Sherry L Willis

Sherry L. Willis is a research professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington. She previously held an appointment as professor of Human Development at the Pennsylvania State University. Her research has focused on age-related cognitive changes in later adulthood. In particular she is known for her work on behavioral interventions to remediate and enhance cognitive performance in community-dwelling normal elderly. She was a principal...See more

Sherry L. Willis is a research professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington. She previously held an appointment as professor of Human Development at the Pennsylvania State University. Her research has focused on age-related cognitive changes in later adulthood. In particular she is known for her work on behavioral interventions to remediate and enhance cognitive performance in community-dwelling normal elderly. She was a principal investigator on the ACTIVE study, a randomized controlled trial to examine the effects of cognitive interventions in the maintenance of everyday functioning in at-risk community-dwelling elderly, funded by NIA. She has been the codirector of the Seattle Longitudinal Study. In addition to her cognitive intervention research, she has conducted programmatic research on changes in everyday problem-solving competence in the elderly and cognitive predictors of competence. She and colleagues have developed several measures of Everyday Problem Solving. She is the co-author of the textbook Adult Development and Aging (with K.W. Schaie, now in its 5th edition). She has edited more than ten volumes on various aspects of adult development and cognition and has authored over a hundred publications in adult development. She has served as President of Division 20, Adult Development and Aging, American Psychological Association. She was a Fulbright Fellow in Sweden. She received a Faculty Scholar Medal for Outstanding Achievement and the Pauline Schmitt Russell Distinguished Research Career Award from the Pennsylvania State University, and the Paul and Margret Baltes award from Division 20 of the American Psychological Association. She currently has funding from NIA for a twenty-year follow-up of the ACTIVE randomized cognitive training trial and funding to archive the Seattle Longitudinal Study. See less