Olivia Deering's goal of finding a cure for Alzheimer's starts at home (2024)

Olivia Deering, a 2018 graduate of Badger High School and 2022 graduate of the University of Wisconsin – Madison, was recently presented with the “Care and Support Volunteer of the Year” Award from the Alzheimer’s Association’s Annual Wisconsin Conference.

She received the award for her work in educating others about the research and development efforts going into finding a cure for Alzheimer’s.

“Getting that award was something we were so proud of because that’s not part of her job, it’s volunteer work,” Olivia’s mom Brianna Deering said. “For her to spend time going to community centers and retirement homes and churches, and how she was the keynote speaker twice at the Walk to End Alzheimer’s event in Lake Geneva, has been amazing. That dedication to not just work for a day-to-day job, but also to put the time in and help teach others and work towards finding a cure for this terrible disease has been amazing.”

Olivia may have received the honor on May 5-6, 2024, in Wisconsin Dells at the Kalahari Resort, her work in the medical field has been something she had been thinking about since was an early teenager after tearing both her ACL’s playing basketball.

“I knew since I was 13 that I wanted to be a PA (Physicians Assistant),” Olivia said. “So, it was stressful studying Neurobiology and working multiple jobs throughout college. I didn’t get a lot of sleep, but I got it done.”

Steve Deering, her father, a school counselor, and girls’ varsity basketball coach at Badger High School, could not be prouder of Olivia’s accomplishments.

“Olivia is a grinder,” Steve said. “It wasn’t anything she was blessed with; she just tries to outwork everybody. She’s been a paramedic, she’s been an overnight caretaker for someone with special needs, and she got her Phlebotomy certification so she can take blood to help with the Alzheimer’s unit more. She’s only 23, and to have all those experiences, we’re as proud as any parent would be.”

Those multiple jobs that she worked in included being an EMT, a caregiver and working in an Alzheimer’s Disease Research Lab where she currently works while also in the process of applying for PA School.

“Trying to balance school, my multiple jobs, my friends and volunteering was stressful, but I knew I was on the right path of what I wanted to do,” Olivia said.

Olivia said her work as an EMT pushed her focus towards Alzheimer’s.

“I got to work with a lot of older adults, and I saw how older adults tend to have unique ways of expressing themselves, especially those with Alzheimer’s who are not always able to say how they feel,” she said. “I really enjoyed caring for that population and I was also very interested in the research realm and how drugs go from clinical trials to the market.”

Olivia began working as a Clinical Research Coordinator in the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center in Madison in May 2022, just one week after her commencement ceremony from the University of Wisconsin.

But things never hit too close to home for her until a couple of months later when her grandmother, Beverly Kruse (Steve’s mom), was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease.

“That really brought everything full circle for me,” Olivia said. “As the oldest granddaughter and being in the medical world in some way, I kind of took to being her primary supporter with taking care of her medications and trying to do everything I could even though I wasn’t in Lake Geneva.”

Olivia has one younger brother, Cole, and two younger fraternal twin sisters, Molly, and Delaney, who are currently juniors at Badger High School.

“I knew a lot about Alzheimer’s Disease at the time, but I didn’t know exactly how to best care for and support someone with Alzheimer’s Disease, so that’s when I started doing my own research on the Alzheimer’s Association website,” Olivia said. “The Alzheimer’s Association really helped me with that as well. So, a little bit later once I knew what I was doing, I became a community educator with them and I’m now able to share information and offer educational programs to people across Wisconsin.”

There is currently one medication from the study that Olivia is coordinator for that has been approved for Alzheimer’s Disease called Lecanemab.

“It’s a disease modifying medication, which means it targets what’s going on in the brain,” Olivia said. “Lecanemab was approved for people with mild cognitive impairments and early Alzheimer’s Disease.”

Olivia serves a coordinator for the “Ahead Study.”

“The “Ahead Study” is a prevention study, so we’re seeing people that have had the brain changes of Alzheimer’s Disease but don’t yet have memory and thinking problems. If we give them Lecanemab and breakdown the bad proteins in the brain, can we prevent the memory symptoms from occurring,” Olivia said.

Olivia said receiving the care and support volunteer award back on May 6 only continued to prove that what she was doing was right.

“It was wonderful to receive that honor and it meant a lot to me,” Olivia said. “It reaffirmed my work and that what I’m doing is helping people. My supervisor ran the numbers and said I have touched over 500 people’s lives in the past 12 months alone by sharing educational resources and programs. Knowing that I’m able to spread Alzheimer’s awareness to that many people really means a lot to me.”

But nobody has meant more to her than her grandmother.

“She’s always been the closest person to me,” Olivia said. “And watching how Alzheimer’s disease has affected her and seeing her lose her personality and part of what made her, her, and the disease has been taking that away. It has been difficult for me. But being able to use the tools that I have learned to communicate with her has helped shift that relationship. It’s a bit different now that she has the disease, but it’s still just as important to me.”

And for Steve, to see his mom go through that and have Olivia by her side, it means everything.

“We have a call tree, so someone calls my mom in the morning, and someone calls her at night to make sure she’s taking her medicine, and more often than not it’s Olivia doing that,” Steve said. “Any time she comes home, Olivia is over there spending time with my mom, and she’s been a tremendous help for us as a family to help support and be there for someone with Alzheimer’s. She’s far better than any website or pamphlet, and she’s been instrumental with the whole extended family.”

Through it all, though, whether it’s helping her grandma, 500 people in Wisconsin or the millions of people around the world who suffer from Alzheimer’s, Olivia’s goal is to live in a world without this disease.

“With the research that’s going on and our research participants who have been amazing in giving us their time to the study and having the rest of the wonderful volunteers with the Alzheimer’s Association doing what they do, I think we’re on the right track to someday live in a world without Alzheimer’s disease,” Olivia said.