Dr. Rivera Mindt is a board-certified neuropsychologist and community-engaged researcher. Her work focuses on the intersection between cultural neuroscience and brain health equity.
At Fordham University, Dr. Rivera Mindt is the first Afro-Latinx/Indigenous woman to earn tenured, Full Professor status within the Department Psychology and to serve as Director of Training within the APA-accredited Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program (CPDP). She currently serves as Co-Director of the CPDP Neuropsychology Major Area of Specialization. She holds joint appointments in the Latin American and Latino Studies Institute and African & African American Studies.
At the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Dr. Rivera Mindt is a Professor of Neurology with a joint appointment in the Friedman Brain Institute. Her Mount Sinai laboratory is situated within the community in the heart of Harlem USA, where she and her team work with and serve the community through numerous community partnerships (e.g., Harlem Community and Academic Partnership, East Harlem Community Health Committee).
The overarching aim of her work is to characterize and understand brain health inequities in cognitive aging to inform culturally responsive, evidence-based interventions and policies geared towards improving brain health outcomes among minoritized, underrepresented populations (URPs; e.g., Latinx, Black/African-American, Asian, American Indian; low resource and rural settings). Her research primarily centers on three lines of inquiry, including:
- genetic, cerebrovascular, behavioral, and sociocultural risk and modifiable resilience factors for cognitive and functional impairment and dementia in middle-aged and older adults from URPs (e.g. R01AG065110; 2U19AG024904-16; K23MH079718);
- advanced approaches for early detection of cognitive impairment and dementia in middle-aged and older adults from URPs (R56AG075744; R01AG066471); and
- ways to increase the inclusion and engagement of URPs in cognitive aging and Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) research and the AD/ADRD workforce (U01AG082350, U19AG024904-16; R13AG071313; Genentech FR-008257; U19AG078109-01; SC3GM141996). I theoretically contextualize herwork within a Biopsychosociocultural Framework, which I first published in 2008 (Rivera Mindt et al., 2008; PMC2696232), with an emphasis on sociocultural determinants of brain health.
Dr. Rivera Mindt’s current funding portfolio as a PI/MPI totals ~$200 million, and is supported by the NIH/NIA, the Alzheimer’s Association, and Genentech. She has built and sustained a culturally-informed, productive, and novel independent program of research through a team science approach and by successfully competing for extramural funding for 20+ years. Since 2019, she has also developed new, highly fruitful collaborations with leading scientists from all over the country.
Moving forward, Dr. Rivera Mindt is excited to further build her research program and portfolio within the field to: advance healthy and equitable cognitive aging for all people; accelerate the representation of diverse populations in aging and AD/ADRD research; train the next generation of scientists (particularly from URPs); and inform public health policy.
EQUITY, JUSTICE, & INCLUSION
Dr. Rivera Mindt’s life’s work is to understand and promote healthy brain- and cognitive aging for all people across the adult lifespan, including minoritized, underrepresented populations. Thus, EJI spans all aspects of her work:
Research
Community-engaged research (CER) is an evidence-based approach to increase the inclusion/engagement of underrepresented populations in dementia research. Dr. Rivera Mindt is one of very few neuroscientists in the county who is also a formally-trained in CER. She gratefully received this training through Mount Sinai’s Center for Multicultural and Community Affairs’ (CMCA) Faculty Scholar Program (2007-2009) under the incredible mentorship of Ann-Gel Palermo, DPH (now Senior Associate Dean for DEI at Mount Sinai). For the past 15+ years, she has utilized CER methods to sustain equitable, trustworthy research partnerships with community-based organizations (CBOs) in Harlem and with local and national Community-Science Partnership Boards. Her studies typically enroll ~50+% participants from underrepresented populations (e.g., Black, Latinx), and virtually all of her grants focus on brain health inequities and utilize CER methods, e.g., SALUD (R01AG065110), BEYONDD (R56AG075744), ADNI4 Engagement Core (U19AG024904-16).
