The Stanford Center for Memory Disorders Team

Michael Greicius, MD, MPH
Medical Director, Stanford Center for Memory Disorders
Associate Professor of Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Dr. Greicius is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He is the medical director of the Stanford Center for Memory Disorders and the principal investigator of the Functional Imaging in Neuropsychiatric Disorders (FIND) Lab. His research involves the use of imaging to identify and characterize the large array of brain networks whose actions and interactions support normal human behavior.  His lab also uses network-based imaging approaches and genetics to gain insights into Alzheimer’s disease and other brain disorders. Recent work has focused on sex-based differences in the genetic risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

Katrin Andreasson, MD
Associate Professor of Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Dr. Andreasson is Professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, and is a neurologist who treats patients with dementia and who is also engaged in basic research in neurodegenerative disorders.  Dr. Andreasson received her M.D. degree at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, completed her residency in Neurology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and carried out her postdoctoral training in the Johns Hopkins Department of Neuroscience, where she began her research studies on the function of brain inflammation in development of neurodegenerative disease.    The objectives of her laboratory research are to identify specific inflammatory pathways that may be targeted to prevent and treat neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.   

Carolyn Fredericks, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor of Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Dr. Fredericks received her Bachelor's of Arts in Classics and Bachelor's of Science in Neuroscience, with honors, from Brown University. She received her MD from Stanford University School of Medicine and completed her medical internship there, then went on to train in Neurology at Johns Hopkins Hospital and the University of California, San Francisco, where she served as Chief Resident. She completed her fellowship in Behavioral Neurology at UCSF's Memory and Aging Center, where her research focused on understanding the neural networks disrupted in preclinical and clinical Alzheimer's disease, including less common Alzheimer's variants.

Dr. Fredericks' clinical expertise includes Alzheimer's disease, posterior cortical atrophy, primary progressive aphasia, Lewy body disease, corticobasal syndrome, progressive supranuclear palsy, frontotemporal dementia, multiple systems atrophy, and other dementias, as well as autoimmune encephalitis, including antibody-mediated encephalitis (such as anti-NMDAR and anti-LGI-1 encephalitis) and paraneoplastic encephalitis.

Dr. Fredericks' research uses functional and structural neuroimaging to (1) identify the earliest changes in functional circuitry in individuals at risk for dementia; (2) characterize changes in network integrity that are associated with behavioral symptoms in dementia; and (3) better understand the underlying pathophysiology of less common Alzheimer's variants such as posterior cortical atrophy.

Victor W. Henderson, MD, MS
Professor of Health Research and Policy
Professor of Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Dr. Henderson is Professor in the Departments of Health Research & Policy (Epidemiology) and Neurology & Neurological Sciences.  He directs the graduate program in epidemiology and clinical research.  Dr. Henderson is principal investigator for the NIH Stanford Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, whose focus is neurodegenerative processes implicated in Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, innovative tools for diagnosis, and new approaches to therapy.  His research interests in the areas of geriatric neurology and neuroepidemiology emphasize risk factors for cognitive aging and Alzheimer’s disease, and therapeutic strategies to maintain and improve cognitive abilities affected by age.

Dr. Henderson obtained his medical degree from Johns Hopkins and a master degree in epidemiology from the University of Washington School of Public Health.  He trained at Duke University (internal medicine), Washington University (neurology), and Boston University (behavioral neurology).  He has been a visiting scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, visiting professor at the University of Melbourne (Australia), and visiting professor at the University of Aarhus (Denmark).  He served as chair of the Geriatric Neurology Section of the American Academy of Neurology and as president of the North American Menopause Society.  He serves on editorial boards and scientific advisory boards, and he has authored more than 200 scientific articles and chapters.

Geoffrey Kerchner, MD, PhD
Consulting Associate Professor of Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Dr. Kerchner sees patients at the Stanford Center for Memory Disorders and serves as a consultant for ongoing research studies on aging and early Alzheimer's disease, in addition to his full-time role as Associate Medical Director of Early Clinical Development at Genentech, Inc. Dr. Kerchner graduated from Harvard College summa cum laude in biochemical sciences and obtained his MD and PhD degrees at Washington University School of Medicine. At University of California, San Francisco, he completed residency training in neurology, served as chief resident, and went on to complete fellowships in neuroscience and in behavioral neurology. Dr. Kerchner is board-certified both in neurology and in behavioral neurology and neuropsychiatry. From 2009-2015, he was a full-time faculty member in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, where he pursued NIH-sponsored research in high-resolution neuroimaging and directed the Alzheimer's disease clinical trials program.

