AGENDAAlzheimer’s Disease

Jeffrey L. Commings, MD, ScD

Director, Center for Neurodegeneration and Translational Neuroscience

Director Emeritus, Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health

Professor, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine

Jeffrey L. Commings, MD, ScDJeffrey L. Cummings, MD, ScD, is Principal Investigator/Director of the NIH/NIGMS-funded Center for Neurodegeneration and Translational Neuroscience at the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is a Professor of Medicine (Neurology), Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Cummings was the Camille and Larry Ruvo Chair for Brain Health and the Director of Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Centers for Brain Health in Nevada, Ohio, and Florida from 2010 to 2018.

Dr. Cummings is a world-renowned Alzheimer’s researcher and leader of clinical trials. He has been recognized for his research and leadership contributions in the field of Alzheimer’s disease through the Henderson Award of the American Geriatrics Society (2006), the Ronald and Nancy Reagan Research Award of the national Alzheimer’s Association (2008), and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Society for Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology (2017). In 2010, he was honored by the American Association of Geriatric Psychiatry with their Distinguished Scientist Award. In 2018, he was honored with the Leadership and Achievement Award by the International Society of CNS Drug Development, and he received the Bengt Winblad Lifetime Achievement Award from the national Alzheimer's Association. He was featured in the Gentleman’s Quarterly (June 2009) as a “Rockstar of Science.”

Dr. Cummings’ interests embrace clinical trials, developing new therapies for brain diseases, and the interface of neuroscience and society.

Dr. Cummings completed Neurology residency and a Fellowship in Behavioral Neurology at Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts. US training was followed by a Research Fellowship in Neuropathology and Neuropsychiatry at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, Queen Square, London, England. Dr. Cummings was formerly Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at UCLA, Director of the Mary S. Easton Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research at UCLA, and Director of the DeaneF. Johnson Center for Neurotherapeutics at UCLA. He is past president of the Behavioral Neurology Society and of the American Neuropsychiatric Association.

Dr. Cummings has authored or edited 43 books and published over 725 peer-reviewed papers.

Our Panelists

Jessica Carlson, MSN, Ed., Phd ABD, is an experienced Emergency Nurse and tenured Nursing Professor at College of Southern Nevada with a demonstrated history of working in the hospital & health care industry. Skilled in E-Learning, Clinical Research, Nursing Education, Critical Care, and Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR). Strong healthcare services professional and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) candidate focused in Nursing Education from University of Phoenix.

Jason W. Driggars, NRP, has been the Clinical Manager for American Medical Response, Nevada Operations since 2016, and manages employee training and development, and quality improvement activities. Jason began his EMS career in 2006 and earned a B.S. in Biology from Troy University in 2007. Over the past nine years with AMR, Jason has served as a paramedic, Field training Officer, Clinical Specialist, and Operations Manager, and currently serves on several EMS leadership committees at the Southern Nevada Health District. Before entering the EMS profession, Jason served in the U.S. Marine Corpsinfantry, and was honorably discharged as a sergeant in 2006.

Nita Schmidt is a Captain with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department assigned to the South Tower Bureau of the Clark County Detention Center. She has been with LVMPD for 15 years and currently administers the medical contract that ClarkCounty has with our correctional medical and mental health services company and oversee operations in some of our most specialized housing units. Captain Schmidt has a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and worked as an instructor for older adultswith the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. She is currently completing her Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice. Captain Schmidt has lived in Las Vegas for 20 years and moved here after completing my enlistment in the United States Navy to raise a family. She is the proud mother of three children and is involved in many community activities and Little League Baseball.

Our Panelists

Tammy Sever is the Social Services Manager for the Elder Protective Services Program within the State of Nevada Aging and Disability Services Division. She has been with the agency for 22 years. Ms. Sever is a graduate of The University of Nevada-Las Vegas with a BA in Social Work and holds a State of Nevada Social Worker license. Ms. Sever recently completed the Elder Abuse Instructor Training Program for Law Enforcement developed by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women. She is certified as an Instructor for the Enhanced Training and Services to End Abuse in Later Life Program.

Beau Ventling was hired by the Henderson Fire Department in 2007. He has worked as a firefighter and EMT from 2006 –2011, and has been a fire fighter/paramedic since 2011. Since 2015, he took on the role as Preceptor, and is currently an EMSTraining officer for the City of Henderson.

Samuel M. Warren is an associate attorney at Gerrard Cox Larsen and practices primarily in the areas of estate planning, probate and guardianship. Mr. Warren received his Bachelor of Arts in Accounting at the University of Utah in 2008 and his Juris Doctor from the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 2011. He went on to receive a Masters of Law (L.L.M.) in Taxation from the Georgetown University Law Center in 2012. While in law school, Mr. Warrenserved as the president of the Las Vegas student chapter of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society, received a merit scholarship, and served as a law clerk for a local estate planning law firm. Outside of work, Mr. Warren maintains an active lifestyle having runseveral marathons and volunteers as a coach for youth sports. Mr. Warren is fluent in Spanish and is a member of the Nevada (2011) and Utah (2013) Bar Associations and the Southern Nevada Estate Planning Council.

Our ModeratorLeeAnn Mandarino, MA, Program Manager III, Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health

Ms. Mandarino has worked with the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health for more than 10 years. She is an experienced conference organizer having implemented scores of local, regional, national, and international CME conferences and symposiums.

Symposiums include: Leon Thal Symposium for the Prevention of Dementia-2007, 2008, 2009. This series of policy-oriented meetings led by Zaven Khachaturian, PhD significantly influenced the content of the Alzheimer’s Study Group and the National Alzheimer Project Act. Conference outcomes were published in peer-reviewed journals.

Frontotemporal Dementia: The Next Therapeutic Frontier 2011 and Clinical Trials in Frontotemporal Degeneration and Related Disorders 2011 were a series of conferences focusing on tau therapeutics and tau-related animal models. The conference resulted in a white paper and was published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), 2012, was the first national conference on CTE. The 2-day conference featured excellent speakers, including Nobel Prize winning scientist Stanley Pruisner. The dinner speaker for the conference was the Surgeon General of the United States, Regina Benjamin, MD.

Patient Engagement in Clinical Trials, 2013, convened individuals involved in research and advocacy, including Freda C. Lewis-Hall, Executive Vice President and CMO at Pfizer

Global MSA Research Roadmap Meeting, 2014, included researchers from 4 continents, 12 countries, 30 academic institutions, 15 industry entities and the NIH, including the Acting Director of NINDS, Walter Koroshetz, as Keynote and meeting Advisory Committee member, to develop a new Research Roadmap and initiate the GMSAT.

In addition, Ms. Mandarino organizes two regional CME conferences per year: Advancing Neurological Therapeutics and Dementia. She also leads the Dementia Friendly Southern Nevada Advocacy Group in Las Vegas, NV. The Dementia Training for First Responders education video is one of the outcomes of the Dementia Friendly Nevada project in which she is involved.