Study Leadership

These individuals work to make life better for people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) through their leadership and participation in the PD GENEration: Mapping the Future of Parkinson's study.

Principal Investigator

Roy N. Alcalay, MD, MS
Chief of the Movement Disorders Division at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Parkinson’s Foundation Scientific Advisory Board Member and part-time Associate Professor at Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Current Members of the Steering Committee

Roy N. Alcalay, MD, MS
Chief of the Movement Disorders Division at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Parkinson’s Foundation Scientific Advisory Board Member and part-time Associate Professor at Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Tatiana Foroud, PhD
Executive Assistant Dean of Research Affairs at Indiana University School of Medicine

Anne Hall, JD
Parkinson’s Foundation Research Advocate, Member of FDA Patient Engagement Collaborative, Research Stakeholder, University of California, San Francisco, Member of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society Task Force on Genetic Testing in Parkinson’s Disease

Karen S. Marder, MD, MPH
Sally Kerlin Professor of Neurology and Chief of the Division of Aging and Dementia at Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Ignacio Mata, PhD
Assistant Professor/Staff at Cleveland Clinic

Niccolo Mencacci, MD, PhD
Neurologist and Assistant Professor of Neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Martha Nance, MD
Medical Director at Park Nicollet Struthers Parkinson’s Center and Clinical Professor of Neurology at the University of Minnesota

Michael A. Schwarzschild, MD, PhD
Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, Director of Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Chair of the Executive Committee of the Parkinson Study Group

Tanya Simuni, MD
Chief of the Division of Movement Disorders and Arthur C. Nielsen, Jr., Professor of Neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Anne-Marie A. Wills, MD, MPH
Neurologist and Director of the CurePSP Center of Care at Massachusetts General Hospital, Co-Director of the Genes and Environment Working Group of the Parkinson Study Group

Sarah Lawrence, MS
Sr. Clinical Project Manager, Navitas Clinical Research, Inc.

Past Members of the Steering Committee

• Cynthia J. Casaceli, MBA, Director of the Clinical Trials Coordination Center at University of Rochester (ex officio)

Clinical Sites

• PSG: Parkinson Study Group
• Parkinson’s Foundation Centers of Excellence and Comprehensive Care Centers
• BLAAC PD
• LARGE PD
• Select Neurology Clinics and Hospitals

Genetic Testing
Fulgent Genetics

Psomagen, Inc.

Genetic Counseling
Indiana University School of Medicine

CRO
Navitas Clinical Research

Data Storage
Parkinson’s Foundation

Morehouse Healthcare

PD GENEration has partnered with Morehouse Healthcare to expand genetic research in the Black community. Morehouse Healthcare is the first historically Black institution of medicine to become a PD GENEration research site. PD GENEration is designed to be inclusive and accessible to populations of focus — groups needing increased access to care, resources and research efforts.

PD GENE Latino Advisory Committee

The PD GENE Latino Advisory Committee, comprised of healthcare professionals, researchers, community members and people with PD, works with the Parkinson’s Foundation to develop strategies to increase clinical research education, awareness and participation among Hispanics and Latinos with Parkinson’s throughout the U.S. and the Caribbean. The committee focuses on Parkinson’s Foundation studies, including PD GENEration: Mapping the Future of Parkinson’s Disease and the Parkinson's Outcomes Project. This unique pilot initiative aims to increase participation in these two projects by ten percent. To date, the PD GENE Latino Advisory Committee has helped the Foundation to:

• Develop educational materials and organizing outreach events specific to the Hispanic community living with PD;
• Disseminate lessons learned and measures of success in engaging the Hispanic community through scientific publications;
• Survey the Hispanic community to further understand their needs and gaps in care; and
• Expand PD GENEration for the first time outside the continental U.S. and into the Caribbean.