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The Global Council on Brain Health (GCBH) is an independent collaborative, created to provide trusted information on how you can maintain and improve your brain health. Its clear and dependable guidance is based on the foremost thinking from scientists, doctors, scholars and policy experts around the world. GCBH members debate the latest in brain health science to reach consensus on what works and what doesn’t. Our overriding goal is to help people apply the latest scientific insights to boost their cognitive health and live their best lives.

What We Do


The GCBH inspires thought leaders to work together to translate critical scientific information on brain health into simple actions people can take every day. We are dedicated to improving people’s understanding of the steps they can take to help maintain brain health throughout their lives. Brain health is vital to well-being across the lifespan, so the GCBH’s work aims to have a major impact.
 

How It Works


The GCBH operates as a hub-and-spoke collaborative to address the many lifestyle factors that can impact brain health. A governance committee of approximately a dozen experts from around the world comprises the hub. The governance committee will lead issue specialists — “the spokes” — in examining priority areas, including physical exercise, cognitively stimulating activity, mental well being, diet, sleep, stress, social engagement, and supplements. Building on the Institute of Medicine’s Cognitive Aging report (April 2015), the GCBH will focus on issues of interest identified by scientists, the popular press and AARP surveys.

Members of the GCBH will work with a diverse array of outside experts to create useful, easy-to-comprehend materials that people can apply in their daily lives.
 

Global Council on Brain Health Priority Areas chart

  

Global Presence

 

AARP founded the GCBH in collaboration with Age UK, which is the United Kingdom’s largest charity dedicated to helping everyone make the most of later life. AARP and Age UK are organizations with a large public reach and have strong track records in delivering information to the widest audiences. They have worked together on numerous public policy projects and will ensure that the council takes account of international expertise and that the messaging on brain health reaches more people around the world.
 

Governance Committee

  

MARILYN ALBERT, Ph.D. (Chair)

Professor of Neurology; Director, Division of Cognitive Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University 

 

KAARIN ANSTEY, Ph.D.

Director, UNSW Ageing Futures Institute and Senior Principal Research Scientist at Neuroscience Research Australia

 

LISA L. BARNES, PHD

Professor of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center 

 

PEGGYE DILWORTH-ANDERSON, Ph.D. — GCBH Equity Champion

Professor of Health Policy and Management, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

 

 

S. DUKE HAN, Ph.D., ABPP-CN

Director of Neuropsychology in Family Medicine, and Professor of Family Medicine, Neurology, Psychology, and Gerontology, USC Keck School of Medicine

 

JASON KARLAWISH, M.D.

Professor of Medicine, Medical Ethics and Health Policy, and Neurology, University of Pennsylvania

JESSICA LANGBAUM, Ph.D.

Co-Director, Alzheimer’s Prevention Initiative Banner Alzheimer’s Institute

 

GILL LIVINGSTON, M.D.

Professor of Psychiatry of Older People, University College London

STEFANIA MAGGI, M.D., MPH, Ph.D.

Research Director, CNR Aging Branch-Institute of Neuroscience, Padua, Italy

 

JACOBO MINTZER, M.D.

Director, South Carolina Institute for Brain Health, and Professor, Medical University of South Carolina

 

ADESOLA OGUNNIYI, M.D.

Professor of Medicine, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria

 

RONALD C. PETERSEN, M.D., Ph.D.

Director, Mayo Clinic Alzheimer's Disease Research Center and the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging

JANE RYLETT, Ph.D.

Scientific Director, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Aging; Professor, University of Western Ontario and Scientist, Robarts Research Institute

 

KRISTINE YAFFE, M.D.

Roy and Marie Scola Endowed Chair, Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology and Epidemiology, University of California San Francisco

 

KATE ZHONG, M.D.  GCBH Communications and Outreach Champion

Adjunct Professor, Department of Brain Health, University of Nevada, Las Vegas 

 

Emeritus Members

 
  • LINDA CLARE, Ph.D. Sc.D, University of Exeter (UK)
  • YVES JOANETTE, Ph.D., FCAHS, University of Montreal (Canada)
  • MIIA KIVIPELTO, M.D., Ph.D, Karolinska Institutet (Sweden)

Staff Contacts

 

For more information regarding  the Global Council of Brain Health, you may contact our supporting staff members: