Training Faculty
Training Faculty
Director & Principal Investigator, Pre-Doc NIH Training Program
Peter Lichtenberg, Ph.D., ABPP
Director of the Institute of Gerontology & Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience & Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
Involved in this training program since its inception, he devotes a major portion of his time to pre-doctoral, post-doctoral, and junior faculty training programs, including leading both the pre- and post-doctoral training programs, mentoring students, attending and monitoring the colloquia and professional development program and teaching the course "Psychosocial Approaches to Clinical Gerontology" which is part of the Certificate in Gerontology program. He is very active in ongoing aging research in health disparities with particular focus on dementia, depression and independent functioning in urban elders. Along with Dr. James Jackson from the University of Michigan, Dr. Lichtenberg is a Principal Investigator on a center grant (Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research) and several other training, research and educational grants resulting in a grant portfolio over $8,000,000. He leads a multidisciplinary research team that has been active at WSU for 10 years. He has published five books, edited a book series, and published over 115 scientific articles and chapters. Dr. Lichtenberg has co-authored papers with over 20 students and post-doctoral fellows throughout his career.
Co-Director, Pre-Doc NIH Training Program
Thomas B. Jankowski, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science & Associate Director for Research Institute of Gerontology
Dr. Jankowski is Associate Director of Research for the Institute and conducts research in adult political socialization and the effects of the aging process on political behavior, civic knowledge, and public opinion. He is also Adjunct Faculty in Political Science at Eastern Michigan University. His academic interests include public policy, public opinion, and the social and political participation of mass publics, and he is particularly interested in the effects of race, gender, and the aging process on the development of political orientations, habits of media use, and patterns of political behavior in individuals.
Dr. Mendez is Principal Investigator for the Geriatric Education Center grant and has been a Co-Principal Investigator on several educational based grants totaling over $2,000,000. This includes funding from the Bureau of Health Professions, Michigan Department of Community Health, Hartford Foundation and three Area Agencies on Aging. Dr. Mendez serves on various boards and committees that focus on aging, health and social issues in the Metro Detroit area. Her training projects have emphasized Ethnogeriatrics, End of Life Care and Managing Difficult Behaviors in Dementia. At the IOG Dr. Mendez is active in the training program as a mentor, and as an advisor for grant writing and educational opportunities. She contributes to the field of geriatric education on a national scale as a Fellow of the Association of Gerontology in Higher Education.
Training Faculty
Nancy Artinian, Ph.D., RN, BC, FAHA
Professor of Nursing
Dr. Artinian is a board certified cardiovascular nurse who conducts research related to cardiovascular risk reduction, self-care behaviors to promote cardiovascular health, promoting cardiovascular health of individuals living in urban/inner city environments, using telehealth strategies to promote cardiovascular health, and psychosocial aspects of cardiovascular disease. She is currently the Principal Investigator of an NIH funded randomized controlled trial designed to compare the effects of a home blood pressure telemonitoring intervention with usual care on blood pressure control. She has over 40 scholarly publications.
Sherilyn Briller, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Dr. Briller is a medical anthropologist whose current research focuses on end of life issues in urban American settings. She has a long standing interest in cross-cultural gerontology and has conducted research in Asia and in the United States. Dr. Briller served as the Project Director for a National Institute on Aging funded study examining different models of care for dementia care settings and also worked on several large-scale research projects focusing on ways to create more supportive environments for persons with dementia. She is one of the authors of the four volume series (Creating Successful Dementia Care Settings, Health Professions Press 2001).
Annmarie Cano, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology and Director of the Relationships and Health Laboratory in the Department of Psychology
Dr. Cano’s research aim is to understand how social context affects physical and mental health in couples. She has conducted research on a grant from NIMH to study how social/interpersonal context affects the course of functional impairment and psychological distress in chronic pain patients and their spouses. Dr. Cano is currently funded on an NIH-K Award with a total grant of $671,749 to conduct research on depression and chronic pain in marriage.
