Meryl Comer

Meryl Comer is a leading Alzheimer’s advocate, Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalist, and New York Times bestselling 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), 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)(2019-2021).

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, 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," 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" supports Alzheimer’s research.