Wendy Campbell, Alzheimer's Association leader, is stepping down

Wendy L. Campbell, the longtime president and CEO of the Alzheimer's Association Delaware Valley Chapter, announced her retirement Tuesday.  Her last day will be June 8.

Campbell, 65, has led the local organization for 18 years. Based in Philadelphia, the Delaware Valley Chapter operates branch offices that serve people in Southeastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey, and Delaware.  Its coverage area includes nearly 300,000 people with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.

Before beginning work at the Alzheimer's Association in 2000, Campbell was a vice president at Pennsylvania Hospital for nearly 20 years.

She led the merger in 2002 of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association with chapters that served South Jersey and Delaware.  More recently, she helped organize the new Alzheimer's Association Greater New Jersey Chapter, which serves central and northern New Jersey, and was its interim director.  That expansion came after several other regional chapters split with the national group.

During Campbell's tenure, the Philadelphia Walk to End Alzheimer's became the first chapter walk in the nation to raise more than $1.5 million for the organization.  It has been the top regional fund-raiser among the association's chapters in terms of participants and dollars for the Alzheimer's Association every year since 2015, the organization said.

Until a successor is chosen, Gail Roddie-Hamlin, regional leader of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware for the Alzheimer's Association, and president and CEO of the Greater Pennsylvania Chapter, which serves central and Western Pennsylvania, will be in charge of the Philadelphia office.