Heather Snyder
Dr. Snyder is the Director, Medical and Scientific Relations at Alzheimer's Association and assists with oversight of the Alzheimer's Association International Research Grant Program, the world's largest nonprofit initiative to advance Alzheimer's research. Since 1982, the Association has committed $292 million to more than 2,000 best-of-field investigators worldwide. In addition to assisting with smooth review of proposals and distribution of awards to successful applicants, Dr. Snyder assumes primary responsibility for metrics and qualitative assessments to enhance the program's effectiveness and impact, and for communicating program results to a wide range of audiences. She also collaborates with the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the U.S. agency leading federally funded Alzheimer's research, to conduct an ongoing comprehensive portfolio analysis of Alzheimer's Association-supported research.
Dr. Snyder also plays a key supporting role in other Alzheimer's Association science activities, including the Association's leadership of the World Wide Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (WW-ADNI); the Alzheimer's Association Quality Control Program for CSF Biomarkers to facilitate cross-institutional consistency in analyzing Alzheimer's-related spinal fluid proteins; its Everyday Technologies for Alzheimer's Care (ETAC) grant partnership with Intel Corporation; and the Alzheimer's Association Research Roundtable. She participates in the Technology Group of the Alzheimer's Association International Society to Advance Alzheimer's Research and Treatment (ISTAART), the only professional society designed exclusively for individuals dedicated to Alzheimer's and dementia science.
After earning an undergraduate degree in biology and religious studies at the University of Virginia, Dr. Snyder moved on to graduate and postgraduate studies in Chicago, completing her Ph.D. at Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine and a postdoctoral fellowship in the neurobiology program at Children's Memorial Research Center of Northwestern University.