Our team is united in our commitment to stop Alzheimer’s by 2020. We are a group of professionals with diverse backgrounds and experience in a wide range of fields, including healthcare, advocacy, communications, education, finance, technology, journalism and operations. View our Board
Our Staff
Jason Resendez
Chief of Staff; Executive Director, LatinosAgainstAlzheimer’s
Jason directs the LatinosAgainstAlzheimer’s Network, the nation’s first-ever coalition of Latino organizations focused on raising awareness of Alzheimer’s disease within the Latino community. Previously, Jason served as senior manager of strategic partnerships at the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the nation's largest Latino advocacy organization. While at NCLR, Jason developed outreach and partnership strategies to strengthen the organization’s core program and advocacy areas and advised NCLR's senior leadership team on technology issues and partnerships. Prior to NCLR, he served as the director of corporate relations and development at LULAC National Educational Service Centers Inc. (LNESC), the education arm of LULAC, the nation’s oldest Latino civil rights organization. While at LNESC, Jason oversaw strategic alliances, development, and technology programming for the organization's 13 regional offices. Jason has written about Latino issues for national and regional media outlets, including NBC News, Huffington Post, and the El Paso Times. He graduated from Georgetown University with a B.A. in Government.
Virginia Biggar
Executive Director
Ginny directs the Patient & Caregiver, Faith and Veterans Initiatives at UsAgainstAlzheimer’s. She leads the new VeteransAgainstAlzheimer's Network to engage veterans who bear the burden of this disease. Ginny is also a co-founder of the "A-List" - a groundbreaking initiative making the opinions of those living with Alzheimer's count for research. Ginny also leads our Facebook Alzheimer's Caregiver Support group and the Faith United Against Alzheimer's Coalition mobilizing people of all faiths in the fight against Alzheimer's. Ginny brings twenty five years of media and communications experience as a writer, reporter and filmmaker to the UsAgainstAlzheimer’s campaign. She was a reporter for National Public Radio in Los Angeles and Washington D.C. covering a wide range of issues, including the Clinton impeachment trial, labor issues, welfare reform, and the O.J. Simpson civil trial. Ginny wrote and produced the film "Sweater Queen: May Gruber and the Rise of Pandora Industries," about 100-year-old May Gruber, one of the most successful businesswomen of her generation. She has also written a history of one of the oldest girls' camps in the country called "Its Hats Off to Alford Lake!" She graduated from Trinity College in Connecticut with a B.A. in History.
Pam Gatz
Major Gifts Officer
Pam has over twenty years of successful experience in fundraising, specializing in change management and strategy, staff and volunteer development, marketing and community outreach. She was previously DC area division president for the National Kidney Foundation. Prior to that, Pam was for sixteen years the DC chapter executive director for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and during her tenure there she raised $62 million. She has a strong network within the DC community, including government (both Democrat and Republican legislators), embassies (most recently UAE), and corporations. Pam received her bachelors degree in communications from Mount Vernon College (now part of George Washington University). While at JDRF she attended a leadership academy with the Institute for Not-for-Profit Management at Columbia University. She is a member of the DC Board of Trade and has been a guest speaker at American University on public relations marketing. In 2007 Pam lost her mother to Alzheimer's.
Drew Holzapfel
Executive Director
Drew serves as the Executive Director of The Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer’s disease, a coalition of leading corporations investing in Alzheimer’s disease research, treatment and care. He is also a Managing Director at High Lantern Group, a healthcare consultancy focused on the intersection of business strategy and public policy. In this role, Drew also supports the work of Researchers Against Alzheimer’s and Women Against Alzheimer’s, also Us Against Alzheimer’s. Drew bringing 15 years of healthcare experience in government and corporate affairs, sales and marketing in global biotechnology, pharmaceutical and US government organizations to a diverse client base. He has spent nearly a decade working Alzheimer’s disease in a range of positions. Prior to joining High Lantern Group, Drew was at Pfizer, where he most recently led efforts around the company’s Alzheimer’s program and advanced Alzheimer’s and aging issues through development of commercial strategy and advocacy with international organizations, non-governmental organizations, non-profits and other key stakeholders. During his tenure at Pfizer, Drew launched ReACT (Respect A Caregiver’s Time), a corporate coalition seeking to support employees who are caring for loved ones with age-related, chronic conditions. Prior to joining Pfizer, Drew managed an external affairs team for a medical device manufacturer, helping drive the company through an initial public offering and the launch of its first product. A former Special Assistant to the Secretary Donna Shalala of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, he began his career as a political appointee working in communications at The White House. Drew earned his Bachelor’s degree from Emory University and a Masters of Business Administration from The University of Maryland Smith School of Business.
