The Texas Alzheimer’s Research and Care Consortium (TARCC) Steering Committee (SC) was established to advise the Council on consortium matters, as defined in Chapter 154, Consortium of Alzheimer’s Disease Centers, Section 154.004, Texas Education Code. Each participating TARCC institution has one Steering Committee member as appointed by their respective institution and approved by the Council.
Responsibilities
Each SC member provides expertise, input and guidance on the following key issues through quarterly conference calls and annual scientific meetings:
- TARCC scientific direction
- Enhancing awareness of TARCC resources and activities
- Fostering collaborative TARCC data-use projects
- Helping to generate local interest in collaborative projects and grant opportunities
- Encouraging and tracking TARCC grant applications from home institution
- Regular monitoring of progress of each site's TARCC grants and providing semi-annual summary reports to Steering Committee
- Identifying and recruiting external reviewers for TARCC grant applications
- Reviewing TARCC sample / data requests
- Reviewing abstracts and proposals for TARCC scientific meetings
- Interacting with institutional legislative personnel to promote TARCC
- Preparing their respective institution’s presentation to the External Advisory Committee during biannual reviews
The Steering Committee, acting through the Scientific Director, Dr. Munro Cullum at UT Southwestern, advises the Council on consortium activities, including the setting of research priorities and policies, appropriate use of resources, project progress, and reporting of findings among the participating medical schools and health science centers.
Baylor College of Medicine, Houston
Valory Pavlik, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Neurology and the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. She received her Ph.D. in Epidemiology from the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston, Texas in 1994.
Primary Research Interests: Risk factors for cognitive decline and AD with a focus on cardiovascular risk factors, racial/ethnic group differences in risk of MCI and AD, predictors of progression in MCI and AD. Dr. Pavlik is also active in the management of AD treatment and prevention trials carried out in the Alzheimer’s Disease and Memory Disorders Center at Baylor College of Medicine.
Texas A&M Health Science Center, Bryan
Matthew Lee Smith, PhD, MPH, is an Associate Professor in the Texas A&M School of Public Health and Director of the Texas Research, Analytics, Innovations, and Research Lab (TRAIL). His research and evaluation efforts investigate socio-ecological impacts on health risk behaviors across the life-course, with a specific emphasis on evidence-based solutions for older adults. Dr. Smith’s translational work bridges research and practice issues across the healthcare sector, aging services network, and public health system. He received his doctoral degree in Health Education from Texas A&M University and Masters in Public Health from Indiana University.
Primary Research Interests: Evidence-based interventions for older adults and their caregivers; Social and behavioral aspects of ADRD and caregiving; Risk assessment; Social connectedness; Linkages between community and clinical care.
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock
John A. Bertelson, M.D. FAAN, is an Associate Professor of Neurology at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. He earned dual bachelor degrees from Rice University, his MD from the UT McGovern School of Medicine in Houston, and completed his neurology residency at the Mayo Clinic. He is UCNS certified in both behavioral neurology and neuroimaging. Dr. Bertelson also has faculty appointments in neurology and psychiatry at the UT Austin Dell Medical School. Between his clinics in Austin and Lubbock, he routinely sees patients from throughout Central Texas and the panhandle.
Primary Research Interests: Dr. Bertelson has served as an investigator on numerous clinical trials for disease modifying compounds for Alzheimer's Disease. He is interested in developing novel clinical pathways for the evaluation and management of person with cognitive disorders.
The University of Texas at Austin, Dell Medical School
David Paydarfar, M.D., is Professor and inaugural Chair of the Department of Neurology at UT Austin Dell Medical School. He received his M.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1985. He is a leading innovator with a unique background in physics and neurology.
Primary Research Interests: Developing biosensors, signal-processing algorithms, and user interfaces to inform predictive health analytics. Studying the underlying disease states associated with abnormal behavior of neural oscillators such as sleep apnea, circadian dysrhythmias, and epilepsy.
The University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio
Amy Werry, PsyD is a clinical neuropsychologist and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. She completed her graduate degree at Pacific University in Oregon, internship at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler, and postdoctoral training at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.
