Yumi Shirai, PhD

Dr. Shirai’s research, education and outreach program focus on promoting the quality of life of individuals with cognitive disabilities, including intellectual or developmental disabilities, as well as Alzheimer’s and related dementias. To promote health equity for adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities and other underserved populations, her interests are integrating creativity and expressive arts in community- and patient-engaged programs and research projects and addressing issues around adult and late-life transitions in the IDD community. She conducts community-based programs and research projects through an inclusive lens by applying universal design for learning (UDL), and views participants, learners and professionals as learners with shared goals. UDL’s core principles — engagement, representation, action and expression — provide the program and research process with clear, practical guidance to be person-centered and collaborative. These principles create a powerful framework for enhancing researcher-participant relationships throughout the research process.

She leads several inclusive research and community programs, such as ArtWorks, Identify and Address Alzheimer’s and Dementia in Adults with IDD through Prevention and Training, Access for Intellectually and/or Developmentally Disabled People to Health-Related Research, with her co-principal investigator and co-investigator, Dr. Julie Armin and Dr. Michelle Thompson, respectively, and the Creative Café, a person-centered, visual arts-based scrapbook story-gathering workshop.

To investigate socioecological factors that impact the health of family caregivers, Dr. Shirai has also been involved in family caregiving research, such as the Daily Understanding of Caregiving Study.

As the principal investigator, Dr. Shirai has examined the impact of care-recipient resistive behavior toward their caregivers during daily care provision on family caregiver emotional and physical well-being. Dr. Shirai brings extensive experience in conducting community-engaged, person-centered, social behavioral sciences-based translational research.

Dr. Shirai also serves as an executive committee and affiliated faculty member for the Applied Intercultural Arts Research and the Innovation Aging University of Arizona Graduate Interdisciplinary Programs.