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Luci K. Leykum, MD, MBA, MSc, Director and PI: Dr. Leykum is a General Internist and a health services researcher with expertise in using qualitative and quantitative methods to assess and improve care delivery. She is the Director and PI of the EDCoE. Dr. Leykum has used the lens of complexity science to understand how people relate to each other, come to make sense of what is happening through the creation of shared mental models, and act based on that understanding. Her research has directly informed efforts to enable VA clinicians to partner with and support family and unpaid caregivers. She is also a clinician at the frontlines of VA clinical care within the South Texas Veterans Health Care System and a family caregiver of a Vietnam-era Air Force Veteran.
Roxana Delgado, PhD, MS, PNAP, Co-I: Dr. Delgado is the Caring for the Caregiver Program Director at UT Health Science San Antonio, School of Nursing. Her research focuses on predictors of health and wellbeing in military and veteran caregivers, with emphasis in long-term trajectory of disease and illness. Her work was inspired by her firsthand experience as the wife and caregiver of a combat wounded veteran and Purple Heart Recipient. She coauthored “The Caregivers Companion” and is part of the STVHCS. https://directory.uthscsa.edu/academics/profile/delgadore
Jacquelyn Roberson, MS, Program Manager: Ms. Roberson serves as the program manager for the EDCoE. She coordinates research activities across all sites, and supports communication between the EDCoE leadership, operational partners, and other relevant stakeholders. She is the family caregiver of a WWII veteran.
Erin Bouldin, PhD, MPH, Co-I, Site PI and Lead, Data Analytic Core: Dr. Bouldin is an epidemiologist with expertise in using primary and secondary data to assess and support the health of Veterans living with chronic conditions and disabilities and their family caregivers. She oversees Center research activities at the Salt Lake City VAMC. https://medicine.utah.edu/faculty/erin-d-bouldin
MaryJo (MJ) Pugh, PhD, RN, Co-I: Dr. Pugh has expertise in latent class/latent mixture models, pharmacoepidemiology and outcomes research in geriatrics and in Veterans of Gulf War and Post-9/11 eras. Her work using latent class analysis identified consistent comorbidity trajectories in post-911 conflict Veterans and associations with subsequent adverse events. She is a Veteran and family caregiver for her husband, also a Veteran. https://medicine.utah.edu/faculty/mary-jo-pugh
Randall Rupper, MD, MPH, Co-I: Dr. Rupper is the Director of the Salt Lake City VA GRECC. He has led multiple projects relating to caregiving for older Veterans, including telehealth interventions for rural caregivers of Veterans with dementia, interventions to coordinate resources with county level aging agencies, and a quality improvement project directed at improving the ability of home health agency staff to assist caregivers of persons with dementia. His informatics work has included development of a home health, shared-care plan, and building a dashboard to model and present the risk of inpatient geriatric psychiatry hospitalization. https://healthcare.utah.edu/find-a-doctor/randall-w-rupper
Stuti Dang, MD, MPH, Site PI and Lead, Innovation Core: Dr. Dang is the Associate Director for Implementation and Outcomes Research in the GRECC at the Miami VA Healthcare System, and the current Innovation Core Lead for the EDCoE. She is a geriatrician with expertise in and implementing and evaluating innovative care models for that support older Veterans with chronic and serious health conditions such as dementia, stroke, diabetes, and heart failure, and their family caregivers. Her innovative models frequently incorporate digital technology as well as the role of peers, to improve quality of care for patients. Dr. Dang’s work has also focused in implementing home and community-based services and models for high need high risk (HNHR) populations. https://med.miami.edu/faculty/stuti-dang-md
Ranak Trivedi, PhD, Site PI and Director of Pipeline Development: Dr. Trivedi is a clinical health psychologist and health services research and a core investigator at the Center for Innovation to Implementation, a VA-funded center of innovation in health systems research. Her expertise is in understanding psychosocial risk factors and sequelae of chronic illness for patients and family caregivers managing chronic and serious illnesses. She developed the Dyadic Health Behavior Change Model, one of the first theories to emphasize the role of interpersonal relationship in self-management. She has developed two technology enabled multicomponent behavioral intervention programs Self-care Using Collaborative Coping EnhancEment in Disease (SUCCEED) and a web-based version, web-SUCCEED. She serves as the Director of Pipeline Development for the EDCoE to train the next generation of caregiver researchers and leads the VA National Caregiver Research Interest Group. https://profiles.stanford.edu/ranak-trivedi
Megan Shepherd-Banigan, PhD, MPH, Site PI: Dr. Shepherd-Banigan is a Research Scientist in the ADAPT Center of Excellence at the Durham Veteran’s Administration (VA). She is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine. She holds a doctorate in Health Services Research and completed postdoctoral training at the Durham VA ADAPT. Dr. Shepherd-Banigan applies rigorous methodological designs to evaluate the effectiveness of health systems programs and policies on health and social outcomes. Her research interests center on improving access to and quality of health care services for medically vulnerable populations, including individuals with mental illness and older adults with cognitive impairment, and their family caregivers. Megan E Shepherd-Banigan | Scholars@Duke profile
Jennifer Martindale-Adams, PhD, Site PI: Dr. Martindale-Adams is a gerontological counselor and Professor, Preventitve Medicine, and is Co-Director of the VA National Caregiver Center, based at the Lt. Col. Luke Weathers, Jr VA Medical Center in Memphis. She has implemented and overseen programs to support caregivers of Veterans, including REACH VA, wellness courses, and text support interventions, and families of deployed service members. She is also a Professor, Preventive Medicine, and Co-Director of the Caregiver Center at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. She works with community agencies nationally and internationally to implement the REACH (Resources for Enhancing All Caregivers Health) intervention for caregivers of persons with dementia. https://www.uthsc.edu/faculty/profile/?netid=jmartind
Orna Intrator, PhD, Site PI: Dr. Intrator directs the VA Geriatrics and Extended Care Data Analytics Center (GECDAC), leading VA efforts to leverage its administrative data to identify Veterans at high risk of institutional care, and link Veterans to effective services. Trained in statistics and applied mathematics, Dr. Intrator’s research applies novel statistical methods and complex data combinations to address questions pertaining to service utilization, cost, quality, risk adjustment related to frail populations living in nursing homes and in the community. In particular, Dr. Intrator’s interest is in the impact of organizations and delivery systems, and response to regulations and contexts of care delivery. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/orna.intrator.1/bibliography/44582285/public/?sort=date&direction=descending
