Danurys "Didi" Sanchez

Mrs. Danurys (Didi) Sanchez is currently a Senior Research Staff Associate at the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s disease and the Aging Brain and has been an aging researcher at Columbia University for the past twenty years. For the past fifteen years, she has been the Project Coordinator of a longitudinal study on memory and aging, the Washington Heights-Hamilton Heights-Inwood Community Aging Project (WHICAP), a community-based longitudinal study of aging and dementia which began enrolling patients in 1989 and has followed more than 8,000 residents over 65 years of age. 

As the project coordinator since 2007, Ms. Sanchez has led initiatives to engage the Spanish-speaking and African American community in AD research, dissemination, and education on brain health. As she became more involved in community education, one of her most striking revelations was the limited knowledge on advance care planning throughout the target communities. Ms. Didi Sanchez is currently enrolled in the Masters' program in Bioethics at Columbia University's School of Professional Studies and endeavors to improve communication on end-of-life decision-making between physicians and patients through an ethical framework based on trust, professionalism, and compassionate care.