Meet Dr. Franchesca Arias, a Clinical Neuropsychologist, and the June featured Science Sista of the Month! Dr. Arias is a native of the Dominican Republic who relocated to the United States as an adolescent. Professionally, she is a bilingual and bicultural Assistant Scientist-I at the Marcus Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew SeniorLife, Harvard Medical School. Her research explores the individual and contextual-level factors that propel, or interfere with, healthy cognitive aging in ethnoracially and socio-economically diverse patients. Dr. Arias is particularly interested in identifying social determinants of health that are relevant in perioperative settings, which can be modified to maximize clinical outcomes in medically compromised older adults. Clinically, Dr. Arias provides neuropsychological services (i.e., assessments, psychoeducation to patients and their families, and consultation) in English and Spanish at the Cognitive Neurology Unit at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Dr. Arias is currently funded by an Alzheimer’s Association research fellowship (2019-AARFD-644816). Before joining the Marcus Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew SeniorLife, Dr. Arias completed an NIA-funded T32 Postdoctoral Fellowship in Pain and Aging through the Department of Dentistry at the University of Florida (T32-AG049673, Fillingham, PI) where she received specialty training in perioperative cognition. Her work has linked preoperative patient-specific characteristics to postoperative outcomes in minimally invasive procedures.
