September 9, 2024 • 24 mins
Christopher Smith, Regional Vice President of the Alzheimer's Association | CEOs You Should Know
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi everyone, and welcome to this week's edition of CEOs.
You should know. I am joined by Christopher Smith, the
regional vice president of Region twelve Alzheimer's Association. Chris, thanks
for being here today.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Thank you, it's a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
We're excited to jump into your remarkable journey and career.
You've had a long career in the nonprofit space, right
what drew you initially to the Alzheimer's Association?
Speaker 3 (00:22):
So what drew me to nonprofit if you don't mind, yeah,
starting that from the volunteer health agency type work is.
I grew up with a very large family. We had
well over one hundred children foster care. Foster care. My
parents did that quite a bit. My dad was involved
in politics in Massachusetts and I was his campaign manager
(00:43):
for four of his terms as mayor in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
So I kind of got into the community organizing and
just really enjoyed meeting people and getting involved and helping
to raise money, all that kind of good stuff. And
my journey to the Alzheimer's Association began about eight years ago.
My wife's family has been affected by Alzheimer's pretty hard.
(01:07):
Her grandfather, great grandfather, her dad ended up being diagnosed
and he passed away in twenty twenty, shortly in the
middle of the pandemic, which was a really tough year
for people who were dealing with issues like dementia, and
so I kind of look at this part of my
(01:29):
journey as anything I can do to help support my wife,
her four brothers, my kids, my grandkids. It's just it's
a tremendous organization and there's starting to be some great
things going on in terms of science and medicine right now.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
So it's a good time to be in here. Yeah,
and I'm sure that personal connection makes it that much
more rewarding. Absolutely, have that passion against the organization as well.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Yeah, it's wonderful to be able to work for an
organization that affects your life.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Your family. Absolutely well. You've held various leadership positions at
the Alzheimer's Association and other nonprofits, as you mentioned, How
do you approach the strategic planning and leadership role, especially
in a specialized field like Alzheimer's disease.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Sure, My long belief has been that, you know, partnerships
with volunteers, partnerships with corporations. I'm a big believer in
recruitment committees and identifying folks that are passionate about the
cause as well as can help to open doors. And
(02:34):
so we have a in the Alzheimer Association in New
York City. We have a wonderful board of directors that
many of them are in the C suite, but some
of them are in the medical field. Some of them
are are people that maybe a family member lives with
a disease, and they've really helped us to grow and
to build. And so I supervised six other chapters in
(02:58):
New York State as well as managing the city, and
so I put a lot of emphasis on building strong
boards and how to go about doing that, and how
about you know, using ad hoc nominating people to help
strategically develop that you know, who do you need to
be to be able to make your mark in that community?
Speaker 1 (03:19):
That's awesome. And probably having all those different backgrounds like
you mentioned, like some on the C suite, some in
the medical professions, some that are personally impacted by the
disease probably allows a lot of collaboration, a lot of
different viewpoints.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Exactly, collaboration, sharing, networking, the networks that they bring to
the table. We do a number of for instance, awareness
programs for corporations, and so we'll go into accounting firms,
legal financial We'll work with the e l T s there,
the and employee leadership groups, and we will often come
(03:55):
in and provide a program to understand what the disease is,
understand what the resources are, both with the Alzheimers Association,
as Wether's other as well as other community groups, and
so volunteers make such a huge difference for something like that.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
That's awesome. I know the Alzheimers Association is one of
the world's largest nonprofit funders of the dementia research. Right,
How does that position influence the organization's strategy and priorities
in advancing Alzheimer's research. I know we've talked about there's
been a lot of advancements, most recently.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
So we're a worldwide organization, though we're focused on the
United States. But two weeks ago we were in Philadelphia
for our annual Alzheimer's Association International Conference. We had eighty
eight hundred scientists from all over the world.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
There, plus we had another I think four to six
thousand people virtually and many of the programs and posters,
the majority of them will be We're taped so people
can go in and get access to some of the
latest in science. And that was there's a lot happen
right now, and so particularly in the science field.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
We have three.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Drugs now, one has FDA has and the company itself
had set it aside, but they were the first drug
age of helm that they're not cures, but they're helping
with the treatment. And these last two and forgive me,
I'm going to look down so I can pronounce it.
