Four new members join the Council

The WDC is delighted to announce that four new individuals have been appointed to join the Council. It has been agreed by the Council that the new members will be Howard Bergman, Professor of Family Medicine, Geriatric Medicine and Oncology, McGill University (Canada); Paulo Caramelli, Professor of Neurology, Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil), Hilary Evans, Chief Executive, Alzheimer’s Research UK, and Brian Lawlor, Professor of Old Age Psychiatry, Trinity College Dublin, and Deputy Executive Director, Global Brain Health Institute (Ireland).

We would like to thank retiring members: Professor Yves Joanette (Deputy Vice-Principal, Research and Director of the Digital Health Consortium, University of Montreal) who has been a member since 2016 and former chair of the Council overseeing the successful transition of the WDC from UK government support to becoming an independent UK charity; Jeremy Hughes (former CEO, Alzheimer’s Society) for his service as the most recent vice chair of the Council; Li-Yu Tang (Secretary General and co-founder of the Taiwan Alzheimer’s Disease Association (TADA) and member of the Long-Term Care Committee of the Executive Yuan of Taiwan) who has provided an important voice from the Southeast Asia region and for her work as part of the global not-for-profit family; Dr Samantha Budd-Haeberlein (Vice President and Head of Alzheimer’s Clinical Development, Biogen) who has been a great advocate and driver of the Council’s work; and Professor Pierluigi Nicotera (Scientific Director, DZNE) for his dedicated service. The Council pays tribute to their efforts and invaluable contribution over the years.

Members are appointed to the Council for a fixed term of service. New members continue the tradition of being chosen for their unique insights, truly global experience, and unrivalled expertise. We welcome new members and look forward to working with them to drive the WDC's international leadership on dementia.

  • Howard Bergman MD, FCAHS is Assistant Dean for International Affairs,  is Professor in the departments of  Family Medicine, Medicine and Oncology  as well as in the Institute for Health and Social Policy of the School of Population and Global Health at the McGill University Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS) and a Fellow of both the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. He was the inaugural Dr. Joseph Kaufmann Chair in Geriatric Medicine (2001-2015) and Chair of the Department of Family Medicine (2012-2019). Dr. Bergman is recognized  for his research which has influenced policy change in primary care, aging and dementia.  As part of a government independent commission (2000), Dr. Bergman was the lead on a major reform of primary medical care creating team based Family Medicine Groups. He is author of the Quebec Alzheimer Plan (2009) working with government on its implementation. He co-leads the Canadian team for healthcare services/system improvement in dementia care (ROSA research team). In 2019, at the request of Public Health Agency of Canada, he chaired the CAHS Expert Panel for the Assessment of Evidence and Best Practices for the development of the Canadian Dementia Strategy. Dr. Bergman is a member of the Board of Directors of the Quebec Institut national d'excellence en santé et en services sociaux.

  • Paulo Caramelli, MD, PhD obtained his MD in 1987 at the University of São Paulo (USP) School of Medicine, in São Paulo, Brazil and completed the residency program in Neurology at the Hospital das Clínicas of the USP School of Medicine in 1991. Research fellow at the University of Montréal, Canada, from 1992 to 1994. In 1997, he completed a PhD in Neurological Sciences at the USP School of Medicine. He is currently Professor of Neurology at the Faculty of Medicine of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) and Coordinator of the Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology Research Group at UFMG, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, where he also supervises MSc and PhD students. Vice chair (2021-2022) and chair-elect (2022-2024) of the Advisory Council of ISTAART (Alzheimer's Association International Society to Advance Alzheimer's Research and Treatment). Editor-in-chief of Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria. Associate editor of the American Journal of Neurodegenerative Disease, eNeurologicalSci and Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. His research activities are focused on clinical, epidemiological and translational studies on cognitive impairment and dementia, particularly Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia, including studies investigating education and cognitive reserve in the older adult population.

  • Hilary Evans is Chief Executive of Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK), the UK’s leading dementia research charity. ARUK is committed to investigating the causes of dementia and developing ways to prevent, diagnose, treat and, ultimately, cure all forms of the condition. As Chief Executive since 2015, Hilary has led the transformation of the charity to one of the leading medical research charities in the UK.  She has overseen a significant growth in income in recent years, with ARUK being one of the fastest growing UK charities. This growth has significantly enhanced the organisation’s ability to fund new innovative projects, particularly those that unite charity, academic and private sectors in the search for new dementia treatments. Hilary is driven and fascinated by ideas that can make a difference and has led major public campaigns to change public perceptions of dementia and break down the stigma around these diseases. Before joining Alzheimer’s Research UK Hilary worked at Age UK, improving the lives of people in later life both in the UK and internationally. She also brings experience of working in Government and with the pharmaceutical industry. Hilary is a Trustee of the Association of Medical Research Charities and holds an honorary doctorate in medicine from The University of Exeter.

  • Professor Brian Lawlor MD, FRCPI, FRCPsych is Professor of Old Age Psychiatry at Trinity College Dublin and Deputy Executive Director of the Global Brain Health Institute based at Trinity College Dublin and University of California San Francisco. His main clinical and research interests are in the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia and on the impact of  loneliness on the brain health and wellbeing of older people. As a psychiatrist, he has been involved in the care of people with dementia for over 30 years.  He was the founding director of the Memory Clinic at St. James’s Hospital, Dublin and Chair of the Irish National Dementia Awareness Campaign.

You can find out more about our members, associate members and our meetings here.