Meet Our Team
The world-class researchers, scientists, physicians, social workers and other health care professionals at Banner Alzheimer's Institute work together to provide help and hope for patients and families affected by Alzheimer's disease and other memory disorders.
Principal Investigators
Eric M. Reiman,
MD
Chief Executive Officer, Banner Research
Executive Director, Banner Alzheimer's
Institute
Dr. Reiman is chief executive officer of Banner Research,
executive director of Banner Alzheimer's Institute, clinical
director of the Neurogenomics Division at the Translational
Genomics Research Institute (TGen), professor of psychiatry at the
University of Arizona, and director of the Arizona Alzheimer's
Consortium. His contributions to the fields of brain imaging, the
behavioral neurosciences and the presymtomatic study of Alzheimer's
disease have earned him international recognition. He is the author
of more than 200 research publications and serves as principal
investigator for several research grants from the National
Institutes of Health and other leading funders.
Pierre N. Tariot,
MD
Geriatric Psychiatrist
Director, Banner Alzheimer's Institute
Dr. Tariot, director of Banner Alzheimer's Institute, is
board-certified in internal medicine and geriatric psychiatry.
After intensive training in developing new treatments for
Alzheimer's disease at the National Institutes of Health, he spent
20 years as a professor at the University of Rochester Medical
Center in New York, where he directed a program dedicated to the
care and study of people with Alzheimer's. He has devoted his
career to helping patients and families cope with the effects of
dementia and is a recognized leader in the development of new
Alzheimer's treatments. He has published hundreds of scientific
articles, is a widely sought-after speaker and consultant, and has
won numerous awards for his service and research.
Adam S. Fleisher, MD,
MAS
Geriatric Neurologist, Dementia Specialist
Director, Brain Imaging
Dr. Fleisher is the director of brain imaging at Banner
Alzheimer's Institute, a geriatric neurologist and an expert in the
field of brain imaging to detect and study the earliest evidence of
the pathology of Alzheimer's in the brain. He received his general
neurology training at Johns Hopkins Hospital before completing a
clinical and research dementia fellowship and master's degree in
clinical research at the University of California, San Diego. He is
well published in the fields of dementia clinical trials and
imaging.
Research Team
Dan Bandy,
MS
Senior Scientist and Technical Director, PET
Center
Bandy serves as senior scientist and technical director of
the Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Center at Banner Alzheimer's
Institute. He holds a bachelor's degree in nuclear medicine and
zoology from the University of Iowa and a master's in engineering
science (nuclear) from Arizona State University. He plays a
critical role here in brain imaging programs and is responsible for
the daily operations of the PET Center, including clinical and
research activities as well as equipment quality assurance.
Helle Brand,
PA
Physician Assistant
Brand is a physician assistant at Banner Alzheimer's
Institute and a former physical therapist specializing in caring
for the elderly. Her professional interests center on education and
counseling related to understanding and living with dementia. Her
work focuses on the effects of dementia on a person's ability to
function daily as well as the disease's impact on the families
of those affected.
Anna Burke,
MD
Geriatric Psychiatrist
Dementia Specialist
Dr. Burke is a board-certified geriatric psychiatrist and
specialist in dementia care at Banner Alzheimer's Institute. She
completed an internal medicine internship at Mount Sinai School of
Medicine in New York City and residency training in general adult
psychiatry at the Institute of Living in Hartford, CT. Dr Burke
went on to complete a prestigious fellowship in geriatric
psychiatry at Harvard Medical School/ McLean Hospital. She has
worked extensively with patients and families suffering from
Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. Her areas of expertise
include the diagnosis and treatment of dementia as well as
treatment of associated behavioral and psychiatric
disturbances.
