Description of Research Expertise

Shana D. Stites, PsyD, MA, MS, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. As a clinical psychologist and researcher with the Penn Project on Precision Medicine for the Brain (P3MB), Dr. Stites’ research focuses on advancing diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease dementia. The goal is to understand ways to promote quality of life and psychological wellbeing. This includes understanding the impacts of the disease on individuals who may be directly affected by
pathology as well as their family members. As part of this work, Dr. Stites has a special focus on better understanding how aspects of identity, such as age, gender, and race, operate as determinants in the disease experience. Understanding these features of the disease experience may offer insights into disease-mechanisms and into development of
interventions that help limit burdens of the disease.

Dr. Stites is a graduate of the National Institute on Aging’s (NIA’s) Butler-Williams Scholars Program, has a master’s of arts in sociology from Lehigh University, and earned a doctorate in clinical psychology from Chestnut Hill College with a concentration in psychological assessment and special focus on the role of multicultural diversity in clinical practice and representation in research. Dr. Stites clinical training includes completion of a doctoral internship at Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center in Philadelphia, PA and post-doctoral training in the Penn Memory Center and Department of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine.