Experts on Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

Rosalie Gearhart is the administrative nurse for the UCSF Memory and Aging Center. She works with families during diagnostic visits and cares for patients in the follow-up clinic. Gearhart works to help maintain the quality of life of patients and caregivers. She is interested in studying people at risk for dementia, the prevention of decline and the impact of caregiving on families, particularly families involved in the care of frontotemporal dementia patients.

Gearhart earned her undergraduate degree in nursing at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She began her nursing career at Johns Hopkins Hospital and worked in general medicine at UCSF Medical Center where she was nurse manager. She earned a master's in nursing administration at UCSF and is a gerontological clinical nurse specialist, certified by the American Nurses Association Credentialing Center. She is an assistant clinical professor in the physiology department of the UCSF School of Nursing.

Jennifer Merrilees is a clinical nurse specialist in geriatrics at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center where she works with patients and families in the assessment and management of cognitive function, behavior and caregiving issues. Merrilees received her master's degree in nursing from the University of California, San Francisco and is certified by the American Nurses Association in Gerontological Nursing. Merrilees has 10 years experience working with elders and their families. Previously she worked with hospitalized elderly at UCSF Medical Center. As an assistant clinical professor, Merrilees taught in the UCSF graduate program in Gerontological nursing with primary responsibility in clinical training and supervision of master's nursing students. She is involved in outreach programs at Self-Help for the Elderly, which serves Chinese elderly and Laguna Honda Hospital, a long-term care facility. Merrilees 'scurrent work focuses primarily on frontotemporal dementia and the issues faced by family caregivers.

Christina Wyss-Coray is a clinical nurse at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center where she meets with patients and families on the appointment day, evaluates caregiver issues and performs functional, behavioral and memory assessments. In addition, Wyss-Coray organizes and oversees follow-up appointments and follows patients and families through the course of enrollment at the center. Wyss-Coray graduated from Nursing College in Chur, Switzerland in 1987. She worked as a clinical nurse and charge nurse for six years in a university hospital in Switzerland. In 1993, Wyss-Coray moved to the United States with her family and in 1996 joined the Intensive Care Unit at UCSF. In 1999, she came to the Memory and Aging Center.

As a clinical pharmacist with the UCSF Memory and Aging Center for over 15 years, Richard Ronald Finley collaborates with the members of the medical team to optimize drug therapy, conducts medication history interviews and meets with patients and caregivers to discuss questions/issues regarding traditional and nontraditional medications. He has a strong interest in geriatric drug therapy and medications for dementia.

Finley received his bachelor's degree in pharmacy at St. Louis College of Pharmacy in Missouri. In addition, he is a consultant pharmacist for the On Lok-Senior Health program and the Institute on Aging Alzheimer's Day Care Program. He is co-chair of pharmacy practice at the California Geriatric Education Center as well as a lecturer, and member of the faculty since 1980, in the department of clinical pharmacy, School of Pharmacy at UCSF.

Joel Kramer is director of the UCSF Memory and Aging Center Neuropsychology program. Kramer has been extensively involved in studying the cognitive changes associated with brain disorders for the past two decades. Presently, his active areas of research include studying the cognitive effects of cerebrovascular disease and frontotemporal dementia, identifying behavioral markers of pre-clinical Alzheimer's disease and understanding the relationships between aging, hormones and behavior.

Kramer earned his doctorate at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Martinez VA Hospital. Kramer is board certified in clinical neuropsychology and serves on the board of directors of the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology. In addition, he is an associate clinical professor of neurology, psychiatry and pediatrics at UCSF.