Troy Christian Andersen, PhD., MSW, MS, LCSW, Executive Director, W. D. Goodwill Initiatives on Aging and  Associate Professor/lecturer in the College of Social Work at the University of Utah.  Dr. Andersen is a dementia specialist clinical social worker at the Center for Alzheimer’s Care, Imaging and Research at the University Of Utah School Of Medicine.  Dr. Andersen received his PhD in Social Work with an emphasis in developing proactive dementia care services for individuals in the early stages of the disease and other aging related topics.

In 2010, Dr. Andersen was selected as a John A. Hartford Doctoral Fellow in Geriatric Social Work, a two year fellowship with emphasis on developing enhanced research and teaching skills on issues related to older adults.   He was awarded the Anna Dresel Award for outstanding graduate student in Gerontology.  Mr. Andersen received a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Utah, a Master’s degree in Social Work from Brigham Young University, a Master’s degree in Gerontology from the University of Utah, and a PhD in Social Work at the University of Utah.

For the last ten years, Dr. Andersen has worked for the University Of Utah School of Medicine’s Center for Alzheimer’s Care, Imaging and Research.  This center operates a multi-disciplinary subspecialty neurology clinic where he works daily with cognitive and movement disorder neurologists, neuropsychologists, nurses and research coordinators providing medical social work services to patients with progressive forms of dementia and their caregivers and families.  In his 26 years of clinical experience he has also worked extensively with individuals with chronic mental illness, as well as in crisis intervention, trauma and grief issues.