Cohort 
2018

Walter Dawson, DPhil

Health Policy Researcher

We must seek to provide interventions earlier on in the disease process, which provides an opportunity to better support people living with dementia as well as their family care partners.

Current Work

Walter is a health policy researcher focused on developing strategies to reduce the economic burden of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia through public policy interventions that better support individuals, family care partners, and the public programs that fund care.

Personal Hero

His grandmother

Words of Strength

Building partnerships between policy and research

Vision

To reduce the negative impacts of dementia, we must seek to provide interventions earlier on in the disease process, which provides an opportunity to better support people living with dementia as well as their family care partners.

Strategy

Walter's work seeks to reduce the negative financial impacts of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias on individuals, families, and the public programs that provide dementia care and support and improve dementia policy at a national and international level.

Impact

As an Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health, Walter has complemented and enhanced his background in health policy by increasing his understanding of Alzheimer's disease and other cognitive disorders and by developing new skills in health services research.

Motivation

Fifty percent of all people living with dementia in the United States may never receive a formal diagnosis; this has multiple negative downstream impacts on people living with dementia and their family care partners and undermines efforts to provide care.