Our Pilot PIs
Below is a list of researchers that have received grant funding through our Pilot Award Program.
Intersectional and Biosocial Approaches to Understanding Cognitive Function among Older Latinos
PI: Catherine Garcia
Syracuse University
Latinos/Hispanics are the fastest-growing segment of older adults in the U.S. and are at high risk for cognitive impairment (CI) and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). While increased research attention has been given to the socioeconomic and cultural factors that influence the prevention, diagnosis, and care provided to Latinos/Hispanics with ADRD, there are still theoretical and methodological gaps in clarifying the mechanisms and pathways that produce ADRD inequities, including life course and multi-level mechanisms. Given the diverse origins of Latinos in the U.S. – in ethnic origin, birthplace, and current residence – it is crucial to understand how these demographic differences intersect with education and get “under the skin” to affect biological processes that influence cognitive function in middle and older adulthood. To advance scientific understanding of the complex relationships between social factors, physiology, and cognitive outcomes within Latinos/Hispanics, this study will explore the magnitude and significance of the connections between Latino/Hispanic origin (e.g., ethnic origin and birthplace), educational attainment, physiological factors (e.g., cardiometabolic correlates), and cognitive function (e.g., domain-specific and global cognitive function) using data from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL) and the Study of Latinos Investigation of Neurocognitive Aging (SOL-INCA; an ancillary study to HCHS/SOL). The study will employ multigroup structural equation modeling (SEM) procedures to assess the hypothesized pathways linking education, physiological factors, and cognitive outcomes among all Latinos/Hispanics and each Latino/Hispanic origin group. Multigroup SEM allows for the estimation of distinct parameters for each Latino/Hispanic origin group and provides comprehensive statistical tests for group comparisons. The results from this investigation can advance theoretical and methodological aspects of Latino/Hispanic aging and health and can inform the development of tailored and integrative programs and policies to delay or slow cognitive decline at various points of the life course.
High School STEM and Language Courses and Cognitive Advantage in Later Life
PI: Sara Moorman
Boston College
This project investigates how variation in secondary school curriculum—specifically exposure to foreign language and advanced STEM coursework—contributes to the development of cognitive reserve and subsequent risk for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) in late life. While years of schooling are a well-established protective factor, the specific educational processes that generate this protection remain poorly understood. Leveraging the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS), a uniquely rich cohort of over 10,000 individuals who graduated from Wisconsin high schools in 1957 and have been followed into their 80s, this project tests whether early curricular exposures predict cognitive performance and ADRD outcomes in older adulthood, whether these associations operate indirectly through adult socioeconomic attainment, and whether effects vary by gender and parental socioeconomic background. By integrating life course, cognitive reserve, and social stratification frameworks, this study extends current theory on the education–dementia link by distinguishing the qualitative dimensions of schooling that shape long-term cognitive trajectories. Findings will provide empirical evidence on how early educational content—beyond attainment alone—produces enduring differences in cognitive aging and ADRD vulnerability across social groups.
Moorman, S. M., & Kong, J. (2024). High school curricular rigor and cognitive function among White older adults. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 00221465241283745. https://doi.org/10.1177/00221465241283745
Education, Work Complexity, and Cognitive Decline in Later Life by Race/Ethnicity
PI: Qiuchang Cao
Florida State University
Background: The health and financial well-being of older Black and Hispanic populations are disproportionately impacted by Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). Cognitive enrichment through high-quality education and employment opportunities preserves cognitive functioning and protects against aging-related cognitive decline. Moreover, racial/ethnic inequality in early life education and midlife work complexity are potential pathways by which ADRD disparities emerge across racial/ethnic groups later in life. However, the complex relationship between early life education, midlife employment complexity, and cognitive trajectory among various racial/ethnic groups over the life course is not well-understood. Aim: This study aims to (1) Examine how education and work complexity separately or jointly contribute to the risk of cognitive decline and the development of dementia; (2) Examine whether work complexity mediates the association between education and cognitive decline/ADRD in late life; (3) How the protective effect of education and work complexity varies across the cognitive trajectories of different racial/ethnic groups. Method: Using nationally representative longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the HRS-Occupation Information Network (HRS-O*NET) linked dataset, we first analyze a trajectory of progressive chain and pattern of accelerated cognitive decline using latent growth curves (LGC) and latent class analysis (LCA) respectively. We then model the timing of clinical dementia onset using survival analysis. We also analyze the interaction between education and race/ethnicity and whether the mediating role of work complexity varies across racial/ethnic groups in a latent variable framework. Significance: This is one of the first longitudinal studies that examine whether the work complexity during adulthood can modify the risks of cognitive decline/ADRD associated with education disparities across racial/ethnic groups. Implications: Findings have implications on how employment-related interventions and policies during adulthood might modify the disproportionate risks of ADRD associated with education disparities among Black and Hispanic populations. Post-pilot external funding plans: Results from this pilot study inform future National Institute of Aging (NIA) grant applications to compare how different types of productive engagement during midlife (e.g., caregiving, volunteering) mediate the association between education and ADRD across various racial/ethnic groups. Identifying these modifiable social mechanisms has critical implications not only for ADRD prevention/intervention but also for addressing racial/ethnic disparities in ADRD.
