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A snapshot from a Penn Memory Center Memory Café event was recently awarded a second-place prize by Dementia Friendly America.

July’s Memory Café featured a drum circle facilitated by drummer Deke Kincade of Deke Kincade Rhythm, and the award-winning photo captures patients and caregivers in the PMC community gathered in a drum circle to create rhythm and music. Chloe Elmer, then an editorial assistant with PMC, took the photo.

The photo won second place at Dementia Friendly America’s Living Well with Dementia in the Community Photo Contest, with submissions aiming to display the diversity and support within the community for those living with dementia and their care partners. Our picture along with the other winning photos can be found on the Dementia Friendly America home page banner.

Join us for Memory Café this coming Friday, March 2 featuring an interactive exhibit on Civil War medicine by the Mütter Museum.

March Memory Café
Friday, March 2 | 10:30 a.m. to noon
Christ Church Neighborhood House
20 N. American Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106

RSVP: alison.lynn@uphs.upenn.edu

The Mütter Museum is a museum of medical history located in Center City that features preserved collections of anatomical specimens, models, and medical instruments. One of its aims is to help the public understand the mysteries and beauty of the human body and to appreciate the history of diagnosis and treatment of disease.

The museum is part of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, one of the oldest professional medical organizations in the country, and is named after Thomas Dent Mütter, MD, physician, professor, and Fellow of the College who bequeathed his entire teaching collection and a substantial endowment to the College in 1858. Features of the collection include the brain of Albert Einstein and the jaw tumor of President Grover Cleveland.

Felicia Greenfield, LCSW, Executive Director of the Penn Memory Center (Photos by Eric Sucar)

By Julie McWilliams
University Communications

At the Penn Geriatric Medicine practice, Shauniqua Key met with a woman recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The patient was accompanied by a friend of 20-plus years, but she no longer recognized her friend.

“The patient was a former health care worker, so being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s was especially difficult to cope with. She was very scared and disoriented, burst into tears, and asked who this person was,” Key says. “It was very hard on the caregiver, who expressed the burden of emotional stress and strain. We offered her individual counseling.”

Key is one of six graduate students from the School of Social Policy & Practice (SP2) interning this academic year at Penn Medicine. There, the SP2 students help clients and caregivers work through the sometimes overwhelming challenges that come with memory loss and, in some cases, other neurological or physical impairments.

Executive Director Felicia Greenfield discusses the Penn Memory Center’s Caring for the Caregiver class with PMC staff members.

By Joyce Lee

Felicia Greenfield, LCSW, has been named Executive Director of the Penn Memory Center.

Working alongside PMC Co-Directors Dr. Jason Karlawish and Dr. David Wolk, she will optimize clinical care and research through developing new and enhancing existing programs for patients and family caregivers.

“Felicia has been a major force in all that the Penn Memory Center does, playing integral roles in patient and family care and in our research mission,” Dr. Wolk said. “Her dedication to her work and the many families who suffer with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias is inspiring to all of us. We look forward to collaborating with her to continue to move the Penn Memory Center forward as an example for the field.”

Please join us in saying farewell to Clinical Research Coordinator Joe Harrison, who has been at Penn Memory Center since 2016. Harrison will be moving to the Nudge Unit at Penn Medicine while continuing to pursue his Master’s degree in Behavioral and Decision Sciences at Penn. At PMC, Harrison coordinated the REVEAL-SCAN study, which looks at the impact of amyloid PET scan results and personalized risk assessments of developing Alzheimer’s disease on individuals’ health behaviors and habits over time.

Harrison also worked with the NACC study, which follows participants with mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease dementia or related dementia, and normal cognition longitudinally and tracks brain imaging and biomarker data to better understand links between clinical evaluation and brain changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia.

REVEAL-SCAN study responsibilities will be covered by Clinical Research Coordinator Grace Stockbower and Research Coordinator Benjamin Bear. NACC study responsibilities will be covered by Research Specialist Jacqueline Lane and new Clinical Research Coordinator Matthew Ferrara.

*** Update: Registration is now closed for this event. ***

Join the Penn Memory Center for a free Writing Workshop led by David Marchino of the Kelly Writers House.

Writing Workshop for Caregivers
Saturday, March 17
1:30 to 4:30 p.m.
241 Ralston House 

If interested, please RSVP to Alison Lynn at alison.lynn@uphs.upenn.edu by March 9. Attendance will be capped at 15.

Take a look at upcoming events this spring from Senior Health Forum, a lunch series co-sponsored by the Eastern Pennsylvania Geriatrics Society, Friends in the City, Penn’s Village, Ralston Center, and The College of Physicians of Philadelphia.

The Penn Memory Center (PMC) is seeking a Clinical Research Coordinator A to join our multi-disciplinary team of health professionals. Click here to apply.

Join the Penn Memory Center on Friday, February 2, for Memory Café featuring Beacon Theatre Productions, who will be presenting the short play “Mary Todd Lincoln: The Woman You Thought You Knew.”

Friday, February 2 | 10:30 a.m. to noon
Christ Church Neighborhood House
20 N. American Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106

Beacon Theatre Productions is a theatre company that aims to produce high-quality, thought-provoking productions that encourage reflection and discussion, with a focus on historical events and well-known literary works. The company also hosts talk-backs and speakers’ nights with authors, actors, playwrights and directors, publishes study guides to encourage discussion of significant issues, and offers productions to marginalized or underserved populations through pay-as-you-can performances at accessible venues.