Dr. Aline Duarte Folle started her career as a clinical pharmacist in the geriatrics clinic of one of the largest university hospitals in Brazil. There, she worked closely with individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and dementia, and their caregivers, while simultaneously developing a master’s thesis. After undertaking graduate at the University of California, Los Angeles under the mentorship of Dr. Beate Ritz, she became involved in the PEG epidemiological study in California as a research assistant. In 2017, Dr. Duarte Folle became a study manager, supervising fieldwork interviews and assembling clinical progression datasets. As a postdoctoral scholar, she has collaborated in the development of algorithms to accurately predict PD and Multiple System Atrophy using electronic health records data. Her long-term goal is to become an independent researcher working to identify potentially modifiable social, environmental and clinical determinants of the onset, severity, and progression of PD in underrepresented populations.