Profile

Profile – Dr Shana D Stites, University of Pennsylvania

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Print This Post

04/07/2023

no comments

Dr Shana Stites

Name:

Dr Shana D Stites

Job title:

Assistant Professor and representative of the ISTAART Diversity & Disparities PIA

Place of work / study:

University of Pennsylvania

Area of Research:

Social and Psychological Determinants of Preclinical Alzheimer’s outcomes

How is your work funded?

NIA, Alzheimer’s Association

Tell us a little about yourself:

As a clinical psychologist and researcher with the Penn Project on Precision Medicine for the Brain (P3MB), my research focuses on advancing diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease dementia. The goal is to understand ways to promote quality of life and psychological wellbeing. This includes understanding the impacts of the disease on individuals who may be directly affected by pathology as well as their family members. As part of this work, I place a special focus on better understanding how aspects of identity, such as age, gender, and race, operate as determinants in the disease experience. Understanding these features of the disease experience may offer insights into disease-mechanisms and into development of interventions that help limit burdens of the disease.

I’m a graduate of the National Institute on Aging’s (NIA’s) Butler-Williams Scholars Program, with a master’s in sociology from Lehigh University, and a doctorate in clinical psychology from Chestnut Hill College with a concentration in psychological assessment and special focus on the role of multicultural diversity in clinical practice and representation in research. My clinical training includes completion of a doctoral internship at Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center in Philadelphia, PA and post-doctoral training in the Penn Memory Center and Department of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine.