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Unprecedented Challenges, Unwavering Optimism: Meeting the Needs of Older Americans

Impact Report 2022

We entered 2022 as a society with a sense of unsteadiness from unprecedented challenges. Navigating the heartbreak and profound challenges of what we hope was the height of the COVID-19 pandemic made us all weary, and whether we become wiser as a result has yet to be determined. Through it all, the Alliance has worked on some of the most complex and stigmatized health equity issues of our time to create a healthier, dignified aging experience for all.

At the Alliance, we stand up to the powers that be, we take risks, and we sometimes fail in our pursuit. But together with many of you, we’re changing the conversation, tackling health ageism within our institutions and care systems, and challenging political leaders and those who work in healthcare delivery to explore solutions with us. In 2022 we were honored to join with other patient advocacy partners on topics such as prescription drug affordability, FDA-approved treatment access in Medicare, and vaccine equity. We shared new resources related to mental health, safe pain management, sarcopenia, valve disease, and continued to combat misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines and boosters. And on a very positive note, we were thrilled to gather in-person for our Heroes in Health celebration, where we got to see many of you for the first time since 2019.

Please check out our redesigned website, www.agingresearch.org, our cool This is Growing Old podcast, and all the latest news on our policy and health information programs. Our 2022 impact report highlights these and many more initiatives. We remain thankful to our Board of Directors for their ongoing leadership and our supporters who champion our mission in countless ways. We truly appreciate your shared commitment to healthy aging for all.

With unwavering optimism, we are looking forward to sharing an even brighter 2023 with you!

Portrait of Sue Peschin

Sue Peschin, MHS
President and CEO

Older Hispanic couple sitting in a garden with a toddler blowing bubbles through a yellow bubble wand.

The Alliance for Aging Research is the leading nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the pace of scientific discoveries and their application to vastly improve the universal human experience of aging and health. The Alliance believes advances in research help people live longer, happier, more productive lives and reduce healthcare costs over the long term.

For more than 35 years, the Alliance has guided efforts to substantially increase funding and focus for aging at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); built influential coalitions to guide groundbreaking regulatory improvements and access to care for age-related diseases; and created award-winning, high-impact educational materials to improve the health and well-being of older adults and their family caregivers.

Financials

FY22 Total Revenue: $3,466,325
For more information about the Alliance’s financials, visit the Financial Reports & Funding section of our website.

Charity Navigator 4-Star logo

The Alliance for Aging Research is proud to be rated a 4-star charity by charity Navigator.

The Alliance for Aging Research is a proud recipient of Candid’s Platinum Seal of Transparency.

Platinum Transparency 2022 logo


2022 Board of Directors

James G. Scott, Chair, President and CEO Applied Policy, LLC
John L. Steffens, Chair Emeritus, Founder and Senior Managing Partner, Spring Mountain Capital, LP
Michele Markus, Vice Chair, Head of Global Health Accounts; Worldwide Enterprise Lead, Omnicom Health Group
William Schuyler, Treasurer
Mark Simon, Secretary, Partner and Co-Founder, Torreya Partners, LLC

Board Members
Cassandra McCullough, MBA, Chief Executive Officer, Association of Black Cardiologists, Inc.
John Alam, M.D., Founder and CEO, EIP Pharma, LLC
George Beach, Founder and chairman, Beach Creative Communications
Mary Bordoni, Director of Strategic Alliance Development, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company
Margaret H. David-Cerone, Senior Director of Corporate Affairs – U.S. Policy, Pfizer, Inc.
James E. Eden, Ed.D., President, The Eden Group, LLC
Jay Reinstein, Voices of Alzheimer’s
Amy Efantis, Vice President of Government Affairs and Public Policy, GlaxoSmithKline
Karen Gally, Associate General Counsel, Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc.
Kelsey Lang, Senior Director of Public Affairs – Policy, Johnson & Johnson
Dan Perry, Founder, Alliance for Aging Research
John Whyte, M.D., M.P.H., Chief Medical Officer, WebMD

Alliance Staff

Sue Peschin, MHS, President and CEO
Lindsay Clarke, JD, Senior Vice President of Health and Education Advocacy
Sarah Delgado, Vice President of Development
Annie Diner, Director of Donor Relations
Adina Lasser, Public Policy Manager
Beth Mathews-Bradshaw, Vice President of Patient Engagement and Research
Katie Riley, Vice President of Communications
Rachel Stevenson, Vice President of Finance and Administration
Tiffany Stewart-Brown, Vice President of Human Resources and Operations
Matthew Thompson, Digital Communications Coordinator
Michael Ward, MS, Vice President of Public Policy and Government Relations
Katrin Werner-Perez, Health Programs Manager

Award-Winning Work

Screenshot of 2022 Advocacy Awards Zoom meeting.

The Alliance for Aging Research is a proud recipient of the Telly Awards 43rd Annual Gold Medal.


Heroes in Health Annual Celebration

Back in-person for the first time since 2019 at the U.S. Institute of Peace, our Heroes in Health events brought together 350 guests at the 2022 CMS/FDA Roundtable Discussions and the 29th Bipartisan Congressional Awards Dinner.

