Dr. Valerie Joers is a research assistant professor at the University of Florida in the department of neuroscience with over ten years’ experience in animal models of Parkinson’s disease (PD). She obtained her PhD in neuroscience from the University of Wisconsin Madison, after which she completed her postdoctoral training at Emory University. Dr. Joers’s research focuses on the role of cannabinoid signaling in regulating crosstalk between peripheral and central immune cell in age-related neurodegenerative disorders such as PD. Understanding the function of cannabinoid receptors in immunity will provide therapeutic targets to treat the dysregulated immune system in PD.