C. Elizabeth Shaaban

Dr. C. Elizabeth Shaaban is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research seeks to understand how social, behavioral, and biological factors come together to shape brain health and the risk for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. She is especially interested in understanding differences by gender/sex and finding earlier ways to detect risk so that prevention and treatment can be more effective and equitable.

Dr. Shaaban is also dedicated to mentoring students and trainees and to building collaborations across disciplines. In her role as the Director of Outreach, Recruitment, and Engagement at the Pittsburgh Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, she partners with colleagues and community organizations to increase representation in dementia research and to promote brain health equity in the region.

Research Areas & Scholarly Emphasis

Dr. Shaaban’s research centers on understanding why Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias affect individuals differently, with particular attention to sex, gender, and health equity. She investigates how vascular health, life course experiences, and social determinants contribute to brain aging and dementia risk.

Her work includes developing and validating early indicators of brain health through advanced imaging, blood-based biomarkers, and cognitive assessments, and examining how these measures vary across diverse populations. She also leads initiatives to strengthen participation and representation in dementia research, harmonize large-scale datasets for collaborative studies, and engage community partners in public health strategies aimed at reducing stigma, promoting early detection, and advancing brain health equity.

Teaching

Dr. Shaaban serves as Course Director for Introduction to Multimodal Neuroimaging and Applications in Population Neuroscience (EPIDEM 2019), a graduate-level course integrating multiple neuroimaging methods into population-based studies. She also directs the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center’s continuing medical education seminar series, Topics at Noon, which provides ongoing training for clinicians and researchers in dementia care and science.

Service

Dr. Shaaban serves as a member of the International Society to Advance Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment (ISTAART) Advisory Council (2024–present) and as Co-Chair of the Sex and Gender Special Interest Group within the ISTAART Diversity and Disparities Professional Interest Area (2023–present). She previously held leadership roles in the ISTAART Professional Interest Area to Elevate Early Career Researchers (PEERs), serving as Chair (2022–2024) and Founding Vice Chair (2020–2022).

She is an Editorial Board Member for Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions and regularly reviews manuscripts for journals including Alzheimer’s & Dementia, American Journal of Epidemiology, Cerebral Circulation – Cognition and Behavior, and Neurology.