UF student receives funding for aging research

A graduate student at the University of Florida’s College of Public Health and Health Professions has received a national award to support her aging research.

Vonetta Dotson, working in the department of clinical and health psychology, is the recipient of a minority dissertation research grant in aging from the National Institute on Aging. The grants are awarded to encourage underrepresented minority students from a variety of academic disciplines and programs to conduct research related to aging.

Dotson studies the combined effect of aging and depression in older adults and whether or not it leads to greater cognitive decline. For her doctoral dissertation research, Dotson will measure behavior and electrical activity in the brain in younger and older adults who vary in their depressive symptoms.

Clinical and health psychology faculty member William Perlstein, Ph.D., an assistant professor, and Michael Marsiske, Ph.D., an associate professor, serve as Dotson’s research advisers.