Susan Scanland has 42 years of Alzheimer’s and dementia experience as a gerontological nurse practitioner. She narrowed her practice in 2000: as a dementia consultant for physicians/interdisciplinary staff in LTC; specializing in dementia behaviors. Susan recently initiated a UCLA-affiliated outpatient dementia center in northeastern PA; where she diagnosed and managed mild cognitive impairment and dementia.

Susan founded Dementia Connection® in 1999; a dementia education/consulting firm based in Clarks Summit PA. She’s presented over 750 seminars to NPs, PAs, nurses, pharmacists, physicians, LTC staff and caregivers in 42 states and internationally. The very first American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) National Conference in 1989 was one of 100 national association presentations. Others were state, regional, and speakers bureau programs for FDA-approved Alzheimer’s and related medications.

Susan is one of ten clinical guideline workgroup authors of “The Alzheimer’s Association Clinical Practice Guideline for the Diagnostic Evaluation, Testing, Counseling and Disclosure of Suspected Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders.” Soon to be released, this will be the first evidence-based, practical consensus Alzheimer’s diagnostic guideline in ten years.

Susan recently collaborated with geropsychiatric colleagues on two Gerontological Society of America (GSA) national advisory workgroups: Dementia-Related Psychosis and Agitation in Alzheimer’s Disease. Results published include “Agitation In Alzheimer’s Disease: A Decision Tree For Healthcare Providers” and “Understanding Agitation in Alzheimer’s Disease.”

Susan received the National Speakers Association’s Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) award in 2014, earned by less than 15% of professional speakers. She was twice named Northeast Woman of the Week by the Scranton Times-Tribune, once honored in Top 25 Women in Business in Northeastern Pennsylvania, and received three Seniorhomes.com awards for caregiver information.

Susan taught clinical geriatrics from 1987-1999 at a family medicine residency: creating an interdisciplinary geriatric education model. She mentored students from three NP programs, four medical schools, one Pharm-D program and residents at ALF/LTC facilities, patients’ homes and a geriatric clinic. Since 2000, Susan held faculty appointments in Binghamton University’s gerontological/family NP programs and University of Scranton’s undergraduate nursing program.

Susan has shared her expertise on 20+ pharmaceutical advisory boards and published in nursing, geriatric and business journals. She received her BSN from Wilkes University, where she completed a senior internship at NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Two years later, in 1981, she graduated from the first Nurse Practitioner/Master’s program at the University of Pittsburgh, where she wrote her thesis on dementia.