CEU Event: Brain-WISE: A Group-Based Program for Brain Health and Dementia Risk Reduction
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November 4, 2025
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
Delaware Speech-Language-Hearing Association Presents
A Virtual Evening Meeting: Tuesday, November 4th, 2025, 6:30pm- 8:00pm
Course title: Brain-WISE: A Group-Based Program for Brain Health and Dementia Risk Reduction
Presenters:
Matthew Cohen, Ph.D.
Kimberly Van Buren, M.S., CCC-SLP
Mindy Myers, M.A., CCC-SLP
Short speaker bios:
Matthew Cohen, Ph.D. is a clinical neuropsychologist and an Associate Professor in the University of Delaware Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders. His research focuses on the primary and secondary prevention of dementia from Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
Kimberly Van Buren, M.S., CCC-SLP is a speech language pathologist with over 13 years of clinical experience in the assessment and treatment of adults with a range of communication, cognition, and swallowing disorders. She currently serves as a Clinical Educator, mentoring graduate students in their journey to becoming skilled and confident clinicians.
Mindy Myers, M.A., CCC-SLP is a speech language pathologist with 15 years of experience with assessment and treatment of adults in the acute care and outpatient settings. She currently works at the University of Delaware Speech-Language-Hearing clinic as a Clinical Educator, and also at the Christiana Hospital in the acute care setting.
Course description:
As many as 45% of cases of dementia could be prevented. SLPs can play a role in promoting brain health, reducing the risk of dementia, and delivering interventions for mild cognitive impairment. This session describes the Brain-WISE program, a group-based intervention emphasizing education, motivation, and personalized health behavior change.
Course instructional level: Intermediate
Instructional methods: Lecture
Learning objectives:
- Identify ways for SLPs to address modifiable risk factors for dementia
- Summarize core components of the Brain-WISE intervention for dementia risk reduction.
- Brainstorm practical strategies for integrating brain health behaviors into routine clinical practice with aging adults.
Time ordered agenda:
| 6:30-6:40 | Introduction and Disclosures |
| 6:40-6:55 | Modifiable risk factors for dementia, motivation for Brain-WISE, and research design of pilot trial |
| 6:55-7:25 | Description of Brain-WISE program components and implementation
Student involvement with stats on learning outcomes. |
| 7:25-7:35 | Pilot trial findings |
| 7:35-7:50 | Practical strategies for integrating brain health behaviors into clinical practice with aging adults |
| 7:50-8:00 | Q&A |
Financial and non-financial disclosures:
Each presenter is a paid employee of the University of Delaware. No presenter has any financial or non-financial relationship relevant to the presentation that requires disclosure.
Registration & Satisfactory Completion Requirement:
Register online by Saturday November 1st at 12pm : https://dsha.org/events
Members should login before attempting to register.
Cost: Members= Free , Non-Members=35$
A link will be sent to registered attendees only, the day before the event.
In order to earn a certificate of completion for this course, participants must attend the full session, complete a post-course self-assessment, and course evaluation. Participants must indicate when signing up for the course if they would like their participation reported to ASHA CE.
Partial credit will not be awarded, attendance will be monitored throughout the
presentation.
A post-test will be sent to all attendees following the event and must be
completed and returned to DSHA within the stated time frame in order to receive
a certificate of attendance.
Additionally, in order to receive a certificate of attendance, an attendee must be a
registered DSHA member or, pay the non-member registration fee in advance of
the event. Failure to meet one of these conditions will result in the attendee not
receiving their certificate of attendance and their attendance will not be reported
to ASHA.
1.5 PDHs will be offered for attendance and successful completion of post
presentation testing and evaluation.

