Kara Dassel is a professor in the College of Nursing at the University of Utah. Dassel earned her doctorate in gerontology from the University of Kentucky and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. Her research interests focus on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, end-of-life care planning, and caregiver health outcomes. Her research team created an advance care planning conversation guide, known as the LEAD Guide (Life-Planning in Early Alzheimer’s and Other Dementias), which serves as the foundation for a National Institute on Aging (NIA)-funded clinical trial aimed at promoting engagement in advance care planning in community-based dyads. On a community level, she is an active volunteer with the Utah Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association as a community educator, caregiver support group leader, and member of the professional advisory board.