Basunla which is an Eli Lilly drug and la Kembi,
(05:28):
which is a SI have been out for the last
la Kemby for about a year a little over a year,
and the Lily drug out more recently. And what they
do is they focus on the amyloids or plaques in
the brain and they essentially clean it out. And what's
important is that we need people to be diagnosed much earlier.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
In the past.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
People might be five years into it or longer. Sometimes
they've had you know, twenty years even and we want
to try to get people both diagnosed with the right
with the right type of dementia. For instance, my father
father in law, when he was diagnosed, they said it
(06:11):
was Alzheimer's, but as they went on and did a
little bit more, they found that he had both Alzheimer's
and Louis Body syndrome. And you want to be able
to treat and deal with that differently. And so I
think you're going to start seeing Alzheimer's and other forms
of dementia as more individual type medicine and treatment plans,
(06:33):
as as science continues to evolve. In addition to the
treatment plans, we also have we're part of a large
prevention study called us POINTER. We're in it's a program
that started in Finland a few years ago. They called
it Finger, which was finished geriatric study and they found
(06:54):
great results in terms of diet and exercise and the
types of stimuli to get people so that they would
slow down Alzheimer's or other dementias. And so this US
POINTER study will be the results of that. Right now,
they're towards the end of that study, and so next
year's ai C will be in Toronto and they'll present this,
(07:17):
you know, how good the scientific evidence around prevention. And
so we the amyloid program, which is that's essentially the
definition of Alzheimer's having amyloid plaques, but we also invest
in many other types of programs. And so right now
we're investing let me just make sure I've got that
(07:39):
right about where we invest four hundred and thirty million
dollars we're currently have. We're supporting eleven hundred research projects
in fifty six countries. Wow, we're the largest funder for
nonprofits and the third largest funder of research in the
world outside of the US and Chinese governments. And so
science is a big part of that. And then also
(08:02):
we're very involved in terms of public policy and advocacy
for an I h an Ia through the US government
to fund even more research projects.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
That's awesome, very optimistic to hear of the new treatments,
and then also the research study on the prevention side.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
It gives a lot of hope for people.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
And you know, one of the challenges as people say, well,
these aren't cures, they're essentially these newer drugs that are
out now, they're essentially to slow down the process. And
the way I look at it is it really would
have been nice if my father in law, for instance,
was able to attend my daughter's wedding, you know, or
(08:44):
it would have been great to have him be part
of his own care plan. So the Alzheimer's Association locally,
we have a number of support groups. We do I
mentioned earlier, a number of educational and awareness programs, and
and we do care consultations with families. And oftentimes when
(09:05):
we meet with a family, it might they're a little
bit more advanced in their disease, and so wouldn't it
be great to be able to diagnose them a little
bit earlier and get them into a treatment plan, be
able to use the community resources that are available. We
have a one eight hundred pro number one eight hundred
two seven to thirty nine hundred, which is twenty four
(09:27):
to seven. It has social workers who are trained to
work with families and people who have the disease.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
And we also have translation services and different you know,
so that we can work with pretty much any language
with that family.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
That's great. It's a lot of resources, and I agree
with you obviously. It helps the overall quality of the
patient's life, being able to hopefully slow down the disease
and allow them to be part of the process. So
I'm all about it. It sounds like a great, great thing
that you guys are working on. I know you mentioned
that outside of obviously supporting the research, the different services
that you offer, how would someone find out about the
(10:04):
services with Alzheimer's Association will be their first steps?
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Well tooth to ways.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
I mentioned the one eight hundred number also alz dot Org,
which is very simple. Most people will, you know, when
they find out about a loved one that's going through
this and maybe diagnosed with Alzheimer's or another form of dementia,
they might reach out through, you know, and for New
York City it's alz dot org slash new York NYC.
And so they can see what programs we have here
(10:32):
in New York. We have staff and volunteers that can
deliver programs in Spanish, in Korean and Mandarin Creole as
well as English. And we have other volunteers that we're
recruiting all the time that could, you know, Russian, other languages.
So so if somebody is dealing with this, the first
(10:53):
thing I would suggest go online, check it out alz
dot org or call the one eight hundred number. They
have access to a community resource finder, both in New
York City as well as around the country pretty much
anywhere of where services are, and in New York we're
lucky that there are a number of organizations that are
(11:13):
dealing with the disease and dealing and so they may
have resources that we don't, so we often work together
and collaborate with that and could be any questions about
you know, what's next. We do financial workshops for people
because I mean, most people have a will, but a
lot of people aren't necessarily ready to deal with Okay,
(11:36):
now I might have you know, maybe my parents or
my grandfather is needs long term care or assisted living
or you know, and it can be very expensive, and
so we're there to help them, and we use elder
law attorneys as well as financial people.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
To help carry out of resources. Yeah. Absolutely, that's awesome.
