Kaitlin obtained her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the UCSD/SDSU Joint Doctoral Program in 2015. She completed her clinical internship as part of the UCSF Clinical Psychology Training Program in the Department of Psychiatry, and her post-doctoral fellowship in Neuropsychology at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center in the Department of Neurology. Kaitlin is currently an Assistant Professor of Neuropsychology in Neurology at the Memory and Aging Center developing a research program examining how lifestyle behaviors (e.g., physical exercise, mental stimulation) can be leveraged to shape age-related brain health.
She is specifically interested in better characterizing the types of activities and understanding the molecular mechanisms that underlie the relationships between lifestyle and brain outcomes in both typical and abnormal aging. Her current work focuses on the use of biofluid markers of neural, immune, and vascular functioning as intermediate outcomes of healthy lifestyle behaviors. Kaitlin’s long-term goal is to develop biologically-informed behavioral interventions to promote cognitive resilience and prevent age-related neurodegenerative diseases.