SEQUINS Honors Miller School of Medicine Leaders in Dementia Research and Mentorship
Two Miller School faculty were honored by SEQUINS for dementia research and mentorship programs advancing neuroscience.
Two University of Miami Miller School of Medicine faculty members were recognized at the 2026 meeting of the Society for Equity Neuroscience (SEQUINS) for advancing brain health through research that better reflects patient populations and mentorship that helps cultivate the next generation of scientists.
James E. Galvin, M.D., M.P.H., professor of neurology at the Miller School, chief of the Cognitive Neurology Division, founding director of the Comprehensive Center for Brain Health and director of the Lewy Body Dementia Research Center of Excellence, was inducted into the SEQUINS Hall of Fame for his efforts in bridging gaps in dementia research.
Girardin Jean-Louis, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and neurology and director of the Center for Translational Sleep and Circadian Sciences at the Miller School, gave the Patrick A. Griffith Outstanding Mentor Lecture.
Founded in 2024, SEQUINS takes a holistic approach to how neurological diseases disproportionately affect certain groups of patients and not others, factoring in variables such as economic circumstances, access and race and ethnicity.
A Career Devoted to Dementia Research
Being inducted into the Hall of Fame is described by SEQUINS as its highest honor for transformative contributions to neuroscience research.
Dr. Galvin was awarded for his decades of research developing instruments designed to measure cognitive change across populations regardless of language, educational background or culture, and that could also capture intraindividual changes in cognition.
“Instead of comparing Mr. Jones to some published normative value, let’s compare Mr. Jones now to how Mr. Jones used to be. That really hit home for me,” said Dr. Galvin.
The tools have since been adopted worldwide and translated into more than 40 languages. Dr. Galvin’s research has also focused on recruiting and retaining historically underrepresented populations in dementia studies, including a current population-based study in American Samoa.
The SEQUINS award is a meaningful recognition of 30 years of work.
“It was fun to put together the talk, because it hearkens back to those first studies I did, all the way to the most recent things,” said Dr. Galvin. “I think what we’ve been able to do is really balance the equation, so we have tools that work across groups, and we have methods to recruit those groups into research studies so we can better understand what puts people at risk and why some people develop disease and others don’t. You can’t have precision without precise measurements. And you can’t have precise measurements unless you have people from all walks of life in your study.”
Mentoring the Next Generation of Physician-Scientists
Dr. Jean-Louis delivered the SEQUINS Patrick A. Griffith Outstanding Mentor Lecture, which recognizes excellence in the mentoring of future generations of neuroscience researchers.
His lecture highlighted 25 years of building training programs for early-career scientists, particularly those from groups historically underrepresented in research. This mentorship work grew out of what he calls his “burning desire” to mentor and sponsor junior faculty.
“The training program we have now is something I wish I had myself about 27 or 28 years ago,” he said. “I saw how important it was and then I created it.”
Dr. Jean-Louis began developing mentoring programs in 2005 while helping build training infrastructure at an NIH-designated health center in New York. After moving to Miami, he expanded the model to include programs focused on gaps in stroke, aging, brain health and neuroscience.
“We take folks who have just gotten a degree, whether it be in sociology, psychology or medical sciences. They want to be scientists, but they don’t know how,” Dr. Jean-Louis said. “Our job is to support them and show them how to navigate academic science to become successful scientists.”
For Dr. Jean-Louis, the work reflects a commitment shared by dozens of colleagues at the Miller School.
“We have around 45 faculty who have the same desire to train and mentor,” he said. “When I proposed this years ago, people said, ‘Of course, I want to be involved. We have to do this.’ And that’s what we’ve done.”
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Tags: Center for Translational Sleep and Circadian Sciences, cognitive decline, Comprehensive Center for Brain Health, dementia, Dr. Girardin Jean-Louis, Dr. James Galvin, Lewy body dementia, neurology, neuroscience, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences