KU ADC Staff
Diane Cunningham
Diane is a native and life-long resident of Shawnee Mission, Kansas. She graduated from JCCC with an Associates of Arts Degree. She has over thirty years of experience as an executive administrative assistant in several settings including education, programs for youth ministry and medicine. Diane plays a key roll in our department's operation by serving as Dr. Jeffrey Burns' Senior Executive Administrative Assistant.
Angela Van Sciver
Angela Van Sciver has been with the University of Kansas Medical Center since May 1998 and joined the KU Alzheimer and Memory Program in November 2009. Her current research projects with the KU Alzheimer and Memory Program are looking at the effect of aerobic exercise on memory.
Angela has a background in fitness and health promotion and more than 20 years teaching experience as a certified group fitness instructor and personal trainer. She received an Associates of Arts (AA) degree in Health & Physical Education from Dekalb College in Atlanta, Georgia and Bachelor of Arts (BA) degrees (2) in Biology and Natural Science from Park University in Parkville, MO. She is currently certified as a group fitness instructor, personal trainer, and Pilates mat instructor. Angela's other research and career interests include fitness for special populations including older adults, people with physical and/or psychiatric/mental disabilities, as well as diabetes prevention and management
Angela is a currently a Research Assistant acting as an exercise interventionist on the Trial of Exercise for Aging and Memory (TEAM) and the Alzheimer's Disease Exercise Program Trial (ADEPT) studies. She tends to the day-to-day operations of the exercise interventions by closely tracking participants throughout their bout in the study and providing guidance as needed along the way. She is providing oversight to the YMCA study personal trainers, and acting as a liaison for study participants, the YMCA trainers and other study staff.
Some of her past research projects include Project Workout on Wheels (WOW), an exercise program for wheelchair users, Recovering Energy through Nutrition and Exercise for Weight loss (RENEW), for people with serious mental illness and Learning Potential in People with Schizophrenia. She also played a key role in development and writing of several manuals on exercise and weight loss as well as development and facilitation of an internet course for training allied health professionals to develop and deliver health promotion programs to people with serious mental illness.
Julia A. Gebar
Julia A. Gebar recently joined the Alzheimer and Memory Program in April as a research assistant. A native of the East Coast, she graduated from Hamilton College in New York in 2009 with a BA. As a Psychology major, Julia's research for her senior thesis focused on the relationship between stress and health behaviors in college freshmen. Julia was drawn to the University of Kansas Alzheimer and Memory Program in part due to Dr. Burns' research on the relationship between exercise and Alzheimer's disease. Her fascination with psychology and research led her to the psychometric testing aspect of the studies. She is currently observing memory and cognition assessments and plans to pursue psychometric certification in the future. So far she has worked primarily with the Clinical Trials Unit, Education and Outreach and psychometrics programs. Julia is also interested in the psychological impacts of aging. In the future, she hopes to attain a Master's degree in Mental Health Counseling and is considering working with patients facing life-altering health diagnoses, such as Alzheimer's disease. Julia has studied photography for the past 10 years and pursued an Art minor in college. She also played competitive rugby in college, in both the prop and flanker positions. You can usually find her at home cheering on the Yankees.
Phyllis Switzer
Phyllis Switzer is the Psychometrician for the Brian Aging Project, the Alzheimer and Memory Center, and the Alzheimer's Disease Clinical Research Program.
As a trained psychometrician, Phyllis has performed psychometric assessments and testing for a variety of neurological studies including trials for Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, and Huntington's disease. She also performs psychometric testing for the Alzheimer and Memory Center.
Phyllis conducts psychometric testing in clinical settings, investigator initiated and industry sponsored clinical trials. She has been involved in thirty-six AD-related clinical trials. Phyllis was instrumental in the formation of the Alzheimer's Disease Support Group at the University of Kansas Medical Center and acts as the facilitator for the monthly meetings. Phyllis has been a speaker in the community and the surrounding area on the role of the caregiver and caregiver related stress issues.
