Elena FAZIO

Title: Director, Office of AD-ADRD Strategic Coordination OASC

Office(s): Division of Behavioral and Social Research (DBSR)

Phone Number: 301-496-3131

Email Address: elena.fazio@nih.gov

Biography

Elena Fazio, PhD is director of the Office of AD/ADRD Strategic Coordination (OASC) in the Division of Behavioral and Social research (BSR). The Office of AD/ADRD Strategic Coordination (OASC) works to align priorities with those of the National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA) and to make progress toward the plan’s goals of preventing, effectively treating, and supporting care for those living with dementia and their care partners. While continuing to support AD/ADRD research, OASC works with academic and industry experts, as well as innovators and public advocates, to develop AD/ADRD Research Implementation Milestones through NIA supported Research Summits that serve the purpose of detailing steps and success criteria for achieving scientific goals. OASC’s and BSR’s participation in developing the research implementation milestones also helps to inform the annual NIH Alzheimer’s Disease Bypass Budget.

Dr. Fazio also serves as a Program Director/Program Official (PO) in the Population and Social Processes Branch (BSR-PSP). She works primarily on projects supporting NAPA goals. Her research portfolio and scientific interests include health care systems, long-term services and supports, aging in place, health care disparities, palliative & end-of-life care, dementia care, impact of pre-symptomatic dementia diagnosis, social isolation, the dementia care workforce, and home and community-based services. Prior to joining the NIA, Dr. Fazio worked for the U.S. Administration for Community Living (ACL) where she led a wide variety of projects focused on program performance, national data collection, and research on services and supports provided to older adults and persons with disabilities. Before joining NIA and ACL, she was staff director for the Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-related Statistics. As a post-doctoral fellow, she served as project director for the NIA-funded Aging, Stress and Health program. Dr. Fazio’s PhD in Sociology was awarded by the University of Maryland (with a dissertation on “Role Occupancies, Physical Health, and the Diminishment of the Self-Concept in Later Life”). Her published research deals with stress, mental and physical health, and health disparities in late life.