Let's tick on the local support groups, right. I think
we started off the conversation saying, that's that the core
of you, dating back to your dad's political days, really
being involved. How do you see that really helping the
Alzheimers Association expand in your time here and in the future.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Yeah, So, I mean support groups are not everybody wants
a support group, but many people want to.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Some of them are virtual.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
During the pandemic, we went from everything was live till
now you know, and then overnight pretty much to go
to virtual programs, and now some of them are still virtual,
but we have many.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Some are set up for people with early.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Onset Alzheimer's, some are for children or grandchildren. We have
ones that are in different boroughs, in different languages, and
for the ninety five percent of them, maybe all of
them now are run by volunteers. And we also have
specific programs, for instance, for early people who in early
(12:59):
st age Alzheimer's that might last for eight weeks and
then or six weeks where they can get a little
bit more handholding and work with them and their partner
or their caregiver, and then they transition out unfortunately, and
so we set those up pretty much quarterly, sometimes more often.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
That's awesome to create that community for.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
That, Yeah, exactly, you know you want to.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
It's the goal.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
One of the major goals is to try to keep
people at home as long as possible. And the Department
of Health in New York State, through Governor Cuomo, a
few years ago, he and the legislature put in place
a fund to help fund not only our organization, but
(13:47):
other organizations that are dealing with caregiving health systems, as
well as other local community organizations. To support caregivers, and
it really is geared towards supporting those family members as
well as the people were living with the disease and
to be able to keep them home because we know
it's so expensive and so and this state will pay,
(14:10):
you know, so if they can help fund our organization
and others like us to help take care of folks
and keep them at home, it's less expensive for the
state long term. So it was a great program and
it continues. I think this we're into our seventh year. Now,
that's great program.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Well, the Walk to Alzheimer sounds like an amazing event,
and I would imagine that the donations help fund different projects,
like we talked about earlier, the different advancements and medications.
I know one of the things we spoke about before
going on air was the new blood test that came out.
Can you tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Yeah, sure, So currently neurologists and many physicians who are
primary care physicians, when they're looking to diagnose somebody, the
percentage that they get right is about sixty five percent,
which is pretty good. Blood tests are kind of the
(15:06):
evolution from I mean, we currently look at spinal tests,
pet scans, et cetera. But blood tests now they've been
able to get to ninety percent accuracy. Wow, And that's
a huge game changer because, as I mentioned, these drugs
that are out currently are really geared towards people who
are in the earlier stages. So it's important for people
(15:30):
to be diagnosed properly, find out what they have, and
then the either neurologists or their family care physician can
work with them and their family about, Okay, what's next.
Do I put you in a study related to la kembi?
Do I you know, hold off? Do I do something else?
And so it's it's those diagnosis is really important. The
(15:52):
other piece that I think down the road is going
to come is currently these drugs are all infusion based, sure,
and so the challenges that there are many infusion centers,
primarily in the urban areas, but many people don't live
close to them. And also you have a lot of
people who are going through cancer or MS or other
(16:12):
types of diseases that are using those infusion centers, So
trying to find the time available so that people can
get these new drugs, and so you're going to see
down the road subcutaneous so actually getting needles, and perhaps
even somebody who's living with the disease taking the needle
or a loved one can do it so they don't
necessarily have to have to travel to travel to a
(16:34):
center where they're going in for a few hours. And
you know, doing that once a month, twice a month,
et cetera. It's wonderful. It's better than we've ever had.
