Experienced Dementia Caregiving Community Advisory Board
A Community Advisory Board (CAB) is a group of community members, stakeholders, and individuals with lived experience who provide guidance, feedback, and partnership to help ensure that research is relevant, inclusive, and responsive.
Mission & Focus
The mission of this Community Advisory Board is to advise and collaborate with Dr. Mroz and her team on dementia caregiving research to promote inclusivity, relevance, and real-world benefit for caregivers and communities.
This Community Advisory Board exists to elevate the voices of people affected by dementia, shaping caregiving research so it reflects real-world needs, respects diverse experiences, and advances equitable and practical solutions.
The majority of the board’s work will be focused on experienced caregivers of people living with dementia – current caregivers who have ALSO been caregivers in the past. Much of our research also applies a narrative identity theoretical framework
Dr. Tara Matta-Singh, PhD, LCSW
As a clinical social worker, Dr. Tara Matta-Singh has built expertise across skilled nursing, assisted living, behavioral health, home care, and memory disorders clinics, applying narrative medicine techniques to practice. She is currently building a care management program for caregivers of people living with dementia, informed by her ongoing research on the caregivers ’ lived experience.
Queenie Jordan
With 40 years as a gerontologist, Queenie Jordan has dedicated her career to improving the lives of older adults and their families, spanning direct case management, senior center leadership, and health system infrastructure. Her work includes the development of the first Geriatric Clinic in Fulton County, and hundreds of trainings and talks supporting caregivers directly.
Nancy Y. Treaster, CCC
Nancy Treaster balanced a distinguished executive career at Verint Systems with caregiving for multiple family members living with dementia, bringing both practical and compassionate insight to the caregiver experience. She cofounded The Caregiver ' s Journey, whose award-winning podcast and Navigating Dementia Caregiving Roadmap have become go-to resources for families nationwide.
Christine Costa, GCM
Christine Costa brings more than five decades of hands-on caregiving experience spanning multiple generations of her family, beginning in the 1960s when the condition was identified as " senility. " As the founder of MedSpeak Humanities Press, she channels her lived experience to amplify patient and caregiver voices. Her work reflects our shared belief that caregiving is not only a clinical matter but a profoundly human one.
Laura Medder, MSW, LCSW
Laura Medder has built and led innovative dementia care models from the ground up, including Emory ' s Integrated Memory Care clinic and Georgia Memory Net' s Community Services Educator program. Inspired by her own family ' s caregiving journey, she has dedicated her career to ensuring every family has access to the support, community, and education they deserve.
Helen Bundy Medsger
Helen Bundy Medsger ' s lifetime of caregiving began at age eleven and has continued across nearly six decades, walking alongside loved ones living with acquired brain injury, Lewy Body Dementia, Frontotemporal Dementia, and other complex conditions. Her breadth of experience offers firsthand knowledge of the systems caregivers navigate, from insurance and SSDI to hospice and end-of-life care.
Sylvia Dennis-Wray
Sylvia Dennis-Wray is an experienced advocate who has established and led multiple caregiver support groups and Alzheimer ’ s walks throughout the state of Georgia. She is the author of "From Caregiver to Advocate: How Caregiving Became my Calling to Empower Others, ” where she details how caring for her mother led her to become a dedicated champion for caregivers and their care recipients.