<p> Ms. Gearhart received her undergraduate degree in Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania. She began her nursing career at Johns Hopkins Hospital where she worked in acute care on Osler 4 General Medicine. Ms. Gearhart continued working in general medicine at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center where she was nurse manager. She received her Master's in Nursing Administration at UCSF and is certified as a Gerontological Clinical Nurse Specialist by the American Nurses Association Credentialing Center. </p> <p> Ms. Gearhart is the Administrative Nurse for the Memory and Aging Center and oversees center operations. She is also Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Physiology in the School of Nursing. Ms. Gearhart works with families during the comprehensive diagnostic visits and cares for patients in the follow-up clinic. Ms. Gearhart focuses on optimizing the functional status of each patient and maintaining the quality of life for both the patient and caregivers. </p> <p> In addition to her clinical work, Ms. Gearhart has coordinated the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS) prevention drug trial and focuses her research interests on the study of people at risk for dementia and prevention of decline. She currently administrates center-wide programs including the state Alzheimer's Disease Center of California (ARCC), the federal Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC) and the Consortium for Frontotemporal Dementia (CFR). Ms. Gearhart has been instrumental in program development since her start at the MAC in 1998. </p>