But I think you're going to start continuing to see
that evolvement of diagnosing people as well as treating and
hopefully cures.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
That's awesome. We'll look forward to seeing that day, right.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Well, reflecting back on your long successful career dedicated to
really curing diseases, how does your perspective really changed around
the industry, especially without the Alzheimer's Association.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
So obviously technology is a big thing. This is my
fortieth year coming in October working in the nonprofit field,
and so years ago I used to use faxes and
have to unroll them and staple them or tape them
to a piece of cardboard, then make copies of them
on a small printer that you might have. And I
(17:27):
can remember using the disc drives, you know, and you'd
have to do the startup disc and the next disc
and so, you know, technology has certainly been tremendous achievement
for all organizations, and particularly for nonprofits and ones that
are dealing with medicine and so. And then currently right now,
everybody's aware of the tremendous strides happening with AI, and
(17:48):
I think you'll see over the next few years, both
AI helping to determine the treatment plans, AI involved in
finding cures, etc. Making it much quicker, et cetera. So
I think you're going to see continuously just vast, you know,
improvements and ways that people can affect not just Alzheimer's,
(18:10):
but all diseases, which is wonderful for humanity. So I
think that in my I remember years ago, my field
was mostly men. Now probably the vast majority of folks
that work in this field are women.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
It's great.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
I think that.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
Many of the people. I have about one hundred and
fifty people that work for me in New York State
New York City it's about twenty five. Most of them
are in the program space. We have some that are
in the fundraising, marketing pr as well as advocacy. Because
both on the state and federal level, it's very important
to us. So lots of changes and I think really
good things happening down the road.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
That's great. What advice would you get someone that's looking
to enter the nonprofit space.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
I get a lot of LinkedIn contacts from people. I
do a lot of business meetings with folks. I had
a meeting yesterday with a young woman who's getting her
masters at NYU. She's actually in the technology in AI
space eight. Pretty interesting and so I try to get
(19:21):
I try to suggest to people that to get involved in.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Their college if possible, high school.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
My son.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
I have three children, and my son started out doing
key club in high school. He got involved, he was
in fraternity life in college. He also was a swimmer,
so he and he years ago used to go help
me with different my fundraisers or you know, different activities
that I was doing. And all my three children and
(19:52):
now they're all adults, have gotten involved with either healthcare
or technology or my youngest is a teacher, and so
those are all similar type fields. We just we do
generally if people are interested in getting involved and getting
in a nonprofit career, I encourage them to, you know,
(20:13):
look at volunteer opportunities, try to get experiences through other ways.
Sometimes if you're you know, you have to start a
little bit, you know, lower. But we hire people from
all different ages, male, female, different you know, sexes, languages,
et cetera. And just like a lot of nonprofits, you know,
(20:35):
we're always trying to look for people who are community
based themselves. People who come from the community makes a
big difference. And it is a great It's been a
great career. I mean, I've been doing this for forty years,
as I mentioned, and it's something that I started out
pretty early. I think I was twenty six when I
went to work for the American Cancer Society many years ago.
(20:57):
And it's been a great ride.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
That's sure. It was very rewarding right as well.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
And I would encourage people to reach out to people
like myself or other folks and just you know, have
a coffee and talk a little bit about, you know,
what are things that I can do in my career.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
That's awesome. Well, after forty years, we have a big
congratulations because I know that retirement is coming next year.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
It is I'll be retiring in January, So for those
folks out there that are interested, the job will be posted.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
So but.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
I mean, I have seven grandchildren, my wife, and I
like to travel, I like to play golf. So it's
been a wonderful ride. But time to have somebody a
little bit younger take it on.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Well deserved though. Looking back at your time at the
Alzheimer's Association and really in the nonprofit world, what are
some of your most proudest accompliments and what would you
say you want your legacy to be when you leave.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Sure, So, when I joined the Alzheimer's Association eight years ago,
we were going through some transitions, and so the organization,
even though it's been around since in nineteen seventy nine,
nineteen eighty, we kind of rebuilt and I came into
a situation where I had to rebuild my board, recruit
(22:14):
and hire a new staff team. And now it's a
great organization. You know, obviously there's been lots of changes
nationally in the organization. I got to work for a
guy named Harry Johns, who I was appeer with at
the American Cancer ciety many years ago. And Harry retired
two years ago, and Joanne Pike, who's our national CEO
(22:36):
now has taken over and hasn't missed the beat. So
it's been a wonderful organization to work for. I think
my pride is based on, you know, being able to
bring in a new group of folks that to help
make a difference in New York and for those folks
that are either living with the disease or people who
(22:58):
their families that are taking care of them.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Well, it's a lot to be proud of. So congratulate absolutely,
thank you. So we covered a lot. Is there anything
that we missed that you might want the audience to
know about.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
No, I mean, I think, like anything you know, this
is very much a business. It is a CEO type position.
As I New York State, We this year will raise
around twenty seven million dollars and another eleven million dollars
in grants in the state. It's a pretty successful organization.
(23:31):
Those dollars essentially go to things like research, go to
things like support and policy and and driving concern and awareness,
concern for the disease, awareness of the organization. And I
mentioned earlier we have about one hundred and fifty staff.
The vast majority, over one hundred of them are in
the care space, and so we're trying to help people
(23:53):
and and so you know, it's it's a great place
to work, and it's a great organization, it's a great cause,
and we see wonderful things happening in the near future.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
That's awesome. I really enjoyed learning more about the Alzheimer's Association,
especially all the investments and all the great work that
you guys do for the community. Thank you very much.
Awesome job, and personally really loved learning about your journey too, Chris,
thank you so much for sharing with our audience and
for coming in today.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
All right, thank you, take care.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Awesome well, thank you guys for tuning in to this
week's edition of CEOs. You should know make sure to
tune in for next week's
Hi everyone, and welcome to this week's edition of CEOs.
