Fireside Chat with Peter Lichtenberg

Alla V. and Solomon Jesmer Professor of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine and a cognitive neuropsychologist within the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center at Rush University Medical Center. She is also the Associate Director of the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. Her research interests include disparities in chronic diseases of aging, cognitive decline, and risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease. She is the Principal Investigator of the Minority Aging Research Study (MARS), which has been funded by NIA since 2004, and the Clinical Core Leader for the Rush ADRC. She has extensive experience mentoring junior scholars under-represented in medicine including sponsoring K-series fellows, and junior faculty with diversity supplements, small pilot grants, and investigator-initiated foundation awards.

Peter A. Lichtenberg, Ph.D., ABPP is the former Director of The Institute of Gerontology (1999-2024) and a Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Gerontology at Wayne State University. He received his bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis, and his master’s and doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Purdue University. After his internship he completed a post doctoral fellowship in geriatric neuropsychology at the University of Virginia Medical School where he also became a faculty member. Dr. Lichtenberg, one of the first board certified Clinical Geropsychologists in the nation, has made contributions to the practice of psychology across a variety of areas and is a nationally recognized expert in the areas of financial capacity and financial exploitation among older adults and the impact of early memory loss and dementia on financial decision-making, financial exploitation and financial capacity. He has authored 7 books and over 225 scientific articles in Geropsychology. He served as the 2022 President of the Gerontological Society of America and was the 2023 GSA Chairman of the Board of Directors. In 2024 he was named the Donald Kent Award for leadership in gerontology, one the highest honors given by the Gerontological Society of America.