Brooks Kenny
Executive Director
Brooks Kenny serves as Executive Director for Women Against Alzheimer’s and is charged with directing its growth strategy through strategic partnerships and marketing initiatives. Most recently, she was on the founding team and Executive Vice President of Lotsa Helping Hands, a company providing solutions for our nation’s family caregivers. She led the company’s worldwide branding and social media marketing efforts, developing partnerships, creating business growth opportunities and expanding its reach to more than 1.5 million members.
Brooks is a nationally recognized subject matter expert in caregiving and is often called upon to speak with groups on such topics as cause marketing and strategic partnerships. Brooks has served in a leadership capacity for various nonprofit governing organizations and oversight committees and authored a communications and marketing training manual for nonprofit leaders. Among her achievements, Brooks was recently named among 40 Professionals Under 40 by the Washington Business Journal and given the Founder’s Award in 2009 for her dedication to the work of the Caregiver Action Network.
John R. Dwyer, Jr.,
President and Founding Board Member; President, Global Alzheimer's Platform Foundation
John R. Dwyer, Jr. is the President of the Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation. The GAP Foundation is dedicated to making the clinical trial process for Alzheimer’s therapies substantially more efficient thereby speeding cures to patients afflicted with this insidious disease.
John is a serial healthcare entrepreneur who most recently participated in the acquisition of MeYou Health, upon whose Board he now serves. Prior to GAP, John served as the co-founder and Chairman of Telcare, Inc., a high technology manufacturer of the first wirelessly enabled blood glucose meter designed to empower patients with diabetes to better manage their disease.
Mr. Dwyer first became a CEO at the age of 30. In the following years, he has held “C” level positions in six emerging growth companies in the healthcare industry. 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 population health management services where he served as the Chief Operating Officer. 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. CodeRyte was purchased by 3M in 2012.
Mr. Dwyer co-founded Us Against Alzheimer’s, a patient advocacy group focused on changing the way the country addresses the threat posed by Alzheimer’s. He also co-founded the first political action committee focused on a specific disease, the Alzheimer’s Action PAC. He began his career as an attorney with the Washington DC based law firm of Arent, Fox LLP where he focused on transactions in regulated industries.
Mr. Dwyer is a frequent speaker on financing and regulatory issues of critical importance to emerging health technology companies. He also regularly speaks on health information issues and the business risks associated with the regulatory and payer process.
Mr. Dwyer currently serves on the Boards of Directors of a number of private and not-for-profit organizations. Mr. Dwyer is a graduate of Marquette University and the Cornell Law School.
Yael Miller
Director
Yael Miller is a Director at ResearchersAgainstAlzheimer’s and assists with the strategic management of the network. Additionally, she is a Director at High Lantern Group, where she assists clients in the health, travel and entertainment industries. She recently served as an Information Specialist with the U.S. Agency for International Development, where she produced and briefed official cables, fact sheets, and updates on humanitarian assistance in East and Central Africa. Previously, Yael worked with U.S. Department of Defense entities – including the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Army – to help the U.S. military adapt to changing operational realities through refining mission planning processes and doctrine.
