Valerie Anderson, Ph.D., conducts research on the application of high-field magnetic resonance techniques to the study of water permeability and the vascular microenvironment of Alzheimer's disease. Abnormal movement of water into and out of the brain plays a key role in many neurodegenerative disorders.

Dr. Anderson earned a master’s of clinical research from OHSU in 2005 and a Ph.D. in chemistry at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. in 1982. She was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., from 1982 to 1983 and then held positions as a research associate at Portland State University and Washington State University. 

In 1992 Dr. Anderson joined OHSU as a senior research associate in the Division of Neurosurgery, where she served as an instructor before accepting her current position as assistant professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery.