Knee/Wittman Lifetime Achievement
Darby J. Morhardt, PhD, LCSW
Darby Morhardt, PhD, LCSW, is Professor at the Mesulam Institute for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease and in the Department of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She directs the Mesulam Institute’s Outreach, Recruitment and Engagement Core, Psychosocial Initiatives, and the Miller Post‑Graduate Social Work Fellowship in Neurocognitive Disorders, an immersive training program for emerging clinical social workers.
Dr. Morhardt earned her B.S. in Social Work from Loyola University Chicago and her MSW from the Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), followed by a post‑graduate externship in Family Therapy at UIC. After many years of clinical practice, teaching, and research, she returned to Loyola University Chicago to complete her PhD in Social Work in 2013.
Across four decades, Dr. Morhardt’s career has paralleled the rapid expansion of Alzheimer’s disease research and clinical care. She has contributed to two nationally recognized Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers— briefly at Rush University, with the majority of her career at Northwestern University—while mentoring generations of MSW students and trainees from medicine, clinical neuropsychology, public health, and related disciplines. Her leadership in establishing the post‑graduate social work fellowship has created a unique pipeline for clinicians specializing in neurocognitive disorders.
As a core member of a multidisciplinary team, Dr. Morhardt integrates her understanding of the heterogeneity of dementia syndromes into assessment, education, and psychosocial intervention. Her work is grounded in a family systems perspective, tailoring care to the diagnosis, symptom profile, and family functioning. Her research and publications have focused on the subjective experience of dementia and the development and evaluation of psychosocial interventions for persons living with dementia and their families.
A signature innovation is her creation of the Buddy Program, which pairs first‑year medical students with persons living with dementia. Replicated at 15 medical schools nationwide, the program has demonstrated measurable shifts in students’ attitudes and reductions in stigma and preconceived notions about dementia.
Dr. Morhardt has also advanced community‑engaged research to address inequities in dementia education, awareness, and research participation among under‑resourced communities across Chicago. Appointed to the Illinois Alzheimer’s Disease Advisory Committee in 2000, she has contributed to multiple iterations of the Illinois Alzheimer’s Disease State Plan and helped found the Illinois Cognitive Resources Network. She also serves on the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Elder Law, working to strengthen the state’s capacity to address the legal and social needs of older adults.
In 2025, Dr. Morhardt received the Lifetime Achievement Award from NASW‑Illinois in recognition of her enduring contributions to clinical care, social work education, and community-engaged research.