Robert Egge is the chief public policy officer of the Alzheimer’s Association® and the president of the Alzheimer’s Impact Movement (AIM), a separately incorporated advocacy affiliate of the Association. Egge oversees government affairs, policy development and grassroots advocacy teams working to secure policies to improve the lives of all those affected by dementia. 

With his leadership, the Alzheimer’s Association and AIM have empowered thousands of people across the country impacted by dementia to become grassroots advocates. These individuals have been trained and mobilized to share their stories about dementia, creating a personal connection between elected officials and the people impacted by their positions on our issues.  

Egge has led the Association in achieving several major federal milestones, including the passage of the National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA), which mandated the creation of the first national plan to fight Alzheimer’s, and a more than seven-fold increase in federal Alzheimer’s and dementia research funding to $3.7 billion annually. Likewise, state funding for dementia-specific services, supports, public awareness, education and research has more than doubled to $250 million in 2023.

Egge has overseen efforts to improve dementia care, including a 2016 decision by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to ensure, for the first time in history, that people living with dementia have access to care planning with a medical professional through Medicare. More recently, bipartisan congressional support and grassroots advocacy for the Association’s priority bill, the Comprehensive Care for Alzheimer’s Act, contributed to CMS announcing the GUIDE Model, the country’s most important dementia care initiative ever undertaken. 

Growing support in the community for families living with dementia is also a priority for Egge. He managed the Association’s work to pass the bipartisan BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act, legislation that led to the establishment of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) grant program that provides funds to state and local health departments to allow states to grow a statewide public health infrastructure that increases early detection and diagnosis, risk reduction, prevention of avoidable hospitalizations and supports dementia caregiving 

From 2017-2021, Egge served on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Advisory Council on Alzheimer’s Research, Care and Services. This advisory council, created by NAPA, provides guidance to both the HHS Secretary and Congress on Alzheimer’s policy.