NACC Team

The National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center (NACC) was founded by Walter A. Kukull, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Epidemiology at the University of Washington, whose leadership established NACC as a cornerstone of the National Institute on Aging’s (NIA) Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers (ADRC) Program.

Today, NACC operates under the leadership of Interim Director Kari Stephens, PhD, Professor of Family Medicine and Biomedical Informatics at the University of Washington. Dr. Stephens leads a multidisciplinary team of faculty and staff who continue to advance NACC’s mission of data coordination, research support, and scientific collaboration across the national ADRC network.

NACC’s faculty includes experts from the Departments of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, Family Medicine, Biomedical Informatics, Radiology, and Statistics. The Center’s team of 33 professionals brings specialized expertise in informatics, software engineering, data science, biostatistics, communications, project management, and administration.

In addition to its central role in supporting the ADRCs, NACC provides consultation and technical expertise in data harmonization, epidemiologic design, and biostatistical methods to investigators within and beyond the ADRC network, extending the impact of this national research infrastructure across the broader Alzheimer’s and related dementias research community.

Leadership

Kari A. Stephens, PhD
She/Her
Interim Director and PI
kstephen@uw.edu

Christine Mac Donald, PhD
She/Her
Interim Co-Investigator and Faculty Lead
cmacd@uw.edu

Suman Jayadev, MD
She/Her
Interim Co-Investigator and Faculty Lead
sumie@uw.edu

Operations

NACC's Operations team consists of the Administration and Project Management teams and undertakes a wide range of logistical, administrative, and operational support — contributes to maximizing the utility of NACC in support of the ADRCs and the NIA.

Program Managers

Jessica Welsch, MBA
She/Her
Senior Project Manager
jmwelsch@uw.edu

Elise Gruber
She/Her
Project Manager
egruber@uw.edu

Satish Mathew
He/Him
Technical Project Manager
smathew@uw.edu

Sarah George
She/Her
Project Manager
ssgeorge@uw.edu

Technology

The expertise of NACC’s Technology Team, along with the requisite physical infrastructure (including an on-premises server and cloud capabilities), provides a firm foundation to assure the rapid handling of high-quality data in a secure environment. 

Research

The Research Team provides consultation to ADRC researchers and others as well as engages in methodological research. The experienced faculty and staff in these five groups, together with the physical resources at NACC (as described below) and expertise from other departments throughout the UW, contribute to an institutional environment with a high probability of success in delivering on our stated Scope of Work.