Julene K Johnson, PhD is both the Associate Dean of Research for the UCSF School of Nursing and the Associate Director at the UCSF Institute for Health & Aging. She is co-director of the new Sound Health Network and is also a faculty mentor in the UCSF Center for Aging in Diverse Communities (a NIA-funded Resource Center for Minority Aging Research). Dr. Johnson is a cognitive neuroscientist and obtained her PhD at the University of Texas at Dallas and completed postdoctoral training at the University of California, Irvine's Institute for Brain Aging and Dementia.

Dr. Johnson's research program focuses on cognitive aging and covers two primary themes: 1) developing cost-effective and novel community-based interventions (e.g., music interventions) to promote health and well-being, particularly for diverse older adults and 2) understanding cognitive function in diverse older adults. Her research on community-engaged health promotion involves racial/ethnically and socioeconomically diverse older adults. In 2010, she was a Fulbright scholar in Finland where she studied how singing in a community choir influences quality of life and well-being among older adults.


Dr. Johnson was the UCSF campus representative and Chair of the Advisory Committee for the University of California Humanities Research Institute (2013-2016) http://uchri.org/uchri/advisory-committee/