The Alzheimer’s Association Greater Iowa Chapter, a voluntary health organization in Alzheimer’s care, support and research, has hired Doug Bickford as its new executive director. Bickford was most recently executive director for the American Diabetes Association covering Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. He brings more than 15 years of nonprofit leadership experience to the Alzheimer’s Association. Currently more than 64,000 Iowans are afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease, a figure that’s projected to continually increase over the coming decades. The disease is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States and is the only cause of death among the top 10 in America that cannot be prevented, cured or even slowed.