Childhood Health and Later-Life Cognitive Functioning: Evaluating the Mediating Role of Education
PI: Nicole Hair
University of South Carolina
The long-term goal of our research is to advance scientific understanding of how childhood circumstances, and in particular, childhood health, can impact an individual’s risk for Alzheimer’s and other dementias by evaluating to what extent these important early life influences are mediated by subsequent life course pathways. To this end, the current project will use the introduction of a measles vaccine in 1963, and the corresponding dramatic reductions in morbidity from childhood infectious diseases, to evaluate the effect of better overall health in childhood on cognitive health later in life. Furthermore, we will examine the extent to which educational attainment, a theoretically and empirically important protective factor against cognitive impairment and dementia, mediates the influence of better overall health in childhood on cognitive functioning. We will accomplish our study aims using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a NIH-funded longitudinal population-based study of individuals over age 50 with validated measures of cognition and geographic identifiers that will allow us to link contextual data, e.g., measles incidence rates, to an individual’s state of birth. Our specific aims are to: (1) evaluate the effects of better overall health in childhood on measures of cognition later in life, (2) assess the role of educational attainment in the causal pathway from childhood health to later life cognition, and (3) examine how race and early life socioeconomic status shape the proposed relationships between childhood health, educational attainment, and later life cognition. The proposed project is closely aligned with the EBDDP’s aim of advancing scientific understanding of how, why, and for whom education relates to ADRD. The proposed project will provide important insights into relationships between early life factors, e.g., better overall childhood health, and the education-dementia relationship (Critical Area 1) and to what extent these patterns may differ by race and childhood socioeconomic status.
Biosocial Mechanisms that Link Early Life Socioeconomic Conditions, Early Life Health, and Educational Attainment to Later Life Cognitive Aging
PI: Mateo Farina
University of Texas, Austin
As the global population of older adults living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD) grows significantly over the next few decades, the social and environmental risks that increase the likelihood of cognitive impairment will become increasingly important to address in order to improve population health—especially in the absence of effective and accessible medical treatments. While recent research has made significant strides in linking ADRD risk to education, adult health behaviors, and adult health conditions (such as stroke and diabetes), notable limitations remain that may hinder efforts to reduce dementia risk for individuals and populations. Despite growing evidence that ADRD risk may be tied to early life factors and educational attainment, less is known about the specific pathways linking early life conditions to later life cognitive health. For example, do the benefits of early education stem from improvements in cognitive development, or from greater access to cognitively stimulating occupations and healthier behaviors in mid to later life? This project builds on emerging research by examining the biological and social risk factors that connect early life socioeconomic conditions, health, and education to cognitive health outcomes—including cognitive functioning, changes in functioning, and dementia risk. Data are drawn from the Health and Retirement Study and the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSI-Brazil), both part of the International Sister Studies, which are nationally representative and collect extensive information on early life conditions, educational attainment, and mid- to later-life cognitive functioning. This proposed study advances prior research by evaluating how poor child health, adverse childhood socioeconomic conditions, and lower educational attainment may be linked to cognitive health in older adulthood through pathways involving adult socioeconomic achievement, health behaviors, mental health, health conditions, and whether these links are partly explained by biological dysregulation (e.g., increased inflammation, worsened cardiometabolic risk, and accelerated aging). The findings from this study will contribute to a fuller understanding of how early life circumstances shape cognitive health in older adulthood, potentially informing efforts to improve both individual and population-level cognitive outcomes.