Kewei Chen,
PhD
Senior
Scientist
Lab Head - Computational
Image Analysis
Chen is a senior scientist and senior biomathematician at Banner
Alzheimer's Institute. He got his PhD in biomathematics in the area
of neuroimaging at UCLA and also holds a master's degree in
mathematics from Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China. His
primary research interest is the quantification and statistical
analysis of positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI) data in the study of human brain functions
and diseases, particularly Alzheimer's disease. Chen has more than
160 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals in the fields
of neuroimaging, Alzheimer's disease and mathematical/statistical
methodology developments.
Jan Dougherty, RN,
MS
Director, Family and Community Services
Dougherty is instrumental in creating care programs that
cater to those affected by Alzheimer's disease and other forms of
dementia. Her work has led to the formation and implementation of
nationally recognized care models for dementia patients, including
Dementia Care Paths and Palliative Care for Advanced Dementia. At
Banner Alzheimer's Institute, she leads the Family and Community
Services team in developing programs that foster enhanced education
and support an improved quality of life for individuals living with
and affected by memory loss.
Sarah Medina-Rodriguez,
MD (not licensed in the US), CCRP
Senior Manager of Clinical Trials
Medina-Rodriguez is a foreign medical graduate. She earned
her medical degree at St. Luke's College of Medicine in the
Philippines and bachelor's in psychology at the University at
Buffalo-SUNY. She worked as a clinical research coordinator at Beth
Israel Medical Center in New York conducting clinical trials in
liver diseases before moving to Arizona in 2009 to join the
research team at Banner Alzheimer's Institute. She served as a
clinical research coordinator prior to becoming a certified
clinical research professional in 2010. In 2011, she was promoted
to clinical trials senior manager. In this role, she is responsible
for the daily research operations of the clinical trials team,
managing more than 30 trials concurrently, including both imaging
and pharmaceutical-based research.
Roy Yaari, MD,
MAS
Geriatric Neurologist, Dementia Specialist
Director, Memory Disorders
Clinic
Dr. Yaari is a board-certified neurologist and dementia
specialist. He earned a Master of Advanced Study degree in clinical
research and received comprehensive training through a clinical
research and dementia fellowship at the University of California,
San Diego. His strong interest in treating dementia patients as
well as developing new treatments and therapies for those with
dementia led him to the Memory Disorders Clinic at Banner
Alzheimer's Institute, which he directs.
Wendy Lee, MD, (not licensed in the US),
MS
Research Bioinformatics Manager
Lee is a Research Bioinformatics Manager at the Computational Image
Analysis Lab at Banner Alzheimer's Institute and received her
master's degree at Arizona State University and her MD degree,
practicing in China for three years. Lee works with the director of
computational imaging, supervising daily research operations,
assists for investigators with research proposal submission and in
research development efforts, consistent with department and
organizational strategic plans. She has extensive experience in
neuroimaging analyses specifically in the study of aging and
Alzheimer's. Using various software programs, Lee performs data
analyses using whole brain voxel based and ROI based methods for
PET and MRI; tests and runs PET image quantification procedure;
performs data quality control; conducts data extraction, and
develops reports.
Napatkamon (Yui)
Ayutyanont, PhD
Biomathematician
Ayutyanont is a biomathematician who received her PhD in
industrial engineering from the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering
at Arizona State University. Her doctoral studies focused on
applying complex statistical and data mining methodologies to
construct a statistical and mathematical model for prevention and
early detection of cyber attack. During her studies, she also
worked on the collaborative project between Arizona State
University and Banner Alzheimer's Institute applying the
statistical and data mining methodologies for diagnosis and
tracking of Alzheimer's disease. She is now analyzing brain imaging
data along with other biomarkers and cognitive performance data
using statistical, mathematical and data mining methodologies to
study the risk modification, early detection, diagnosis, tracking
and treatment evaluation of Alzheimer's disease and normal aging in
older adults. She helps analyze brain imaging and cognitive
performance data to assess statistical powers and potential trial
designs. She has published papers in leading scientific journals on
brain imaging and Alzheimer's disease.
