As senior director, Scientific Engagement for the Alzheimer’s Association, Rebecca M. Edelmayer, Ph.D., leads efforts to accelerate the organization’s scientific agenda through the creation and delivery of ongoing research education. She engages with more than 75 Association chapters across the country, ensuring that communities are informed of the global progress of dementia science and the organization’s crucial role in advancing research to improve the lives of those facing Alzheimer’s and all other dementia.
Dr. Edelmayer manages initiatives designed to unite researchers and clinicians with leaders of industry, regulatory agencies and the government on topics related to biomarker testing, new investigational treatments, and use of digital health and biotech approaches for studying cognition.
Dr. Edelmayer has over 18 years of experience as a scientist and educator. She spent more than six years as a pharmacologist in the Neuroscience and Immunology Discovery Divisions at Abbott and AbbVie, where she was recognized as an emerging scientific leader. As a senior scientist, she led a digital pathology team, conducted research and supported the development of clinical therapeutics in chronic inflammatory diseases of the nervous system and the skin.
Dr. Edelmayer has lectured, published and led collaborations in areas of neurodegenerative disease, neurophysiology, inflammatory skin pathology and pain neurobiology. She completed her Ph.D. and postdoctoral training in medical pharmacology with a focus on neuropharmacology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. Dr. Edelmayer holds a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience from the University of Pittsburgh, where she also completed a National Institute of Mental Health research fellowship.