First published in the Oct. 7 print issue of the San Marino Tribune.
Judy Pa, a pioneer in the battle to prevent Alzheimer’s disease, will discuss advances in that effort when she serves as the featured speaker at the San Marino City Club’s October meeting.
Pa, who has a Ph.D., will explain studies that use big-data approaches to understand Alzheimer’s risk factors, such as age, genetics and gender. She will also talk about modifiable lifestyle factors, such as exercise and cognitive stimulation, for the preservation or enhancement of brain health using neuroimaging techniques, including a new clinical trial using virtual reality as the medium for intervention.
The meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 19, in the San Marino Center.
Pa is an associate professor and cognitive neuroscientist at USC. She has 20 years of human neuroimaging experience and directs a research lab focused on Alzheimer’s prevention. She trained at UC San Francisco as a postdoctoral fellow and neurology faculty member for seven years before joining USC in 2014. The primary focus of her work is to develop and test new, multidomain combination interventions using technology, such as virtual reality and remote activity monitoring, with the goal of preserving brain health and cognition.
Pa is a project leader of USC’s Program Project Grant on Vascular Contributions to Alzheimer’s disease and the Imaging Core co-leader of USC’s Alzheimer’s Disease Center. She leads two ongoing National Institutes of Health behavioral intervention trials with a focus on physical and cognitive activities. Away from work, Pa enjoys spending time with her husband, their two children — who are in the Pasadena/Sierra Madre Mandarin dual language program — and her black lab rescue pup. She also likes to get away to the ski slopes.
Doors to the San Marino Center will open at 6 p.m. and the meeting will start promptly at 6:30 p.m. For those unable to attend in person, the meeting will also be available via Zoom webinar, as has been club protocol throughout the coronavirus pandemic, to those who register.
All participants who wish to attend in person will be required to show proof of vaccination or a current negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within 72 hours of the meeting. Attendees will be required to wear masks inside the center except when eating or drinking. Enter the center from Huntington Drive.
Members can register and pay for their guests at sanmarinocityclub.org. Guests can also attend this live and in-person event for $30 for adults and $20 for children under 18 payable prior to the start of the program by also pre-registering at sanmarinocityclub.org. One does not need to be a City Club member to attend this special event. Those planning to attend the meeting via Zoom are asked to check the “attend via Zoom” box when registering for the event. They will receive a link upon completion of the registration.
Club membership is open to residents of the San Marino Unified School District, officials of the school district or the city of San Marino, persons who conduct their business or profession within the district, or persons who have a significant and ongoing relationship with the San Marino community. Membership provides the member with eight meetings that feature timely, important, and informative speakers of both local and national interest and on a wide variety of subjects, and the opportunity to meet many of San Marino’s elected officials, city and school district leaders, and citizens.
More information is available on the club’s website.
