New INTERDEM board members

We are pleased to announce that our INTERDEM board has been expanded with the appointment of Martina Roes as board secretary and the appointment of Sara Bartels and Esther Gerritzen as Academy members. With their involvement the board can further strengthen the position and connection between the junior researchers in the Academy and the senior researchers in the INTERDEM network. We wish them every success in the board!

Martina Roes (RN, PhD, FGSA, FAAN) is a senior research group leader (person-centred dementia care and implementation science) and the site speaker of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Witten as well as a Professor for Nursing Research and Health Care Research at the University of Witten/Herdecke (Germany) (since Jan. 2013). Martina has a background in nursing (RN) and sociology (MA) and an academic passion for person-centered-dementia care, participatory research and implementation science.

Martina became an Interdem Member in 2013 and has been involved in different taskforces (social health, technology, intercultural care/co-chair). Between 2016 and 2023, Martina was (is) part of the EU-funded INDUCT and DISTINCT network for technology and dementia, initiated by INTERDEM members. In INDUCT she was involved as a secondment partner and lecturer; in DISTINCT she is involved as a supervisor for two early-stage researchers.

In 2019 Martina became a Fellow of the Gerontology Society of America (FGSA) and in 2021 she became the first German Nurse to be a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN) for her continuous and outstanding contribution to improve nursing and dementia care (inter)nationally. The Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing at the Penn State University, (USA) awarded Martina with a Prof. Martina Roes Day (April 2^nd, 2023). Besides becoming a member of the INTERDEM Board (April 2023) Martina is also Member of the DZNE Patient Council, a Member of the DZG Patient Advisory Board, and a Member of the Alzheimer Europe Expert Advisory Panel.

Her current projects focus on preference-based-person-centred dementia care [in Collaboration with Penn State University (Pennsylvania) and Miami University (Ohio)], dementia care for people with migration background, embedded within the perspective of intersectionality and equity (in collaboration with the INTERDEM taskforce intercultural care), dementia friendly hospitals and implementing participatory research strategies (in collaboration with people living with dementia and their relatives).

As an INTERDEM board member Martina aims to promote dementia care research including hard to reach and underrepresented populations, embedding participatory approaches in dementia care research, and to better understand how implementation science / research can become part of funding policy across Europe.

Sara Laureen Bartels is an early-career researcher (ECR) with a background in neuropsychology and academic passion for digital self-monitoring (i.e., the Experience Sampling Method) and momentary data to understand and support health and well-being in aging and dementia.

Between 2016 and 2020, Sara was part of the INDUCT network for technology and dementia and executed her doctoral studies at Maastricht University. Since September 2020, Sara works as a postdoctoral researcher for Karolinska Institutet (60%) and Maastricht University (40%) and her current projects focus on developing, evaluating, and implementing digital behavioural interventions for people facing long-term conditions, including dementia and chronic pain. Moreover, Sara functions as the Continental Lead for Europe in the Alzheimer’s Association Professional Interest Area to Elevate Early Career Researchers (ISTAART PEERs PIA), a global network of multi-disciplinary ECRs working in the field of dementia. The European Working Group of PEERs collaborates regularly with INTERDEM Academy, jointly offering webinars, workshops, and preparing manuscripts on the needs of ECRs. As an Academy Board Member, Sara aims to contribute to ECRs being considered in INTERDEM actions, thus promoting the sustainable workforce driving psychosocial dementia research, practice, and policy.

Esther Gerritzen (BSc, MSc) is an early-career researcher (ECR) with a background in Public Health. She started her research career in 2019 at Alzheimer Centrum Limburg, where she worked as a research assistant. She provided support on projects related to Partner in Balance, including one of the INDUCT projects. After completing her MSc in 2019 she started a PhD within DISTINCT, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network, at the University of Nottingham (United Kingdom). During her PhD Esther worked on online peer support for people with Young Onset Dementia. In April 2023 Esther successfully defended her thesis during her viva and was awarded her PhD with minor corrections, which she will complete this summer. Esther continues to work in the topics of Young Onset Dementia, peer support, and post-diagnostic support more broadly in her current role as a research fellow within the National Institute of Health Research Applied Research Collaboration East-Midlands (NIHR ARC-EM). Esther has been a member of INTERDEM Academy since 2019 and is also a member of the Social Health Taskforce and the Taskforce on Inequalities in dementia care. As a Junior Board member and representative of the INTERDEM Academy, Esther aims to create new learning opportunities for all INTERDEM members, to support learning across different disciplines and career stages.