Leaders in Research
You may view the list of scholars arranged
| Catherine A. Sarkisian, MD, MSPH Associate Professor Division of Geriatrics University of California, Los Angeles
As a geriatrician, Dr. Sarkisian sees primary care patients in the UCLA Faculty Practice, and attends on the inpatient geriatrics service, teaching residents and fellows. She is Director of the UCLA Hartford/AFAR & Lillian R. Gleitsman Medical Student Geriatric Scholars Program. Nationally, she is active in the Society of General Internal Medicine and the American Geriatrics Society, where she currently serves as the Junior Faculty Representative to the AGS Research Committee. Dr. Sarkisian received her undergraduate degree from Princeton University (Philosophy) and attended medical school at the University of California, San Francisco. She completed internship and residency in internal medicine at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center and came to UCLA in 1997 as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar, where she obtained a master's degree in Health Services from the UCLA School of Public Health. Subsequently, she completed a clinical geriatrics fellowship at UCLA and joined the faculty in the Division of Geriatrics. | |
| Primary Research (for Beeson Program): Intervention to Raise Octogenarians' Walking Levels
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Dr. Sarkisian's research focuses on prevention of disability among older adults
and the role of expectations regarding aging on health and health behaviors. Most
of her time is spent conducting community-based research aimed at preventing disability
among lower-income seniors and ethnic minorities. She is a former Brookdale National
Fellow and a current principal investigator on an RO1 from the National Institute
of Aging. As a Beeson scholar, Dr. Sarkisian will be developing and pilot-testing
a behavioral intervention to raise walking levels among octogenarians in congregant
senior housing units.