Our Faculty and Staff

Lisa Robison, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at NSU, where she also serves as Research Director. She attended Colgate University as an undergraduate, earning a degree in Molecular Biology. She received her Ph.D. in Integrative Neuroscience from Stony Brook University in 2017, where she studied the behavioral and physiological consequences of chronic Ritalin use, as well as the utility of aerobic exercise to prevent/treat substance use disorders. Her dissertation work investigated the effects of exercise and environmental enrichment on aging and Alzheimer’s disease. In her postdoctoral studies, Dr. Robison worked as a Research Associate at Albany Medical College, investigating sex differences in metabolic and vascular contributions to dementia, with particular interest in the effects of high fat diet and metabolic disease.

At NSU, Dr. Robison’s research uses rodent models of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias to study how factors such as diet, metabolic health, traumatic brain injury, reproductive experience, and biological sex affect cognition, vascular and neuropathological changes, and disease progression. In collaboration with NSU faculty in the medical school and College of Pharmacy, her lab also evaluates repurposed pharmacological approaches aimed at preventing or slowing cognitive decline and neurodegeneration. By integrating behavioral testing with molecular, histological, and physiological measures, her research seeks to better understand the mechanisms that contribute to dementia risk and identify interventions with potential to preserve brain health across the lifespan.