This is a new monthly feature from UsAgainstAlzheimer’s where we will share with you what our team has been up to around the U.S. and the world in our work to stop Alzheimer’s. We are pressing for greater urgency from government, industry, and the scientific community and bringing people together in the quest for an Alzheimer’s cure.

Here are a few highlights from June:

Boston

Shawn Taylor, UsAgainstAlzheimer’s Board Member, was in Boston to speak at the Veterans Administration Alzheimer's and Aging Conference for Collaboration. We will soon be launching our newest network, VeteransAgainstAlzheimer’s. She also published a blog post in honor of PTSD Awareness Month - "Our Veterans and Dementia".

Stephanie Monroe, Executive Director of AfricanAmericansAgainstAlzheimer’s, presented two showings of Forget Me Not in Boston. Forget Me Not is an award-winning play sponsored by AfricanAmericansAgainstAlzheimer’s and the Global Alzheimer’s Platform that focuses on increasing Alzheimer's awareness in African-American communities.

Chicago

Surviving Grace, the acclaimed Broadway play written by our late Co-Founder Trish Vradenburg was performed at Northwestern University with a celebrity cast, including: Loni Anderson, Marilu Henner, and Mike Ditka. UsAgainstAlzheimer’s board member, Karen Segal, chaired this wonderful event. Surviving Grace is a quasi-autobiographical play about a family’s journey with Alzheimer’s. Watch a clip of our celebrity reading of Surviving Grace.

Aspen

Jason Resendez, Executive Director of LatinosAgainstAlzheimer's, was named a 2017 Aspen Ideas Festival Scholar, joining a diverse group of leaders from all over the United States and 30 different countries selected for their work, accomplishments, and ability to transform ideas into action. Read Jason's reflections on the Aspen Ideas Festival and the themes related to the work of UsAgainstAlzheimer's in Medium.

Washington, D.C.

Several team members participated in Argentum's Memory Care Symposium. George Vradenburg gave the keynote "Dementia Care: Advancing the Paradigm." Stephanie Monroe and Jason Resendez appeared on a panel "Memory Care & Diverse Communities: The Need for Action & Resources," which spoke about diversity and inclusion in memory care and was moderated by Ginny Biggar.

Our co-founders, George Vradenburg and Trish Vradenburg (posthumously), received a Public Leadership Award from BrightFocus foundation for what they accomplished in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease.

Cape Cod, MA

Greg O'Brien, an award-winning writer and investigative journalist who through his book On Pluto: Inside the Mind of Alzheimer's gives a first-person, embedded account of his dealing with the progression of early-onset Alzheimer's disease, joined the board of UsAgainstAlzheimer's. Greg brings to UsAgainstAlzheimer's a passionate voice for the advancement of innovative Alzheimer's therapies and improved support of family caregivers.

Atlanta

UsAgainstAlzheimers was a Silver Sponsor of the Dementia Action Alliance meeting. Our session, “Novel Approaches to Advance Dementia Research and Innovation,” demonstrated the power of harnessing data to better understand What Matters Most to those affected by Alzheimer’s disease.

In The News

UsAgainstAlzheimer's board members Dr. William Vega and Dr. David Satcher authored an op-ed in STAT News "Minority communities will be hit hardest by soaring rates of Alzheimer's disease" about the urgent need to address Alzheimer's in communities of color.

George Vradenburg is quoted in this Washington Post article, "African Americans are more likely than whites to develop Alzheimer's. Why?", which speaks about how UsAgainstAlzheimer's and other advocates are pushing for diverse, inclusive clinical trials to find a treatment that works for all populations.

Jason Resendez wrote this piece "Kindergarten isn't too early to educate at-risk children about Alzheimer's" about his visit to a D.C. school to promote brain health with at-risk kindergarten and elementary-school students.

Jason was also quoted in a piece in Univision about the growing impact of Alzheimer's on Latino families and new data from the CDC that found the death rates from Alzheimer's among Latinos increased 107% between 1999 and 2014.