Event information
Date and time
Location
Webinar
Contact
Anita Harrris Hering, Extension educator, [email protected]
Our communities, our brains: Lessons from indigenous dementia research
This webinar will discuss cutting edge evidence on how social connection, lifelong learning, and access to preventative healthcare can improve the cognitive health of everyone and draw from specific examples in Dr. Whetung and Dr. Lamont's work with Indigenous older adults.
This webinar is part of Extension's 2026 Healthy Aging Month Webinar Series.
Audience
This webinar is open to anyone.
Cost
Free
Registration
Registration is required.
Accommodations
University of Minnesota Extension is committed to providing equal opportunity for participation in all programs, services and activities. To request accommodations for persons with disabilities, reach out to the event contact two weeks before the start of the event. Requests received after this date will be honored whenever possible.
Language
This offering is delivered in English. Interpreter services may be available with an advance request.
Presenters
Cliff Whetung, Ph.D., MSW, Assistant Professor, Memory Keepers Medical Discovery Team - Health Equity, Department of Family Medicine and Biobehavioral Health University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth Campus. Dr. Whetung is a social worker and public health researcher. His research focuses on the longitudinal relationships between social determinants of health, structural inequities, and cognitive health among Indigenous older adults in the United States using large data. His research indicates that Indigenous older adults experience a large burden of structural inequities across the lifespan and that these modifiable risk factors are associated with accelerated cognitive decline in later life. Dr. Whetung is a band member of Curve Lake First Nation and received his PhD from New York University’s Silver School of Social Work.
Genelle Lamont, is a native Minnesotan and citizen of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe. She received her master’s degree and doctorate in environmental health and occupational health research and policy, respectively from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. Dr. Lamont is an Assistant Professor with the Memory Keepers Medical Discovery Team at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine Duluth Campus, where her research focuses on building national, state, and Tribal public health surveillance capacity to collect quality, meaningful data on Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias and associated chronic disease and risk factors in American Indian communities using community-based participatory research methods.