Stephanie Monroe
Director
Stephanie is the director of the AfricanAmericansAgainstAlzheimer’s Network. Stephanie is an attorney with three decades of federal public policy experience, having served most recently as the Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights from 2005-2009. Prior to serving in the Executive Branch, Stephanie held a number of key staff positions in the United States Congress, including Chief Counsel of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, as well as Chief Counsel and Staff Director of the Senate Subcommittee on Children and Families. She is widely regarded as a veteran political strategist with demonstrated experience and effectiveness in working collaboratively with members of both political parties. With a particular emphasis of domestic policy issues involving health, education, child welfare, individual empowerment and community services, Stephanie helped develop and navigate dozens of bills from policy inception to legislative enactment.
Lindsay Pugh
Development Counsel
Lindsay focuses on corporate partnerships for special events for UsAgainstAlzheimer's. Previously, she was the Director of Corporate Relations for the Trust for the National Mall. In that role, Lindsay lead the corporate philanthropy program, including the Trust Corporate Committtee, corporate sponsorships and partnerships. Under her leadership the Trust developed partnerships with fifty five of the top Fortune brands and a diverse group of companies representing twenty industries. She has also worked for the ONE Campaign, the Democratic Senatorial Committee and former Congressman William Delahunt. Lindsay earned a B.A. from Lafayette College in International Affairs with a minor in Spanish.
M’liss Reingruber
Director of Finance
Missy’s experience has included the financial management of local small businesses, government consulting groups and non-profits. Her work experience has included both the operational and financial management of the organization along with strategic leadership developing long range goals and budgets. Missy earned her Bachelor’s of Science in Economics at the College of Holy Cross in 1988 and an MBA with a concentration in Finance at the University of Maryland in 1991.
Allison Signorelli
Interim Chief Development Officer
Allison focuses on corporate partnerships for UsAgainstAlzheimer’s. Previously, she served as development consultant to nonprofits including the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, the Chris4Life Colon Cancer Foundation, E.L. Haynes Charter School and Global Health Corps. Allison was an original team member and the Director of Annual Giving at the Trust for the National Mall, a $700 million private-public partnership to restore the National Mall. She served as Gala Director at The Phillips Collection, America’s first museum of modern art. Prior to her freelance career, Allison served as the Major Gifts and Events Manager for National Public Radio (NPR) and began her career in the development department of Lyric Opera of Chicago where she served as the Special Events Manager. Allison graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Music.
Our Consulting Partners
FaegreBD Consulting
Debra Lappin, Principal, and Nick Manetto, Vice President, of FaegreBD Consulting provide expert counsel on matters relating to government relations, health and science policy, public- private partnerships and strategic alliances. FaegreBD represents UsAgainstAlzheimer’s on Capitol Hill and before all federal departments and agencies, develops the organization’s federal policy agenda and coordinates federal policy activities with other Alzheimer’s and related organizations and stakeholders.
Anne Lewis Strategies
Anne Lewis Strategies manages our online mobilization and fundraising. They also provides strategic consulting to guide our recruitment and awareness efforts.
The Brick Factory
The Brick Factory collaborates with our team to build our grassroots movement using digital and mobile communications.
Changing Our World
Changing Our World provides counsel and strategic guidance on all aspects of revenue generation and donor relations.
Linder & Associates
Linder & Associates is a global event firm that strategically plans and executes events that raise funds and build awareness for our mission.
The Carlin Company
The Carlin Company shares USA2’s urgency to stop Alzheimer’s by 2020. Their passion and commitment to this endeavor is communicated through powerful video productions that capture the dedication of thousands of researchers, millions of families, caregivers, advocates, hundreds of companies and our public officials here and around the world.
High Lantern Group
High Lantern Group (HLG) is a communications firm operating at the intersection of policy and business strategy, with deep experience in the aging, caregiving, Alzheimer’s and broader healthcare fields. HLG is USA2’s agency partner and strategic advisor for the Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer’s Disease (CEOi), ResearchersAgainstAlzheimer’s (RA2) Network and WomenAgainstAlzheimer’s Network.