2014 Virtual Summit: Shaping the Practice and the Future of Brain Fitness
The 2014 SharpBrains Virtual Summit featured over 40 of the world’s top scientists, innovators and practitioners working on evidence-based and scalable ways to define, measure and promote brain fitness. The Summit, now in its fifth year, provides a vibrant and convenient forum to discuss the latest in consumer and patient needs, cognitive and brain science, digital technologies, videogames, mental health, human capital, lifelong learning, and senior services.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a virtual conference? The SharpBrains Virtual Summit is just like a physical conference — registered participants can access all presentations, ask pressing questions, and connect with speakers and fellow participants.
I couldn’t participate in the live Summit. Can I access the recordings somehow? Yes, all sessions were recorded and are available for purchase here.
How can my organization become a Summit Sponsor or Partner next year? Please contact us to discuss details.
Do you offer press passes? Please contact us with details on your publication and idea.
What participants say about the 2014 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
“Another impressive edition of the SharpBrains Summit. Unique combination of vision and lessons learned, of shared enthusiasm to engage and empower consumers thanks to emerging knowledge about the brain, of a strong zeal to achieve social impact without making misleading claims. Looking forward to next year!” — Keith Epstein, Senior Strategy Advisor at AARP
“Kudos for such a fantastic conference. The discussion about human vs. artificial intelligence and ethics was especially exciting.” — Rajiv Pant, Chief Technology Officer of The New York Times
“I believe that cognitive function and brain science are the new frontiers in health promotion, and I know of no better resource than SharpBrains to explore the latest and what’s next. Excellent discussions and overall event.” — Dr. Michael P. O’Donnell, Editor-In-Chief of the American Journal of Health Promotion
“I was impressed by the forward-looking yet practical discussion about enhancing human performance, involving such a range of cross-sector pioneers. A pleasure to be involved!” — Dr. Susan Jewell, President of the International Space Medicine Consortium
“A perfect way to keep the pulse of 3 key innovation themes: mobile apps and wearables, consumer health, and applied neuroscience.” — Jack Young, Head of Qualcomm Life Fund
“Congratulations on convening such a compelling group of speakers and participants. The implementation was super high-quality and seamless. Nicely done!” — Eddie Martucci, VP Research & Development at Akili Interactive Labs
“A great way to gather current information on brain health from a variety of sources and to make new connections” — Dr. Catherine Madison, Director of the Ray Dolby Brain Health Center at California Pacific Medical Center
“It is incredibly hard to get such a diverse array of experts together in one “room” — Congrats on a great Summit” — Aki Nikolaidis, NSF Fellow at the University of Illinois Champaign Urbana
“The SharpBrains Summit is unique in its impressive ability to unite a diverse collection of cutting-edge thinkers in a “virtual” conference that is shared globally without a hitch.” — Dr. Adam Gazzaley, Director of the Neuroscience Imaging Center at UCSF
“An impressive virtual convocation of leading scientists and developers and adopters of cognitive enhancement technology.” — Dr. Robert Bilder, Chief of Medical Psychology-Neuropsychology, UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience
“The SharpBrains team has done another fantastic job, producing the best brain conference available today.” — Dharma Singh Khalsa, MD, President, Alzheimer’s Research and Prevention Foundation
“Great combination of emerging research with real life case studies. It puts us several years ahead of what appears in more popular publication sources and conferences.” — Steve Zanon, Founder, Proactive Ageing
Summit Steering Group
Alexandra Morehouse, VP Brand Management at Kaiser PermanenteAlexandra M. Morehouse is the Vice President of Brand Management at Kaiser Permanente. She is responsible for all aspects of digital, social, and traditional marketing of Kaiser Permanente, one of the nation’s largest not-for-profit health plans, serving more than 9 million members. Previously, Ms. Morehouse was CMO of AAA, where she oversaw all strategy, advertising, branding, media relations, and customer relationship management for AAA. Ms. Morehouse has also served as co-chair of the Harvard Business School Global Technology Conference and on the boards of the Harvard Business School Community Partners, SnapFish, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, ODC Dance, and UC Davis. She graduated with high honors from Harvard University and has an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. |
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Alvaro Fernandez, CEO of SharpBrainsAlvaro Fernandez, named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, is the CEO of SharpBrains, an independent market research and think tank tracking health and well-being applications of brain science. He has been quoted by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and CNN, among others. Mr. Fernandez is the co-author of the new book “The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness: How to Optimize Brain Health and Performance at Any Age” (284 pages; April 2013), recognized as a “Best Book” by AARP, and the editor-in-chief of the market report “The Digital Brain Health Market 2012–2020: Web-based, mobile and biometrics-based technology to assess, monitor and enhance cognition and brain functioning.” He started his career at McKinsey & Co, and led the launch and turn-around of several education-related start-ups. Alvaro has an MBA and MA in Education from Stanford University, and a BA in Economics from Universidad de Deusto. |
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Andrew Lee, Vice President at AetnaAndrew Lee is Vice-President at Aetna, where he is Head of Hospitalist Solutions, a new, non-insurance business launched in 2011 to improve the way acute care is delivered in US hospitals. Prior positions at Aetna include Chief-of-Staff to the President and Head of Aetna’s Office of Public Policy. Before joining Aetna in 2005, Lee was Executive Director of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. Lee is a Trustee of the Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. Lee is co-author of The State of the Native Nations. He holds an AB from Hamilton College and a MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. In 2011 he was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. |
