John Zeisel
Producer, Founding Member
Dr. Zeisel, President and co-founder of the Hearthstone Alzheimer’s Family Foundation and Hearthstone Alzheimer Care, Ltd., received a Ph.D. in Sociology from Columbia University and a Loeb Fellowship at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. His professional service includes the Patient Care and Family Support Committee of the Massachusetts Alzheimer’s Association, the Conference Planning Committee of the New York City Office of Aging’s Alzheimer’s Unit, and the International Advisory Board of the Academy for Health and Design. Recently he was named to the Board of Directors of the Academy for Neuroscience in Architecture.
John has been on the faculty of Harvard University’s Department of Architecture. He has taught at Yale and McGill Universities and at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. In 1994 he lectured at the University of Minnesota Architecture School as its Cass Gilbert Visiting Professor. He also was a Fellow at the National Institute for Advanced Studies near The Hague in the Netherlands.
John lectures internationally on non-pharmacologic treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, focusing on the therapeutic effects of design of the physical residential environment, and the role of art and music. Through the Foundation’s Artists for Alzheimer’s program, John has been instrumental in developing “I’m Still Here”--a traveling art exhibit, and “Swansongs”--a musical and story performance that communicates to care partners and health care professionals the various stages of Alzheimer’s disease, the challenges and opportunities faced by care partners, and non-pharmacologic approaches to Alzheimer’s treatment. Swansongs is a collaboration with internationally renowned London-based violinist Paul Robertson, whose professional work focuses on the links between music and health.
Swansongs has been presented at The Study Society, Colet House, London, 2003, Praxis Health and Design Conference, Manchester Cathedral, England, 2003, International Arts and Health Conference, Dublin, Ireland, 2004, Stockport Hospital Caregiver Resource Group, Stockport, England, 2004, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, 2004 (North American premiere), Banner Health Foundation Public Performance, Phoenix, Arizona, Spring 2005, The Royal Institution, London, 2005, and The Royal Society of Medicine, London, 2005.
John’s research and practice over two decades has resulted in award-winning design and planning guidebooks, successful developments, prototype facilities, as well as books and articles used by designers, developers and service providers internationally.
His 2004 Gerontologist article Environmental Correlates to Behavioral Health Outcomes in Alzheimer’s Special Care Units, demonstrating the treatment effects of the built environment, has been republished in the French Revue de Gẻriatrie and featured in The New York Times. Other significant articles on non-pharmacologic treatment approaches have appeared in The American Journal on Alzheimer’s Disease.
Dr. Zeisel’s updated research methods text Inquiry by Design: Environment/Behavior/Neuroscience in Architecture, Interiors, Landscape, and Planning |
Sean Caulfield
Creative Director, Founding Member
Sean Caulfield’s Alzheimer advocacy developed from his early experience as a caregiver. With experience as an Executive Director of an Alzheimer’s program in Marlborough, Massachusetts, a support group facilitator for Alzheimer’s caregivers, and most recently, Director of Community Outreach for Hearthstone Alzheimer Care in Massachusetts and New York, Sean is a leader in innovative non-pharmacologic treatment approaches for people living with Alzheimer’s. An active member of the Bay Path Alzheimer’s Partneship, serving patients and caregivers in the Metro-West area of Massachusetts, Sean has also served on the Advocacy Committee of the Alzheimer’s Association in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
In 2004 Sean, working with the Mayor’s Office in Marlborough, Massachusetts, developed and organized the “Mayor’s Forum on Alzheimer’s Disease.” In cooperation with Mayor Dennis Hunt and his Office, this innovative series of outreach events included four community-based events, providing comprehensive education for care partners and family members living in the Metro-West Boston area. This program serves as an easily transferable model for other cities and towns to offer their residents.
Sean consulted to Dr. Zeisel in the writing of “I’m Still Here,” a one-act play showcased in Massachusetts and New York about a family’s trials at learning of an Alzheimer’s diagnosis. In 2004 he helped organize a traveling exhibit of Alzheimer’s art that made its debut at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, with further showings in Phoenix, Arizona.
Mr. Caulfield is partnering with Dr. Zeisel on the research, planning, and implementation of Alzheimer’s-specific museum tours to be conducted as an education program at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Through training of MoMA’s Education team, and studying MoMA’s physical space, Sean is developing this exciting program that is making art more accessible to those living with Alzheimer’s.
Sean frequently lectures on creativity and Alzheimer’s at hospitals, universities, senior centers, and police and fire departments throughout the Northeast United States. He has been a keynote speaker for the Alzheimer’s Association in Rockland County, New York, and has led workshops at the Massachusetts Alzheimer’s Association’s annual Map through the Maze conference.
Sean’s degree in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts serves him well in his work.
You can contact Sean via e-mail at caulfield@thehearth.org |
