Adrienne Withall

Associate Professor Withall is a combined track specialist on ageing and neuropsychology in the School of Psychology, where she is the Co-Director of Research and leads the Ageing at the Margins Lab. Her expertise is on young onset dementia, particularly priority populations at risk of accelerated cognitive decline (including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people with chronic drug and alcohol use, and older justice-involved people). Equity and digital innovation in cognitive assessment (serious games) and promoting brain health for priority populations are a focus of her research. Dr Withall is a woman of both Aboriginal and Angloceltic heritage.

Associate Professor Withall is leading NHMRC-funded research on older incarcerated citizens, including an NHMRC Ideas Grant to design serious games to aid dementia assessment in justice settings and an NHMRC Cohort Grant to perform a longitudinal study of older people in and transitioning out of prison. She is a Chief Investigator of two Centres of Research Excellence, including the ON-Track CRE on Aboriginal Brain Health (led by the University of Melbourne) and the CRE for Violence Prediction, Profiling and Prevention (led by the University of New South Wales). This latter CRE involves an important study to establish routine cognitive assessment for older people in the court system.

She is a big fan of both mixed methods and human-centred design, and uses these to aid the translation of her research into policy and clinical practice. She is a storyteller and blue sky thinker.