PROJECT SUMMARY This application seeks support for a doctoral candidate in Health Services Organization and Policy and Sociology, Kimson Johnson, into an NIA funded project through a Research Supplement to Promote Diversity in Health‐ Related Research. The NIH parent grant for which this supplement will rely on is the Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research (MCUAAAR) led by Drs. Robert Joseph Taylor at the University of Michigan and Peter Lichtenberg at Wayne State University. MCUAAAR is one of the NIH funded Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research (RCMAR). The application describes the mentoring model used by the MCUAAAR and the planned mentoring experiences for the candidate, as well as describes the candidate and the proposed research on brain health in older African Americans. The overarching objectives of this research proposal are to (1) identify the relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and cognitive functioning in later life, (2) identify the relationship between adverse adult experiences (AAEs) and cognitive functioning in later life, and (3) determine how race/ethnicity moderates the relationship between adverse life experiences and cognitive functioning in later life. This study utilizes longitudinal population‐level analysis to identify how adverse life experiences via traumatic and stressful childhood and adulthood pathways impact late‐life cognitive functioning. The study will serve as the dissertation for the candidate Kimson Johnson, an African American doctoral candidate in Health Services Organization and Policy and Sociology at the University of Michigan. The MCUAAAR faculty will provide a series of integrative mentoring experiences under the guidance of a mentoring team of Dr. Robert Joseph Taylor the PI of MCUAAAR, Dr. Peter Lichtenberg, Co‐Director of the MCUAAAR, and an expert in dementia among African Americans. She will also be mentored by Dr. Jacqui Smith, a Co‐PI of The Health and Retirement Study (HRS).