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Bill Reichman, President of BaycrestDr. William E. Reichman is President and Chief Executive Officer of Baycrest, one of the world’s premier academic health sciences centres focused on aging and brain function. Dr. Reichman, an internationally-known expert in geriatric mental health and dementia is also Professor of Psychiatry on the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. He is a noted authority on the delivery of mental health and dementia services in nursing home settings. Dr. Reichman is a former President of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry and the Geriatric Mental Health Foundation. |
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Corinna E. Lathan, Founder and CEO of AnthroTronixDr. Corinna Lathan co-founded AnthroTronix and is currently Board Chair and Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Lathan’s diverse background includes extensive research, teaching, and consulting in the areas of human performance engineering, medical device design, and assistive technology. Her work with children with disabilities and robotics has been featured in Forbes, Time, and the New Yorker magazines as well as led to such distinctions as Maryland’s “Top Innovator of the Year,” MIT Technology Review Magazine’s “Top 100 World Innovators,” and one of Fast Company Magazines “Most Creative People in Business.” She has also been named a Technology Pioneer and a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and is currently on their Global Agenda Council for Robotics and Smart devices. She is actively involved in educational outreach programs that empower women and minorities in science and technology. |
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Kenneth Kosik, Co-Director of the UC Santa Barbara Neuroscience Research InstituteDr. Kosik is the Co-Director of UCSB Neuroscience Research Institute. He received his M.D. degree from the Medical College of Pennsylvania, completed a neurology residency from Tufts New England Medical Center, and held various appointments at the Harvard Medical School. In the fall of 2004 he assumed the co-directorship of the Neuroscience Research Institute and the Harriman Chair at the University of California Santa Barbara. He has received multiple awards, including a Whitaker Health Sciences Award from MIT, the Derek Denny-Brown Neurological Scholar Award from the ANA, the Zenith Award from the Alzheimer’s Association, and a NASA Group Achievement Award. |
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Kate Sullivan, Director of the Brain Fitness Center at Walter Reed National Military Medical CenterKate Sullivan M.S., CCC-SLP, CBIS completed her undergraduate and graduate degrees in Communication Sciences and Disorders at James Madison University. She has been a speech-language pathologist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for 10 years where she recently helped launch the Brain Fitness Center (BFC), located in the WRAMC’s Military Advanced Training Center, to complement traditional care approaches. To document results so far, her team recently published Outcomes from a Pilot Study using Computer-Based Rehabilitative Tools in a Military Population at Studies in Health Technology and Informatics. Kate has written articles on the BFC for providers and patients and the BFC at Walter Reed was featured on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.” |
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Manuel López-Figueroa, Vice President at Bay City CapitalManuel López-Figueroa, PhD, specializes in evaluating investment opportunities with an emphasis on CNS. He is also the Scientific Liaison for the Pritzker Neuropsychiatric Disorders Research Consortium, a collaborative research enterprise comprised of a group of leaders in psychiatry, neuroscience and genetics from Stanford University, University of Michigan, Cornell University and the Universities of California at Davis and Irvine. Dr. López received a PhD in Medicine and Surgery, and a MS in Molecular and Cell Biology from the Universities of Las Palmas and La Laguna, Spain, respectively, and won numerous awards during his academic research career. |
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Naif Al-Mutawa, Clinical Director of the Soor Center for Cognitive Behavioral PsychotherapyDr. Al-Mutawa brings an extensive background in clinical psychology to his work—he holds a PhD in Clinical Psychology and a Masters in Organizational Psychology from Teacher’s College, Columbia University—but also on-the-ground experience working with former prisoners of war in Kuwait, as well as at Bellevue Hospital in New York. In addition to international media attention, Dr. Al-Mutawa has received a raft of honors for his genre-busting, tolerance-promoting comics series, including the Festival Internacional de Humour e Quadrinhos Comics Award in Brazil and the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations “Marketplace of Ideas” Award. In May 2009, he received The Schwab Foundation’s Social Entrepreneurship Award at the World Economic Forum on The Middle East, in Jordan. |
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Tan Le, CEO of Emotiv LifesciencesTan Le is a technology entrepreneur, business executive and sought-after speaker. She is founder and CEO of Emotiv Lifesciences, a bioinformatics company that advances understanding of the human brain and identifies biomarkers for mental and other neurological conditions using electroencephalography (EEG). She is pursuing the dream of performing inexpensive and widespread brain function screening to catch early signs of autism, epilepsy, learning disabilities, ADHD, and other conditions. Tan has received many awards; she was named among Forbes‘ 50 Names You Need to Know in 2011. In 2009, she was honored by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader, and in 2011, she was recognized with the AutoVision Innovations Award and honored as a Monash University Distinguished Alumni Award recipient. |