Schooling, Cognition, and Global Dementia Risk: A Pilot Study
MPI: Vikesh Amin
Central Michigan University
MPI: Hans-Peter Kohler
MPI: Shana Stites
University of Pennsylvania
One of the most robust findings on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (AD/ADRDs) is that higher schooling attainment is associated with lower ADRD risks. One mechanism through which schooling can reduce ADRD risk is by helping older adults maintain cognitive function. Cognitive testing is widely used to determine whether individuals meet criteria for a dementia diagnosis. Higher schooling attainment is associated with better cognition, which reduces dementia risk because higher cognition test scores lower the probability of being classified with dementia given existing thresholds. Increasing schooling attainment has also been proposed as an explanation for lower dementia incidence in people born more recently. The effects could be particularly pronounced in low-and-middle income countries (LMICs) that had rapidly expanding schooling enrollment during the 20th century. Projected dementia cases though critically hinge on the assumption that there is an underlying causal relationship between schooling and cognition. Extant associations cannot be reliably interpreted as evidence of a causal relationship due to potential confounding and reverse causality. While there is some evidence of causal effects of schooling attainment on cognition of older adults in high-income countries, there is no causal evidence of schooling attainment or school quality on cognition of older adults in LMICs, which are projected to have the largest increases in dementia. This project aims to address this gap by employing an established nonparametric partial identification approach to provide a range of possible values—or bounds—for the causal effects of schooling attainment and school quality on cognition of older adults in India and Mexico.
Amin, V., Behrman, J. R., Fletcher, J. M., Flores, C. A., Flores-Lagunes, A., Kohler, I., … & Stites, S. D. (2025). Causal Effects of Schooling on Memory at Older Ages in Six Low-and Middle-Income Countries: Nonparametric Evidence With Harmonized Datasets. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 80(6), gbaf057. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbaf057
Childbearing Biographies, Education, and Mid- and Later-Life Women’s Pathways into AD/ADRD Risk
PI: Rin Reczek
Ohio State University
This pilot project investigates how the interdependence of childbearing histories and educational attainment structures women’s life-course pathways into Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) risk. Although both childbearing and education are established predictors of late-life health, few studies have examined them jointly as dynamic, interrelated processes that shape exposure to midlife risk factors for cognitive decline. Addressing two EdDem critical areas—early life and midlife mediating pathways—this study employs a “childbearing biographies” framework to operationalize childbearing as a multidimensional construct encompassing age at first birth, parity, spacing, pregnancy loss, and abortion timing. Using nationally representative longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) and the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), the project employs sequence analysis, latent class analysis, and structural equation modeling to test how diverse combinations of reproductive and educational trajectories shape mid- and late-life health outcomes linked to ADRD risk, including cognitive, cardiovascular, and psychosocial functioning. Grounded in life course, cumulative (dis)advantage, and fundamental cause frameworks, this study advances theoretical and empirical understanding of how early adulthood social and biological processes interact to produce stratified cognitive aging pathways and gendered disparities in ADRD vulnerability.
How Does Sex/Gender Affect the Biological Mechanisms Linking Education and Dementia?
PI: Eric Klopack
University of Southern California
There is emerging research focused on the biological mechanisms linking educational attainment to ADRD. However, because sex and gender have profound effects on ADRD risk, it is likely these mechanisms linking education and ADRD differ by sex and gender. Identifying sex/gender differences in education-dementia pathways is essential for 1) understanding how education affects ADRD risk and 2) developing sex- and gender- responsive interventions to achieve sex/gender and educational parity in cognitive functioning and ADRD. To address these complex processes, we need rich social and biological data and sufficient sample size. The proposed research utilizes the recently released DNA methylation, flow cytometry, and biomarker data from the 2016 Health and Retirement Study (HRS) Venous Blood Study. This project builds on ongoing research focused on understanding biological aging. I have developed system-specific (e.g., epigenetic, immune, metabolic, neurological, cardiovascular, renal) aging measures using a machine learning approach with 80 biomarkers in HRS. This project will investigate whether differences in rates of aging in multiple biological systems (e.g., epigenetic, immune, metabolic, neurological, cardiovascular, renal) help explain educational differences in ADRD and whether sex differences in biological processes and gender differences in social exposures change the what biological systems mediate the association between educational attainment and ADRD? The findings from this pilot will used to develop a future R01 proposal.
