Remembering Trish Vradenburg: Philanthropist & Crusader Against Brain Health Disparities

As a former writer for hit television shows like Designing Women, Trish Vradenburgs name might be more more familiar in Hollywood than in East Los Angeles, but the impact of her philanthropy and advocacy will have a lasting impact on communities of color for decades to come. Alongside her beloved husband George, Trish was a fierce advocate for curing Alzheimers and she worked tirelessly to ensure that the black and brown families disparately impacted by the progressive brain disease were part of the political movement, research and public awareness efforts needed to cure Alzheimers by our national goal of 2025. She died in April in her home in Washington, DC, at the age of 70.

UsAgainstAlzheimers was born out of Trish and Georges shared passion to fight back against Alzheimers, which Trishs mother Bea Lerner succumbed to in 1992. Watching her demand action on the Alzheimer's epidemic from senators, researchers and the public - always with charm and grit - was a masterclass in advocacy and persuasion. She had a gift for translating the pain and hardship associated with the disease into hopeful action.

Trishs quest to build a more inclusive Alzheimers movement was shaped by her deep sense of empathy and keen strategic thinking. She knew what so many philanthropists and even public health officials tended to overlook: disparities in Alzheimers impacting Latinos and African Americans are driving healthcare costs and destabilizing families.

African Americans are twice as likely, and Latinos are about one and half times more likely, than non-Latino whites to develop Alzheimer's or a related form of dementia. Yet these communities are less likely to receive a diagnosis from a physician and are woefully underrepresented in Alzheimers clinical research. Trish understood that communities of color will be at the frontlines of the Alzheimers epidemic by 2030, when African Americans and Latinos will make up approximately 30 percent of the older adult population in the United States.

Under Trish and Georges leadership, the organization has made addressing disparities in brain health a top priority by launching the African Americans Against Alzheimers Network and the Latinos Against Alzheimers Network and Coalition to marshal resources and public awareness around this overlooked minority health issue . Together these networks have convened thousands of diverse researchers, policy makers, caregivers, patients and community leaders to demand increased research funding for Alzheimers and to identify strategies for increasing diverse participation in Alzheimers research.

Trishs inclusive vision and philanthropy has helped us form a deeper understanding of how Alzheimers impacts communities of color. We now know that Alzheimers is projected to cost the Latino community a cumulative $2.3 trillion by 2060 and that African Americans bear a third of the costs of Alzheimers disease and other dementias. These insights are critical for informing public policy and legislation aimed at supporting family caregivers - inspiring bipartisan support in a politically charged environment. As Senator Edward Markey said in a touching tribute from the Senate floor, You never wanted to tell Trish maybe or no, particularly when the subject was Alzheimers disease.

Trish understood that it would take all of all of us to stop the only leading cause of death still on the rise and she was willing to use her charm, tenacity and treasure to make the dream of a world without Alzheimers a reality - not just for her family, but for all families. Our American character is defined by folks like Trish; she carried the families touched by Alzheimer's - white, brown, black, you name it - in her heart.

She once wrote, A cure for Alzheimers: a fantasy, a wish, an impossible dream; the same words that were said to Galileo, Edison, Curie, Salk and whoever dreamed up the internet. Yesterdays dream is todays reality.

That dream is closer to becoming a reality for all communities thanks to Trish Vradenburg.

Jason Resendez is the Executive Director of the LatinosAgainstAlzheimers Coalition and Stephanie Monroe is the Executive Director of AfricanAmericansAgainstAlzheimers - Networks of UsAgainstAlzheimers