|
Cathy Edge Joins Alzheimer’s Association National Board of Directors
Long-time
Rockford resident,
former Alzheimer caregiver, embraces national role
Edge was nominated to the national board this spring and officially began her two-year term at the association’s board meeting and retreat in October. She and her husband Ken, chairman, president and CEO of AMCORE Financial Inc., live in Rockford, and have three children and three grandchildren. “Cathy’s work with the Greater Illinois Chapter in the past six years has been invaluable to our growth and development and we know she will carry her commitment to a world without Alzheimer’s, as well as share her keen perspective as an Alzheimer caregiver, through in all her work on our national board of directors,” said Kent Barnheiser, president and CEO of the Greater Illinois Chapter. Edge’s involvement with the Alzheimer’s Association began in 1999 when she walked into the chapter office in Rockford asking how she could help. Within days, she joined the chapter’s program committee and leadership council and quickly became involved with advocacy, awareness building, fundraising and volunteering for Memory Walk, one of the chapter’s annual fundraisers. Edge joined the chapter’s board of directors in 2002 and is chair of the development committee. She has been a member of the Rockford Leadership Council, a group of community leaders supporting dementia programming, care and awareness, most recently serving as its chair since 2002. She also chairs the task force of chapter and national staff and volunteers coordinating fundraising activities. Prior to joining the association’s national board of directors, Edge served on several national task forces and committees, including serving as vice chair of development and chair of a national task force for joint fundraising between the association’s national office and the Greater Illinois Chapter. Edge also volunteered for the Northern Illinois Botanical Society, the Rockford Memorial Hospital Development Foundation Gala, the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, and served on the parish council board for St. Rita Catholic Church. In addition, Edge supports WING, the auxiliary of the New American Theatre and has served as its board president. She also worked in banking as an operations officer and managed a women’s clothing store. “I am thrilled to have the opportunity to help further establish the Alzheimer’s Association as the leader in Alzheimer research and care, not only here in Illinois but across the country,” Edge said. “I draw my passion from my experience as an Alzheimer caregiver for my father for five years, as the niece of two aunts and an uncle who all had Alzheimer’s, and as a caregiver for my mother for three years. I draw my enthusiasm from the great things we already have accomplished and are undertaking on state and national levels to achieve our vision of a world without Alzheimer’s disease in our lifetime.”
|
