November is National Alzheimer’s Awareness Month, a time to pause, reflect and continue the conversation on a disease that touches millions of lives around the world. Alzheimer’s isn’t just a medical challenge — it’s an emotional one that reshapes families, identities and the way we connect with one another.

Every TED Talk begins with a story. Every story begins with a memory. That is the idea at the heart of the TED Memory Project, created in partnership with Eli Lilly and Company. It’s a multi-platform, multi-month movement that explores how memory drives innovation and connection while advancing understanding and empathy around Alzheimer’s.

In his TED Talk, “Where does your sense of self come from? A scientific look,” Anil Ananthaswamy shares: “Take, for instance, the question ‘Who am I?’ The most likely answer you will get or give to such a question will be in the form of a story. We tell others, and indeed ourselves, stories about who we are. We take our stories to be sacrosanct. We are our stories. But a condition that most of us, sadly, will be familiar with, Alzheimer’s disease, tells us something quite different. Alzheimer’s begins by affecting short-term memory. Think about what that does to someone’s story. In order for our stories to form, to grow, something that just happens to us has to first enter short-term memory and then get incorporated into what is called long-term episodic memory. It has to become an episode in our narrative.”

This blog is one way of continuing that work, giving space for voices like Brigid Jacoby’s to reflect on how Alzheimer’s can alter identity and the stories that shape us. It is a space for reflection, where ideas meet lived experience, and where the threads of resilience, grief, curiosity and hope come into focus.

When Brigid watched Anil’s TED Talk, one idea struck her: our sense of self is built on the stories we tell about our past, our families and the choices we have made. Alzheimer’s complicates this deeply because it disrupts short-term memory, the very building blocks of those stories. Without being able to record and recall, the narrative of who we are becomes harder to sustain. “That idea resonated with me because I have seen firsthand how Alzheimer’s can change a person’s sense of self, not by erasing them, but by reshaping how their identity is expressed,” Brigid said.

Anne Jacoby

Brigid shares her reflections after the recent passing of her mother, Anne, who lived with early-onset Alzheimer’s. Anne passed on October 30th, 2025, early in the morning, surrounded by her three children. She began experiencing symptoms in her late forties, with her first memory complaints documented at 51. At first, it was small things like misplacing her keys, forgetting dates or struggling with her computer. But soon, the disease began interfering with her work. After more than 20 years in her industry, she lost her job, and even retail shifts became difficult when she couldn’t navigate the digital sales system. Brigid’s younger sibling even took a job at the same shop just to help keep an eye on her.

Anne was a storyteller. As an Irish American, she carried forward the histories of her grandparents immigrating from Ireland, weaving them into a family tapestry she often shared with her children. Her sense of self was tied to these stories and to the act of passing them down.

“One day, sitting outside with my mom, I asked her to retell a story about my great-grandmother,” Brigid recalls. “But this time, I watched panic rise in her eyes as she struggled to understand what I was referencing. The words did not come. Instead, tears did. It was not just memory loss, it was a fracture in identity, the vanishing of a thread she had long held onto as proof of who she was and where she came from.”

Over time, Brigid and her siblings learned to meet Anne in a different place, one not rooted in lost stories but in new ways of being together. They leaned into humor, curiosity and wonder. They asked silly questions, marveled with her at the shape of plants and clouds, or let her imagination spin freely without the pressure of accuracy. In those moments, Anne still expressed herself. Not through the precise retelling of family history, but through joy, silliness and awe.

Anil’s TED Talk reminded Brigid that even as memory fades, the self is not gone — it is simply altered. As Ananthaswamy explains, “I also believe that altered selves should not be seen as the outcome of deficits, or as the outcome of a lack of attributes considered normal. They are different ways of being, and it is the willingness of some of us to confront the self’s constructed nature that is helping make sense of the self for all of us.”

That is why Alzheimer’s awareness matters to her. She wants people to understand that while the disease changes a person, it does not erase them, a lesson she carries forward after her mother’s recent passing. “This awareness gives us tools to show up differently,” Brigid said. “To support loved ones as they move into a new version of themselves, rather than turning away in fear or discomfort. My hope is that people can approach those living with Alzheimer’s with patience, curiosity and care, seeking to understand what they are experiencing instead of mourning only what has been lost. By doing so, we can honor who they are becoming, not just who they were.”

Because behind every statistic is a person like Anne, whose story Brigid now carries forward. And behind every talk is someone like Brigid, reminding us why these conversations must continue.

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Why this moment matters

When we announced this process back in February, our guiding question was simple: Who can best take on TED’s unique blend of offerings and values — not just for the next few years, but for the coming decades? Our advisers, LionTree, heard from nearly 100 thoughtful and passionate groups — spanning individuals, foundations, media organizations, technology platforms, investor groups, and universities. (We even received generous offers to purchase TED outright.) The breadth, ambition, and imagination of what was offered were truly inspiring.

But for me — and for everyone on TED’s leadership team — the answers weren’t just about capital or scale. They were about stewardship, values, and a shared belief in giving ideas away, trusting community, preserving independence, and amplifying human possibility.

From that landscape of offers, we made a decision grounded in the guardrails we set in the original blog post announcing the search:

• Ambition for transformation, not just incrementalism — the next steward must have a truly compelling vision for how TED can scale up its impact.
• Protection of all that people hold dear about TED: the powerful experience of our main conference, our free TED Talk videos, our cherished communities of volunteers, and our determined optimism that a better future can be built.
• An open tent, diverse voices, global reach, nonpartisanship — those are nonnegotiable.
• Editorial and intellectual integrity must be protected against any conflicts of interest or agenda.
• TED must never be sold out to commercial interests, either now or down the line.

