The San Francisco VA Health Care System is recruiting for a two-year postdoctoral advanced fellowship program in mental health research and treatment with a focus on dementia, population-based brain health, and geriatric neuropsychiatry. The fellowship is associated with the Sierra Pacific Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC; VISN 21) and affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco.
The primary goal of the fellowship is to train MDs in psychiatry, neurology, geriatrics or related fields; psychologists/neuropsychologists; or other allied health professionals to become leading clinical researchers in the areas of Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, cognitive aging, brain health, and geriatric neuropsychiatry. Over the course of the two-year program, fellows are trained in clinical research and clinical care service delivery; devoting 75% time to research and educational activities and 25% to clinical training. Fellows will be responsible for driving innovative research projects while gaining clinical and translational research experience/skills and training to become an independent investigator.
The candidate will have the opportunity to collaborate with SFVA/UCSF investigators and participate in didactic sessions. Under the mentorship of Dr. Kristine Yaffe, the scholar will design and execute epidemiological studies, apply statistical methods for longitudinal data, write manuscripts for peer-reviewed publications, develop presentations for conferences and meetings, and contribute to grant development. Potential analytic projects may be focused on life course risk factors of cognitive aging, including: traumatic brain injury, PTSD, depression, cardiovascular risk factors, and sleep; racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in dementia; social determinants of brain health; as well as online and remote platforms for cognitive assessment. Ideal applicants would have particular interest in expanding expertise in epidemiology and population-based brain health.
Faculty mentors are affiliated with the SFVA Research and Mental Health services, the UCSF Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Neurology, and Epidemiology and Biostatistics, the SFVA/UCSF Center for Population Brain Health (CPBH), and the Global Brain Health Institute. We are a multidisciplinary group of clinical researchers, dedicated to the advancement of brain heath across the lifespan. We emphasize population-based research to identify risk and protective factors for dementia, cognitive aging, and brain health, and to optimize cognitive and emotional brain health in aging. The expertise of our faculty spans the fields of epidemiology, neurology, and psychiatry. Please see faculty webpages (profiles.ucsf.edu) and CPBH website (popbrain.ucsf.edu) for more details. The fellowship is funded by the Office of Academic Affiliations (OAA), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
Faculty
- Kristine Yaffe, MD, fellowship director, board-certified psychiatrist and neurologist
- Raquel Gardner, MD, behavioral neurologist
- Yue Leng, PhD, epidemiologist
- Willa Brenowitz, PhD, epidemiologist
- Erica Kornblith, PhD, neuropsychologist
- Shea Andrews, PhD, epidemiologist
- Duygu Tosun, PhD, engineer
- Eric Vittinghoff, PhD, biostatistician
- Jennifer Yokoyama, PhD, behavioral geneticist
- John Boscardin, PhD, biostatistician
- Deborah Barnes, PhD, epidemiologist
Application information
To apply, please email the following to Tina Hoang (research manager) [email protected]
- Letter of interest detailing your research experience, interests, career goals, and proposed faculty mentor(s) from list above
- CV
- Three (3) letters of recommendation
The application deadline is November 15, 2023. Applications submitted after that date may be considered until the position is filled.
