Tennessee Dementia ECHO

Raymond Romano is a family nurse practitioner with experience in research and quality improvement. His focus is on health services research, and his specific interests are in the detection, diagnosis and care of dementia in the primary care setting. He earned his bachelor’s degree in biology at Marymount Manhattan College, his master’s degree in public health from Boston University and his master’s degree in nursing from Vanderbilt University. He completed his PhD at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center during which he studied how alteration in the pain experience differs in those at risk for developing Alzheimer’s Disease. He currently works at the Vanderbilt Memory and Alzheimer’s Center where he conducts clinical assessments for the Center’s longitudinal studies and is supporting outreach and recruitment.

Dr. James Eaton is a neurologist and an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. Eaton’s research interests include the interplay between inflammation and the immune system with neurodegenerative disease. Dr. Eaton sees memory referral patients as part of the Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology in the Department of Neurology and serves as a co-investigator with the Vanderbilt Memory and Aging Project and the Vanderbilt Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. Dr. Eaton completed medical school at the Zucker School of Medicine in New York. He completed his residency in neurology at Vanderbilt University Medical School followed by a neuroimmunology fellowship and a cognitive and behavioral neurology fellowship at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 2022.

Dr. Katherine A.Gifford is a clinical neuropsychologist and an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. Gifford has clinical expertise in evaluating older adults with memory concerns and sees patients in the Neuropsychology Clinic within the Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology Division in the Department of Neurology. Dr. Gifford’s research interests focus on identifying neuropsychological and self-report markers that underlie the earliest manifestations of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Dr. Gifford is a study neuropsychologist for the Vanderbilt Memory and Aging Project, the Clinical Core Co-Leader for the Vanderbilt Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, and a member of the training faculty for the Vanderbilt InterdisciplinaryTraining Program in Alzheimer’s Disease (T32). Dr. Gifford completed her doctoral degree in clinical psychology at Florida Institute of Technology and postdoctoral fellowships in neuropsychology at Boston University and Vanderbilt University. She joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 2013.

Dr. Anne Gifford is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She joined the faculty in the Division of Geriatrics at Vanderbilt after completing a residency in Family Medicine in Worcester, MA, and fellowship training in geriatric medicine in Portland, OR. Dr. Gifford’s clinical interests include treatment of osteoporosis in older adults, recognizing osteoporosis in male older adults, treating urogynecologic issues, dementia diagnosis, and dementia care at every stage, as well as support for families and caregivers. She is interested in integrating geriatric medicine into emergency and surgical medical fields in hopes of providing the best possible care for older adults.