Andrea Gilmore-Bykovskyi, PhD, RN, associate professor with tenure and associate vice chair of research at the BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine, is among six honorees for the 2023 Outstanding Women of Color Awards. Established in 2007, the annual awards acknowledge and honor women of color at UW–Madison whose advocacy, activism, and/or scholarship has positively transformed their organizations or community, and whose efforts advance equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging for people of color.
The Women of Color Award honorees were announced at the 2023 UW-Madison Diversity Forum by Deputy Vice Chancellor and Chief Diversity Officer LaVar J. Charleston, PhD.
Gilmore-Bykovskyi is a field-leading researcher on collaborative innovations in care and health equity for cognitively vulnerable populations, and has profoundly impacted research, policy and clinical practice for patients living with dementia in the United States.
Gilmore-Bykovskyi directs an active program of research focused on promoting effective and equitable care and research for persons living with and at risk for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. She is a founding Deputy Director for the University of Wisconsin Center for Health Disparities Research, as well as Co-Lead and Investigator in the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center’s Care Research Core.
Her research lab is one of the first to lead large-scale investigations to understand lucid episodes that occur among people living with advanced stages of dementia. Gilmore-Bykovskyi and her team are currently conducting observations at a hospice facility to capture changes in communication abilities among people living with dementia to detect episodes of lucidity.
“These outstanding women are simply a representation of the countless women who have made excellence the standard within the academy and the community, while also humbly pouring into so many,” said Charleston. “Collectively, we want to make certain they know how valued they are by their villages, how respected and appreciated they are by their colleagues, and how loved they are by their family and friends.”
Award recipients will be honored at a campus-wide reception hosted by the Division of Diversity, Equity & Educational Achievement on Thursday, March 7, 2024, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. in Varsity Hall at Union South, 1308 W Dayton Street.