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Black Tie International
Karen Gantz Zahler |
Karen Gantz Zahler
Celebrates Her
Birthday
With Style & Grace
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Karen Gantz Zahler and
Dr. Samuel Gandy.
Photo by: Sara Herbert-Galloway |
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New York City, April 7, 2009. Karen Gantz Zahler
celebrated her birthday with style and grace at her beautiful
5th Avenue apartment overlooking Central Park. About 30 lovely
and accomplished women attended to help Karen celebrate and to
hear what Dr. Samuel Gandy, internationally recognized expert on
Alzheimer's Disease and Dr. Jane Martin, assistant clinical
professor of Psychiatry had to say.
There was a lot of love in the room for Karen. Friends shared
stories about her charitable endeavors with many organizations
as well as stories about how she helped them with their own
lives and ambitions. Some stories were happy, some sad but the
message conveyed by all was that Karen is a devoted friend who
has touched many people's lives. Her friends also spoke about
Karen’s celebrity clients of Floyd Abrams, Kathleen Turner, Alec
Baldwin and Nancy Friday. Today Show host Janice Lieberman, one
of her authors, whose new book How to Shop for a Husband comes
out next week, attended and spoke about Karen’s amazing
determination as a lawyer and literary agent. Eric Zahler,
Karen's loving husband and co-founder of Sagamore Capital, spoke
of how they met 28 years ago. He complemented her many times
over saying that she is a wonderful mother to two incredible
teenagers who share her great values and that anyone blessed
with knowing Karen is a beneficiary of a richer life simply for
knowing her. Some of the women who attended included Susan
Lipton, former investment who has headed the Jewish Museum and
Harvard Law School Alumni Association, and many other
institutions, and Emily Rose, professor at Johns Hopkins
University.
Karen has a genuine smile and warmness about her that embraces
people. Friends joked about how Karen is known to answer their
emails and calls no matter what hour of the day or night.
Someone said that she exuberates a tremendous energy and has a
tremendous passion for living.
Karen focused on the connectedness of friendship as one of the
important elements for strengthening one’s memory. The friends
in the room were a testament to her in that regard. She quoted
Cervantes: “Tell me what company thou keepst, and I’ll tell thee
what thou art,” She said it was a privilege to be in her
friends’ company.
Having Dr. Gandy as a guest speaker was also a wonderful
addition to her birthday celebration. According to the upcoming
June Issue of GQ Magazine, Dr. Gandy is called the "rock star of
science" and is featured in the Geoffrey Beene fashion spread.
Dr. Gandy is a Mount Sinai Medical Center Professor on
Alzheimer's Research. The Mount Sinai Center for Brain Health is
conducting cutting-edge trials on Alzheimer’s disease and making
enormous progress and new treatments are on the horizon.
Dr. Gandy is the program director of a 15-year National
Institute of Aging-funded program on Alzheimer's drug discovery.
In addition, he is the director of the Farber Institute of
Neurosciences, which is conducting three of the first anti-amyloid
clinical trials in North America. He is also the chairman of the
National Medical and Scientific Advisory Council for the
Alzheimer's Association.
Dr. Jane Martin is an assistant clinical professor in the
department of psychiatry at the Mount Sinai Medical Center and
co-director of Neuropsychology training. She is a founder of The
Women's Initiative at Mt. Sinai and teaches in the memory
enhancement program, a wellness program designed for older
adults.
Many of the women in attendance were the best and brightest in
New York: productive, professional women who do an enormous
amount for society, This group of the “worried well” are all
highly functioning, but got tips from Dr. Jane Martin on how to
keep their memory sharp: playing cards, connecting with people,
learning a new language, and not to multi-task as much as when
they were younger. Dr. Martin also recommended a Mediterranean
diet consisting of grains, leafy vegetables, and fish, which is
what Karen served at her luncheon. She also gave everyone in the
room a memory test and taught people to put items in categories
in order to remember things better. All these high-functioning
women were thrilled to get tips in being productive longer and
have a heightened concern to continue being cognitively sharp.
“Memory is an important element of personal identity and when
that starts to diminish, your sense of self diminishes,” said
Karen. “As people live longer and longer, and fifty percent of
those over eighty-five have no significant memory or physical
disability, it is increasingly important to do as much as we can
to fortify our memories while we are unimpaired. I became aware
of Mt. Sinai’s Center for Brain Health and the cutting edge
research being done to understand and treat memory, and I wanted
to share this new discovery with my friends. There is so much we
all can do to strengthen our attention and memory.”
Karen's birthday celebration was unique and special. A fitting
party for quite a lady. It was a pleasure to be amongst her
guests. We at Black Tie Magazine and The Herbert Collection wish
you a very happy birthday year with many blessings Karen.
Story by: Sara Herbert-Galloway
sara@blacktiemagazine.com
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To list an upcoming event
please contact:
joyce@blacktiemagazine.com |
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