Katie Evans is Chief Programs and Mission Engagement Officer of the Alzheimer’s Association, where her team oversees programs spanning brain health, early detection, diagnosis, treatment, and care and support.

It was the middle of summer, the kind of hot day made for sitting beside a pool and doing absolutely nothing. Instead, my friend and I were talking about work.

She is the CFO of a company, and between demanding jobs, children’s schedules, and life’s inevitable interruptions, we do not see each other as often as we would like. When we do, our conversations move quickly from family updates to the issues keeping us awake at night: organizational change, difficult decisions, team dynamics, and the relentless pressure to perform.

Eventually, she asked the question I hear more and more from women our age: “What should I be doing for my brain?”

For years, when I told people where I worked, they responded with stories rooted in fear: My grandmother had Alzheimer’s. I am more afraid of Alzheimer’s than any other disease.

Those fears have not entirely disappeared. Alzheimer’s is a devastating disease, and today there is no cure. But the conversation is beginning to change. Increasingly, people are asking not only what they should fear, but what they can do.

That is an important shift from fear to agency.

It is also an important shift for business leaders. Our brains are not separate from how we lead. Attention, judgment, creativity, memory, and the ability to navigate complexity are all functions of brain health. Yet most organizations protect nearly every business-critical asset more intentionally than they protect the cognitive capacity of their people.

Supporting brain health is a business strategy in itself.

We Now Have Stronger Evidence That Action Matters

For years, we have known that many of the habits associated with better cardiovascular health are also associated with better brain health. Now we have compelling evidence showing what can happen when those behaviors are combined.

The Alzheimer’s Association U.S. Study to Protect Brain Health Through Lifestyle Intervention to Reduce Risk, known as U.S. POINTER, was a two-year clinical trial involving more than 2,100 older adults at increased risk for cognitive decline. Participants followed lifestyle interventions addressing physical activity, nutrition, cognitive engagement, and heart health monitoring.

Both groups improved their cognition. Participants in the more structured program — which included greater support, accountability, and intensity — experienced even greater benefits. The improvements were seen regardless of sex, ethnicity, genetic risk, or heart health status.

To be clear, we do not know whether or not it is possible to prevent Alzheimer’s because age, genetics, and other factors matter. Researchers are still looking for answers. But U.S. POINTER gives us something incredibly valuable: evidence that our daily actions can meaningfully support how our brains function as we age.

For leaders, there is another lesson in the findings. Information alone is rarely enough. Structure, support, and accountability make a difference.

That is true for changing individual habits. It is also true for changing workplace culture. It’s a big reason the Alzheimer’s Association is working to bring brain health strategies to the workplace through our Brain Health At Work program.

Women’s Brain Health Belongs in the Leadership Conversation

For women in their 40s and 50s, brain health is not an abstract concern reserved for later life. These are often the years when professional responsibilities are at their highest and personal responsibilities are multiplying.

Women may be leading companies or major teams while raising children, supporting aging parents, managing chronic health conditions, and experiencing changes associated with perimenopause or menopause. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, many are also caregivers. More than 3 in 5 unpaid Alzheimer’s and dementia caregivers are women, and nearly 1 in 5 women caring for someone living with Alzheimer’s has had to leave the workforce because of caregiving demands.

At the same time, women may experience changes in sleep, concentration, memory, or mental clarity and wonder whether they should disclose them, hide them, or simply work harder to compensate.

Too often, the default is silence.

As leaders, we have a responsibility to create workplace cultures where a woman can say, “I have noticed a change in my cognitive health, and I want to address it” without fearing that her competence will immediately be questioned.

That does not mean diagnosing colleagues, treating every forgotten name as a warning sign or lowering expectations. For most people in their 40s and 50s, such changes are not dementia, or even a precursor to dementia. Brain health can be affected by sleep, stress, cardiovascular health, medications, hormonal changes, depression, anxiety, and many other factors. Some are temporary, and some require medical attention.

Normalizing the conversation about cognitive health allows people to seek help earlier, make appropriate adjustments, and remain fully engaged in their work.

Start With Four Practical Shifts

Women leaders do not need to become neuroscientists to advance brain health. We can begin by changing the questions we ask, the behaviors we model and the systems we create.

1. Treat movement as essential to performance.

Physical activity supports both heart and brain health. But in many executive cultures, sitting through seven consecutive hours of meetings is still treated as evidence of commitment.

Leaders can make walking meetings acceptable, protect time between calls, and avoid creating schedules that make movement impossible. Instead of apologizing for taking that time, try: “I protect time for physical activity because it helps me think more clearly and lead more effectively.”

Rather than stepping away from performance, you’re investing in it.

2. Stop celebrating cognitive depletion.

Chronic sleep deprivation, constant availability, and back-to-back meetings are not leadership strengths. They reduce the very capacities organizations need from senior leaders: attention, judgment, adaptability, and impulse control.

A leader can reset the norm with simple language: “This decision requires clear thinking. Let’s revisit it tomorrow rather than forcing an answer at the end of an exhausting day.”

That sentence gives others permission to value the quality of their thinking, not simply the speed of their response.

3. Make it safe to discuss cognitive health.

When someone experiences persistent changes in memory, reasoning, or the ability to complete familiar tasks, those concerns should not be dismissed as stress, age, or “just menopause.” They deserve a conversation with a healthcare professional.

Women can advocate for themselves by being specific: “I have noticed a change from my usual level of functioning. It has persisted for several months and is affecting my work. I would like help understanding what may be causing it.”

Specific observations are harder to minimize than saying, “I feel foggy.”

Leaders can also help employees by responding to concerns with curiosity and discretion rather than judgment.

4. Build connection into the work.

Cognitive challenge is an important component of brain health. Social engagement may also matter. Yet senior leadership can be remarkably isolating.

Beyond providing professional development, mentoring, peer networks, and opportunities to learn something genuinely new can support cognitive and emotional well-being.

Ask: “Does the way we work give people opportunities to learn, connect, and recover or only to produce?”

The answer reveals a great deal about whether an organization is sustaining its people or consuming them.

Your Most Valuable Asset Is Not on the Balance Sheet

Back at the pool, my friend was hoping for a checklist. I gave her one: Move regularly, eat in ways that support heart and brain health, stay cognitively engaged, monitor important heart health measures, and talk with a healthcare professional about any persistent changes you notice. For guidance, visit rethinkyourbrain.org to sign up for the Alzheimer’s Association’s new (re)think your brain™ 6-Step Challenge, which is designed to help people begin building these kinds of everyday healthy habits.

My friend’s question stayed with me.

She is a CFO. She has built her career protecting assets, assessing risk, and making investments intended to produce returns over time. Yet the asset behind every number she analyzes, every problem she solves, and every person she leads will never appear on her company’s balance sheet: Her brain.

Women have spent decades proving that we can lead through almost anything. But the next evolution of leadership cannot be about how much depletion we can tolerate. And protecting our cognitive capacity cannot be one more responsibility women are expected to carry alone.

My friend’s question that afternoon was personal: “What should I be doing for my brain?”

The actions may be personal. The responsibility is not.

Now I have a question for her, and for every leadership team around the country: What are you going to do to support your workforce’s brain health?