How State Safety Nets in Early Life Shape Educational Attainment and ADRD Risk for Black and White Older Adults
PI: Rachel Donnelly
Vanderbilt University
The overall goal of this project is to test how state social safety nets in early life are associated with ADRD risk in later life primarily via the influence on childhood socioeconomic status (SES) and educational attainment for Black and White adults in the United States. State social safety nets have the potential to decrease household financial hardship and minimize stressors impinging upon financially vulnerable households in ways that may allow children to remain in school longer and, in turn, decrease ADRD risk later in life. Given stark racial inequities in ADRD, differential exposure to state environments, and differential health returns to education, this project will consider race-specific pathways to ADRD. The proposed project advances science in Critical Area 1: Early life factors and the education-dementia relationship.
The proposed project situates the state social safety net as a macro-level factor that could directly and indirectly (i.e., via childhood SES and educational attainment) influence ADRD risk. Although early life is a sensitive period with considerable consequences for ADRD risk, prior research rarely considers state-level exposures early in life, with the exception of state education-related factors (e.g., educational quality, desegregation). By pointing to the importance of state investment in social safety nets, this project will provide robust evidence to inform intervention efforts and policy changes that reduce the burden of ADRD for future cohorts. Moreover, attention to race-specific pathways to ADRD will help to inform policy and intervention efforts that can reduce risk and delay onset of ADRD, especially for Black adults at higher risk of ADRD.
Early Life Stress and Cognition: Educational and Gender Differences among Older Black Americans
PI: Cleothia Frazier
Pennsylvania State University
This proposed project examines the relationship between exposure to early life stress and cognition among older Black Americans. The aims include: 1) examining the association between early life stress and cognition among older Black Americans; 2) investigating whether educational attainment mediates the association between early life stress and cognition and whether this association varies by gender (moderated mediation); and 3) determining whether the association between early life stress and cognition varies by educational attainment among older Black Americans. The proposed research incorporates multiple theoretical perspectives, including the framework of minority stress, the theory of minority diminished returns, and the life course perspective. Data for this study are from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a longitudinal, nationally representative sample of adults aged 51 and over in the United States. Five waves of data are used (2010–2018) and the sample is restricted to Black Americans. Univariate statistics will be estimated to describe the study sample (e.g., means, standard deviations, range). Confirmatory factor analysis, a form of structural equation modeling (SEM), will be used to examine the extent to which the early life stress measures are reflective of an underlying latent construct. Multilevel mixed effects generalized linear models will be used to examine proposed study aims. The goal of this study is to add to a growing body of research that examines how the social context of early life shapes late life cognitive aging. In addition, this proposed study addresses the need for within-group research to better explain aging processes among minoritized groups. Finally, this proposed project is related to several elements of the National Institute on Aging’s Health Disparities Framework.
Education, Social Networks, and Cognition in Cross-National Context
PI: Markus Schafer
Baylor University
Education is a key social determinant of cognitive aging, yet its protective effects vary across national and ethnoracial contexts. While higher education is associated with lower dementia risk and delayed cognitive decline, the mechanisms underlying this relationship remain poorly understood, particularly in comparative settings. This project investigates social network characteristics as key mediators in the education–cognition link, assessing whether and how their role varies across diverse national and stratification systems. Using harmonized measures from the U.S.-based National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) and the European Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we will evaluate how network structure—size, composition, and turnover—helps explain the association between education and cognitive health. By ensuring measurement equivalence while critically assessing the limits of harmonization, we will clarify how race, ethnicity, and geography shape educational disparities in cognitive aging. Findings will advance research on mid-life social pathways linking education to cognitive outcomes and lay the groundwork for future cross-national studies on dementia risk.
Caring Too Soon: The Cognitive Toll of Early Caregiving and Life Path Deviations
PI: Chioun Lee
Co-PI: Soojin Park
University of California-Riverside
This project proposes that early caregiving—providing care for aging or debilitated family members before midlife—is an underrecognized social determinant of cognitive health and dementia risk, disproportionately affecting disadvantaged populations in the U.S. While caregiving research primarily focuses on middle-aged and older adults, racial/ethnic minorities often assume caregiving responsibilities earlier due to higher chronic disease burdens and greater reliance on informal care in their families and communities. Emerging evidence highlights a growing number of early caregivers and the significant educational disruptions that early caregivers face, affecting a key protective factor for cognitive health in later life. Despite increasing research on early caregiving, studies remain largely cross-sectional and focused on mental health, leaving its long-term impact unexplored. This study is the first to examine the long-term cognitive health consequences of early caregiving using extensive life-course data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). We will identify key life-course pathways, including education, that mediate the relationship between early caregiving and cognitive outcomes, with a focus on gender and racial disparities. Utilizing advanced mediation and sensitivity analyses developed with our research team, we will rigorously evaluate the extent to which caregiving-related life disruptions contribute to cognitive disparities. As health inequities widen and become increasingly difficult to modify with age, identifying early-life factors and their long-term impact is crucial for mitigating the risk of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias. This project highlights early caregiving as a pivotal life-course determinant and a critical intervention point for protecting cognitive health. Findings will inform public health policies and strategies aimed at reducing dementia risk disparities in the U.S.
