Cohort 
2023

Sandra Baez, PhD, MS

Neuroscientist, Neuropsychologist

To reduce the scale and impact of dementia, we must work with people with dementia, but also with their caregivers and the community around them.

Current Work

Sandra is Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Los Andes University, Bogota, Colombia.

Personal Hero

My family

Words of Strength

Dreaming big, leadership, creativity

Vision

To reduce the scale and impact of dementia, we must work with people with dementia, but also with their caregivers and the community around them.

Strategy

Sandra is working in the design, implementation, and evaluation of a multicomponent intervention aimed to improve the quality of life of women of low socioeconomic status, who provide informal care to people living with dementia.

Impact

As an Atlantic Fellow, Sandra aspires to become a leader in brain health for more vulnerable people living with dementia in Colombia and their caregivers. She expects to build networks that support the development of scalable interventions in Latin America.

 

Motivation

In Colombia, caring for the elderly has traditionally been family-based and 80-90% of dementia caregivers are women. Considerable work on the design and implementation of effective and scalable interventions is urgently needed.

Education & Experience

Sandra is Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Los Andes University (Colombia). She holds a degree in Psychology (National University of Colombia), a Master in Neuropsychology (Italian Hospital of Buenos Aires), and a PhD in Psychology (Argentinean Catholic University). She conducted her postdoctoral studies at the Laboratory of Experimental Psychology & Neurosciences, (INECO, Argentina) and the Institute of Cognitive and Translational Neuroscience (INCYT, Argentina). She received training in functional and structural neuroimaging at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences (Leipzig, Germany). She has experience in neuropsychological assessment and cognitive stimulation for patients with neurological and psychiatric disorders. She has more than 80 publications, including books, chapters, and articles in leading neuroscience journals. Her research aims to improve the diagnosis and prognosis of these disorders, the understanding of neurobiological basis of social behaviors, and the quality of life of patients and caregivers.

Argentinean Catholic University
Psychology
PhD
Italian Hospital of Buenos Aires
Neuropsychology
Master's Degree
National University of Colombia
Psychology
Bachelor's Degree

Awards & Honors

Research.com
Psychology
2022-2023
Top Colombian Scientist
L'Oréal-UNESCO Award
Women in Science
2019
National Award Colombia
Huntington Argentina Foundation
2016
Lorena Scarafiocca Award Winner
National Scientific and Technical Research Council
2014
Postdoctoral Scholarship
German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
2014
Scholarship for Young Academics & Scientists
Society for Psychophysiological Research Italy
2013
Latin-American Grant
National Scientific and Technical Research Council (Argentina)
2012
PhD Scholarship

Videos