Lewis Hutfles
Lewis began his research at KU Medical Hospital two years ago at Hoglund Brain Imaging Center under the guidance of Dr. Carmen Cirstea. He specifically spent his time studying the response systems of stroke affected patients to that of training by integrating the use of the fMRI (functional MRI). Around this time, Lewis also began his assistance in research for Dr. Jeffery Burns and the KU Alzheimer and Memory Program. By using the program MIPAV (Medical Image Processing, Analysis, and Visualization, Lewis is currently tracing images of white matter lesions in the human brain. The goal of this research is to see if there is any link or relationship between white matter atrophy and other health risk factors that may be contributing to these lesions such as age, sex, hypertension, and most notably Alzheimer's disease. As of December of 2009, Lewis has joined the KU Alzheimer and Memory Program full time and has taken on clinical duties in addition to his research with white matter. Lewis is also currently finishing up with his undergraduate degree in Biology at the University of Missouri in Kansas City. He hopes to integrate his experiences in the clinic and in research to help prepare him for entry into medical school, and to someday help fight Alzheimer's disease and better serve those families in the community that are affected from this disease. Lewis is recently engaged and lives in Kansas City where he enjoys spending time with his wife and watching sports.
Hilary Dubinsky
Hilary is a psychometrician for the Alzheimer's Disease Clinical Research Program. After obtaining a BA in Psychology from Drake University, she joined the KU Neurology Department in 2007 as a clinical studies coordinator. As a coordinator, Hilary worked exclusively with Huntington Disease. Over 4 years, she recruited 100+ subjects to take part in a multi-national HD trial, making KU one of the top 5 recruiting sites out of 40+ international sites. Hilary also coordinated multiple clinical drug trials aimed at stopping the cognitive-behavioral decline of individuals living with HD. In August of 2011, Hilary left coordinating when she returned to school full-time, and began working solely as a psychometrician within the ADC. She currently resides in the Kansas City suburbs and is pursuing a second degree in nursing.
Becky Bothwell, M.S., CCRP
Becky joined the KUMC Alzheimer's Disease Center in October of 2011. She has 8 years of experience in academic clinical research conduct and administration, including Phase I, II, and III industry-sponsored clinical trials and investigator-initiated projects. While she is new to the ADC, she is not new to the University of Kansas Medical Center, having worked as a Research Associate in the Department of Occupational Therapy Education and a Clinical Research Coordinator in the Department of Ophthalmology.
Becky earned her B.S. in Occupational Therapy from Creighton University in 1992 and worked in low vision rehabilitation and neuro-rehabilitation before becoming involved in clinical research. In May of 2007, she completed her M.S. in Educational Psychology and Research at the University of Kansas. She is certified as a Clinical Research Professional and is a member of the Society of Clinical Research Associates (SoCRA).
Jami Goodwin
Jami is the Education and Enrollment Coordinator for the KU ADC. Jami manages recruitment and enrollment for the ADC's research study programs, as well as educational programming external communication for the KU ADC. She is a graduate student in the department of Health Policy & Management at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Jami's graduate work includes examining medical cost and its impact in treatment adherence. Jami also serves as the Executive Editorial Assistant for the American Journal of Bioethics. Jami enjoys cooking, gardening and volunteering in her spare time, and writes as a freelance music columnist for various local publications.
Paul Welch
Paul is a research assistant involved with various studies conducted here at the University of Kansas Alzheimer's Disease Center. Prior to working with the KU Alzheimer's Disease Center, Paul worked in the laboratory setting here at KUMC carrying out animal, bacterial, and human tissue research.
He received a Bachelors of Science in Genetics from the University of Kansas and completed both a Masters in Public Health and the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences here at KUMC. Paul is very interested in preventive medicine, and is an avid reader and writer.
Joseph McDounough
Born and bred a Jayhawk, Joseph joined the KU-ADC in 2011 as a Research Assistant. Joseph helps conduct clinical trials, typically lending a hand in the TEAM and ADEPT programs. He graduated with a BS in Cellular Biology from the University of Kansas Lawrence campus. Joseph is interested in further investigating the effects of exercise and lifestyle on the brain, particularly in late onset Alzheimer's Disease patients. In his free time, Joseph likes to hike and volunteer at ultra running events.
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