UCSD Profiles

search, discover, network

Dr. Borenstein has spent over 35 years as an epidemiologist specializing in identifying risk factors that cause Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Her career has spanned the discovery of many risk and protective factors for these disorders, to which she has been an important contributor. Much of her early work focused on examining whether culture and geography impact the risk of memory disorders of late life. She worked on harmonization of the definition of cognitive impairment and the diagnosis of dementia across countries, and has conducted and participated in dementia studies in diverse racial and ethnic populations. Her later work has focused more on the evidence that Alzheimer’s disease is more than brain pathology – that individually differing brain reserve, or functional brain tissue, interacts with neuropathology to cause the clinical dementia syndrome. In addition, she is currently interested in early life determinants of Alzheimer’s and life-course approaches to the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. In 2016, she co-wrote a comprehensive book, Alzheimer’s Disease: Life Course Perspectives on Risk Reduction (co-author, Dr. James A. Mortimer). Dr. Borenstein attended Pitzer College in Claremont, CA for her Bachelor degree, the University of Michigan for her Master in Public Health and the University of Washington for her Ph.D. in Public Health/Epidemiology. She is Professor Emerita from the University of South Florida.

Please note: To find all of Dr. Borenstein’s manuscripts, please search in Google Scholar or in Pubmed under multiple names: Amy B Graves, Amy Graves, Amy Borenstein Graves, Amy R Borenstein, Amy Borenstein. Lesson to young women scientists: Think carefully before taking on a married name!