Frank M. Longo, MD, PhD
George E. and Lucy Becker Professor in Medicine
Professor of Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Dr. Longo is chair of the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, the George E. and Lucy Becker Professor of Medicine, and director of the Stanford Alzheimer’s Translational Research Center. His clinical interest include Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders.  His research team is developing new drugs that are focused on the modulation of fundamental cell signaling pathways that are involved in neurodegeneration. These pathways can be regulated by known protein growth factors but such proteins cannot be used as drugs. Dr. Longo’s team has pioneered the development of the first small molecule, drug-type compounds that can mimic key parts of growth factor proteins and achieve their potent effects on preventing or reversing degeneration. Work in Alzheimer’s mice has been extremely promising and efforts are now underway to bring the first of these compounds to human trials.

Kathleen Poston, MD, MS
Assistant Professor, Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Dr. Poston received her Bachelor's of Science in Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, her Master's Degree in Biomedical Engineering and her MD at Vanderbilt University. She completed her Neurology residency training at UCSF, where she was Chief Resident. She also completed a fellowship in clinical Movement Disorders under the mentorship of Dr. Stanley Fahn at Columbia University and post-doctoral training in Functional Neuroimaging with Dr. David Eidelberg at the Feinstein Institute.

Dr. Poston's clinical expertise focuses on Parkinson's disease, Dementia with Lewy Bodies, and atypical Parkinsonian disorders (Multiple System Atrophy, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, Cortical Basal Syndrome), with a special interest in the cognitive and non-motor symptoms in these disorders. She also treats patients with dystonia and blepharospasm with botulinum toxin.

Dr. Poston's research uses functional and structural imaging biomarkers that (1) aid in understanding the underlying pathophysiology associated with the motor, cognitive, and behavioral symptoms characteristic of Parkinson’s disease and (2) aid in diagnosis and objectivity track disease progression in clinical trials.  She has also been the Principal Investigator for interventional clinical trials in movement disorders, such as Gene Therapy in Parkinson's disease.

Sharon Sha, MD, MS
Clinical Assistant Professor, Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Dr. Sha received her Bachelor’s degrees in Cognitive Science and Molecular Cell Biology emphasizing in Neurobiology from UC Berkeley. She went on to obtain a Master’s degree in Physiology and MD from Georgetown University. She trained in Neurology at UCLA and Stanford University and completed a clinical and research fellowship in behavioral neurology at UCSF where she focused on identifying biomarkers for genetic forms of frontotemporal dementia and caring for patients with movement disorders and cognitive impairment.

Dr. Sha’s clinical expertise include Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, Lewy Body disease, corticobasal syndrome, progressive supranuclear palsy, Huntington’s disease, ataxia, multiple system atrophy, and other dementias. She is currently co-director of the Huntington’s disease and Ataxia clinic with Dr. Veronica Santini.

Dr. Sha’s non-clinical time is spent conducting clinical trials as the Director of the Memory Disorders Clinical Trials Program in order to identify disease modifying treatments for dementia. She has a special interest in genetic forms of dementia and the cognitive impairment in parkinsonian-related disorders. She is also director of the Stanford Behavioral Neurology Clinical Fellowship.

John Barry, MD
Professor of Psychiatry

Dr. Barry is the Director of the Neuropsychiatry and Psychotherapy Clinics has a special interest in psychiatric problems of people with epilepsy. He has done studies of depression and psychosis in association with epilepsy, and of the psychiatric mimics of seizures, called psychogenic non-epileptic seizure-like events, also known as psychogenic seizures or pseudoseizures. In patients admitted for video-EEG evaluation, he leads the efforts in making the diagnosis of psychogenic disorders and treating the patients disabled by this condition.

Gayle K Deutch, PhD, ABPP
Clinical Associate Professor (Affiliated), Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Gayle K. Deutsch, PhD, ABPP-CN received her doctoral degree in clinical psychology at Drexel University in 1994. She completed a pre-doctoral internship at the Brain Behavior Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania and a post-doctoral fellowship at the Graduate Hospital in Philadelphia, PA. She was the Staff Neuropsychologist at the New Jersey Neuroscience Institute and Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at Seton Hall University, Graduate School of Medical Education.  She was at Stanford University Medical Center as the lead neuropsychologist for the Stanford Comprehensive Epilepsy Center in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences from 2000 until 2004.  From 2005 to 2008, she had a private practice in Orange County, CA and a faculty appointment as Associate Clinical Professor at UCI Medical Center, Department of Neurology. She returned to Stanford Health Care in 2008 and is currently a Clinical Associate Professor (Affiliated) in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences. She is the lead neuropsychologist for the Stanford Comprehensive Epilepsy Center and Stanford Center for Memory Disorders. She is involved in collaborative research with the Stanford Center for Memory Disorders and the Stanford Neuromuscular Program.