You should know. I am joined by Christopher Smith, the
regional vice president of Region twelve Alzheimer's Association. Chris, thanks
for being here today.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Thank you, it's a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
We're excited to jump into your remarkable journey and career.
You've had a long career in the nonprofit space, right
what drew you initially to the Alzheimer's Association?
Speaker 3 (00:22):
So what drew me to nonprofit if you don't mind, yeah,
starting that from the volunteer health agency type work is.
I grew up with a very large family. We had
well over one hundred children foster care. Foster care. My
parents did that quite a bit. My dad was involved
in politics in Massachusetts and I was his campaign manager
(00:43):
for four of his terms as mayor in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
So I kind of got into the community organizing and
just really enjoyed meeting people and getting involved and helping
to raise money, all that kind of good stuff. And
my journey to the Alzheimer's Association began about eight years ago.
My wife's family has been affected by Alzheimer's pretty hard.
(01:07):
Her grandfather, great grandfather, her dad ended up being diagnosed
and he passed away in twenty twenty, shortly in the
middle of the pandemic, which was a really tough year
for people who were dealing with issues like dementia, and
so I kind of look at this part of my
(01:29):
journey as anything I can do to help support my wife,
her four brothers, my kids, my grandkids. It's just it's
a tremendous organization and there's starting to be some great
things going on in terms of science and medicine right now.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
So it's a good time to be in here. Yeah,
and I'm sure that personal connection makes it that much
more rewarding. Absolutely, have that passion against the organization as well.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Yeah, it's wonderful to be able to work for an
organization that affects your life.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Your family. Absolutely well. You've held various leadership positions at
the Alzheimer's Association and other nonprofits, as you mentioned, How
do you approach the strategic planning and leadership role, especially
in a specialized field like Alzheimer's disease.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Sure, My long belief has been that, you know, partnerships
with volunteers, partnerships with corporations. I'm a big believer in
recruitment committees and identifying folks that are passionate about the
cause as well as can help to open doors. And
(02:34):
so we have a in the Alzheimer Association in New
York City. We have a wonderful board of directors that
many of them are in the C suite, but some
of them are in the medical field. Some of them
are are people that maybe a family member lives with
a disease, and they've really helped us to grow and
to build. And so I supervised six other chapters in
(02:58):
New York State as well as managing the city, and
so I put a lot of emphasis on building strong
boards and how to go about doing that, and how
about you know, using ad hoc nominating people to help
strategically develop that you know, who do you need to
be to be able to make your mark in that community?
Speaker 1 (03:19):
That's awesome. And probably having all those different backgrounds like
you mentioned, like some on the C suite, some in
the medical professions, some that are personally impacted by the
disease probably allows a lot of collaboration, a lot of
different viewpoints.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Exactly, collaboration, sharing, networking, the networks that they bring to
the table. We do a number of for instance, awareness
programs for corporations, and so we'll go into accounting firms,
legal financial We'll work with the e l T s there,
the and employee leadership groups, and we will often come
(03:55):
in and provide a program to understand what the disease is,
understand what the resources are, both with the Alzheimers Association,
as Wether's other as well as other community groups, and
so volunteers make such a huge difference for something like that.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
That's awesome. I know the Alzheimers Association is one of
the world's largest nonprofit funders of the dementia research. Right,
How does that position influence the organization's strategy and priorities
in advancing Alzheimer's research. I know we've talked about there's
been a lot of advancements, most recently.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
So we're a worldwide organization, though we're focused on the
United States. But two weeks ago we were in Philadelphia
for our annual Alzheimer's Association International Conference. We had eighty
eight hundred scientists from all over the world.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
There, plus we had another I think four to six
thousand people virtually and many of the programs and posters,
the majority of them will be We're taped so people
can go in and get access to some of the
latest in science. And that was there's a lot happen
right now, and so particularly in the science field.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
We have three.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Drugs now, one has FDA has and the company itself
had set it aside, but they were the first drug
age of helm that they're not cures, but they're helping
with the treatment. And these last two and forgive me,
I'm going to look down so I can pronounce it.
