CHDR Seminar Series | Dr. Stacey M. Schaefer | October 14, 2025
Please join us to welcome Stacey M. Schaefer, Ph.D
Leader, MIDUS Neuroscience Project
UW Institute on Aging
Insights into Risk and Resilience for Health, Wellbeing, and Brain Aging from MIDUS, WRAP, and Affective Neuroscience
Dr. Stacey M. Schaefer is an aging/affective/cognitive neuroscientist whose research explores the socioemotional determinants of health, wellbeing, and brain aging, with an emphasis on how individual differences in the time course of emotional and stress responses in the brain and body shape these outcomes.
Dr. Schaefer leads the Affective Neuroscience Project within the longitudinal Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) National Study of Health and Wellbeing at the UW Institute on Aging.
About the Talk
Findings will be shared illustrating how socioemotional factors influence trajectories of health, wellbeing, and brain aging from large NIH-funded studies, including in the Midlife in the U.S. (MIDUS) and Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer’s Prevention (WRAP) samples. Adversity such as experiencing discrimination may accelerate neurobiological aging, while protective factors like a strong sense of purpose can foster resilience and brain health. Emotional and stress-related processes, reflected in individual differences in reactivity and regulation across neural and physiological systems, reveal mechanisms that contribute to these risk/resilience and health disparities.
This event will take place in person in HSLC Room 4201.
Those unable to attend in person are welcome to join via Zoom.
Co-Sponsored by
Center for Health Disparities Research
UW Department of Neurology
About the CHDR Seminar Series
Held four times per year, the purpose of the CHDR Seminar Series is to provide a focused learning opportunity and promote competency in health disparities research. These invited talks feature both rising and accomplished experts from across the disciplinary spectrum whose current work in health disparities research demonstrates a variety of models, approaches, and frameworks critical for working toward a shared goal of eliminating health disparities.