PREHCO Project

Project Consultants

Robert Wallace, M.D. Robert Wallace received his M.D. from Northwestern University in Chicago and his M.Sc. in Epidemiology from the State University of New York in Buffalo. He is Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Iowa College of Public Health and Member of the Board on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention of The Institute of Medicine (U.S.A.). He has also been a Member of The National Advisory Council at The National Institute on Aging and Director of the Cancer Center of the University of Iowa. He has been bestowed many honors, such as: Abraham Lilienfeld Award for Excellence in Teaching of Epidemiology, American Public Health Association, Irene Ensminger Stecher Professorship in Cancer Research, University of Iowa, Regents Award for Faculty Excellence: State of Iowa Board of Regents, and the Duncan Clark Award for Career Achievement in Preventive Medicine, Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine. He has authored over 235 articles on clinical aspects of aging and has been Principal Investigator on multiple projects on aging. His recent research focuses on cancer epidemiology of women, clinical problems with hormonal replacement, and osteoporosis.
Gerda Fillenbaum, Ph.D. Gerda Fillenbaum received her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of London in 1966 and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Gerontology at Duke University in 1969. Dr. Fillenbaum is Research Professor of Medical Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University. She is a consultant to WHO and PAHO on matters pertaining to aging. She helped to develop the Older Americans Resources and Services (OARS) Multidimensional Functional Assessment Questionnaire, which is used internationally; and helped to run the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD). She has published extensively on functional assessment of the elderly, neuropsychological assessment (and in particular racial/ethnic differences in performance), epidemiology of dementia, and pharmacoepidemiology.
Suzanna Waters Castillo, MSSW, Ph.D. Dr. Castillo received her PhD and MSSW from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She is a Faculty Associate in the Department of Professional Development and Applied Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has over 25 years of experience in the field of gerontology working in health policy development, administration and higher education. Her research interests focus on the functional geriatric assessment, and in particular the role of culture and health beliefs relative to dietary compliance among Latino elderly with diabetes. She has been a visiting scholar at la Universidad de Guadalajara, México; Pontificad Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá and La Universidad de Valle in Calli, Colombia where she provided instruction to graduate students and consultation to community leaders in the development of community based case management systems and the functional geriatric assessment. Areas of her instructional expertise include community based case management service delivery systems, cultural competency in health and human services, the functional geriatric assessment and ethnogerontology. While working with PREHCO she assisted the project team in the development of the health and anthropometric measurement sections of the PREHCO questionnaire including the development of training materials and workshops on methods of anthropometric measurement. Dr. Castillo is a member of the National Hispanic Council on Aging, The American Society on Aging, and the Association of Gerontology in Higher Education.
Kyriakos S. Markides, Ph.D. Dr. Markides received his Ph.D. in Sociology in 1976 from Louisiana State University. He is currently the Annie and John Gnitzinger Professor of Aging and Director of the Division of Sociomedical Sciences, Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Dr. Markides is currently on the board of five professional journals, including *Research on Aging* and the *Gerontologist. He is also Editor of the Journal of Aging and Health* that he founded in 1989. From 1989 to 1993 he served on the Mental Disorders of Aging Study Section of NIMH, and has served NIA, NIMH, and other Institutes and Agencies as ad hoc member of study sections and consultant on aging, especially in minority populations. Dr. Markides is the author or co-author of over 200 publications most of which are on aging and health issues in the Mexican American population as well as minority aging issues in general. He is currently Principal Investigator of the Hispanic EPESE (Established Population for the Epidemiological Study of the Elderly), a longitudinal study of the health of 3,050 Mexican American elderly from the five Southwestern states.
Esther María León Díaz, Senior Researcher She has been in charge of the sample design at the PREHCO Project, as well as acting as consultant in the organization of the fieldwork. She is a mathematician specialized in Statistics, Sampling and Survey Design, a Senior Researcher in the Cuban Academy of Sciences and Associate Senior Professor at the Universidad of Havana. At this moment she is in charge of the Applied Statistics-Mathematics section of the Population and Development Research Center at the Cuban National Statistics Office. She has a vast experience of more than 29 years in sampling design and research. She participated in the sample design of the SABE (Salud, Bienestar y Envejecimiento en las Américas) Project sponsored by PAHO, similar to the PREHCO Project, in seven Latin-Americans countries and other important regional projects. Since 1996, she is a consultant of the PAHO, on matters linked with Sampling Designs and Data Analysis, and has been Adviser in several Latin-Americans countries. She helped to develop the Methodological Chapter of the Preliminary Report of the Region-SABE for PAHO. Member of the academic Staff of the Regional Workshop "Health of Elderly People in Latin America", Costa Rica, 2002. She was invited to Expert's Meeting in Social Nets give Support of Older Person by CELADE/CEPAL/ Chile 2002, where she analyzed the living arrangements, family and social transfers, limitations in activities of daily living (ADLs) and nets give support of Older Persons in Cuba.
Carlos Cabán, M.D. Dr. Cabán is one of PREHCO's consultants and the main force behind the design of the Cabán Minimental. His current private practice in psychiatry is mainly with older adults. He is Chief of the Division of Geropsychiatry, of the Panamerican Hospital in Puerto Rico and Associate Professor of this institution's university-affiliated hospital. He is also the President and Director of the interdisciplinary Clinic of Advanced Psychiatry in Puerto Rico (CIPA) ; a center focusing on the multidisciplinary psychiatric and psychological intervention for older adults and persons with drug-dependency.
Hernando Mattei, Ph.D. Hernando Mattei received his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Texas at Austin in 1989.Dr. Mattei is Associate Professor in the Demography Program of the Graduate School of Public Health of the University of Puerto Rico. His research interests include the demography of aging, mortality, reproducive health, household and family demography and stratification.
Walter Rosich Bachs, MD Walter Rosich is a physician whose private practice centers on older adults. He is one of PREHCO's consultants. Dr. Rosich teaches clinical and biological aspects of aging at the Graduate School of Public Health of the University of Puerto Rico.