Sarah Garcia

Assistant Professor of Psychology

Sarah Garcia, PhD, is a clinical neuropsychologist who studies non-pharmacological interventions for cognitive decline in a variety of medical populations. Her past work has examined cognitive deficits in a wide variety of populations (e.g. heart failure, bariatric surgery candidates, and dementia) as well as the use of exercise, sleep and electrical stimulation as potential preventative and treatment approaches.

  • PhD, clinical psychology, Kent State University, 2015
  • MA, Clinical Psychology, Kent State University, 2013
  • BA, Psychology, the College of Wooster, 2009

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Sarah Garcia

Biography

Sarah Garcia, PhD, is a clinical neuropsychologist who studies non-pharmacological interventions for cognitive decline in a variety of medical populations. Her past work has examined cognitive deficits in a wide variety of populations (e.g. heart failure, bariatric surgery candidates, and dementia) as well as the use of exercise, sleep and electrical stimulation as potential preventative and treatment approaches.

Garcia has received the Lillian Freedman Award and an award from the Michigan Alzheimer's Disease Center for her research as an Early Investigator. In addition to her graduate work, Garcia has also completed clinical work through her internship at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and through her post-doctoral fellowship in Neuropsychology at the University of Michigan.

More About Sarah Garcia

Areas of Expertise

  • Health psychology

Course Sampling

  • Health Psychology
  • Abnormal Psychology
  • Clinical and Counseling Psychology

  • Goldstein, C. M., Gathright, E. C., & Garcia, S. (2017). The relationship between depression and medication adherence in Cardiovascular Disease: The perfect challenge for the integrated care team. Patient Preference and Adherence.
  • Gillis, M.M., Garcia, S., & Hampstead, BM (2016). Working memory contributes to the encoding of object location associations: support for a 3-part model of object location memory. Behavioural Brain Research, 311, 192-200.
  • Garcia, S., & Gunstad, J. (2015). Sleep as a modifiable risk factor in age-associated cognitive decline. Sleep and Biological Rhythms, 14(1), 3-11.
  • Spitznagel, M., Hawkins, M., Alosco, M., Galioto, R., Garcia, S., Miller, L., & Gunstad, J. (2015). Neurocognitive effects of obesity and bariatric surgery. European Eating Disorders Review, 23(6), 488-495.
  • Fedor, A., Garcia, S., & Gunstad, J. (2015). The effects of a brief, water-based exercise intervention on cognitive function in older adults. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 30(2), 139-147.
  • Garcia, S., Calvo, D., Spitznagel, M.B., Sweet, L., Josephson, R., Hughes, J., & Gunstad, J. (2014). Dairy intake associated with memory and pulsatility index in Heart Failure. The International Journal of Neuroscience, 125(4), 247-252.
  • Alosco, M.L., Garcia, S., Miller, L., & Gunstad, J. (2014). Neuropsychology of illicit drug use and impulse control disorders. In P.J. Snyder & P.D. Nussbaum (Eds.), Clinical Neuropsychology: A Pocket Handbook for Assessment. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
  • Galioto, R., Garcia, S., Spitznagel M.B., Strain, G., Devlin, M., Crosby, R.D., Mitchell, J.E., & Gunstad, J. (2014). The Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) is not sensitive to cognitive impairment in bariatric surgery candidates. Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases, 10(3), 553-557.
  • Garcia, S., Alosco, M.L., Spitznagel, M.B., Cohen, R., Raz, N., Sweet, L., Colbert, L., Josephson, R., Hughes, J., Rosneck, J., & Gunstad, J. (2013). Cardiovascular fitness associated with cognitive performance in Heart Failure patients enrolled in cardiac rehabilitation. BMC Cardiovascular Disorders, 13, 29.
  • Alosco, M.L., Spitznagel, M.B., Raz, N., Cohen, R., Sweet, L., Garcia, S., Josephson, R., van Dulmen, M., Hughes, J., Rosneck, J., & Gunstad, J. (2013). The interactive effects of cerebral perfusion and depression on cognitive function in older adults with Heart Failure. Psychosomatic Medicine, 75(7), 632-639.