Mary Kay Cresci, Ph.D., RN, APRN, BC, FNGNA
Assistant Professor of Nursing and Institute of Gerontology
Dr. Cresci is board certified as a Geriatric Clinical Nurse Specialist who conducts research related to memory, physical activity, use of the World Wide Web by older adults to seek health information, and health disparities among African American older adults. She is co-PI with Dr. George Rebok on the Mind-Body Program funded by the Erickson Foundation. Dr Cresci is currently a member of an elder abuse curriculum development team for two educational grants. The Elder Abuse/Neglect National Curriculum Project for Surveyors funded by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid and Elder Abuse Education Module, International Association for Forensic Nursing, funded by the US Department of Justice, Office of Victims of Crime.
Heather Dillaway, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Dr. Dillaway’s areas of interests include sex & gender, women's reproductive health, social stratification, the intersections of gender, race class, and other inequalities, family, aging, and the body. Dr. Dillaway's latest research involves the qualitative study of women's experiences of menopause, or reproductive aging. She is also involved with other research of African American Men’s knowledge of and participation in prostate cancer research trials.
Joseph Fitzgerald, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
Dr. Fitzgerald's research interests are in the area of applied cognitive psychology. For 25 years his primary interest has been autobiographical memory and its relationship to age, dementia, and depression. In the past few years this has expanded to memory functioning in the context of the legal system. Dr. Fitzgerald has also been involved in research on Alzheimer's Disease, particularly in minority populations. He has published extensively in the cognitive aging literature, and more recently in the neuropsychological literature. He is working with colleagues to establish a model of autobiographical memory that will provide links between cognitive psychology, neuropsychology, and the impact of culture on memory
Allon Goldberg, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy
Dr. Goldberg obtained the BSc (Physiotherapy) in 1988, and the BSc (Medicine) (Hons.) (Applied Anatomy) in 1992 from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. In 2003, he completed the requirements for the Ph.D in Physical Anthropology at Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA. He completed a National Institute on Aging-sponsored post-doctoral fellowship in Gerontology at the University of Michigan, MI, USA from 2003-2005. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Care Sciences, Program in Physical Therapy, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA, where he directs the Mobility Research Laboratory. His research focuses on determining the causes of balance-impairment and falls in older adults and in people with neurological disease, and in devising rehabilitation interventions to avoid falls. He has published eight articles and two book chapters, and has made approximately thirty presentations at professional conferences.
Margaret Greenwald, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Assistant Professor, Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology, and Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology
Dr. Greenwald’s primary research interests are in the cognitive neuropsychology of language, visual recognition, brain-behavior relationships, and stroke rehabilitation. She is currently studying aphasia and acquired reading impairments in adults using cognitive neuropsychological assessment and magnetoencephalography (MEG).
Mark Haacke, Ph.D., MRI, Professor Radiology and Biomedical Engineering, Director Magnetic Resonance Research Facility & Harper University Hospital Clinical Magnetic Resonance Clinic. Dr. Haacke’s research interests include: MR Angiography, Susceptibility Weighted Imaging (SWI) to study vascular disease, Stroke Imaging, Better Detection of Cancer and Brain Function. He supervises graduate students in engineering, computer science and medical physics. His focus is to enhance current clinical methods and take research ideas into the clinical realm. In 2004 he was awarded a Gold Medal from the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine for making a significant contribution to research in magnetic resonance techniques in medicine, biology and related fields.
Janet Hankin, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology, and Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Obstetrics/Gynecology, School of Medicine
Trained as a medical sociologist, Dr. Hankin has received NIH grants to study mental illness in primary group settings, utilization and cost of health services for alcohol, drug abuse, and mental disorders, and prevention of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorders among African American pregnant women. She is P.I. of the Psychosocial Community Measures Core of the Center for Urban & African American Health, Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, WSU. She teaches courses in medical sociology, women and health, urban health, and the sociology of health care institutions.
Gail Jensen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics & Institute of Gerontology
Dr. Jensen has an established program of research in the areas of managed care and older adults, employer-sponsored health and pension benefits, health services for chronic conditions, and health policy evaluation. Her research has been sponsored by the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, resulting in over $1,500,000 in funded research as a principal investigator. Dr. Jensen has mentored several doctoral students in economics over the years and is now mentoring students interested in the economics of health and aging. Most of her students not only co-authored manuscripts with her while she was in training, but also submitted for and obtained external funding for their thesis work. She has published over 65 scholarly articles and chapters.
Mark Luborsky, Ph.D.
