Virginia Bell, M.S.W., is Program Consultant for the Greater Kentucky/Southern Indiana Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. She is the founder of that association’s award-winning Helping Hand Adult Day Center (now the Best Friends Adult Day Center). Ms. Bell has trained innumerable staff, students, and volunteers nationally and internationally in the center of the practices and attitudes that embody the Best Friends approach. She has earned awards for leadership in her community and in the Alzheimer’s field. With her co-author, David Troxel, she has published The Best Friends Approach to Alzheimer’s Care; The Best Friends Staff: Building a Culture of Care in Alzheimer’s Programs; The Best Friends Book of Alzheimer’s Activities, Volume 1 and Volume 2; A Dignified Life, Revised and Expanded: The Best Friends Approach to Alzheimer’s Care—A Guide for Care Partners; and The Best Friends Daily Planner.
David Troxel, M.P.H., has become nationally and internationally known for his writing and teaching in the fields of Alzheimer’s disease and long-term care. He has co-authored, with Virginia Bell, 6 influential books (The Best Friends Approach to Alzheimer’s Care; The Best Friends Staff: Building a Culture of Care in Alzheimer’s Programs; The Best Friends Book of Alzheimer’s Activities, Volume 1 and Volume 2; A Dignified Life, Revised and Expanded: The Best Friends Approach to Alzheimer’s Care—A Guide for Care Partners; and The Best Friends Daily Planner), as well as numerous articles relating to Alzheimer’s disease and care and staff development training.
David received his Master’s Degree in Public Health from UMDNJ, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (formerly Rutgers Medical School) in 1986.
David is a past Executive Board member of the American Public Health Association and is a member of the Ethics Advisory Panel for the United States Alzheimer’s Association. He currently serves as a Program Consultant to the Alzheimer’s Association California Coast Chapter in Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties.
