A Family Affair | About Us

Volunteer Leadership

Thank you to the volunteers below for their leadership and generous support of the 2025 A Family Affair.

Ginger and Hill Jeffries, Co-Chairs
Hill and Ginger Jeffries are honored to serve as co-chairs of the 16th Annual A Family Affair, supporting the Goizueta Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (GADRC) at Emory University. 

Their commitment to advancing Alzheimer’s research, prevention, treatment, and care is deeply personal.

Hill’s father, McChesney “Mac” Jeffries, was a devoted husband, father, and community leader who battled Alzheimer’s disease before his passing in 2004. Mac was born and raised in Thomasville, Georgia and was the state baritone champion at age 18. He was a World War II veteran who was awarded the Bronze Star for devising a strategy to maintain gasoline supply lines to the Allies fighting in the Battle of the Bulge. A graduate of Davidson College and Harvard Law School, Mac was a highly respected corporate and banking law attorney in Atlanta for over 40 years.

More recently, Hill’s best friend since childhood, Chris Kimbel, passed away in 2023 after facing early-onset Alzheimer’s with strength and grace. Hill and Chris were high school and college classmates who remained very close throughout Chris’ successful career in sales with Coca-Cola and in business development at Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice.

Hill is a retired corporate and securities law attorney with Alston & Bird. Ginger is a dedicated community volunteer who has long championed multiple causes that strengthen families and improve lives.

Hill and Ginger are deeply focused on maintaining brain health through daily exercise, diet, and sleep. They strongly support the role of artificial intelligence in advancing the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s and other dementias.

Together, they are committed to honoring loved ones lost and supporting the GADRC’s mission to bring hope and healing to families across Georgia and beyond.
 

Bright and Robert Wright, Co-Chairs
Bright Kinnett Wright and Robert Usher Wright bring deep personal passion and long-standing commitment the Emory Goizueta Alzheimer’s Disease Research center to their role as co-chairs of the 16th Annual A Family Affair.

Bright, a native of Columbus, Georgia, and Robert, an Atlanta native, met while attending Emory Law School. Bright practiced law in Atlanta until retiring in 2019, and Robert continues to practice law with plans to retire in the coming years.

Their connection to Alzheimer’s disease is rooted in family experience. Bright’s mother, Betty Bright Blackmon Kinnett of Columbus, lived with suspected Lewy Body Dementia until her passing in 2013, and, for the ten years prior to her death, was a patient of Dr. Allen Levey at the Emory. At her death, Betty Kinnett’s brain was donated to what by then was the Emory Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, and the autopsy performed at Emory confirmed that the cause of her death was both Lewy Body Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease. More recently, a close relative was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s and has been receiving new FDA-approved treatment for nearly two years, with positive results.

The Wrights have supported the Goizueta Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (GADRC) for nearly a decade. Bright is a participant in Emory’s Healthy Brain Study and has pledged to donate her brain for future research. Both have volunteered with A Family Affair and remain inspired and motivated to continue their support by the advances in diagnosis, treatment, and care.

In recent years, they have begun to embrace brain-healthy habits: staying physically active, managing stress, prioritizing sleep, and recognizing the importance of early intervention.

Because of the impact on Bright’s family in the past as well as for the future, Bright and Robert are honored to lead this year’s event and to help advance the GADRC’s vital work to improve lives and bring hope to families facing Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases