Sarah Walter, PhD Candidate

Biography

Background

Sarah Walter is a part-time remote Post Graduate Research Student at the University of Edinburgh. Her project title is: "Empowering Research Ambassadors to Promote Participation of Under-served Communities in Alzheimer’s Clinical Trials"

Sarah is co-designing the program with a team of individuals with lived experience of dementia and research called the Research Ambassador Community Collective (RACC).

Sarah lives in San Diego, California, and works as the Program Administrator for the Alzheimer’s Clinical Trials Consortium (ACTC) and for the Alzheimer’s Therapeutic Research Institute (ATRI) at the University of Southern California. 

Research summary

Sarah leads Public and Participant Involvement (PPI) in Alzheimer's clinical trials, co-chairs an advisory board of research participants, and leads research on digital engagement and participant experience. 

Current research interests

Walter S, McArdle RÍ, Largent EA, et al. Public and participant involvement as a pathway to inclusive dementia research. Alzheimer's Dement. 2025; 21:e14350. https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.14350

Project activity

"Empowering Research Ambassadors to Promote Participation of Under-served Communities in Alzheimer’s Clinical Trials"

Our objective is to develop a programme that empowers volunteers to promote dementia research participation in under-served communities through culturally-tailored information, peer-led training and engagement. The programme will be developed using the method of Community-based Participatory Research (CBPR) to co-design the study and platform. The Research Ambassador Community Collective (RACC) is the co-design team and will ensure we are prioritizing the evidence most relevant to dementia and lived experiences of under-served communities.

The programme includes two phases:

Phase 1. A realist review of programmes to train and support volunteers to promote research participation.

Phase 2. A feasibility study of a platform to train and support research ambassadors. 

The project is currently under Ethics review

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