The Explanatory Role of Individual- and State-Level Labor Market Factors Across the Life Span in the Education–ADRD Link
PI: Megan Reynolds
University of Utah
Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) imposes a substantial burden on the American population with approximately 2 in 3 Americans experiencing some degree of cognitive impairment in their lifetime. A large literature has established a strong relationship between various measures of education and ADRD risk domestically and globally. However, the specific role played by occupation versus education remains obscure. This study aims to improve understanding of the immediate and life course impacts of labor market factors on ADRD risk by examining the extent to which factors at the micro- (i.e., individual) and macro-level (i.e., state) matter for cognitive health, how these factors interact, and how temporal dynamics factor in. Using validated metrics of cognitive skill and risk as well as life-long employment histories from Panel Study of Income Dynamics (1997–2019), a novel state-level measure of labor market institution generosity, and sophisticated reweighting techniques, we model the contemporaneous and life course effects of multi-level labor market factors on cognition, accounting for education. Anticipated outcomes of this research include improved insights into which labor market factors matter most for cognitive health in the main, in combination with one another, and across the life span. Results can be used to identify modifiable risk factors and interventions to improve cognitive health and reduce ADRD burden.
Identifying Associations Between Educational Attainment, Aging-Related Microstructural Differences in the Brain, and Cognitive Decline as a Function of Sex and of Race
PI: Stacy Schaefer
Co-I: Nagesh Adluru
Co-I: Kareem Al-Khalil
University of Wisconsin-Madison
This project will examine how educational attainment moderates both cognitive decline over a decade and age-associated microstructural measures of brain health through the examination of cognitive data and diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) measures in the national, longitudinal Midlife in the U.S. (MIDUS) study. Sex and racial differences in how educational attainment is associated with both cognitive decline and brain microstructure will be explicitly tested. Taking advantage of existing longitudinal data in both the MIDUS Core and Refresher samples, we will test whether higher levels of educational attainment are associated with less decline in cognition across a decade and slower brain aging processes as indexed by multi-scale diffusion weighted imaging estimates of brain microstructure, and whether associations with education differ as a function of sex (Female, Male) or race (Black, White). We propose and will test a potential mediating role for the brain microstructural differences linking educational attainment to better maintained cognition. This project will provide insight into how educational attainment is associated with cognitive decline and brain aging processes, how those associations differ as a function of sex or race, and whether brain microstructure differences mediate the link between educational attainment and improved cognitive health in aging. Since MIDUS has amassed comprehensive longitudinal biopsychosocial data on both Core and Refresher samples who were aged 25-75 years at their baseline assessments, this project will provide critical preliminary evidence for a research funding proposal focused specifically on examining the influence of education with other midlife risk and protective factors for dementia (sources of resilience like purpose in life, or of risk such as stressful experiences of discrimination) while elucidating the biological mechanisms linking education to dementia through brain aging processes. MIDUS is currently completing the 2nd follow-up of the Refresher sample and beginning the 4th follow-up of the Core sample in 2025. These longitudinal follow-ups include expanded neuropsychological cognitive testing and molecular markers of Alzheimer’s Disease and related forms of dementia (ADRD) including amyloid positron emission tomography and plasma measures (aβ42/aβ40, p-tau181, ptau217, total tau, and neurofilament light). Therefore, these longitudinal data have much potential to advance our knowledge of how educational attainment influences trajectories of cognitive impairment, brain changes in aging, and accumulation of ADRD pathology while considering the psychosocial and experiential context. Since the MIDUS U01 primarily funds the goals of data collection and sharing, this funding would help support the investigation of the specific aims regarding education proposed in this project. Funding this proposal is the first step to understanding how education may reduce risk for dementia differentially depending on sex and race. Our goal is to identify the critical linkages between educational attainment, brain microstructure aging differences, cognitive decline, and how these linkages differ by sex and race.