Kerry Sheets, MD, MS. 

CHAI recognizes and celebrates its Members, Community Partners, and Ambassadors monthly. This month, we are featuring Kerry Sheets, MD, MS. 

Dr. Kerry Sheets is a geriatrician at Hennepin Healthcare and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota. She completed her medical degree, residency, and chief residency at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, followed by a fellowship in geriatric medicine at Hennepin Healthcare. Clinically, Dr. Sheets provides geriatric assessments for older adults living with HIV and also cares for patients in skilled nursing facilities.

Her research centers on healthy aging, dementia, and the early stages of cognitive and functional decline in older adults. As a Scholar with the Minnesota Center for Learning Health System Sciences, she is currently leading a project to improve how dementia is identified and managed in primary care settings at Hennepin Healthcare. In addition to this work, Dr. Sheets is involved in several ongoing studies, including a pilot study exploring how chronic kidney disease affects levels of a novel blood-based biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease called brain-derived tau. She is also a co-investigator of a longitudinal study, Healthy Aging Through the Senior Years (HATS), which examines risk factors for cognitive impairment and dementia among older Black adults in the Twin Cities. Dr. Sheets is part of the ASPREE-XT trial, an extension of the ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly study, which looks at the effects of aspirin and other factors on healthy aging. Additionally, she is contributing to Hi-Activity, a clinical trial testing strategies to increase physical activity among older adults living with HIV.

Beyond her clinical and research roles, Dr. Sheets is a member of the 2025 Mothers Leading Science cohort, a leadership program that supports women scientists in academic medicine.