Speaker Bios
Speaker Bios
Imaging Elevated 2026 Speakers
Jacqueline Walsh-Snow, MPsych, PhD
Dr. Walsh-Snow is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology, University of Utah. Her research explores the cognitive and neural basis of naturalistic vision and uses multipronged methods, including behavioral psychophysics, fMRI, neuropsychology, eye-tracking, EEG, and motion kinematics.
Nicolas Alonzo Frost, MD, PhD
Dr. Frost is a board certified neurologist who sees patients with disorders of memory and cognition. His clinical and research interests focus on understanding mechanisms that contribute to disorders of cognition. His research focuses on how information relevant to complex behaviors including social interactions are encoded within the prefrontal cortex and disrupted in disease. His laboratory utilizes imaging and transcriptomic approaches to understand how heterogeneous populations of neurons function in concert to encode different types of behavioral information.
Dr. Frost received his medical degree and graduate research training from the University of Maryland School of Medicine. There his research focused on developing super-resolution microscopy to image biological processes in living neurons. He then moved to San Francisco for further clinical training including an internship in internal medicine and residency in adult neurology at the University of California, San Francisco. Following residency he completed a research fellowship at UCSF focused on characterizing circuit-level endophenotypes underlying abnormal behavior in preclinical models of neurodevelopmental disorders.
Jenna Merenstein, PhD
I obtained a B.S. in Psychology from Colorado State University and Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of California, Riverside. I completed 3.5 years of postdoctoral training at Duke University Medical Center, where I was funded by an F32 National Research Service Award from the National Institute on Aging (NIA). Currently, I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Utah. My laboratory investigates the neurobiological substrates of healthy cognitive aging and how these neural properties differ from those affected by Alzheimer's disease. We are also beginning to explore potential modifying factors of brain aging (e.g., environmental risk factors, genetics, cardiovascular health). My work takes a multifaceted approach, combining advanced MRI analyses of brain structure and function (e.g., graph theory) with experimental analyses of various cognitive domains (e.g., learning, memory, and visual attention).
Ben Shofty, MD, PhD
Ben Shofty, MD/PhD is an Israeli-board certified functional neurosurgeon and a former Israeli national rugby player. He graduated from the Tel-Aviv University Faculty of Medicine, and received a PhD in systems neuroscience from the Israeli Institute of Technology. He completed his neurosurgical training at the Tel-Aviv Medical Center, followed by two years of combined research/clinical fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine. His practice will focus on neuromodulation for psychiatric disorders, surgical treatments for cancer pain, movement disorders and epilepsy. In his lab, he is investigating high-order cognition and network dependent functions such as creativity and mind wondering, as well as novel interventions for OCD, depression and PTSD. In addition, he is interested in advanced imaging and visual biopsies.
Dell Dunn, MD
TBA
Charles Ray, MD, PhD
Dr. Charles E. Ray, Jr. currently is Professor and Interim Chair of Radiology at the University of Utah School of Medicine. He previously served as Chair of Radiology and Interim Dean of the School of Medicine at University of Illinois College of Medicine. He trained at Rush University, University of Illinois, and Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Ray’s areas of research involve clinical research in the field of interventional oncology, particularly locoregional treatment of liver malignancies. He has a particular interest in cost analysis of oncologic interventions. He has published nearly 400 articles, abstracts, and book chapters, as well as nine books, and has delivered >400 lectures worldwide on a variety of topics related to the field of interventional radiology. He has served as President of the Society of Interventional Radiology and is the incoming co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology.
His clinical expertise includes oncologic interventions, particularly for primary and secondary liver tumors, and endovascular creation of dialysis fistulae. He is particularly passionate about combining interventional radiology treatments with systemic therapies and surgical options to optimize tailored treatments for patients. During his free time he enjoys hiking, fishing, skiing, and spending time with his wife (and dog) in the mountains.
David Strain, MD
Dr. Strain joined the University of Utah’s Interventional Radiology section in January 2022, assuming the role of Program Director for both the integrated and independent
residencies. He also serves as the course director for the University's interventional radiology rotations for residents and was previously course director for the medical student rotations.
A Utah native, Dr. Strain returned home after an extensive educational journey. He earned his BS in Biology from the University of Utah before moving to Philadelphia to attend Jefferson Medical College. He completed his internship at UPMC Mercy in Pittsburgh, followed by a diagnostic radiology residency at Albert Einstein Medical Center. He then finalized his subspecialty training with a fellowship in Vascular and Interventional Radiology at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Dr. Strain’s career spans both private practice and academia, including faculty positions at the University of Kentucky and the University of Arkansas. At Arkansas, he served as the Assistant Program Director for the IR residency and was course director for the third-year medical student radiology rotations.
Active on the national stage, Dr. Strain serves as an oral board examiner and maintains a presence within the Society of Interventional Radiology. His contributions include work with the Early Career and Resident/Fellow sections, as well as the "Vision to Heal" campaign. Currently, he is a member of the Practice Improvement and Change Committee.
Udunna Anazodo, PhD
Udunna Anazodo, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, is also a member of the Neuroimaging and Neuroinformatics research group at The Neuro. She joined The Neuro from the Lawson Health Research Institute in London, Ontario where she was Assistant Professor of Medical Biophysics.
Udunna’s research at The Neuro focuses on intelligent PET imaging for mapping brain health: from molecules to mind. Her lab combines positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to provide a multimodal imaging approach for detecting subtle and early changes in brain function, physiology and neurochemistry. Her current focus is on the optimization of next-generation ultra-high-resolution PET imaging systems to permit molecular brain imaging with unprecedented spatial precision and sensitivity. Over the next five years, they will develop leading-edge intelligent PET image reconstruction and image analysis tools that leverage advances in machine learning to enable brain imaging in clinical populations at ultra-high spatial resolution and unmatched sensitivity.
Jens Gühring
Director of Product Management - SW at Siemens Healthineers
Adrienne Campbell-Washburn, PhD
Dr. Campbell-Washburn is a Senior Scientist at Sunnybrook Research Institute in Toronto, Ontario, having recently relocated from the National Institutes of Health, USA, where she was a Senior Investigator. She received her BSc in physics from the University of Western Ontario and her PhD in medical physics from University College London in London UK. Dr. Campbell-Washburn’s research focuses on the development of novel MRI technology for cardiac imaging, pulmonary imaging, and MRI-guided cardiovascular catheterization procedures, as well as the translation of this technology for patient exams. Specifically, Dr. Campbell-Washburn’s lab develops rapid imaging methods and advanced low-latency image reconstruction methods that integrate high performance computing into the clinical environment. Recently, her lab pioneered a high-performance 0.55T MRI system, which has been commercialized as a more accessible imaging technology, and demonstrated its value for cardiopulmonary imaging applications. Dr. Campbell-Washburn has published over 95 peer-reviewed papers, and she has taken on active roles in the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) and the Society for Cardiovascular MRI (SCMR).
Rita Nassanga, MD
TBA
