DEBORAH KIRCHHEVEL

Biosketch

I joined the Park Aging Mind Lab in May 2014 as an Administrative Assistant to Dr. Denise Park, after spending 6 ½ years at UT Southwestern working for a lung cancer physician and world renown researcher, fueling my lifelong passion for medical research with the potential to change lives.  Prior to my UTSW job, I spent nearly 10 years supporting a lab in an absorbent’s industry, where it was my job to receive outside inventions and process them for potential development.  Working daily with patent attorneys also helped to teach me the process of turning research ideas into tangible products.  

Having lost two family members to brain cancers, one in the 70’s, and the medical records were given to a brain cancer research group, and several extended family members to Alzheimer’s disease, I was happy to learn of Dr. Park’s Dallas Lifespan Brain Study shortly after my arrival in Dallas, and I joined the study as a participant.  Subsequent informational receptions for the participants piqued my interest even more in Dr. Park’s research, and I was delighted when I learned in early 2014 that Dr. Park was looking for a new administrative assistant, and even more so when given the opportunity to join the team. 

In my spare time, I enjoy my patio garden, photographing nature, painting with acrylics on canvas (abstracts are my favorite), reading, writing and editing.  I published my first book this year, and hope to publish a second in the next year, if I can focus on just one of the many topics I’d like to write about. 

Education:

I love to learn and could be a professional student if I had the financial backing, so have tested many different paths.  I have a diploma from a secretarial trade school, 2 years of pre-nursing sciences, medical assistant training, legal transcription training, retail store management training, and studies here and there that interested me.