Walter Dawson is an Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health with the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI) at the University of California, San Francisco and faculty at the Portland State University Institute on Aging. His research focuses on reducing the economic burden of dementia and interventions to support brain health as well as long-term services and supports financing reform initiatives.

A Fulbright Scholar, Dawson previously held the Visiting Research Chair in Governance and Public Policy at Canada’s McMaster University. Dawson also has extensive health policy experience in Oregon and Washington, DC as staff at the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging and the National Academy of Social Insurance. Dawson holds a master’s from the London School of Economics, and a doctorate in social policy from the University of Oxford.