Alzheimer's Association Announces New National Board Members

Alzheimer's Association
Thursday, 17 January 2002

Chicago — Leaders from business, government and health care, in addition to individuals who have had personal experiences with Alzheimer's disease, are among the eleven newly elected members of the Alzheimer's Association board of directors.

The new members, elected to the board in October, officially begin their two-year terms at the association's upcoming board meeting in San Antonio.

"The range of personal and professional experience represented within this group will strengthen the association as it prepares to meet the challenges that lie ahead," said Orien Reid, chair of the Alzheimer's Association board. "I welcome these new board members, all of whom have demonstrated a commitment to our mission."

An estimated 4 million Americans currently have Alzheimer's disease, and that number could reach 14 million by 2050. According to Reid, a former broadcast journalist whose mother had Alzheimer's, our nation is facing an Alzheimer's epidemic that threatens to devastate the aging baby boomer generation. "The association is working every day to defeat this scourge through education and research while providing families with needed information and services," Reid said.

New board members include Dennis Revell, president and CEO, Revell Communications, Sacramento, Calif., who was elected to serve the remaining term of his wife, the late Maureen Reagan.

Also elected were Marilyn S. Albert, Ph.D., professor, psychiatry and neurology, Harvard Medical School and director, Gerontology Research Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Mass.; H.R. Crawford, president, Crawford Edgewood Managers, Inc., Washington; Sandra Austin Crayton, R.N., J.D., chair, Lake Eufaula Ford Mercury, Inc., Alpharetta, Ga.; David Dealy III, vice president, transportation, BNSF Railway Company, Ft. Worth; Peggye Dilworth-Anderson, Ph.D., professor, department of Human Development and Family Studies, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, N.C.; Larry E. Jodsaas, chair and CEO, PolarFab, Bloomington, Minn.; Katherine Ponds, vice president, career management consulting, Right Management Consultants, Washington; Bettylu K. Saltzman, Chicago; Evan Thompson, Beverly Hills, Calif.; and Michael Urbut, director, Fresh Start Bakeries, Inc., Naperville, Ill.

The Alzheimer's Association is the premier source of information and support for millions of Americans living with Alzheimer's disease. Through its national network of chapters, the association offers a broad range of programs and services for people with the disease, their families and caregivers and represents their interests on Alzheimer-related issues before federal, state and local government and with health and long-term care providers.

Founded in 1980, the Alzheimer's Association is the largest private funder of Alzheimer research. The association has committed nearly $120 million toward research into the causes, treatment, prevention and cure of the disease.

For more information on Alzheimer's disease or the Alzheimer's Association, please call (800) 272-3900.

For more information, or to contact Alzheimer's Association, see their website at: www.alz.org