James I. Mangi

Caregiver, Community Educator and Advocate

A Vietnam veteran, Jim used his doctorate in Biological Sciences in his 40+ year career in the environmental consulting field, establishing a nationwide, award-winning firm conducting environmental studies for nearly 100 Federal agencies in 54 states and territories. 

And none of that prepared him for his current career.

He has been caregiver for the past 15 years for his wife, who is living with Younger Onset Alzheimer’s Disease. As an outgrowth of that new career, Jim has also served for the past 5 years as a volunteer Community Educator for the Alzheimer’s Association. In that capacity, Jim has delivered hundreds of classes from the full curriculum offered by the Association, from Know The Ten Warning Signs to Living With Late Stage Alzheimer’s. He has also spoken at numerous conferences for the Association and other organizations. Aspects of his dementia and caregiving journey with his wife, and Jim’s resulting dementia awareness and activism efforts have been featured in The Detroit News, The Detroit Free Press, The Chelsea Sun Times News, The Saline Post, The Bridge magazine, the AARP Magazine, Grand Rapids’ Rethinking Dementia, Crane’s Detroit Business, WXYZ TV , and NPR’s Stateside. 

Jim is trained in Best Friends Dementia Care practices, and is certified as a Dementia Champion by Dementia Friends America. He established Dementia Friendly Saline MI, secured recognition of Saline as one of only two Dementia Friendly Cities in Michigan, and continues offering a variety of workshops aimed at helping persons with dementia live in Saline or any other community with less difficulty and more dignity. Among Dementia Friendly Saline’s programs are also a hybrid-format Memory Café, a social event held twice monthly where persons living with dementia and their care partners can connect with others on the journey in an Embarrassment-Free zone. Dementia Friendly Saline also offers dementia-friendly training to businesses and other organizations. There is also a Caregivers’ Companions Program called Friends For The Journey, and an innovative Dementia-Friendly Day at the Movies program. 

Jim is Chairman of the Board of the EHM Foundation, the charitable arm of the Evangelical Homes of Michigan, as well as serving on the Steering Committee of the Michigan Dementia Coalition. He is President of his condominium association and VP of his church’s Parish Leadership Team. For no clear reason, his daughter says he is flunking retirement.

Because of his work, Jim has been named a Volunteer of the Year by the Greater Michigan Alzheimer’s Association, a “Changemaker” by Detroit’s Hannan Center, “Visionary of the Year” by the Saline Chamber of Commerce, and “Volunteer of the Year” by LeadingAge Michigan. Nonetheless, for many years his wife has named him “Toad.”