Heidi McIntosh

USA

Heidi McIntosh, MSW, is the Chief Operating Officer at the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), renowned for designing strategic programs that enhance policies impacting organizations and vulnerable populations. With 30+ years in health and human services nationally and internationally, she focuses on racial justice, combating bias, and advancing social equity. Previously CEO of First Place for Youth, she directed national strategies for transition-age foster youth, emphasizing Race, Equity, and Inclusion. Heidi also led NASW's programs for 750,000 social workers, served as Senior Policy Advisor in the Obama Administration, and Deputy Commissioner in Connecticut. She holds degrees from UCONN in Policy and Planning, and Social Work.

Barry L. Bentley

UK

Dr Barry L. Bentley is the co-founder and director of the International Consortium to Classify Ageing-Related Pathologies (ICCARP), Reader (Associate Professor) in Bioengineering at Cardiff Metropolitan University, and a visiting fellow at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, the Foresight Institute, and a CASMI Fellow at University College London.

Dr Bentley received his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, where he conducted research at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology on mapping and analysing extrasynaptic neural communication. He has conducted research and consultancy projects for organisations including the University of Oxford, the European Space Agency, London Business School, and ARM Holdings. His current research focuses on developing systems for biopreservation and on the classification and staging of age-related pathologies within the World Health Organization’s ICD-11.

Sarah Harper

UK

Sarah is Professor of Gerontology at the University of Oxford. She is the Co-Director of the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing which she founded in 1997 with funding from the National Institute of Aging. Sarah served on the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology, which advises the Prime Minister on the scientific evidence for strategic policies and frameworks. In 2017 she served as the Director of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. Sarah is a Director and Trustee of the UK Research Integrity Office and a member of the Board of Health Data Research UK. Sarah was appointed a CBE in 2018 for services to Demography.

Sarah has a background in anthropology and population studies and her early research focused on migration and the social implications of demographic change. Her current research on demographic change addresses the impact of falling fertility and increasing life expectancy, with a particular interest in Asia and Africa. Recent research has focused on women’s education and empowerment in sub-Saharan Africa and the impact of this on desired family size, older women’s health in Africa, and European life course trajectories and late life female health. She currently directs two research projects looking at the ageing of farmers in Vietnam and Myanmar.

Sid O'Bryant

USA

Dr. Sid O'Bryant is the principal investigator of the Health & Aging Brain Study – Health Disparities (HABS-HD), which is the most comprehensive study of Alzheimer’s disease among the three largest racial/ethnic groups in the U.S. ever conducted – African Americans, Hispanics, non-Hispanic whites. The goal of the HABS-HD program is to understand the life course factors, including biological, sociocultural, environmental, and behavioral, that impact risk for Alzheimer’s disease in late life. This work will ultimately lead to population-specific precision medicine approaches to treating and preventing Alzheimer’s disease (i.e., “treating your Alzheimer’s disease”). In addition to being a global leader in health disparities in cognitive aging, Dr. O’Bryant is a global expert in the use of blood-based biomarkers for the generation of a precision medicine approach to novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Dementia with Lewy Bodies and Alzheimer’s disease among adults with Down Syndrome.

Tamas Fulop

Canada

Prof Tamas Fulop M.D, PhD, FRCPC is an internist-geriatrician and senior researcher at the Research Center at the Université de Sherbrooke. He completed his medical studies at the faculty of medicine of the University of Geneva. He made his PhD at Hungary. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Paris XII. He moved to the Université de Sherbrooke in 1993. His main research field is immunology in aging and age-related diseases, especially neurodegenerative diseases. He authored more than 400 papers. He led the memory clinic for more than 10 years. He is Editor-in-Chief of Gerontology. He is a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and corresponding member of the French Medical Academy.