Maureen K. O'Connor, PsyD


Maureen K. O'Connor, PsyD

Dr. O'Connor graduated with a bachelor's degree from Ithaca College, where she majored in both psychology and religion. She received her doctorate in psychology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, focusing her dissertation on the differentiation of depression versus Alzheimer's disease. She attended Yale University School of Medicine for her predoctoral internship, where she conducted outpatient and inpatient memory evaluations for adults with a broad range of diagnostic presentations, including dementia, traumatic brain injury, and stroke. She went on to complete one year of postdoctoral residency at Cornell Weil Medical Center/Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and two additional years of residency at the Bedford VA Hospital/Boston University School of Medicine. In 2005 she accepted an appointment at the Bedford VA Hospital as the Director of Neuropsychology. In that role she established the Memory Diagnostic Clinic at the Bedford VA Hospital, specifically designed to evaluate and treat older Veterans with memory loss. In 2008 she was awarded board certification in neuropsychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology. In 2009 she accepted the Young Alumni Achievement Award from the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She has served on the board of the Massachusetts Neuropsychological Society as the Chair of the Continuing Education Committee and the National Academy of Neuropsychology (NAN) as the Chair of the Education Committee. She currently serves on the board of NAN as a Member-at-Large. In 2013 she was appointed the Associate Director of the Education Core at Boston University in the Alzheimer's Disease Center. In 2014 she was promoted to the rank of Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. O'Connor's research interests include understanding and developing interventions to improve the lives of adults with memory loss and the lives of the family members that help provide care. In 2005 she received a pilot grant from the Boston University Alzheimer's Disease Center to study the effect of exercise training on cognition. In 2006 she was the recipient of a New Investigator Research Grant from the National Alzheimer's Association designed to study the impact of caregiver training on managing neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia. In 2014 she received a Research, Rehabilitation, and Development SPiRE Award to study the impact of an intervention designed to educate older adults about brain aging and dementia and lifestyle factors that contribute to brain aging. In addition to her ongoing research activities, Dr. O'Connor continues to evaluate and treat individuals with memory loss while teaching doctoral students, interns, and residents in neuropsychology.