Chief, Division of Epidemology

Director, Population Brain Health Lab

Co-director, UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center

Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences and Department of Neurology

Dr. Rachel Whitmer is a tenured Professor of Public Health Sciences and Neurology, Chief of then Division of Epidemiology at the University of California Davis (UC Davis) School of Medicine and Co-Director of the UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. Professor Whitmer was the first female ‘Target of Excellence’ hire at UC Davis School of Medicine, a special hiring mechanism to recruit high impact scientists who are internationally renown experts in their fields and will bridge needed gaps in the research mission of the university. Dr. Whitmer was recruited to meld population science and epidemiology with the UC Davis Alzheimer’s disease research center and help the center expand into community-based sciences with a focus on groups historically underrepresented in research.

Dr. Whitmer is Director of the Population Brain Health Lab which uses lifecouse epidemiological methods to reduce inequities in brain aging; through study of dementia incidence, cognitive aging, neuroimaging, and brain pathology in diverse communities, those with diabetes, and the oldestold. She is Principal Investigator of three National Institutes of Health funded cohort studies of dementia, cardiovascular health, and cognitive aging as well as US POINTER, a lifestyle multidomain behavioral intervention clinical trial to reduce risk of dementia. In total these programs represent over $66 million in funding and follow over 4000 research participants. Her work has been cited over 16,000 times across 175 publications .