Basunla which is an Eli Lilly drug and la Kembi,
(05:28):
which is a SI have been out for the last
la Kemby for about a year a little over a year,
and the Lily drug out more recently. And what they
do is they focus on the amyloids or plaques in
the brain and they essentially clean it out. And what's
important is that we need people to be diagnosed much earlier.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
In the past.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
People might be five years into it or longer. Sometimes
they've had you know, twenty years even and we want
to try to get people both diagnosed with the right
with the right type of dementia. For instance, my father
father in law, when he was diagnosed, they said it
(06:11):
was Alzheimer's, but as they went on and did a
little bit more, they found that he had both Alzheimer's
and Louis Body syndrome. And you want to be able
to treat and deal with that differently. And so I
think you're going to start seeing Alzheimer's and other forms
of dementia as more individual type medicine and treatment plans,
(06:33):
as as science continues to evolve. In addition to the
treatment plans, we also have we're part of a large
prevention study called us POINTER. We're in it's a program
that started in Finland a few years ago. They called
it Finger, which was finished geriatric study and they found
(06:54):
great results in terms of diet and exercise and the
types of stimuli to get people so that they would
slow down Alzheimer's or other dementias. And so this US
POINTER study will be the results of that. Right now,
they're towards the end of that study, and so next
year's ai C will be in Toronto and they'll present this,
(07:17):
you know, how good the scientific evidence around prevention. And
so we the amyloid program, which is that's essentially the
definition of Alzheimer's having amyloid plaques, but we also invest
in many other types of programs. And so right now
we're investing let me just make sure I've got that
(07:39):
right about where we invest four hundred and thirty million
dollars we're currently have. We're supporting eleven hundred research projects
in fifty six countries. Wow, we're the largest funder for
nonprofits and the third largest funder of research in the
world outside of the US and Chinese governments. And so
science is a big part of that. And then also
(08:02):
we're very involved in terms of public policy and advocacy
for an I h an Ia through the US government
to fund even more research projects.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
That's awesome, very optimistic to hear of the new treatments,
and then also the research study on the prevention side.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
It gives a lot of hope for people.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
And you know, one of the challenges as people say, well,
these aren't cures, they're essentially these newer drugs that are
out now, they're essentially to slow down the process. And
the way I look at it is it really would
have been nice if my father in law, for instance,
was able to attend my daughter's wedding, you know, or
(08:44):
it would have been great to have him be part
of his own care plan. So the Alzheimer's Association locally,
we have a number of support groups. We do I
mentioned earlier, a number of educational and awareness programs, and
and we do care consultations with families. And oftentimes when
(09:05):
we meet with a family, it might they're a little
bit more advanced in their disease, and so wouldn't it
be great to be able to diagnose them a little
bit earlier and get them into a treatment plan, be
able to use the community resources that are available. We
have a one eight hundred pro number one eight hundred
two seven to thirty nine hundred, which is twenty four
(09:27):
to seven. It has social workers who are trained to
work with families and people who have the disease.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
And we also have translation services and different you know,
so that we can work with pretty much any language
with that family.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
That's great. It's a lot of resources, and I agree
with you obviously. It helps the overall quality of the
patient's life, being able to hopefully slow down the disease
and allow them to be part of the process. So
I'm all about it. It sounds like a great, great thing
that you guys are working on. I know you mentioned
that outside of obviously supporting the research, the different services
that you offer, how would someone find out about the
(10:04):
services with Alzheimer's Association will be their first steps?
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Well tooth to ways.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
I mentioned the one eight hundred number also alz dot Org,
which is very simple. Most people will, you know, when
they find out about a loved one that's going through
this and maybe diagnosed with Alzheimer's or another form of dementia,
they might reach out through, you know, and for New
York City it's alz dot org slash new York NYC.
And so they can see what programs we have here
(10:32):
in New York. We have staff and volunteers that can
deliver programs in Spanish, in Korean and Mandarin Creole as
well as English. And we have other volunteers that we're
recruiting all the time that could, you know, Russian, other languages.
So so if somebody is dealing with this, the first
(10:53):
thing I would suggest go online, check it out alz
dot org or call the one eight hundred number. They
have access to a community resource finder, both in New
York City as well as around the country pretty much
anywhere of where services are, and in New York we're
lucky that there are a number of organizations that are
(11:13):
dealing with the disease and dealing and so they may
have resources that we don't, so we often work together
and collaborate with that and could be any questions about
you know, what's next. We do financial workshops for people
because I mean, most people have a will, but a
lot of people aren't necessarily ready to deal with Okay,
(11:36):
now I might have you know, maybe my parents or
my grandfather is needs long term care or assisted living
or you know, and it can be very expensive, and
so we're there to help them, and we use elder
law attorneys as well as financial people.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
To help carry out of resources. Yeah. Absolutely, that's awesome.
