Dr. Katherine Gifford is a clinical neuropsychologist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. She is a Investigator within the Precision Brain Health Initiative (https://www.bumc.bu.edu/pbhi/) and the Framingham Heart Study- Brain Aging Program. Dr. Gifford’s research focuses on disorders of aging, dementia, and developing tools for early detection of cognitive impairment. Her research incudes a specific emphasis on understanding subjective cognitive decline in older adults, or when people start to notice changes in their own memory and thinking. She is involved in independent and collaborative research projects that improve early identification of unhealthy aging, clinical phenotyping of abnormal brain aging (i.e., Alzheimer's disease and related disorder), and health care education to improve primary care management of dementias.

Before joining the BUSM faculty, she was an Associate Professor (tenured) of Neurology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Co-Director of the Vanderbilt Sports Concussion Center, and Clinical Core Co-Leader of the Vanderbilt Exploratory Alzheimer's Disease Center. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in psychology at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY and her doctoral degree in clinical psychology from the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, FL. She completed her pre-doctoral internship in neuropsychology at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, MI. Her postdoctoral fellowship in neuropsychology was completed at Boston University and at Vanderbilt University.