Kristine Yaffe, MD, is the Scola Endowed Chair and Vice Chair, Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Epidemiology, and Director of the Center for Population Brain Health at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Yaffe is dually trained in neurology and psychiatry and completed postdoctoral training in epidemiology and geriatric psychiatry, all at UCSF. In addition to her positions at UCSF, Dr. Yaffe is the Chief of NeuroPsychiatry and the Director of the Memory Evaluation Clinic at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Health Care System. In her research, clinical work, and mentoring, she has worked towards improving the care of patients with cognitive disorders and other geriatric neuropsychiatric conditions.

Dr. Yaffe is an internationally recognized expert in the epidemiology of dementia and cognitive aging and the foremost leader in identifying modifiable risk factors for dementia. Her research, currently supported by over a dozen NIH, Department of Defense, VA, and foundation grants, bridges the fields of neurology, psychiatry, and epidemiology. Dr. Yaffe was the first to determine that potentially 30% of dementia risk is preventable. She pioneered early investigations on the roles of estrogen, physical activity, and cardiovascular factors in dementia risk, and more recently, her research group has led work on the connections between cognitive aging and sleep disorders, traumatic brain injury and lifecourse exposures. With over 600 peer-reviewed articles dedicated to improving population brain health (H-index=152 and recognized by Clarivate Analytics as one of the most highly cited researchers in her field), her work has formed the cornerstone for dementia prevention trials worldwide. In recognition of these groundbreaking accomplishments, Dr. Yaffe received the Potamkin Prize for Alzheimer’s Research in 2017 and was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2019.