Core Study Team
Principal Investigator: Molly M. Perkins, PhD, FGSA
Dr. Molly M. Perkins is a social gerontologist and medical sociologist with research interests in social determinants of health and disparities, aging in minority and vulnerable populations, functional wellness, and long-term care. She is a National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities Scholar and a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America. A primary focus of her work is on addressing social, behavioral, and environmental aspects of chronic disease management among diverse older adult populations. Dr. Perkins has more than 20 years of experience conducting research in assisted living communities and personal care homes. Much of this recent work centers on dementia care and palliative care. In addition to serving as the Principal Investigator on the INSPIRE project, Dr. Perkins co-directs the NIH/NIA Roybal Center for Dementia Caregiving Mastery at Emory University and is the Engagement Evaluation Core Lead for the Georgia Memory Net. Dr. Perkins has a primary appointment as an associate professor with tenure in the Emory School of Medicine and is a member of the graduate faculty in the Emory Department of Sociology. She also has a joint appointment as a research health scientist at the Atlanta VA Medical Center, where she is the Atlanta Site Director for Research for the Birmingham/Atlanta VA Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center (GRECC).
Research Project Manager: Louise P. Savoye, MD, MPH
Louise Savoye received an M.D. degree from University of Lyon I in Lyon, France. She obtained a Capacité de Geriatrie and Gérontologie from that same university and has practiced Geriatric Medicine in Neuville-sur-Saone, France. She obtained an MPH degree from Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health in 2011. Before managing the INSPIRE study, she managed the Diabetes Research Program at the Atlanta VA Medical Center. She has over 17 years of experience performing and managing research and clinical trials in various domains such as cardiology, endocrinology and geriatrics.
Clinical Research Co-Ordinator III: Shermetria D. Massingale, MPH, MCHES
Shermetria D. Massingale, MPH, MCHES, serves as the Clinical Research Coordinator III for the Inspire Study. Hailing from Tuskegee, she has received her Bachelor of Science degree in Radiation Therapy and Master of Public Health degree in Health Behavior, both from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Although new to the gerontology and geriatrics field, Shermetria is not new to research. She has worked on approximately 20 research studies in her 15 years of working in research since her first project during undergrad. Before her position at Emory, she worked in both non-profit and academic research settings in Birmingham. Shermetria is enthused about being a part of this research team and the impact that the study findings can have on the caregiving and dementia community.
Post-Doctoral Fellow: Jeffrey G. Lentz, PhD, CPG, CDP
Dr. Lentz earned his Ph.D. in sociology from Georgia State University, a master’s degree in sociology from Southern Connecticut State University, and a bachelor’s degree in human services from Post University. During his doctoral studies, he earned two graduate certificates in gerontology from Georgia State University and counseling from Post University. Currently, he is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Emory University, School of Medicine-Department of Medicine, Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology. Under the direction of Dr. Molly M. Perkins (PI), they investigate informal caregivers’ involvement in end-of-life care among assisted living residents with advanced dementia and its influence on resident and caregiver outcomes. His dissertation explored the relationship between minority stress and disability among sexual minority adults 50 years and older. Sexual and gender minority older adults are an at-risk and under-served population. It is important to understand their experiences through the aging process as it relates to their health outcomes because of their unique needs. Sexual and gender minorities have higher rates of disability compared to their heterosexual counterparts. Dr. Lentz found that discrimination is associated with greater odds of developing a disability. His primary research interests include aging, health, and disability among older sexual and gender minority adults. His other areas of interest include medical sociology, gerontology, sociology of aging, and disability.
Data Analyst: Dominique Munroe, MD, MPH, CHES
Dominique Munroe is a clinical research interviewer at Emory University School of Medicine, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine and data analyst in the Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology. He received his M.D from the American University of Integrated Sciences and is a recent MPH graduate from Mercer University. He has been involved in several projects and initiatives within Georgia aimed at improving healthcare within underrepresented populations, vaccine education, health equity and the implementation of behavioral interventions.
Data Analyst: Terry Klemenson, BA
Terry Klemensen, B.A, is a Data Analyst for the Emory School of Medicine, Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology. He received his BA in Statistics from Hunter College (CUNY) in New York City, NY. Terry is a former IT Technician for the American Embassy in Madagascar and Senior Clinical Analyst for the HealthFirst Insurance company in New York City. Outside of work Terry enjoys playing music. He is a member of several Orchestras in the Atlanta area, performing on Double Bass. He can also be found at local Farmers Markets playing saxophone as “Jazz by the Hatman”.