Hillary Protas, PhD
Biomathematician, Post-doctoral Fellow
Protas is a biomathematician at Banner Alzheimer's Institute.
Protas received her PhD from the Department of Biomathematics at
University of California, Los Angeles. Her doctoral research
included combining Magnetic Resonance Image (MRI) derived cortical
extraction methods with Positron Emission Tomography (PET) enabling
her to look and statistically analyze patterns of PET intensity of
individuals at varying states of cognitive decline. With her
current research she uses univariate and multivariate statistical
approaches to look at different PET tracers with cognitive decline
throughout the whole brain using both voxel based methods and
regions of interests. She has published papers in leading
scientific journals on neuroimaging and Alzheimer's.
Auttawut Roontiva, MS
Research Bioinformatics Analyst
Roontiva is a Bioinformatics Analyst at Banner Alzheimer's
Institute. He received his master's degrees in industrial
engineering and in mechanical engineering at Arizona State
University. For his master in industrial engineering, he focused on
applied statistics and data mining with applications on medical
imaging, bioengineering, information security, manufacturing,
biomechanics, development and design of products and workstations.
He is now analyzing research brain imaging data such as MRI, fMRI,
and PET along with other biomarkers and cognitive data to study the
risk modification, early detection, diagnosis, tracking and
treatment evaluation of Alzheimer's and normal aging. He also helps
analyze brain imaging to assist physicians in diagnostics of
patients in the Memory Disorders Clinic.
Pradeep Thiyyagura, MS
Research Bioinformatics Analyst
Thiyyagura is a bioinformatics research analyst at Banner
Alzheimer's Institute. He earned a bachelor's in Biotechnology from
ICFAI University, India and Professional Science Master's degree in
Computational Biosciences from Arizona State University. For his
master's project, Thiyyagura worked on modeling olfactory system
networks in model system. He has been involved in studying the
early structural and functional changes of the brain related to
dementia. He also works closely with other team members in the
computational PET lab to pre-process and perform statistical
analysis on neuroimaging data.
Stephanie Parks, BA
Research Assistant
Parks is a research assistant at Banner Alzheimer's Institute in
the Computational Image Analysis Laboratory. She earned her
bachelor's degree in psychology with emphases in physiological and
developmental psychology from San Francisco State University.
During her studies, she worked as lab manager in the Infant
Cognition Laboratory in the Psychology department at San Francisco
State University. Prior to her time at BAI, she also worked in the
Mind, Culture and Society Laboratory on a variety of collaborative
projects between the Social Psychology and Neuroscience departments
at Stanford University and the Stanford University School of
Medicine. At BAI, she assists with analyses of neuroimaging data
along with other biomarkers and cognitive measures in impaired and
healthy participants for a number of projects.
Regulatory Team
Yoga Pandya
Regulatory Affairs Coordinator
Pandya, a graduate of London's South Bank University, began her
career in clinical research as a research associate at the
University of Delaware. After 16 years, she transitioned to
hospital-based research working in pre-clinical studies at Banner
Sun Health Research Institute. After earning her clinical research
coordinator certificate, she moved to the administrative side of
the industry working as a regulatory affairs coordinator at Banner
Thunderbird Medical Center before joining the team at Banner
Alzheimer's Institute. Here, she provides operational support to
physician and clinical investigators, while ensuring adherence to
all guidelines outlined by study sponsors, the Institutional Review
Board (IRB), FDA and other applicable federal, state and local
governing agencies.
Debbie Intorcia
Regulatory Affairs Coordinator
Intorcia joined Banner Health in 1981 and held a variety of
positions before moving to Banner Alzheimer's Institute in 2001 to
serve as a research coordinator. In January 2006, she accepted the
position of regulatory affairs coordinator for BAI and the Banner
Good Samaritan PET Center. In the role, she provides regulatory
support to physicians, clinical investigators and staff involved in
conducting all sponsored, grant-funded and investigator-initiated
research projects.
