Education

  • University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama – PhD in Medical/Clinical Psychology (Neuropsychology Concentration)
  • Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island – Predoctoral Intern, Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior
  • Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland – Postdoctoral fellow, Aging and Age-Related Cognitive Disorders

Professional Activities

Dr. Ozioma Okonkwo is a faculty member in the Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology within the Department of Medicine. He is a neuropsychologist and executive committee member at the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer’s Prevention.

Dr. Okonkwo is a faculty trainer on six training programs at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. He has served on various committees, workgroups, and advisory boards, including NIH study sections, NIH-NINDS Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias Summit, the Alzheimer’s Association Expert Workgroup on the Research Framework for Alzheimer’s Disease, the Alzheimer’s Association Clinical Practice Guideline Panel on the Staging of Alzheimer’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Clinical Trial Consortium RER Unit, and Brain-Resilience Kenya; on the editorial board of several journals, including Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience and Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease; and on the Board of Directors of the International Neuropsychological Society. 

He has received an Early Career Award from the National Academy of Neuropsychology, an Early Career Impact Award from the Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences, a Vilas Early Career Faculty Investigator Award, and a Distinguished Scholar Alumni Award from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Research Interests

View Dr. Okonkwo’s Publications on NCBI My Bibliography

Dr. Okonkwo's research focuses on clarifying how alterations in the brain and other biomolecules (such as cerebrospinal fluid β-amyloid) place some cognitively-normal individuals on a pernicious trajectory that culminates in Alzheimer’s disease. He is also interested in discovering new knowledge concerning the modulation of the link between brain changes and cognitive decline by both modifiable factors like  cognitively-stimulating activities or physical exercise, and non-modifiable factors such as genetic vulnerability. Overlaid on this research agenda are investigations of health accessibility, and how such accessibility exacerbates or ameliorates the impact of biomarkers on clinical phenotypes.

This program of research leverages the broad state-of-the-art resources at UW-Madison, including the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer’s Prevention, the Wisconsin Sleep Cohort, the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging, the Wisconsin Institute for Medical Research Medical Imaging Services Core, and the UW Biotechnology Center. It involves partnerships with colleagues in geriatrics, neuroradiology, medical physics, biostatistics, genetic epidemiology, exercise physiology, population health, and clinical chemistry; and has been supported by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging (NIH/NIA), the Alzheimer’s Association, and other foundations.

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