Senior Investigators
Dr. Alexis Bender, Assistant Professor of Medicine, is a medical sociologist and social gerontologist based in the Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology. Dr. Bender completed her PhD in Sociology with a concentration in family, health, and the life course and an interdisciplinary certificate in gerontology from Georgia State University. Following her graduate work, Dr. Bender worked with the Army Public Health Center in Maryland, conducting mixed methods research and evaluating social and behavioral health among active-duty soldiers and their families (e.g., behavioral health access, suicide, violence). Her research focuses on aging with disability and chronic disease with an emphasis on relationships over the life course, including patient-provider interactions and social and intimate relationships. Her future research will continue to explore the psychosocial aspects of disability and chronic disease management for patients, health professionals, and families over time. She is the past chair of the Disability and Society Section of the American Sociological Association.
Carolyn Clevenger, DNP, RN, GNP-BC, AGPCNP-BC, FAANP, FGSA
Carolyn Clevenger, gerontological nurse practitioner, is Professor at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University. She is a Fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, and the Gerontological Society of America, and the American Academy of Nursing. Her research focuses the geriatric nurse practitioner workforce, psychoeducation programs for dementia family caregivers, and new models of care.
Clevenger is the Clinical Director and a practicing nurse practitioner at the Emory Integrated Memory Care Clinic. The Clinic is a nurse-led primary care practice for people living with dementia. The new model of care has been recognized as a Patient-Centered Medical Home, an Age Friendly Health System, and a Best Practice exemplar. The IMC has been featured in Health Affairs, ABC News, and Forbes this year. The comprehensive care model serves as the basis for the Center for Medicare Services’ proposed new payment reform.
Dr. Clevenger earned her BSN from West Virginia University, her MSN from Emory University, and her DNP from the Medical College of Georgia. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.
As a research methodologist, I have extensive experience in the analysis of social science data, including analysis of longitudinal, dyadic, and nested data. My research interest is developing and applying advanced and innovative methodological approaches to advance behavioral sciences in public health.
Since joining Emory in 2010, I have been the lead statistician for the Emory Prevention Research Center. In this capacity, I have collaborated with two large research teams and led data analysis for four randomized controlled trials assessing the efficacy and effectiveness of both the Healthy Homes/Healthy Families intervention and the Smoke-Free Homes program. Furthermore, I am leading data analysis for a USDA-funded R01 that investigates longitudinal patterns (collecting 6 waves of data) of poly-tobacco use in college students. Most recently, I have been collaborating on a clustered randomized control trial of pediatric cancer centers on patient survivor care visit attendance.
Beyond Emory, I am engaged in capacity building through workshops on advanced applied statistics in South Africa and Brazil and collaborating with researchers who have limited access to expert knowledge in these areas. Additionally, I have served as the inaugural Associate Editor for Statistics for Health Education and Behavior since 2015.
Ken Hepburn is a tenured Professor. His work recognizes the central role that families, friends, and communities play in caring for the increasing – and increasingly diverse – number of persons living with Alzheimer’s disease and similar dementia illnesses and helping them to remain as independent as possible in their communities. He sees family caregivers as occupying what is, in effect, a clinical role – or, really, an amalgam of a variety of clinical roles. As such, caregivers need training and education to help them understand the conditions with which they are dealing, to strengthen their own sense of competence to enable them to approach the role with confidence, and to develop strategies for caregiving that take the strengths and deficits of the care recipient into account. He and colleagues from a very wide range of disciplines have developed and tested programs designed to strengthen the capacity of informal caregivers to function effectively in their caregiving role in a manner that preserves their own health and well-being. They have drawn from the work of Albert Bandura in designing psychoeducation programs that strengthen caregivers’ sense of self-efficacy for caregiving. Through a series of projects that, with support from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), and the national Alzheimer’s Association, Hepburn and his colleagues have established the evidence base for the Savvy Caregiver Program and Tele-Savvy (an online version of Savvy), psychoeducation programs for caregivers of persons with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia disorders. Hepburn is the co-Director of the NIA-supported Emory Roybal Center for Dementia Caregiver Mastery (https://www.emorycaregiving.org/), an NIA-sponsored program to provide support for projects that pilot interventions designed to promote caregiving competence and confidence (mastery) in a variety of dementia caregiving contexts and situations. He is also Director of Research in the Woodruff Health Science Center for Health in Aging (https://aging.emory.edu/.).
