Research Education Component
The Stanford ADRC Research Education Component (REC) will provide a formalized training program to prepare the next generation of researchers for careers in aging, Alzheimer’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease-related disorders.
Stanford ADRC REC Leadership Team
Kaci Fairchild, PhD, ABPP
Program Leader
Dr. Fairchild is the Deputy Director of the Sierra Pacific MIRECC and the Training Director for the Advanced Fellowship in Mental Illness Research and Treatment at Sierra Pacific MIRECC. She also holds an affiliate appointment as a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. She is a board-certified Geropsychologist with an active research program focused on the improving the lives of people impacted by cognitive impairment through lifestyle interventions. Her work has been funded by the VA Office of Rehabilitation Research and Development and VA Cooperative Studies program, the Department of Defense, the National Institute on Aging, and the Alzheimer’s Association. She is also the REC Core Leader.
Kathleen Poston, MD, MS
Program Associate Leader
Dr. Poston is the Edward F. and Irene Thiele Pimley Professor of Neurology and the Neurological Sciences and Professor, by courtesy, of Neurosurgery in the Stanford University School of Medicine. She has subspecialty training in engineering, clinical movement disorders (formal fellowship) and dementia, as part of her NIH Career Development Award. She was the Principal Investigator for one of the Projects within the Stanford inaugural P50 ADRC and has been the Principal Investigator for multiple Michael J. Fox foundation awards, all studying cognition and dementia in patients with Lewy Body-spectrum diseases. She is also the Co-Director for the Stanford Lewy Body Dementia Research Center of Excellence.
Birgitt Schüle, MD
Program Associate Leader
Birgitt Schüle, MD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine. Her research focuses on medical genetics and stem cell modeling to unlock disease mechanisms and pathways leading to neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s disease and related disorders, and to develop new therapeutic strategies to advance precision medicine. She is a co-investigator and mentor in the REC.
