Mass-ENVISION RCMAR Scientists and Projects
2025 Cohort
Carine Davila, MD, MPH
Project: Understand the Serious Illness Communication Experiences of Caregivers of Latino Spanish-speaking Older Adults with Dementia and Dementia Specialist Clinicians
Dr. Davila is a palliative care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, a core faculty member of the Center for Optimal Aging and Serious Illness (CASI), and an Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is passionate about improving access and quality palliative care for populations who have had more difficulty engaging in the past, including Spanish-speaking patients. Her RCMAR project will focus on better understanding the serious illness communication experiences of caregivers of Spanish-speaking persons with dementia, along with those of dementia-specialist clinicians who engage and support their care.
Caroline Altaras, PhD
Project: Adapting a Peer-Facilitated, Community-Based Healthy Brain Aging Intervention for Black/African American Older Adults
Dr. Caroline Altaras is a clinical neuropsychologist at Boston Medical Center and Assistant Professor of Neurology at the Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. Her RCMAR project focuses on adapting AgeWISE, a brain health education program, into a peer-facilitated, community-based intervention for Black/African American older adults. By embedding dementia prevention into the community, her work seeks to expand access to brain health education, reduce barriers in prevention efforts, and promote healthier cognitive aging among at risk older adults.
Christopher Webster, PhD
Project: Mixed-Methods Study to Inform a Behavioral Activation and Physical Activity Intervention for Older Black Men with Depression and MCI
Christopher is an Afro-Latino psychologist and T32 postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Health Outcomes and Interdisciplinary Research at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on developing integrated physical activity and mind-body interventions to expand access to care and improve outcomes for underrepresented populations. He is particularly interested in embedding physical activity within psychotherapy to enhance treatment effectiveness. Through his RCMAR project, Christopher aims to integrate data from focus groups and self-report measures to inform a behavioral activation and physical activity intervention for older Black men with depression and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). His long-term goal is to create an intervention that is both culturally acceptable and clinically effective—supporting mental health while also reducing risk for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias in this population.
2024 Cohort
Simmie Foster, MD, PhD
Project: Feasibility of a whole-body hyperthermia intervention for older Black adults with mild cognitive impairment.
Simmie is a psychiatrist in the MGH Depression Clinical and Research Program and an Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Her research interests include the role of heat-based therapies and their biological mechanisms of action in the treatment of depression. Her research is currently funded by a K23 grant from NIH-NIGHMS, examining peripheral neuroimmune mechanisms of hyperthermia.
Natalia Giraldo-Santiago, PhD
Project: A Qualitative Study to Develop a Caregiver-Assisted Mind-Body Pain Management Intervention for Older, Spanish Speaking Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Early Dementia: The GetActive-Together study
Natalia is a bi-lingual (Spanish and English) and bi-cultural (Puerto Rican and Colombian) early career social work investigator at the Center for Health Outcomes and Interdisciplinary Research (CHOIR) and the Center for Aging and Serious Illnesses (CASI) at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Building upon her post-doctoral fellowship training, Natalia’s RCMAR project seeks to conduct qualitative interviews with Spanish-speaking caregivers and older Latino patients with comorbid Chronic Pain (CP), Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), or Early Dementia (ED). Natalia’s RCMAR project aims to explore family, socio-cultural and linguistic needs to inform the development of a caregiver-assisted mind-body pain management intervention.
Dumichel Harley, MS, Ph.D
Project: Tailoring Cognitive Rehabilitation Programs for Black Americans with Mild to Moderate Dementia
Dr. Harley is an African American/Filipino neuropsychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, who specializes in the care of older adult patients with neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Harley aims to utilize his neuropsychological knowledge to address the needs of African American older adults affected by dementia and their caregivers. With his RCMAR, he looks to advance various cognitive rehabilitation techniques and culturally tailor them for the African American older adult population affects by mild to moderate dementia.
Alexander Mattia Presciutti, PhD, MSCS
Project: Development of a group lifestyle intervention for cardiac arrest survivors with subjective cognitive decline and their caregivers - Healthy Brains after Cardiac Arrest (HB-CA)
Dr. Presciutti is a psychologist in the Center for Health Outcomes and Interdisciplinary Research (CHOIR) at MGH and a faculty member at Harvard Medical School. He is dedicated to building resilience in critically ill patients their family members, and, through his pilot project, he will develop a group lifestyle intervention for underserved cardiac arrest survivors with resulting subjective cognitive decline and their caregivers.
2023 Cohort
Liliana Ramirez Gomez, MD
Project: Smartphone-based facilitated peer chat groups for Spanish language family dementia caregivers.
Dr. Gomez is a Latina neurologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) who specializes in the care of patients with AD/ADRD. Dr. Ramirez Gomez leverages her deep knowledge of Latino populations to research the needs of Spanish language family dementia caregivers, with whom she often interacts with in the clinic. Her pilot project builds on her qualitative work on the unique needs of Spanish-speaking ADRD caregivers. She iteratively develops an app-based intervention for Spanish-speaking ADRD caregivers to facilitate peer chat, reduce stress, and other critical caregiver skills.
Tony Pham, MD
Project: Culturally Adapting Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy for Black Older Adults with Comorbid Early Cognitive Decline and Chronic Pain
Dr. Pham is Instructor in Psychiatry in the Depression Clinical and Research Program (DCRP) and affiliated scientist in the Center for Health Outcomes and Interdisciplinary Research (CHOIR) at MGH. He has training in community engaged research and mind-body medicine, qualitative methods and emerging expertise in behavioral health. His pilot project takes advantage of his prior work in the Boston Black community and adapts Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) to be delivered in the community by peer coaches, in a group format, to dyads of persons with dementia and their caregivers.
