Dr. Samantha John is a geriatric neuropsychologist and cognitive aging researcher with the newly created Department of Brain Health. She joined UNLV in the fall of 2019 as part of the UNLV Population Health and Health Equity Initiative. Dr. John is interested in how we interpret outcomes and patterns from neuropsychological assessment to explain cognitive aging processes, both clinically and in research. Her research aims to improve the prediction, measurement, and diagnosis of cognitive change and neurodegenerative disease across diverse groups. Her program of research includes three complementary areas: 1) modeling the causative and contributing factors in neurodegenerative disorders that predict disease risk and resilience and improve differential diagnosis; 2) improving the measurement of neuropsychological functioning through test development and advanced psychometrics to facilitate early detection of disease and longitudinal monitoring; and 3) examining the relationships between patient clinical presentation and provider decision making to engage demographically diverse samples and eliminate barriers to treatment.  

Dr. John earned her doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology with a curricular emphasis in geropsychology from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. She completed an APA- accredited internship in Geriatric Neuropsychology with the UCLA Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior, and completed her training with a postdoctoral fellowship in Neuropsychology with the Emory University School of Medicine and Goizueta Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. She remains active in both research and clinical practice.