In 1995, Mary Ellen Geist, an accomplished and respected career person, left her high-powered radio job in New York City to return home to Michigan to care for her father, who is suffering from Alzheimer's, ultimately making the decision to live her life by a totally different set of priorities. In her book Measure of the Heart, Geist uses her own personal story–as well as extensive interviews with doctors and others who have left careers to care for an aging parent–to inspire and provide advice for the thousands of Americans experiencing similar situations. Geist has been lecturing about the gifts of coming home to help take care of a loved one with Alzheimer's disease and about the special connection music can create between caregivers and people living with Alzheimer's. She believes that music has a positive impact on people living with the disease, and as a result of the book, a cappella singing groups throughout the nation have begun organizing visits to nursing homes and residential facilities for people with Alzheimer's. Mary Ellen Geist graduated from Kalamazoo College with a degree in English. She was a broadcast journalist for twenty years, most recently as the afternoon anchor at WCBS radio in New York. Prior to that she was the morning anchor at KGO radio in San Francisco and a reporter in Los Angeles. Measure of the Heart is her first book.