Resources
The Outreach, Recruitment and Education Core shares information about the ADRC, as well as Alzheimer and cerebrovascular disease, to potential participants, research investigators, and health care professionals. Dissemination of information is channeled through multiple venues, including the web site www.usc.edu/memory, conferences [Many Faces of Dementia], public media, and community talks. Information is available in English, Spanish, and other languages upon request. For information about the ADRC research activities contact Tara Rose at trose@usc.edu or 213-740-1887.

Leadership team

Maria P. Aranda, PhD, MSW, MPA, LCSW, Leader

Maria P. Aranda, PhD, is Associate Professor, USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, and Executive Director, USC Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging at the University of Southern California. Dr. Aranda’s research, teaching, and practice interests address the study of psychosocial care of adult and late-life psychiatric disorders including depression, Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. She is interested in examining racial and ethnic diversity in the delivery of health and mental health services, disparities in health and health care, and testing of psychosocial interventions to alleviate illness burden experienced by persons living with medical and psychiatric illnesses and their family caregivers.

 
Dr. Aranda has served as principal investigator or co-investigator on several key studies funded by and/or in collaboration with the National Institute of Mental Health, National Cancer Institute, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, The John A. Hartford Foundation/The Gerontological Society of America, the California Community Foundation, National Institute of Rehabilitation and Research, Alzheimer’s Association/Health Resources and Services Administration, Alzheimer’s Los Angeles/UniHealth Foundation, Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, and the Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute.
 
A native of California, Dr. Aranda co-founded a state-of-the-art family support program (“El Portal”) for low-income, Spanish-speaking families dealing with neurodegenerative disorders which is a national model for family caregiving in hard-to-reach communities. She has served on local and national boards and committees dedicated to the enhancement of practice, policy, research and advocacy related to underrepresented minority populations.
 
Dr. Aranda has served on several consensus committees sponsored by the National Academy of Medicine on the geriatric workforce in mental health and substance use service sectors, family caregiving to older adults with functional limitations, financial capacity determination and functional assessments among Social Security beneficiaries, and the readiness of nonpharmacological interventions for enhancing the quality of life of families dealing with dementia.