Nancy A. Pachana

Following completion of her PhD, Nancy undertook postdoctoral training in her specialty area of geropsychology, including fellowships at the Palo Alto Veteran's Hospital and the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute, before joining the School of Psychology at The University of Queensland, Australia, in 2000. She is a practicing clinical geropsychologist and neuropsychologist, has an active research program and has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and books on various topics in the field of aging. Her main research questions focus on older adults and span a range of geriatric mental health and psychosocial topics such as anxiety in later life, early assessment of dementia, driving and aging, and health and well-being in later life. Nancy co-developed the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (GAI), a published short self-report inventory in wide clinical and research use globally, translated into two dozen+ languages, available commercially at http://www.gai.net.au/ She is co-founder and co-director of The University of Queensland Ageing Mind Initiative, providing a focal point for clinical, translational aging-related research at The University. Currently she is also Director, Healthy Ageing Initiative, in the HaBS Faculty, and Program Lead, Age Friendly University Initiatives, at UQ.

In 2010 she was awarded an Australian Davos Connection (ADC) Future Summit Leadership Award, based on her expertise and leadership in the field of geropsychology. Nancy was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia in 2014. In 2019, she was awarded the M. Powell Lawton Award, the American Psychological Association’s Society of Clinical Geropsychology Lifetime Achievement Award. 

She is an avid bird-watcher, lover of cats, and a keen traveler.