Lauren Drag, PhD
Clinical Instructor (Affiliated), Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Lauren Drag, PhD, is a Clinical Instructor (Affiliated) in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. She received her bachelor’s degree from Pomona College and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Arizona. She completed a clinical internship in neuropsychology at the VA Ann Arbor Medical Center and a two-year post-doctoral fellowship in neuropsychology at the University of Michigan Healthcare System. Prior to coming to Stanford, she was a researcher at the VA Palo Alto Medical Center and served as Director of the Neuropsychology Area of Emphasis at Palo Alto University. Dr. Drag’s research interests are in cognitive aging and traumatic brain injury.

Simon Tan, PsyD, ABPP
Clinical Assistant Professor (Affiliated), Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Dr. Tan received his bachelor's degree at Dartmouth College, doctorate in clinical psychology from Yeshiva University, and completed a pre-doctoral internship at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Tan also completed a post-doctoral fellowship specializing in clinical neuropsychology in both adult inpatient and outpatient settings at the Behavioral Neurology Unit, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Cambridge Hospital at Harvard. He received his board certification (specialization in geriatric assessment) by the American Board of Assessment Psychology in April of 2013. He completed a program to obtain my Postdoctoral Master of Science degree in Clinical Psychopharmacology at Alliant University with degree received in December 2013.

Darryl Thomander, PhD, ABPP
Clinical Assistant Professor (Affiliated), Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Dr. Thomander is a Clinical Assistant Professor (Affiliated) in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He received his doctoral degree in Psychology from Michigan State University. He completed a clinical psychology internship at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. He is a Diplomate in Clinical Neuropsychology, American Board of Professional Psychology. He has held positions in several Bay Area hospitals where he had clinical, research, administrative, and teaching responsibilities. He has been President of the Northern California Neuropsychology Forum. He has taught courses in Neuropsychology at San Jose State University and Alliant International University. He previously served as director of post-doctoral training in clinical neuropsychology and co-director of the Memory Disorders Clinic, Stanford Hospital and Clinics. He has participated in research on sleep apnea and cognition at the Stanford University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry. He has been a Clinical Neuropsychologist in the Polytrauma Transitional Rehabilitation Program at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System where he provided patient services and conducted clinical research.

Maya Yutsis PhD, ABPP
Clinical Assistant Professor (Affiliated), Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Maya Yutsis, Ph.D., ABPP-CN is a Clinical Assistant Professor (Affiliated) in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She received her doctorate in clinical psychology at the Palo Alto University in 2009. She completed an APA approved clinical internship in neuropsychology at the Minneapolis VA Medical center and a two-year post-doctoral fellowship in Clinical Neuropsychology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN in 2011. Prior to coming to Stanford, she worked as a lead neuropsychologist for three years at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Polytrauma Transitional Rehabilitation Program and Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center (GRECC) Telehealth Neuropsychology clinic, where she conducted clinical services, clinical research, and served as a director/preceptor of an APA-approved post-doctoral fellowship Neuropsychology Emphasis Area training program.  She had previously worked as a Staff Neuropsychologist in inpatient and outpatient Rehabilitation Units at the Multicare Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup, WA.  She is currently a Newsletter Editor of the Society for Clinical Neuropsychology, APA Division 40 and is a member of Publications and Research Committee for the National Academy of Neuropsychology (NAN).  She is involved in collaborative research with the Palo Alto VA Polytrauma Center and Mayo Clinic and her research interests focus on computerized cognitive rehabilitation interventions for persons with acquired brain injury and mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

Penelope Zeifert, PhD
Clinical Professor (Affiliated), Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Dr. Zeifert is Clinical Professor (Affiliated) in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine.  She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley, and doctorate in clinical psychology from California School of Professional Psychology.  She completed pre-doctoral internships in San Francisco at Mt. Zion Hospital and St. Mary’s McAuley Neuropsychiatric Institute.  She was a post-doctoral scholar in the UCSF School of Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital where she subsequently worked as an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and an Attending Psychologist.  She has been on staff at Stanford since 1993, first as a neuropsychologist in inpatient rehabilitation and later in inpatient psychiatry. She has been the Director of the Neuropsychology Service since 1997 and the Co-Director of the Stanford Center for Memory Disorders since 2002. 

Edward D. Plowey, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Pathology

Dr. Plowey earned MD and PhD degrees at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He completed residency training in Anatomic Pathology and fellowship training in Neuropathology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.  He is board certified in Anatomic Pathology and Neuropathology by the American Board of Pathology.  Dr. Plowey’s primary research interest is the role of autophagy in the protection of neurons from stressors associated with aging, stroke and neurodegenerative diseases.