REC Leadership
Ana-Maria Vranceanu, PhD
Core Co-Lead, MGH Contact PI
Dr. Vranceanu is a clinical psychologist who specializes in the development, testing and implementation of behavioral interventions for patients, informal care partners and dyads. She has extensive expertise with interdisciplinary in-person, remote and app based behavioral health in ADRD (2 R01s, 1 R21 and 1 foundation grant); community-engaged research and health disparities (1 R61/R33; 1 R21/R33), and the conduct of multi-site remote clinical trials (2 R01s). She has a strong commitment to training and mentoring in ADRD and health disparities. She has a K24 aimed at supporting mentoring in behavioral health and health disparities and developed and runs a remote “K club” that includes 17 mentees from MGH and from resource-poor areas. Since its inception in 2020, the K club has led to 6 funded K23s (3 from UiM investigators; 2 in ADRD), 1 Diversity Supplement to support a UiM candidate, 5 pending K23s, and 4 Ks in preparation. Dr. Vranceanu founded and runs the CHOIR in the MGH Psychiatry Department, including the “Lifespan Health” clinical psychology and postdoctoral fellowship tracks of the larger MGH Clinical Psychology Internship (2 Lifespan interns/year, at least one UiM intern). Dr. Vranceanu is the director of the Palliative Care Clinical Trials Intensive (ADRD in 2021; SoDH in 2022), as well as director of Evaluation for a NIA-funded R25 focused on ADRD palliative care clinical trials. She also founded and runs a mentoring group for junior women in behavioral health, and a peer support group for mid-career women at MGH. Her commitment to mentoring has been recognized with 5 mentoring awards including the 2021 MGH Mentoring Award for Excellence in Research. Dr. Vranceanu has developed and led workshops in qualitative methods, intervention development and implementation science nationally and internationally. She has extensive expertise with the NIH Stage Model, NIH Health Disparities Framework and CDC prevention model. Dr. Vranceanu has close collaborations with the REC faculty listed below, including Overall PI Dr. Okereke. Dr. Vranceanu is Associate Professor at HMS (promotion to Professor in progress) and also Elizabeth Gambles Endowed Chair Co-Director of MassGeneral Neurosciences (MGN), an interdisciplinary collaborative at MGH. As part of her role at MGN, she supports DEI (diversity, equity & inclusion) initiatives, and builds community across relevant disciplines.
Maureen O’Connor, PSyd, ABPP-CN
Core Co-Lead, BUMC Sub-PI
Dr. O’Connor is a board-certified neuropsychologist with clinical and research expertise in neurodegenerative disorders. She is an Assistant Professor at BU, Department of Neurology, and has been a member of the BU-ADRC faculty for the past 19 years. At the BU-ADRC she has served as the Associate Director of the Outreach, Recruitment and Engagement (ORE) Core and, currently, as Director of the REC at the BU-ADRC, helping to train future AD/ADRD researchers. She has also served as the Director of Neuropsychology at the Bedford VA for 19 years. Her clinical work at the VA has centered around the creation and oversight of the VA Memory Disorders Clinic, evaluating and treating older veterans and providing support to their families. She serves as the Director of Neuropsychology Training at the Bedford VA for the APA-approved neuropsychology specialty training program, which she established over 15 years ago, and she currently leads all aspects of that educational program for students at the postdoctoral, internship, and residency levels of training, which includes responsibility for residents’ clinical and research activities. Her research focuses on behavioral interventions for persons with ADRD and caregivers.
REC Administrative Team
BARRETT LAIRD, MPH
Mass-ENVISION REC Project Manager
Barrett is a Project Manager at the Center for Health Outcomes and Interdisciplinary Research and helps the REC administratively and organizationally. She completed her Bachelor of Science and Master of Public Health from Tufts University. Barrett’s is interested in behavioral health interventions for older adults and combatting health disparities. She previously worked as a Clinical Research Coordinator at MGH in the Cancer Outcomes Research and Education Program (CORE) and the Health Promotion and Resiliency Intervention Research (HPRIR) Program. Barrett worked with Dr. Lara Traeger on a study that focuses on helping lung cancer patients make the transition from active treatment to survivorship with supportive care interventions and a study assessing the influence of a mind-body intervention program for older adults in continued care retirement communities.