Speaker Biography

Speaker Photo

Karen Blackmon, PhD

Associate Professor
Geisel School Of Medicine At Dartmouth

Karen Blackmon is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Associate Professor of Population Health at Aga Khan University in Kenya, and Co-Chair of the World Health Organization Dementia Assessment Workgroup. Her research focuses on identifying at-risk and resilient cognitive aging with novel tools and biomarkers in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. She is a Principal Investigator on the NIH-funded Brain-START project, which is validating new digital cognitive assessments for dementia detection across Kenya and Pakistan, as well as the Wellcome Leap-funded Brain-Resilience-Kenya study, which employs a mixed-methods approach to identify biopsychosocial factors underlying cognitive resiliency in Kenyan adults. Her clinical efforts aim to streamline early detection, pre-diagnostic care pathways, and brain health lifestyle change for patients with cognitive decline.