Meryl Comer is a leading Alzheimer’s advocate, Emmy award-winning broadcast journalist, and NYTimes best-selling author. She is a Co-Founder and Board Member of UsAgainstAlzheimers, Vice Chair of Women’s Health Access Matters (WHAM), and chaired The Global Alliance on Women’s Brain Health (2018- 2021).
For more than a decade (2007-2019), Ms. Comer served as President and CEO of the Geoffrey Beene Foundation Alzheimer’s Initiative, a catalyst funder targeting early diagnosis through spirited public campaigns, early assessment technologies, support of the first “virtual registry”, and pre-clinical AD research to modify disease risk. She also served on the NIH National Advisory Council on Aging (NACA) ) (Sept 2018 – Dec 2021).
“No one deserves to be forgotten in life when their disease is without hope.”
In 2012, she led the formation of the 21st Century BrainTrust® (21CBT), a non-profit partnership to advance mobile health technologies and brain health. Comer was also Co-Principal Investigator for the PCORI Alzheimer’s Patient / Caregiver Research Network in partnership with the Mayo Clinic, and UCSF’s Brain Health Registry In 2009, she served on the bi-partisan Alzheimer’s Study Group, charged with presenting a National Strategic Plan to Congress.
A veteran reporter, TV producer, news anchor and business talk show host, Meryl Comer was one of the first women in the early 1980’s to host a nationally syndicated TV debate show that specialized in business news as it relates to public policy.
Comer’s New York Times bestseller, Slow Dancing with a Stranger (HarperCollins) released in 2014, offered an unflinching account of the couple’s 22-year battle with her husband’s early onset Alzheimer’s disease. It was acclaimed by reviewers as “a much-needed wake-up call for an honest dialogue about this fatal neurodegenerative disease.” One hundred percent of proceeds from Slow Dancing with a Stranger (HarperCollins) supports Alzheimer’s research.
Professional Awards:
2018 Catalyst Award, Women Brain Health Initiative, Canada
2016 BrightFocus Public Advocacy Award
2015 Alzheimer Drug Discovery Foundation “Great Ladies” Award
2015 International Book Award, New York Times Best Seller
2014 Wertheim Global Medical Leadership Award, Florida International University (FIU)
2007 Senator William Proxmire Award
2005 Shriver Profiles in Dignity Award