Sara Godina is a fourth year PhD student in the Department of Epidemiology and a trainee on Dr. Caterina Rosano’s Population Neuroscience of Aging & Alzheimer’s Disease (PNA) T32 grant. With a background in Neuroscience and Epidemiology (B.S., Neuroscience 2012, MPH Epidemiology 2018), Sara specifically came to the University of Pittsburgh to have the opportunity to work with the Epidemiology of Brain Resilience of Aging (eBRAIN) group, led by Drs. Caterina Rosano and Andi Rosso.

Sara’s research interests include environmental risk factors for healthy brain aging. As she has progressed in her doctoral studies, an emerging area of interest concerns environmental justice issues and disparities present at the group-level. Members of her dissertation committee include Drs. Andrea Rosso (primary faculty advisor and committee chair; expertise in population neuroscience and neighborhood factors), Tiffany Gary-Webb (expertise in social and chronic disease epidemiology), Beth Snitz (expertise in neuropsychological testing and cognitive measures), and Jeanine Buchanich (expertise in environmental epidemiology and biostatistics). Sara’s long-term career goal is to become a leader in aging research, particularly with respect to a focus on disparities among older adults.

Select presentations

• Gerontological Society of America’s 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting (virtual) 

• University of Pittsburgh Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (virtual)7/20Alzheimer’s Association International Conference 2020 (virtual) 

• Gerontological Society of America’s 2019 Annual Scientific Meeting, Austin, TX 

• University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health Pittsburgh, PA Dean’s Day Competition 

• The Ohio State University College of Public Health Columbus, OH Culminating Project Presentations 

• The Ohio State University 1^st Annual OSU College of Public Columbus, OH Health Student Case Competition 

• University of Cincinnati Research Week 2016: Spotlight on Cincinnati, OH Cincinnati Veterans Affairs Medical Center Research