Laura D. Baker PhD

Dr. Baker is co-chair of the ACTC Non-Pharmacological Interventions Committee and leads the Inclusion/Diversity Committee of the Recruitment Unit.

Dr. Baker is also the lead co-Principal Investigator of U.S. POINTER and co-PI of the U.S. POINTER Coordinating Center at Wake Forest School of Medicine. She is also PI, co-PI, or Project Director of three other large national studies focused on Alzheimer’s prevention, including the Women’s Health Initiative Sleep Hypoxia Effects on Resilience (WHISPER) study, the Cocoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study for the Mind (COSMOS-Mind), and Aerobic Exercise to Slow Cognitive Decline in Mild Cognitive Impairment (EXERT). She has held leadership positions for numerous NIH multi-site clinical studies (ADAPT, ADAPT-FS, Look AHEAD, WHIMS-ECHO, WHIMS-Y), and has been an investigator of over 50 clinical trials focused on aging, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer’s disease, which has resulted in over 75 first- or co-authored publications. She is Associate Director of the NIA Alzheimer’s Disease Core Center at Wake Forest School of Medicine, and Leader of the Center’s Outreach and Recruitment Core and Research Education Component Core. In addition to her research, her work also focuses on increasing racial and ethnic diversity in AD clinical studies, and recently served on the NIA/Alzheimer’s Association National task force to develop new strategies for recruitment and retention in Alzheimer's prevention and treatment trials.