Tony Awards 2010 Special Interview: Harry Johns

Today we continue our series of conversations with the recipients of the 2010 Tony Awards for Special Achievement which this year is being awarded to the Alzheimer's Association and their spokesperson: Broadway, film and television star and Tony-winner David Hyde Pierce. In this discussion, I speak to Harry Johns, the CEO of the group, and, in the second part, as the magnetic and magnanimous Mr. Hyde Pierce himself.

Alzheimer's Advocacy & The Arts - Part I

David Hyde Pierce's tireless efforts for the Alzheimer's Association of America as their spokesperson and fierce advocate have helped it to achieve a level of fame and notoriety it had never yet achieved prior to Hyde Pierce's involvement in the organization. His help as an advocate for the organization has led to a higher national profile for the organization and therefore a higher emphasis has been placed on their place as one of the most groundbreaking and innovative groups of their kind, leading scientific research on the disease. What follows in Part I are comments from the CEO and head of the Alzheimer's Association, Harry Johns, on the organization itself, how he came to be involved with it, their history and the participation of Mr. Hyde Pierce.

Note: Part II continues tomorrow with the interview with David Hyde Pierce himself.

PC: Could you tell me how David Hyde Pierce got involved with the Alzheimer's Association of America?

HJ: He arrived prior to even my involvement with the Alzheimer's Association... He has been a motivated, energetic and valuable volunteer since his very beginnings with the organization. He has really helped the association raise the level of attention to Alzheimer's which is so important to the overall cause of what we do. As you may know, he has been an active member of the board. He is a very bright and capable guy beyond his great talent onstage and on television. He's just a great human being. He's one of the nicest guys you're likely to meet.

PC: Have there been any benefits or galas which stick out to you that he sort of brought his two passions together for everyone's benefit?

HJ: David has emceed our D.C. gala multiple times. He's funny when other people write his lines or if he writes his own lines. He's got great comedic timing whether he's doing a well-known play or whether he's doing his own lines he's created to emcee. He's helpful in so many ways. He's such a talented guy, as we all know.

PC: Has he brought more awareness to the organization than anyone else?

HJ: Without question. Unlike a lot of celebrity spokespeople, David has been - for us - he has been the primary person who has changed the understanding and perception of Alzheimer's disease on behalf of the Alzheimer's Association. He has touched and affected many lived. I know he's done so much in his career - but he has done that in so many additional ways as a volunteer and touching lives and helping us as an advocate. Going beyond the spokesperson role he plays: when he appears on morning talk shows, beyond that he has gone to capitAl Hill multiple times to speak to members of the Senate and members of the House and to let them know what really needs to be done about this disease which is to increase research funding beyond what we do to go faster. He continues to make a difference in doing what we need to do.

PC: And how did you get involved with the organization?

HJ: I came to the organization about four and a half years ago after a long career in the nonprofit world. When I was making my decision, I had the chance to not only be the leader of the most important Alzheimer's association in the world, but also I was making the decision based on my mother had Alzheimer's disease. No one could diagnose her and when it came to the medical providers... The doctors wouldn't diagnose her, I couldn't get her to go to the doctor... Finally, she had some other symptoms and they diagnosed her soon thereafter.

PC: Was this in the Early Stages of research on the disease?

HJ: It was three years ago.

PC: Oh, wow. I'm so sorry.

HJ: The problem is, primary care doctors don't have the ability to diagnose it. When I was starting at the job - and that's the personal connection, with my mom. We have a lot of work to do. David was one of the very first people I had the chance to meet, I had lunch with him in New York.

PC: When he was in SPAMALOT?

HJ: Yeah, ‘05. I mean, everyone knows the Niles Crane character [from FRASIER]. It's such a pleasure to know David as a friend, beyond the chance to work with him in my role. He's just the best guy you could find anywhere.

PC: Is there an intentionally pervasive optimism you affect given the nature of this debilitating disease?

HJ: One of the things I believe in is the power of positive thinking. There is a positive attitude about what can be done and what needs to be done given the terrible nature of the disease. I am optimistic, our staff is optimistic and it is important I think even for our leaders in Washington to know that there are reasons to be optimistic - but we have to go after it. As an organization, we provide care and support to people to have the disease now and their families and caregivers, but also to advance research whether we're funding it independently ourselves or we are trying to get the Federal government to give us more support. We are optimistic, we think there is good reason for optimism. The science is relatively young.

PC: And Alzheimer himself - how optimistic was he?

HJ: When Alzheimer discovered the disease - now, just over a hundred years ago - for about seventy of those years they didn't make the connection. The woman he discovered it in was just two years younger than me [51]. I'm not that old yet. (Laughs.) That's not the age that people think of having Alzheimer's. That's where he first discovered it. The science has improved very quickly over the last thirty years compared to other diseases like cancer and heart disease and others that have been around for a long, long time. We have optimism, but we have a long way to go, too, because we don't have a treatment that either slows or stops the disease. It is still terminal for people and, of course, the path is a difficult one. The optimism is tempered by the reality but we are all optimistic about what we can accomplish working together to change the course of the disease.

PC: Is there hope on the horizon? New research being done?

HJ: We have more drugs in clinical trials than we've ever had before. We have several drugs that have the potential to be that could be available, say, in the next three to five years. People are excited about that possibility. The scientists continue to learn more even through the drugs that have not worked. We continue to fund new and innovative treatments and also new diagnostics. Right now, we can't diagnose people before they have symptoms so the ideal scenario would be to find a way to diagnose people pre-symptomatically and if we can find a treatment to slow or stop the progression of the disease, if we had both of those we could potentially treat people before they get the symptoms. You know, the way the disease works, the pathology... the accumulation in the brain is there many years before the person shows symptoms. That's the type of thing we encourage the Federal government to fund and that's what the science community is working on.

PC: What's your mission?

HJ: To provide care and support to those affected, to reduce the risk of dementia through the promotion of brain health and ultimately to eliminate the disease through the advancement of research. Our core vision is to provide information, care and support. We host, for example, the world's largest meeting on Alzheimer's research every year. We play the leading role in care, support and research.

PC: What does receiving the Special Tony Honors mean to you and your organization?

HJ: First and foremost, we are just especially happy for David's recognition. No one anywhere could more deserve this recognition than David Hyde Pierce. He is the very epitome of a celebrity doing great work beyond the theatre and beyond the screen. We're really happy about that for David, it's just a wonderful thing. Of course, we're also happy for the attention that it brings to the Alzheimer's Association cause. We still need to get more people to pay attention to Alzheimer's. So many people still don't know it or understand it. We just released a report that states if we can't get it fixed in the next forty years - beyond the human toll - it is going to cost our country twenty trillion dollars just for the care for the disease - private payers, private individuals who will be paying for the care. Getting the word out on that in this way - and in all ways - is critically important for our ability to ultimately change the course of the disease and get to the point where people don't need all that care and support because we will at least have it arrested if not cured.

PC: Thank you so much for the wonderful work you have done and continue to do and taking this time with me today.

HJ: We really appreciate your time and interest from you folks at BroadwayWorld. It means a lot.

Donations to the Alzheimer's Association of America can be made at their official website, click here for more information.