Primary Research Interests The relationship between sociocultural determinants of cognitive health and cognition and cognitive ageing. Her greatest interest in neuropsychology is building empirical support for efficacious utilization and development of assessment and therapeutic practices for broadly diverse individuals.
UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas
Munro Cullum, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology and Neurotherapeutics, and Neurological Surgery at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He holds the Pam Blumenthal Distinguished Professorship in Clinical Psychology, is Chief of Psychology and the senior neuropsychologist in the O’Donnell Brain Institute. He also serves as the chair of the TARCC External Advisory Committee Compliance Committee. Dr. Cullum received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin and is a Past-President of the Society for Clinical Neuropsychology (APA Divisoin 40) and the National Academy of Neuropsychology.
Primary Research Interests: Neuropsychological aspects of neurodegenerative disorders, including early detection, differential diagnosis, and progression; detection, recovery, and late effects of brain injury; neuropsychological assessment.
University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth
Robert C. Barber, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Pharmacology & Neuroscience and Director of the Genetics Core in the Institute for Translational Research at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth. He received his PhD in Genetics from Texas A&M University in 1997.
Primary Research Interests: Genetic and epigenetic biomarkers and risk factors for neurodegeneration as well as the influence of ethnicity on disease risk and progression. Ongoing projects include efforts to identify patterns of differential DNA methylation that predict the risk and age at onset of Alzheimer’s disease among Mexican Americans and non-Hispanic whites.
University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston
Giulio Taglialatela, Ph.D., is the UTMB Vice President for Brain Health, Professor in the department of Neurology and the Director of the Brain Health Institute. He earned a MS (1984) and a PhD (1988) from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” continuing to postdoctoral training at UTMB (1988-1990). After returning to UTMB in 1993 as an Assistant Professor, he rose through the rank to his current leadership position within the UTMB neuroscience community. Throughout the years, Dr. Taglialatela has maintained a continually NIH-funded research group, contributing to our knowledge of the molecular mechanisms underlying progressive physiopathology in Alzheimer’s Disease and related neurodegenerative disorders.
Primary Research Interests: Molecular neuropathology underpinnings in AD and related disorders, with particular focus on determining the events associated with cognitive resilience to AD dementia and the long term goal of developing innovative therapeutic concepts centered on inducing resistance to dementia in anyone challenged with AD neuropathology.
Giulio Taglialatela's publications on PubMed
Faculty Profile
The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston
Rodrigo Morales, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of the Department of Neurology. Dr. Morales obtained his BSc degree (biochemistry) from Universidad de Chile. His Ph.D., also from Universidad de Chile, included all thesis work done at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. He joined UTHealth in 2009 as a post-doctoral fellow and was appointed as an Assistant Professor in 2012.
Primary Research Interests:
Dr. Morales main research topics involve the strain and species barrier phenomena in prion diseases, the prion-like nature of Aβ aggregates in Alzheimer’s disease and the pathological interaction between these disorders.
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine
Ihsan Salloum, MD, MPH is a Professor of Neuroscience and the Director of the Institute of Neuroscience in the Department of Neuro-Behavioral Integrated Service Unit at UT Health Rio Grande Valley. He received a Doctor of Medicine and Surgery from the University of Bologna and a Master of Public Health from the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health. Dr. Salloum is a diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and a distinguished life fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He’s also an honorary member of the World Psychiatric Association.
Primary Research Interests:
Developing effective interventions for comorbid mood and addictive disorders and on addressing the diagnostic complexity of comorbidity. Additional interests include neuromodulation and neurophysiological biomarkers of brain diseases as well as introducing novel person-centered approaches to care.
The University of Texas at Tyler Health Science Center
Andrew Schmitt, PhD is a clinical neuropsychologist and Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler. He completed his graduate degree at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. He has been teaching and conducting research at UT Tyler since 2004.
Primary Research Interests:
Neuropsychological correlates of neurodegenerative disorders, early detection and progression of MCI and dementia.