We would like to congratulate Kimberly Ashby-Mitchell who won the inaugural annual 'Best ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR) PhD' award for her thesis Cognitive Impairment in Australia and Latin American and Caribbean Countries.

Kimberly completed her PhD at the Centre for Research on Ageing, Health and Wellbeing (CRAHW) in 2016.

Supervised by CEPAR Chief Investigator Kaarin Anstey, Partner Investigator Carol Jagger and Professor Anna Peeters, her thesis investigated modifiable risk factors for dementia in Australia and Latin America.

“Each topic investigated by Kimberly has strong policy relevance. From the outset she wanted to conduct research that would address critical problems in society,” said her supervisor Professor Anstey.

“During her thesis Kimberly mastered the literature on dementia epidemiology and the psychological constructs relevant to dementia. She also developed several areas of statistical expertise so that she could analyse a range of datasets.”

Kimberly published three first-author papers whilst completing her PhD and a fourth soon after submitting. After submitting her thesis she worked with the ACT Department of Health as part of an ARC Linkage Grant. She has now taken up a position as a Consultant at the World Health Organisation in Geneva.