Roberta Davis has been a fixture of the University of Kentucky for the last 35 years. She has spent the last 26 at the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging. This western Kentuckian is proud of her heritage and believes it is important to know where and who you come from. Roberta is the ninth of 15 children. They grew up in the country, in the outskirts of Owensboro, in a small town called Whitesville. A typical day involved sharing clothing, toys, meals, chores, even the work of tending the garden. This rich upbringing shaped Roberta into the person she is today. You can often find Roberta bringing in herbs and a bouquet of fresh flowers from her garden! She is sincere, honest, a team player, and carries a positive attitude. Roberta shares that finding daily inspiration has been vital to her success. She recounts that growing up in her western Kentucky Catholic home, her parents had a sign above the kitchen door that read “It’s A Wonderful Life!” This phrase became her life mantra and helped guide daily choices of happiness and peace.
Roberta always knew she wanted to work with people. She is a person who gravitates toward others, always showing interest in those she meets. It was not until working on her graduate degree and pursuing a certificate in gerontology that she recognized she could use her people skills in the research field. When finished with her certificate, she worked at the Alzheimer’s Association, gaining more knowledge about people with Alzheimer’s disease and their families. It wasn’t long until she joined the Information Core (now ORE Core) at the Sanders-Brown Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, where she traveled throughout Kentucky sharing about the work of Sanders-Brown and providing caregiver training. That was a role Roberta enjoyed because it allowed her to use her people skills.
In 2009, Roberta became the first study coordinator for the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging's Down syndrome studies. After fifteen years, her focus on recruitment and retention remains. She reaches out to the families enrolled in the studies and those who are gaining interest in research participation through phone calls and emails, providing a personal touch.
Both of her roles have allowed her to meet people across the Commonwealth, especially caregivers. She has met true heroes: those who are raising a child with Down syndrome and those who are caring for friends or family members with dementia.
Roberta shares that she has grown a lot both personally and professionally in her position. While brain donation is not a requirement for participation in Down syndrome studies, research participants may decide at some point during the study that they would like to donate their brains at the end of their lives. In the beginning of Roberta’s career, there was great difficulty talking to families about death and the importance of brain donation. As the years have passed, Roberta has become more comfortable having these discussions. She has developed skills to talk about it, and understands it as more of a process, one which takes time to develop a relationship and build trust. Timing and respect for individuals are important. Roberta explains that she never thought she would be talking about death, but it is no longer uncomfortable for her. “If a person is dedicated to research, this is the ultimate gift and the ultimate way to be a research volunteer…. It’s a gift that keeps giving back to the world. A little bit of immortality as their brain tissue is preserved and continues to help the world.” Roberta shares that about 20 people have donated their brains and 19 are enrolled to donate through the Down syndrome studies at Sanders-Brown. That number leads the way among the Alzheimer’s Biomarkers Consortium Down Syndrome (ABC-DS), the research initiative to find biomarkers to track Alzheimer's disease in people with Down syndrome.
Roberta’s work continues to be rewarding. She is making a difference, one person at a time. Each day she says to herself, “I did a little something today that will make a difference in our future children, grandchildren…How could I not keep coming to work? That is a motivator!” Roberta’s lifelong goal is to contribute to a cure for Alzheimer’s, and she is doing just that.