Teaching
At Fordham University, Dr. Rivera Mindt teaches an undergraduate Multicultural Psychology course and an EJI-integrated Neuropsychology graduate course. At Mount Sinai, she has provided guest lectures for one graduate course: Culture, Illness and Community Health Outcomes (CLR207; 2008 & 2011-2017) and numerous seminars, didactics and lectures across ISMMS on topics of brain health equity, cultural neuropsychology, and cultural competence (see Intramural Presentations section). Also, across the span of her career, her trainees (N =50+) include 50% persons from ethnoculturally/linguistically diverse populations and 50% women and non-gender conforming persons.
EJI Leadership/Service
2000-2002 Founding Member of the Women in Neuropsychology Steering Committee, American Psychological Association (APA) Division 40 (Society for Clinical Neuropsychology)
2003 – 2006 Co-Chair, Ethnic Minority Affairs Steering Committee, APA Division 40 2016 – 2017 APA Leadership Institute for Women in Psychology Fellow
2016 – 2017 Co-Chair, HNS Conference Program Committee
2016 – 2017 Co-Chair, Education and Training Subcommittee of the Cultural
Neuropsychology National Summit Meeting
2016 – 2017 Co-Chair, Cultural Neuropsychology National Summit 2017 Meeting 2016 – 2020 President-Elect * President * Past-President (Elected Position), Hispanic
Neuropsychological Society (HNS)
2018 – Co-Founder & Co-Chair, Wisdom Workgroup for Indigenous Neuropsychology: A Global Strategy (Wisdom WINGS)
2022 – 2023 Content Expert, Minnesota 2022 Conference to Update Education and Training Guidelines in Clinical Neuropsychology, Equity, Justice, and Inclusion Workgroup
MENTORING
Dr. Rivera Mindt is deeply dedicated to mentoring and training the next generation of scientists to promote healthy, equitable cognitive aging. Dr. Rivera Mindt has formally mentored 50+ trainees over the course of her career, and has provided emergent, supportive mentoring to dozens more trainees from diverse backgrounds from across the country in need of culturally-informed mentorship and support.
Dr. Rivera Mindt co-leads multiple training programs dedicated to supporting the next generation of brain health equity scientists, including the Health Equity Scholars Program (HESP; https://hesp.medicine.wisc.edu/) and the Black Men’s Brain Health Emerging Scholars Program (ESP; https://www.mensbrainhealth.org/scholars). She has also mentored 11 NIH-funded training awards (e.g., F31, F32), 1 Alzheimer’s Association training award, 1 American Academy of Neurology Transcends Award, 27 dissertations, 15 Masters theses, and 15 honors theses. Moreover, ~65 of her 110+ peer-reviewed publications have been with students/trainees, as well as numerous scientific presentations at international and national conferences. The majority of her trainees have been women and persons from diverse backgrounds. Virtually all of her work with her early career colleagues is focused on research and care for minorized, underrepresented populations.
Dr. Rivera Mindt’s stellar record of teaching, mentorship, and training has been recognized with the 2005 Professor of the Year Award from Fordham University and the 2020 Martha Bernal Award for the Advancement of Diversity Training and Education in Clinical Psychology from the Council of University Directors of Clinical Psychology.
CLINICAL PROFILE
Dr. Rivera Mindt has developed a unique clinical profile, which complements her research interest in brain health equity. As a bilingual/bicultural neuropsychologist, Dr. Rivera Mindt is the first Afro-Latinx/Indigenous woman to earn board certification in Clinical Neuropsychology from the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) to her knowledge.
Her unique clinical expertise includes cultural neuropsychology and Spanish language neuropsychological evaluation. Over the last 20 years, she has provided numerous pro bono neuropsychological screenings and evaluations through her close affiliations with community-based organizations in East Harlem (a.k.a., Spanish Harlem or ‘El Barrio’).
Although Dr. Rivera Mindt is no longer practicing clinically due to her intensive research commitments, she has continued to provide clinical supervision to dozens of clinical neuropsychology and psychology students within Fordham University’s Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program over the last 20 years.
