner University Medical Center of Phoenix and a faculty instructor at Arizona State University, where she has been in this position for over 16 years. She serves in numerous capacities as a research investigator of several research studies.

Dr. Allen’s most recent work has been addressing cultural diversity in the clinical setting and a participant engaging the African American community in research with Mayo Clinic in the NIH Arizona Community Engagement Alliance (AZCEAL).

Additionally, Dr. Allen is an active member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Phoenix Metropolitan Alumnae Chapter; NIH Arizona All of US Research and Arizona Community Foundation African American Woman Giving and Empowerment Circle and Black Philanthropy Initiative having served as the co-chair. She has served on several boards in Washington, D.C.; Association of Rehabilitation Healthcare in Chicago, IL; Tanner Community Development Corporation in Phoenix, AZ; Senior Leadership Council for Alzheimer’s Association in Phoenix, AZ; and Consultant for the National Brain Health Center for African Americans in Richmond, VA, just to name a few.

Angela has also recently become an entrepreneur creating an organization called Empowering the Community, PLLC.

Martha B. Burruel

Education Manager
Alzheimer’s Association, Desert Southwest Chapter

Martha received her Master’s in Elementary Education in 2005 from the University of Phoenix. Her experience spans over 30 years working with non-profit organizations in the health education arena. She has been with the Alzheimer’s Association for 11 years currently as the Education Manager where she manages education programs and supports groups and trains/works closely with volunteers.

David W. Coon, Ph.D

David W. Coon, Ph.D., received his PhD from Stanford University after his undergraduate and Master’s degrees from the University of Oklahoma and graduate research work at Australian National University. He is currently Associate Dean for Research, Director of the Center for Innovation in Healthy and Resilient Aging, and Professor in Edson College of Nursing & Health Innovation at Arizona State University. Dr. Coon designs and evaluates interventions, such as CarePRO and EPIC, that focus on culturally diverse groups of midlife and older adults facing chronic illnesses (e.g., Alzheimer’s and related dementias, cancer, depression) and their family caregivers. Several of these empirically based treatments have been recognized by entities such as the American Psychological Association, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the US Administration for Community Living. A fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, Dr. Coon has had his work funded through federal (e.g., NIH; US ACL) and foundation grants. He and his community partners received the 2013 Rosalynn Carter Institute’s National Leadership Award in Caregiving for CarePRO, the 2017 ASU President’s Medal for Social Embeddedness for CarePRO, the 2017 Arizona Health Care Association’s Innovation Award for Music & Memory with The Phoenix Symphony, the 2019 Arizona Caregiver Coalition’s David Besst Award for his overall contributions to Arizona’s family caregivers, and recently NIH All of Us Health Champion in Arizona.

Dr. Matt Huentelman

Dr. Matt Huentelman (pronounced: “Hun’-till-man”) is a Professor in the Neurogenomics Division at the non-profit Translational Genomics Research Institute (or “TGen”) in Phoenix, Arizona. He is the founder and principal scientist behind the MindCrowd research project.

His research interests center on the investigation of the molecular basis of human nervous system health and disease. The ultimate goal of his research is to personalize our medical approach to aging and enable an individualized optimization of brain health in order to facilitate successful cognitive aging. This modern approach to brain aging – termed “Precision Aging” – will enable human cognitive healthspan to better match our lifespan and dramatically reduce the burden of age-related brain diseases on the population.

Kinsey McManus

Programs Director
Alzheimer’s Association’s Desert Southwest Chapter

Kinsey oversees care and support services for people living with dementia and their loved ones across Arizona and southern Nevada. Over the past 20 years, she has had the privilege to work in a variety of healthcare settings from California to Massachusetts providing community education, individual and family counseling, healthcare advocacy, and vocational services for adults with disabilities. Kinsey received her M.A. in Psychology from Boston University and her M.S. in Social Work from Columbia University. She is a passionate advocate for involving families in healthcare and brings her knowledge as a family caregiver, clinician, and researcher to her current work.

Closing the Gap Between Cognitive Healthspan and Human Lifespan