Let's tick on the local support groups, right. I think
we started off the conversation saying, that's that the core
of you, dating back to your dad's political days, really
being involved. How do you see that really helping the
Alzheimers Association expand in your time here and in the future.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Yeah, So, I mean support groups are not everybody wants
a support group, but many people want to.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Some of them are virtual.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
During the pandemic, we went from everything was live till
now you know, and then overnight pretty much to go
to virtual programs, and now some of them are still virtual,
but we have many.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Some are set up for people with early.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Onset Alzheimer's, some are for children or grandchildren. We have
ones that are in different boroughs, in different languages, and
for the ninety five percent of them, maybe all of
them now are run by volunteers. And we also have
specific programs, for instance, for early people who in early
(12:59):
st age Alzheimer's that might last for eight weeks and
then or six weeks where they can get a little
bit more handholding and work with them and their partner
or their caregiver, and then they transition out unfortunately, and
so we set those up pretty much quarterly, sometimes more often.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
That's awesome to create that community for.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
That, Yeah, exactly, you know you want to.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
It's the goal.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
One of the major goals is to try to keep
people at home as long as possible. And the Department
of Health in New York State, through Governor Cuomo, a
few years ago, he and the legislature put in place
a fund to help fund not only our organization, but
(13:47):
other organizations that are dealing with caregiving health systems, as
well as other local community organizations. To support caregivers, and
it really is geared towards supporting those family members as
well as the people were living with the disease and
to be able to keep them home because we know
it's so expensive and so and this state will pay,
(14:10):
you know, so if they can help fund our organization
and others like us to help take care of folks
and keep them at home, it's less expensive for the
state long term. So it was a great program and
it continues. I think this we're into our seventh year. Now,
that's great program.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Well, the Walk to Alzheimer sounds like an amazing event,
and I would imagine that the donations help fund different projects,
like we talked about earlier, the different advancements and medications.
I know one of the things we spoke about before
going on air was the new blood test that came out.
Can you tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Yeah, sure, So currently neurologists and many physicians who are
primary care physicians, when they're looking to diagnose somebody, the
percentage that they get right is about sixty five percent,
which is pretty good. Blood tests are kind of the
(15:06):
evolution from I mean, we currently look at spinal tests,
pet scans, et cetera. But blood tests now they've been
able to get to ninety percent accuracy. Wow, And that's
a huge game changer because, as I mentioned, these drugs
that are out currently are really geared towards people who
are in the earlier stages. So it's important for people
(15:30):
to be diagnosed properly, find out what they have, and
then the either neurologists or their family care physician can
work with them and their family about, Okay, what's next.
Do I put you in a study related to la kembi?
Do I you know, hold off? Do I do something else?
And so it's it's those diagnosis is really important. The
(15:52):
other piece that I think down the road is going
to come is currently these drugs are all infusion based, sure,
and so the challenges that there are many infusion centers,
primarily in the urban areas, but many people don't live
close to them. And also you have a lot of
people who are going through cancer or MS or other
(16:12):
types of diseases that are using those infusion centers, So
trying to find the time available so that people can
get these new drugs, and so you're going to see
down the road subcutaneous so actually getting needles, and perhaps
even somebody who's living with the disease taking the needle
or a loved one can do it so they don't
necessarily have to have to travel to travel to a
(16:34):
center where they're going in for a few hours. And
you know, doing that once a month, twice a month,
et cetera. It's wonderful. It's better than we've ever had.
