George Vradenburg, Chairman and Co-Founder
George Vradenburg is Chairman of USAgainstAlzheimer’s, which he co-founded in October 2010. He was named by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to serve on the Advisory Council on Research, Care, and Services established by the National Alzheimer's Project Act and has testified before Congress about the global Alzheimer’s pandemic. George has been appointed to the bipartisan Commission on Long-Term Care. And he and USAgainstAlzheimer's co-convene both the Leaders Engaged on Alzheimer's Disease (LEAD) Coalition and the Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer's Disease. George and his wife, Trish, have long been dedicated members of Washington's civic and philanthropic community. George is Chairman of the Board of The Phillips Collection, Trustee of the University of the District of Columbia and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and The Economic Club of Washington. He has served in senior executive and legal positions at CBS, FOX and AOL/Time Warner. George and Trish published Tikkun Magazine for 10 years (Editor-in-Chief Rabbi Michael Lerner is Trish's brother).
Trish Vradenburg, Vice-Chair and Co-Founder
Trish Vradenburg is Vice-Chair of USAgainstAlzheimer's, which she co-founded in October 2010. Trish began her career in Washington, D.C. as a speechwriter in the U.S. Senate. She has written for various television shows, including Designing Women, Family Ties, and Kate and Allie. Trish's novel, Liberated Lady, was chosen as Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selections and has been translated into three foreign languages. As a journalist, she has written extensively for the New York Daily News, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, Ladies’ Home Journal and Women’s Day. Surviving Grace, Trish’s quasi-autobiographical play, was produced at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and Off Broadway at the Union Square Theater. It is now being performed at various community theaters throughout the country, as well as in Portuguese in Brazil. She serves on the Council of Theater J, and on the boards of DC Vote and the Vradenburg Foundation. She presently writes three blogs. Trish lists her marital status as "happy."
John R. Dwyer, Jr., President
John R. Dwyer, Jr. is Chairman of Telcare, Inc., a high technology manufacturer of wireless enabled blood glucose meters and other medical devices. He also serves as a Special Advisor to one of the largest Washington law firms, Arent, Fox LLP.
Mr. Dwyer first became a CEO at the age of 30. In the following twenty-five years, he has held "C" level positions in six emerging growth companies in the healthcare or financial services industries. His past assignments have included serving as CEO of e-Medex, Inc., which later merged with Active Health Management to become the leading provider of health information management services. Active Health was purchased by Aetna in 2005. He was also a co-founder and Chairman of CodeRyte, Inc., a venture-backed seller of medical billing software using Natural Language Processing to generate billing codes.
Mr. Dwyer is a frequent speaker on financing and regulatory issues of critical importance to emerging health technology companies. He regularly speaks on health information issues, business risks associated with the FDA approval process, and patent insurance.
Mr. Dwyer co-founded the first political action committee focused on a specific disease, the Alzheimer's Action PAC. He is also on the Executive Council of Leaders Engaged on Alzheimer's Disease (LEAD), which brings together key stakeholders from the government, business and civic sectors to increase attention to and awareness of Alzheimer's disease, its care, treatment, prevention and eventual cure.
Mr. Dwyer currently serves on the Boards of a number of private and not-for-profit organizations including CodeRyte, Inc., the Kingswood Financial Group, Telcare Inc., the Earth Conservation Corp., and the Trust for America's Health. Mr. Dwyer is a graduate of Marquette University and the Cornell Law School.
J. Patrick Berry, Treasurer
Patrick Berry has practiced energy and environmental law in the Washington, D.C. office of a major international law firm for the past 35 years. Born and raised in rural Mississippi, sixth in a family of 12 children, he was awarded a full scholarship to attend Harvard College, from which he received his B.A. degree magna cum laude in 1971. Mr. Berry was awarded a Michael C. Rockefeller Travel Fellowship upon graduation and traveled in India from 1971-1972. He then attended Harvard Law School and received his J.D. degree in 1975. Before beginning private law practice, Berry worked for two years as Counsel to the U.S. Senate Energy Committee.
On January 1, 2012, he retired two years early from his law firm partnership to devote more time to educating and mobilizing members of the American public, especially African Americans, to support efforts to find a cure for Alzheimer’s by 2020.
Meryl Comer, Senior Advisor
Meryl Comer, an Emmy-award winning and 30 year veteran reporter, producer, and talk show host, was named President of the Geoffrey Beene Foundation Alzheimer's Initiative in November 2007. Winner of the 2005 Shriver Profiles in Dignity Award and the 2007 Proxmire Award, Ms. Comer has provided testimony before Congress, served two terms on the National Board of the Alzheimer’s Association National Board and on the 2008 Alzheimer’s Study Group, charged with presenting a National Strategic Plan to Congress.
Comer was among the first women TV anchors (1981-1997) to specialize in business news as it relates to public policy with her nationally syndicated debate show “It’s Your Business.” She also co-anchored Nation’s Business Today for six years on ESPN, the Ten O’Clock News for Metromedia, Two’s Company for WMAR/CBS Affiliate and the Good Day Show on WCVB-TV in Boston.
Previously, Ms. Comer served as Senior Vice President for the National Chamber Foundation (1997-1999) and for 11 years prior (1987-1997) as Vice President for Communications Development at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Her Alma Mater is the University of Pennsylvania.
Ms. Comer has been the at-home caregiver for the past 18 years for her husband with early onset Alzheimer's disease. She is currently writing a book, “ Slow Dancing With A Stranger,” with 100% of the proceeds directed to support Alzheimer’s research.