Dr. Candace Kemp is a Professor within the Gerontology Institute and Department of Sociology at Georgia State University. She teaches and researches topics related to aging, family, and the life course. Her work examines formal and informal care work, partnerships, and networks and seeks to improve quality of life and care for older adults, especially long-term care residents, including those with dementia, and their care partners. Much of her research is funded by the National Institute on Aging, including two ongoing studies: “Meaningful Engagement and Quality of Life among Assisted Living Residents with Dementia” (R01AG062310; P.I., Kemp) and “Investigating Informal Caregivers’ Involvement in End-of-Life Care among Assisted Living Residents with Advanced Dementia and its Influence on Resident and Caregiver Outcomes” (RF1AG069114; P.I., Dr. Molly M. Perkins). Dr. Kemp is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and serves on the editorial board of the Journals of Gerontology: Social Sciences and the Journal of Applied Gerontology.
Michael Lepore, PhD, is a tenured Professor, and the Associate Dean for Research in the Elaine Marieb College of Nursing of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His research focuses on dementia care and long-term care access and quality in the United States and internationally. After earning his bachelor’s degree in psychology and philosophy at Assumption College in Worcester MA, and his master’s and doctorate in sociology at Georgia State University in Atlanta GA, Lepore completed postdoctoral training in the Center for Gerontology and Healthcare Research at Brown University in Providence RI. Subsequently he has conducted extensive applied research for government agencies including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), and the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC). Dr. Lepore is the editor-in-chief of the Gerontological Society of America’s policy journal Public Policy & Aging Report.
Frances McCarty, PhD
Miranda Moore, PhD, is an Associate Professor at Emory University School of Medicine, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine. As the Evaluation Core Lead for Georgia Gear, she facilitates collection of program metrics and evaluation. As the Population Health Evaluation Lead for the Georgia Memory Net, she provides population metrics of the impact of the statewide program to enhance dementia screening, diagnosis, and treatment. As the Research Coordinator for the Emory Family Medicine Residency Program, she mentors residents on scholarship and coordinates a year Research Symposium in which the graduating residents orally present on their scholarly projects.
As a health services researcher, she develops grant applications that will fund primary care research, collaborates on peer-reviewed journal articles and policy briefs, and leads analytic efforts to provide timely evidence for health policy development. Her research centers on primary care access to care, workforce, and delivery/physician practice transformation; lifestyle medicine; and cognitive impairment.
Before joining the faculty at Emory, Dr. Moore was most recently an economist and health researcher at the Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Family Medicine and Primary Care within the American Academy of Family Physicians. She has also worked for the U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration in the Office of Policy and Research, Division of Research and Economic Analysis. She has taught Statistics at Hofstra University and Game Theory at Stony Brook University. In her free time, she enjoys spending quality time with her family. She also enjoys reading non-fiction fantasy books and is happy to live in her home state of Georgia!
Regina Shih, PhD is Professor of Epidemiology and Health Policy & Management at Emory Rollins School of Public Health and adjunct Senior Scientist with the RAND Corporation. Her work addresses the quality of and access to dementia care by family and formal caregivers. She has experience with social determinants of health, policy evaluations, analyses of claims data, and quality measurement related to dementia care. Her active projects include building a dementia home and community-based services research network (NIA), surveying a longitudinal panel of dementia family caregivers and their social networks (NIA), examining the legacy of structural racism on cognitive health (NIA), harmonizing family caregiver measures and family caregiver interventions (ACL), and engaging villages to support healthy aging intervention research (PCORI). She also directs the T32 Post-Doctoral Program on the Demography and Economics of Aging (NIA). She serves as a Board Member of the National Alliance for Caregiving, and on the Leadership Council of the NIA AWARD Network on the dementia workforce. She received a PhD in Psychiatric Epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Mi-Kyung Song received her PhD in Nursing (focused area in end-of-life and palliative care) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with a minor in Biostatistics. Before joining Emory, she was a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Related Links
Emory University School of Medicine, Department of Medicine-Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology
Georgia State University, Gerontology Institute Gerontological Research
emoryinspirestudy.org 