The "CMS Roundtable: Supporting the Medicare Population through Care Redesign and Innovation,” was moderated by Alliance Board Chair Jim Scott and featured panelists Doug Jacobs, M.D., MHS, Chief Transportation Officer, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; John E. Kraus, M.D., Ph.D., DFAPA, Vice President & Clinical Development Therapeutic Head, Central Nervous System, Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc.; and Greg Gierer, M.P.P., Vice President of Policy and Research, Better Medicare Alliance.

The first, “CMS Roundtable: Supporting the Medicare Population through Care Redesign and Innovation,” was moderated by Alliance Board Chair Jim Scott and featured panelists Doug Jacobs, M.D., MHS, Chief Transformation Officer, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; John E. Kraus, M.D., Ph.D., DFAPA, Vice President & Clinical Development Therapeutic Head, Central Nervous System, Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc.; and Greg Gierer, M.P.P., Vice President of Policy and Research, Better Medicare Alliance.

The second, “FDA Roundtable: Aligning the FDA’s Regulatory Authority with an Aging Population,” was moderated by Alliance President & CEO Sue Peschin, MHS, and featured panelists Robert Califf, M.D., Commissioner of Food and Drugs, U.S. Food and Drug Administration; Michael Irizarry, M.D., M.P.H., Senior Vice President of Clinical Research and Deputy Chief Clinical Officer, Eisai Inc.; and Annie Kennedy, Chief of Policy, Advocacy, and Patient Engagement, EveryLife Foundation for Rare Diseases.

The second, “FDA Roundtable: Aligning the FDA’s Regulatory Authority with an Aging Population,” was moderated by Alliance President & CEO Sue Peschin, MHS, and featured panelists Robert Califf, M.D., Commissioner of Food and Drugs, U.S. Food and Drug Administration; Michael Irizarry, M.D., M.P.H., Senior Vice President of Clinical Research and Deputy Chief Clinical Officer, Eisai Inc.; and Annie Kennedy, Chief of Policy, Advocacy, and Patient Engagement, EveryLife Foundation for Rare Diseases.

U.S. Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-CA) delivers remarks behind the podium.

U.S. Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-CA) was recognized with the Claude Pepper Award for Advancing Healthy Aging, awarded to a Democratic member of Congress who is leading the way for policies encouraging medical research, innovation, and care to benefit Americans as they grow older.

U.S. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) was recognized with the Distinguished Public Service Award, which is awarded to a Republican member of Congress who is leading the way for policies encouraging medical research, innovation, and care to benefit Americans as they grow older.

Aerial view of attendees gathered around banquet tables at the 2022 Heroes in Health celebration at the U.S. Institutes for Peace in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer, internationally famous radio and television talk show host, sex therapist, orphan of the Holocaust, author, and former Haganah sniper, was awarded the Silver Innovator Awardto recognize an individual who has furthered research and innovation in healthy aging.

Sue Peschin, Gary Puckrein, and Dan Perry pose together behind the podium.

Gary A. Puckrein, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Minority Quality Forum (NMQF), was recognized with the Daniel Perry Founder’s Award to honor an individual or group who is helping to change the paradigm of how we view aging and well-being as we age.

Dr. Robert Califf presents the Perennial Hero Award to Dr. Janet Woodcock on the stage.

Janet Woodcock, M.D., Deputy Principal Commissioner to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, was recognized with the Perennial Hero Award to honor a well-established statesperson that continues to leverage their experience to create positive societal change and serves as a role model for people of all ages.

The event raised a record-breaking $620,000 for Alliance initiatives. View highlights and watch the Awards celebration online.

2022 Program Highlights

Aging in Motion

In 2022 the Alliance continued to raise awareness of sarcopenia. Our public service announcement (PSA) Sarcopenia: Taking Charge of Your Muscle Health as You Age garnered more than 1 million views across all platforms. We led a survey of clinicians on sarcopenia practices which was accepted for publication in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS), and served as subject matter experts for an awareness effort being led by the Office of Women’s Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Visit AgingInMotion.org.

Our Best Shot

Alliance leadership continued to serve as a co-convenor of the COVID-19 Vaccine Education & Equity Project (CVEEP), which hosted informational webinars for the public and press with senior officials from the FDA, CDC, as well as experts on vaccinology, health equity, maternal health and pediatrics, and older adult care. The CVEEP and Our Best Shots campaigns released issue briefs on vaccine equity, launched educational PSAs, participated in satellite and radio media tours and spearheaded a sustained large-scale social media effort.

In reaction to the spike in COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in the fall, we created and promoted new educational resources on the importance of COVID-19 boosters and returning to routine vaccinations, RSV in older adults, and the revised recommendations to the adult vaccine schedule. A radio media tour reached more than 11 million listeners, TV PSAs generated more than 12 million impressions, and digital outreach produced more than 600,000 video views.

Visit AgingResearch.org/OurBestShot.