We seriously considered for-profit joint ventures that could allow TED’s rapid growth and infuse TED with significant capital. But the more we thought through the possibilities and reminded ourselves of the extraordinary culture of generosity that infuses this community, the harder it was to picture a scenario where TED’s ultimate controllers might one day prioritize profits over mission.

So we made a key decision…

• TED’s Nonprofit status must endure — TED will stay a nonprofit, independent of external commercial control.  We will proudly continue our transparent mission of providing knowledge, insights and inspiration freely to anyone in the world.

And now you will understand why I am so excited at where we ended up….

Meet TED’s new Vision Steward… Sal Khan!

Sal Khan and Chris Anderson at TED2023 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

It is my delight to introduce Sal Khan, founder and CEO of the incredible nonprofit Khan Academy. Sal will join TED’s board as TED’s new Vision Steward, while continuing his full-time role leading Khan Academy. Sal understands, in his bones, what it means to build a global educational platform rooted in the power of what technology and AI can enable in our connected world. Sal’s story is well known: starting with math videos and software to help his cousins, he grew Khan Academy into a trusted, free learning resource for students — and a valued partner for schools and districts — with over 170 million registered users in over 50 languages. He has blended pedagogical rigor, technology (including the powerful use of AI), and ingenuity in service of learners everywhere. He has attracted and retained an extraordinary team. He has partnered with the world’s most thoughtful philanthropists and recruited one of the most powerful boards in the nonprofit space. Perhaps most importantly, he’s won the respect and gratitude of countless numbers of educators, parents, and students worldwide.

What makes Sal especially compelling for TED is that he’s shown he can craft a vision that’s both breathtakingly ambitious and achievable in today’s technological landscape. And he’s done so inside a nonprofit culture. Add to this his lifelong dance with the power of curiosity, his hunger for crosscutting ideas, and his belief that bridging divides is not a side project, but a mission. Well, you can see why I’m excited. 

Khan Academy and TED will continue to operate independently of each other, but Sal has already shared with me electrifying sketches of how TED could find new ways of empowering humanity by tackling lifelong learning. He also sees how TED could play a meaningful role in helping address the world’s growing division and social isolation. We’re not announcing any details today. But watch this space… It’s about to get seriously exciting.

While Sal will serve as a guiding steward for vision, the day-to-day execution will fall to a new CEO. For the past 12 years Jay Herratti has given sterling service to TED, initially as head of TEDx, and for the past five years as CEO, where he heroically turned my often wild ideas into effective operational reality. During that time he brilliantly dealt with the challenges of a pandemic and a brutally unstable media landscape. Jay has already given many more years to TED than he initially intended, and is now ready for his next chapter in which he intends to focus on board-level work.

Introducing TED’s new CEO

Logan McClure Davda at TED Countdown Summit 2025 in Nairobi, Kenya. (Photo: Humphrey Gateri / TED)

We’re therefore proud to announce a new CEO for TED: Logan McClure Davda.

Logan is not an outsider or newcomer — she is a leader forged within our org. From co-founding our Fellows program to her current role as Head of Impact, she has earned deep respect across the organization and among our community. She knows our culture, our strengths and constraints; she has fought to extend TED’s reach, and she is a believer in Sal’s vision for the future.

Our conviction is that this combination — a visionary steward plus an exceptional, trusted internal leader — gives us the best of both worlds: fresh imagination and operational firepower. This conviction has been strengthened by meaningful indications of financial support from exciting new philanthropic partners. (More to come on this.)

Meanwhile, Jay and I remain deeply committed to TED. Jay is joining TED’s board and will be available as a resource to Logan. I’ll be on the board too and I’ll proudly continue to cheer-lead, fundraise, and carry the torch for TED’s values. I’ll also play a leading role at the upcoming TED2026 in Vancouver. That is going to be one epic celebration of all that this community stands for, and a thrilling chance for me to officially pass the torch to Sal and Logan.

What happens next — and how you can be part of it

• Logan, Jay, and I will join Sal in co-hosting a community conversation by the end of this year to invite feedback, questions, and ideas.
• We’ll be transparent about the governance structure, board composition, and how decisions will be made.
• We’ll begin recruiting (with input from the community) an Ideas Council, an exciting braintrust that will work with our head of media and curation Helen Walters and her exceptional team of curators to guide TED’s pursuit of the ideas that matter. 
• And yes — when the new leadership team is ready to unveil its plans, I’ll join them in an ambitious fund-raise to match the scope of our ambition for this next chapter.

To TED’s community — our speakers, TEDx organizers, educators, translators, Fellows, volunteers, donors, staff, and viewers around the world: this moment is for you. You have given TED its wings. Now let’s give it a future worthy of that trust.

I’m deeply grateful to everyone who engaged in the search, submitted proposals, raised questions, and stayed with us in the tension of the unknown. I remain, as always, an ardent believer in TED — and I’m excited for this moment of passing the torch, and leaning into what’s next.

Sal and Logan… Congratulations! And thank you! This is going to be beautiful. 

— Chris Anderson

Watch the special event that took place on Wednesday, October 15, to announce these exciting changes:

Want to hear even more about how the new steward was selected? Listen to Chris’ exclusive conversation with Manoush Zomorodi on a special edition of NPR’s TED Radio Hour.

For press inquiries, contact press@ted.com.