CEO Update January 2024

CEO Update January 2024

Dear Members and Colleagues, Happy 2024! We hope that you were able to take a bit of time to re-energize and connect more intentionally with your loved ones. We are excited to jump into another year of championing change for America’s 53 million family caregivers!...
Omar

Omar

Omar has been through a rough experience caring for his wife, who received a heart and kidney transplant. He has supported her through everything and helps her with whatever she needs. This has been especially challenging because Omar worked in Georgia during the...
Lorraine

Lorraine

Lorraine became the caregiver for her adult niece when she was diagnosed with liver cancer and then hepatic encephalopathy. Her niece’s daughter and ex-husband lived in different states, but Lorraine was only a few hundred miles away, so she traveled to be with her...
Cody

Cody

Cody is a caregiver for his young daughter, who was born eight weeks early with biliary atresia, a rare liver disease. Doctors told Cody and his family that she would eventually need a liver transplant, and in the meantime performed a surgery that was able to delay...
Albert

Albert

Albert cares for his partner, who has received a kidney transplant and was undergoing dialysis when he and Albert started dating. Albert knew going into the relationship that he would be a part of his partner’s care team one day. Albert’s partner was able to remain...
Reed W. R. Bratches, PhD MPH MALS

Reed W. R. Bratches, PhD MPH MALS

Reed W. R. Bratches, PhD MPH MALS is a postdoctoral fellow in the School of Nursing at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), funded by the AHRQ T32. Reed received his PhD from Dartmouth College’s Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice in August...
Lisa Mistler, MS, MD

Lisa Mistler, MS, MD

Lisa is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Geisel School of Medicine. She has a MS in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from MIT, and subsequently attended medical school at the University of Vermont. For many years she has been an attending...
Connie Siskowski, RN, PhD

Connie Siskowski, RN, PhD

President and Founder American Association of Caregiving Youth (AACY). Educated at Johns Hopkins, New York University and Lynn University, her doctoral research uncovered the high prevalence of caregiving by students in Palm Beach County, FL. In 1998 she established...
Melanie

Melanie

Melanie is a member of the Millie Lacs Band of Ojibwe in the Minnesota region. Previously, she cared for her mother, who had dementia and related health conditions, and her sister, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Currently, she cares for her brother, who has...
Pedro

Pedro

Pedro is originally from Brazil, and moved to the United States when he was 21. While he lived in Brazil, he was a caregiver from the age of 12 for his grandmother, who had pulmonary fibrosis. Pedro was one of several family members who cared for his grandmother, but...
Sanary

Sanary

Sanary is a Cambodian American who moved with her family to the United States at a young age as a refugee. As the daughter in a refugee family, she feels she has filled the role of caregiver all her life, starting by acting as the English translator and interpreter...
Veronica

Veronica

With a background in special education, Veronica had wanted to take care of a child with special needs, and she was quickly matched with Elena, who has cerebral palsy. When Veronica married, she trained her sister Giselle to take her place as Elena’s carer, but still...
Claire

Claire

Claire’s husband was diagnosed with idiopathic cardiomyopathy several years ago, leading to the eventual need for a heart transplant, which he has now received. Claire did not become his care partner immediately upon diagnosis because he was still very fit and active,...
Gwendolyn

Gwendolyn

Gwendolyn’s wife has lupus and other related diagnoses, and Gwendolyn has been caring for her for the past ten years. Neither Gwendolyn nor her wife have received many resources or much information on the disease, and Gwendolyn herself is rarely recognized as the care...
Maggie

Maggie

Maggie has been a caregiver for both her husband and her son, both of whom had blood cancer. While her husband was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2014, her son was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in 2019 and ended up needing a bone marrow transplant....
Myra

Myra

Myra is a care partner to her husband, who was diagnosed with lung cancer about a year ago. She and her husband are a team, so Myra never questioned that she would be the one helping with his care. She’s also never considered the term “caregiver” to apply to her,...
Zuzette

Zuzette

Zuzette and TeriLynne are from the Gila River Indian Community and have cared for their aging parents, as well as their own children, two of whom have chronic conditions. Zuzette is the primary caregiver for her and TeriLynne’s mother, and supported their mother in...
Nayma

Nayma

While Nayma’s siblings live with their parents, Nayma is the backbone of her siblings’ care team. Their parents came to the United States from Mexico as adults and have faced difficulties overcoming the language barrier. Nayma’s past, present, and future are shaped by...
TeriLynne

TeriLynne

Zuzette and TeriLynne are from the Gila River Indian Community and have cared for their aging parents, as well as their own children, two of whom have chronic conditions. Zuzette is the primary caregiver for her and TeriLynne’s mother, and supported their mother in...
Rona

Rona

Rona lives in rural Oklahoma and is the mother of three children. Her youngest child is a 13-year-old with Down syndrome. Her daughter is non-verbal and has significant intellectual disabilities. She can’t be left unattended. Though Rona feels fortunate that she and...
Jennifer M.

Jennifer M.

Jennifer M. is a caregiver for her younger brother, who was wounded in Iraq in 2005, and her mother, who suffered a stroke in 2007. Jennifer feels that early intervention for caregivers is important because it can help alleviate some of the negative impacts, both...