ACT-AD

The 15th ACT-AD/FDA Allies meeting, which annually provides an intimate forum to discuss key issues in dementia research, was held on November 16. This year’s event included an NIH update on the National Alzheimer’s Project Act research agenda, and sessions focused on the underpinnings of neuropsychiatric symptoms of dementia and how the gut microbiome may contribute to the development of dementia. The meeting featured an informative fireside chat with Dr. Billy Dunn, Director of the FDA Center for Neuroscience.

Visit ACT-AD.org.

Project PAUSE

The Project PAUSE Coalition continued legislative and regulatory efforts to ensure that all individuals in long-term care settings (e.g., Skilled Nursing Facility, nursing home, assisted-living setting) who have Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and other neuropsychiatric conditions receive high-quality, patient-centered, appropriate care and treatment without facing stigma or barriers. In 2022, Project PAUSE secured language in the Senate appropriations bill, submitted comments to the NIH for its 2023 research care summit, and advanced discussions with CMS on introducing complementary nursing home quality measures to measure rates of clinically appropriate antipsychotic utilization.

Visit AgingResearch.org/Project PAUSE.

Alzheimer’s Disease Policy Task Force

The Alliance led a coalition of over 20 organizations to advocate for Medicare beneficiary access to FDA-approved Alzheimer’s treatments, including meetings with CMS, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the White House. A “Rally for Access” was held across from HHS headquarters in Washington, DC, where nearly 100 advocates gathered to protest the treatment rationing coverage policy proposed by CMS. Work continues to fight against the access barriers resulting from Medicare’s increasing use of “coverage with evidence development” restrictions that limit beneficiary access, including the development of legislation to create a presumption of coverage for FDA-approved therapeutics.

Shake the Stigma

We produced Shake the Stigma of Neuropsychiatric Symptoms, an educational film on how diseases and injuries of the brain commonly cause serious and devastating mood and emotional symptoms that are a source of stigma and burden but can be treated. This film and its sister film on Alzheimer’s disease reached more than 500,000 people and were recognized with prestigious Gold Telly Awards.

Prescription Drug Affordability

Project LOOP helped lead the way on passage of legislation that creates a $2,000 annual limit on Medicare beneficiaries’ out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses for Part D prescription drugs and the ability to pay OOP costs over time in zero-interest payment installments. In the fall, the Alliance also released a research analysis illustrating how a $35 maximum copayment amount would positively impact beneficiaries and medication adherence, with a limited impact on federal budgetary spending. Additionally, the Alliance advocated for legislative passage of provisions that, starting on January 1, 2023, require Medicare and Medicaid to fully cover all vaccines with no out-of-pocket costs for beneficiaries, even in the deductible phase of benefits.

Talk NERDY to Me

The 2022 Talk NERDY to Me Training Program was held over two weeks in October. There were 28 student participants and 11 presenters/researchers/teachers. Participants learned about patient-centered outcomes research and how to critically analyze research, and engaged directly with researchers focused on aging-related health conditions. Several meaningful collaborations grew out of the training, particularly in relation to chronic pain research and the addition of marginalized populations in Alzheimer’s and other dementia research.

Visit AgingResearch.org/NERDY.

Heart Valve Disease Awareness Day

In its 6th year, the Alliance was joined on February 22nd by116 partners around the world dedicated to improving earlier detection and intervention of heart valve disease. The campaign and its partners were able to reach more than 11 million listeners through a radio media tour, 7 million via TV impressions, 2.7 million in video views, and resulted in 50,000 social media engagements. A virtual conference and dozens of partner events also spread the campaign messages.

Visit ValveDiseaseDay.org.

Pain Workshop Toolkit

A new workshop kit on safe pain management includes all the resources community leaders need to host educational events—whether in-person or online. Resources include scripts, tips on promotion, participant brochures, videos, pre- and post-surveys, and more.

Resources on Mental Health and Wellness

Because mental illness can present differently in older adults, the Alliance released three new tip sheets for health care providers and the public. The tip sheets focus on screening, treatment, and important mental health conversations for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, depression and suicide, and substance use disorders and mental health.

Our Podcast: This is Growing Old

In June, This is Growing Old reached a milestone with the release of our 50th episode in June. Our engaging guests covered topics spanning from how to protect against scams, to important health policy issues impacting older adults, to the experience of family caregiving. We launched a visual component to the content: all episodes after are available to watch on YouTube in addition to your favorite podcast streaming platform. In 2023 we will embark on an audit of the podcast to enhance access and offerings. Stay tuned!

The New AgingResearch.org

A new and improved AgingResearch.org was redesigned as a catalyst to provide essential and easy-to-navigate information to our audiences. Our new website meets the highest industry standards for accessibility including mobile device compatibility. Check it out!

Thank you

All of us at the Alliance for Aging Research thank you for taking the time to explore our impact in 2022. We are grateful to YOU and our entire community of partners, whose generous support allows us to do meaningful work for older adults and their loved ones.

Though there will be new as well as ongoing challenges in 2023, we remain unwavering in our optimism. We look forward to another year of advocating and educating to improve the lives of aging Americans. Stay connected with us and support our work at www.AgingResearch.org.