What the Camino de Santiago Taught Us About Removing Labels and Living Well with Dementia with Michelle Daniel - CEO at The Eden Alternative & Julie Moore - Advisory Board Member at DAA
What happens when researchers, physicians, care partners, and people living with dementia all walk the same road — in the same purple shirt, with no labels? In June 2026, Michelle Daniel and Julie Moore joined Walking the Talk for Dementia , a global immersive initiative that pairs a four-day, 40-kilometer walk along the Camino de Santiago in Spain with a two-day symposium, alongside 96 people from 35 countries. In this conversation, they bring those lessons home. Michelle has spent 31 years in eldercare and leads The Eden Alternative. Julie has been a care partner for four parents through Alzheimer's and other dementias — and three years ago, was diagnosed with early-onset dementia herself. Together they unpack what it means to design environments that remove barriers instead of asking people to adapt, why the "tragedy narrative" does more damage than the diagnosis, and how well-being — not happiness — makes room for joy and sorrow to sit side by side. It's a conversation about labels, listening, and the difference between being in charge of someone and care partnering with them. Resources Mentioned The Eden Alternative — www.edenalt.org Dementia Action Alliance — www.daanow.org Walking the Talk for Dementia (founder: Fernando Perez) — www.walkingfordementia.org Dementia Resources — dementia-resources.com Creating Moments of Joy by Jolene Brackey Guest Bios Michelle Daniel — President & CEO, The Eden Alternative, Inc. Michelle Daniel is the President and CEO of The Eden Alternative, an organization she has been part of since 2000, when she first encountered its work as a graduate student. Her calling found her earlier than that — in a high school social justice class in the Washington, D.C. area, where a teacher read her journal entries about a great aunt in a New Orleans nursing home and told her she'd found her life's work in advocacy for older adults. Thirty-one years later, Michelle has served as an administrator and a family care partner, and now leads an organization dedicated to person-directed care and to changing how our culture sees elders and people living with brain change. Learn more at www.edenalt.org . Julie Moore is an advisory board member of the Dementia Action Alliance, an outreach mission of The Eden Alternative. A lifelong learner with ten associate degrees and a bachelor's degree, Julie spent her career supporting people with physical and developmental disabilities, work that shaped her understanding of accommodation, advocacy, and the limiting assumptions that come attached to a diagnosis. She served as a care partner for both of her parents and both of her parents-in-law as they lived with Alzheimer's and other dementias. Three years ago, Julie was diagnosed with early-onset dementia herself. Today she is an advocate at the community and state level, a research participant, a runner and cyclist, and — as of June 2026 — a Camino de Santiago pilgrim. Learn more at www.daanow.org . Julie Moore — Advisory Board Member, Dementia Action Alliance