Professor of Anthropology & Director of Aging & Health Disparities Research, Institute of Gerontology
Dr. Luborsky is one of the foremost experts in the qualitative study of aging and health, as well as disability across the lifespan. He is a central mentor to both pre-doctoral and post-doctoral trainees, as well as junior faculty across the WSU campus. He has successfully piloted an innovative model of preparing trainees for grant submissions, which will be incorporated into the proposed program. His current grant portfolio consists of over $7,000,000 in NIH funding as the Principal Investigator. His study of personal meaning of mobility loss, the meaning of self-rated health, HIV treatment adherence, and Breast Cancer awareness and treatment are ongoing research projects. He has published extensively in the gerontology and anthropology literature.
Cathy Lysack, Ph.D., OT(C)
Associate Professor Department of Occupational Therapy & Institute of Gerontology
Dr. Lysack is rapidly developing a national reputation for her work with older adults and persons with physical disabilities. Her combination of a qualitative and quantitative approach to aging and disability research complements her already established work in culture and disability. She is the principal investigator on the NIH/NICHD-NCMRR project, “Community Living After Spinal Cord Injury: Models and Outcomes,” and US Department of Education, NIDRR project, “Community Participation after Spinal Cord Injury: Idioms of Beliefs and Behaviors.” Dr. Lysack has 30 publications in the areas of disability and health.
Scott Moffat, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology & Institute of Gerontology
Dr. Moffat is interested in cognitive and structural and functional brain changes associated with aging. Dr. Moffat came to the IOG after a 4-year post-doc in Cognitive Neuroscience at the NIA in Baltimore. Dr. Moffat’s primary research interests are in the cognitive neuroscience of human spatial cognition and in human behavioral endocrinology. His other principal area of research is in human behavioral endocrinology.. Dr. Moffat has authored over 15 published journal articles.
Stewart Neufeld, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Institute of Gerontology
Dr. Neufeld’s main research focus is on perception of and attitudes toward risk, particularly on how personal constructions of risk intersect with objective measures. His ideas have application to disparate areas: from the risks associated with adherence to medications to the risks involved with financial decision-making. Dr. Neufeld is currently a co-principal investigator on a NIAID funded project studying adherence to medication among HIV+ African Americans, and is also the principal investigator on a Wayne State University funded project investigating the relationship between risk and retiree financial decision-making. He has been an invaluable mentor to both pre-doctoral trainees and junior faculty alike. Dr. Neufeld has authored 20 peer-reviewed journal articles.
Louis Penner, Ph.D.
Professor, School of Medicine, Communication and Behavior Oncology Program and Karmanos Cancer Institute
Dr. Penner’s research interests are concerned with the causes and consequences of prosocial actions, especially those that occur in an organizational context. His second focus is social psychological aspects of the provision of health care. Within this broad area, he researches communication processes and racial disparities in health care.
Naftali Raz, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology and Institute of Gerontology, & Director of Lifespan Cognitive Neuroscience Research Program and Professor of Gerontology and Psychology
Dr. Raz's research focuses on the neural correlates and modifiers of cognitive aging. His research has been supported since 1992 by the National Institute on Aging. He was recently notified of being awarded an NIH merit award. The main themes in the current studies in Dr. Raz's lab are: Differential aging of brain structure; Cognitive consequences of structural brain aging; and Modifiers of brain aging. In the Cognitive Neuroscience of Aging Laboratory, graduate students acquire a wide range of research skills. Their training includes computer-aided processing and analysis of MR images, design and administration of cognitive and neuropsychological tests and statistical analysis. Dr. Raz has authored 37 published journal articles and book chapters.
Olivia Washington, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Nursing & Institute of Gerontology
Dr. Washington is one of the few investigators focusing on homelessness in older adults. Her work in this area has been funded by the NIA and by recent university Research Enhancement awards. Dr. Washington is also the Co-PI on a randomized clinical trial of home telemonitoring and its effects on hypertension. Other areas of expertise include AIDS prevention, chemically dependent women, and the effects of group counseling on self-efficacy. Dr. Washington has published 16 peer-reviewed journal articles.
Dr. Goldberg obtained the BSc (Physiotherapy) in 1988, and the BSc (Medicine)(Hons.) (Applied Anatomy) in 1992 from the University of