But I think you're going to start continuing to see
that evolvement of diagnosing people as well as treating and
hopefully cures.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
That's awesome. We'll look forward to seeing that day, right.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Well, reflecting back on your long successful career dedicated to
really curing diseases, how does your perspective really changed around
the industry, especially without the Alzheimer's Association.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
So obviously technology is a big thing. This is my
fortieth year coming in October working in the nonprofit field,
and so years ago I used to use faxes and
have to unroll them and staple them or tape them
to a piece of cardboard, then make copies of them
on a small printer that you might have. And I
(17:27):
can remember using the disc drives, you know, and you'd
have to do the startup disc and the next disc
and so, you know, technology has certainly been tremendous achievement
for all organizations, and particularly for nonprofits and ones that
are dealing with medicine and so. And then currently right now,
everybody's aware of the tremendous strides happening with AI, and
(17:48):
I think you'll see over the next few years, both
AI helping to determine the treatment plans, AI involved in
finding cures, etc. Making it much quicker, et cetera. So
I think you're going to see continuously just vast, you know,
improvements and ways that people can affect not just Alzheimer's,
(18:10):
but all diseases, which is wonderful for humanity. So I
think that in my I remember years ago, my field
was mostly men. Now probably the vast majority of folks
that work in this field are women.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
It's great.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
I think that.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
Many of the people. I have about one hundred and
fifty people that work for me in New York State
New York City it's about twenty five. Most of them
are in the program space. We have some that are
in the fundraising, marketing pr as well as advocacy. Because
both on the state and federal level, it's very important
to us. So lots of changes and I think really
good things happening down the road.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
That's great. What advice would you get someone that's looking
to enter the nonprofit space.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
I get a lot of LinkedIn contacts from people. I
do a lot of business meetings with folks. I had
a meeting yesterday with a young woman who's getting her
masters at NYU. She's actually in the technology in AI
space eight. Pretty interesting and so I try to get
(19:21):
I try to suggest to people that to get involved in.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Their college if possible, high school.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
My son.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
I have three children, and my son started out doing
key club in high school. He got involved, he was
in fraternity life in college. He also was a swimmer,
so he and he years ago used to go help
me with different my fundraisers or you know, different activities
that I was doing. And all my three children and
(19:52):
now they're all adults, have gotten involved with either healthcare
or technology or my youngest is a teacher, and so
those are all similar type fields. We just we do
generally if people are interested in getting involved and getting
in a nonprofit career, I encourage them to, you know,
(20:13):
look at volunteer opportunities, try to get experiences through other ways.
Sometimes if you're you know, you have to start a
little bit, you know, lower. But we hire people from
all different ages, male, female, different you know, sexes, languages,
et cetera. And just like a lot of nonprofits, you know,
(20:35):
we're always trying to look for people who are community
based themselves. People who come from the community makes a
big difference. And it is a great It's been a
great career. I mean, I've been doing this for forty years,
as I mentioned, and it's something that I started out
pretty early. I think I was twenty six when I
went to work for the American Cancer Society many years ago.
(20:57):
And it's been a great ride.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
That's sure. It was very rewarding right as well.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
And I would encourage people to reach out to people
like myself or other folks and just you know, have
a coffee and talk a little bit about, you know,
what are things that I can do in my career.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
That's awesome. Well, after forty years, we have a big
congratulations because I know that retirement is coming next year.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
It is I'll be retiring in January, So for those
folks out there that are interested, the job will be posted.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
So but.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
I mean, I have seven grandchildren, my wife, and I
like to travel, I like to play golf. So it's
been a wonderful ride. But time to have somebody a
little bit younger take it on.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Well deserved though. Looking back at your time at the
Alzheimer's Association and really in the nonprofit world, what are
some of your most proudest accompliments and what would you
say you want your legacy to be when you leave.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Sure, So, when I joined the Alzheimer's Association eight years ago,
we were going through some transitions, and so the organization,
even though it's been around since in nineteen seventy nine,
nineteen eighty, we kind of rebuilt and I came into
a situation where I had to rebuild my board, recruit
(22:14):
and hire a new staff team. And now it's a
great organization. You know, obviously there's been lots of changes
nationally in the organization. I got to work for a
guy named Harry Johns, who I was appeer with at
the American Cancer ciety many years ago. And Harry retired
two years ago, and Joanne Pike, who's our national CEO
(22:36):
now has taken over and hasn't missed the beat. So
it's been a wonderful organization to work for. I think
my pride is based on, you know, being able to
bring in a new group of folks that to help
make a difference in New York and for those folks
that are either living with the disease or people who
(22:58):
their families that are taking care of them.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Well, it's a lot to be proud of. So congratulate absolutely,
thank you. So we covered a lot. Is there anything
that we missed that you might want the audience to
know about.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
No, I mean, I think, like anything you know, this
is very much a business. It is a CEO type position.
As I New York State, We this year will raise
around twenty seven million dollars and another eleven million dollars
in grants in the state. It's a pretty successful organization.
(23:31):
Those dollars essentially go to things like research, go to
things like support and policy and and driving concern and awareness,
concern for the disease, awareness of the organization. And I
mentioned earlier we have about one hundred and fifty staff.
The vast majority, over one hundred of them are in
the care space, and so we're trying to help people
(23:53):
and and so you know, it's it's a great place
to work, and it's a great organization, it's a great cause,
and we see wonderful things happening in the near future.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
That's awesome. I really enjoyed learning more about the Alzheimer's Association,
especially all the investments and all the great work that
you guys do for the community. Thank you very much.
Awesome job, and personally really loved learning about your journey too, Chris,
thank you so much for sharing with our audience and
for coming in today.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
All right, thank you, take care.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Awesome well, thank you guys for tuning in to this
week's edition of CEOs. You should know make sure to
tune in for next week's
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