Susan Peschin is Chief Operating Officer at the Alliance for Aging Research. As a member of the Executive Team, Ms. Peschin is responsible for successful execution of the current strategic plan, and for assuring operational excellence, fiscal health and growth of the organization. Prior to her current role, Ms. Peschin was Vice President of Public Policy for the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America (AFA) where she successfully advocated for passage of health reform provisions for individuals with dementia and family caregivers including “detection of any cognitive impairment” in the new annual Medicare wellness visit. While at AFA, Ms. Peschin also achieved a doubling of appropriations for the Missing Alzheimer’s Disease Patient Alert Program, co-facilitated the Leaders Engaged in Alzheimer’s Disease coalition, and served as an advisor on the “Caregiver Initiative” included in the 2010 annual report for the Middle Class Task Force, chaired by Vice President Joe Biden. Ms. Peschin has published studies on cognitive screening; federal funding at the National Institute on Aging; and policy recommendations for implementation of the National Alzheimer’s Project Act. Previous to her work at AFA, Ms. Peschin ran her own consulting business, offering lobby day training and strategic planning services. She also worked for more than 10 years in firearms violence prevention, at the Violence Policy Center and Consumer Federation of America, and she continues to serve as a board member of CeaseFire Maryland. Ms. Peschin earned a B.A. in Sociology from Brandeis University, and an M.H.S. degree in Health Policy from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Petitions are now in vogue and far be it for us to miss the bandwagon, especially when the White House website is hosting petitions on everything from letting Texas secede to deporting CNN's Piers Morgan. And now, a particularly meaningful petition to those of us at the Alliance for Aging Research has recently cropped up. This Alzheimer's petition holds the White House’s and Congress’ feet to the fire on the goals of the first national Alzheimer’s plan—and I am asking you to sign it.
This week’s press event announcing an immediate $50 million infusion of NIH funding to Alzheimer’s research—along with commitments to include an additional $80 million in research dollars and $26 million in services and supports in the President’s FY 2013 budget—was monumental on a number of fronts.
