Project 3: Menopausal Transition

Susan Bookheimer is a clinical neuropsychologist specializing in pre-surgical and intraoperative assessments for patients with epilepsy, brain tumors, vascular lesions, Parkinson's disease, and dementia. Her research uses brain imaging, particularly functional MRI, applied to a wide range of disorders including autism and Alzheimers, as well as in typical development and normal aging.

Bookheimer served as the AABC UCLA site principal investigator through December 1, 2023. As of July 1, 2024, Bookheimer retired from her full-time faculty position at UCLA transitioning her AABC UCLA MPI leadership role to Robert Welsh, MD.

Pauline M. Maki is Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology and Obstetrics & Gynecology; Director of the Women’s Mental Health Research Program, and Research Director at the Center for Research on Women and Gender at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). For the past 25 years, she has led a program of NIH-funded research on women’s health, particularly women’s mental and cognitive health. She has more than 200 scientific publications on this topic. Her research addresses important issues in women’s health such as how hormonal changes at menopause and menopause symptoms affect women’s cognitive function, brain health and mood at midlife and the effect of menopausal hormone therapy and non-hormonal menopause intervention on cognition, brain health and mood. She is credited with the first neuroimaging study of estrogen and brain function in women.

Maki is past president of the North American Menopause Society (NAMS), Treasurer of the International Menopause Society and past chair of the Society for Women’s Health Research Interdisciplinary Network on Alzheimer's Disease. She won the 2018 Woman in Science Award from the American Medical Women’s Association, the Thomas B. Clarkson Outstanding Clinical and Basic Science Research Award from the NAMS, and the 2023 Health Education Visionary Award from the Society for Women’s Health Research. She has won several NIH awards for her research and service, serves as a research and career mentor to many students and junior faculty, serves on executive committees for several women’s health advisory boards, and is a frequent international and national speaker. Her work is widely cited in the media, including in such outlets as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Fox News, National Public Radio, BBC, the Today Show, NBC News, ABC News, and the Guardian.