Dr. Javad Anjum is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Special Education at the University of Georgia. He earned an MBBS, a bachelor’s in medicine, and a bachelor’s in surgery, in India. He subsequently worked as a junior resident in the Department of Psychiatry and later pursued clinical research in the Department of Neurophysiology at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) in Bengaluru, India. He then completed an MEd in educational research and evaluation and a PhD in speech-language science, both from Ohio University. Dr. Anjum also holds a Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech-Language Pathology (CCC-SLP) from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA).
Dr. Anjum’s overarching research agenda focuses on enhancing cognitive and communication outcomes for individuals affected by aphasia, a language disorder that often occurs after focal brain damage such as a stroke, and for individuals with dementia, a neurodegenerative condition that commonly affects both cognition and communication. He approaches this work through three interconnected lines of inquiry: examining the cognitive and lexical-semantic mechanisms that underlie language performance in people with aphasia and dementia; advancing equitable, person-centered neurorehabilitation models for multilingual people with aphasia and dementia; and developing interdisciplinary training programs to strengthen clinical service delivery for people with aphasia and older adults experiencing cognitive decline and dementia. His Fulbright-Nehru Scholar Award extends this third line of inquiry.
The aim of Dr. Anjum’s six-month Fulbright-Nehru flex project is to develop, implement, and evaluate an interdisciplinary cognitive enhancement program for older adults in Mysuru district. Toward this, it is tailoring evidence-based cognitive stimulation activities (brain exercises) that are culturally sensitive and linguistically appropriate for Indian families. Graduate students in public health and speech-language pathology are also part of the project; they are being trained to implement the program in 25 households, scaling up to an additional 50 households through telepractice at no cost to the recipients. The project is expected to create a sustainable model to improve cognitive health and delay dementia among older adults in India.