Marcus Perez, B.A.

Marcus is a first-year Master’s student in the Clinical Psychology Master’s Program (Research
Track) at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). He earned his B.A. in Psychology from
the University of California, Riverside in 2020. Since 2022, Marcus has served as a staff research assistant for UCLA’s Adult Aging Brain Connectome study under Drs. Robert Welsh and Dara Ghahremani. In this role, he manages biospecimen authorization, leads participant recruitment, and oversees all in-person sessions,
including biospecimen collection, processing, and MRI operations. He also administers cognitive fMRI tasks and neuropsychological assessments. Beyond data collection, Marcus is responsible for post-session data management, fund oversight for imaging and biospecimen resources, and training new research staff. He is also dedicated to mentoring undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds, supporting their research engagement through poster presentations and capstone projects. Marcus’s research interests lie at the intersection of socioeconomics, lifestyle, and genetics in relation to neurodegenerative disease development. He plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Neuropsychology to further explore these factors and their impact on brain health and aging.