Dr Leah Acker is an assistant professor at the Duke University School of Medicine and a practicing anesthesiologist in the Duke Health System. She specializes in neurosurgical and geriatric anesthesia. Dr Acker’s research program seeks to enhance physical and neurocognitive resilience in older surgery patients by bringing new technologies from the bench to the bedside. Since joining the Duke faculty earlier this year, Dr Acker has received several national awards including the 2022 Society for Neuroscience in Anesthesiology and Critical Care Michenfelder New Investigator Award and an NIA Resilience Rising Star Award. She is an NIH-funded Principal Investigator with two on-going clinical studies. Dr. Acker resides in Chapel Hill, NC with her husband, dog, and three young children.