It’s a quintessential spring morning at the University of Georgia’s State Botanical Garden. The sun is starting to peek out from behind a patchwork of pale gray clouds, warming the air.

It’s an idyllic setting for another session of Meet Me at the Garden. This pilot program, delivered by the education teams at UGA’s Cognitive Aging Research & Education (CARE) Center and the State Botanical Garden, wants to “expand the bubble” of persons living with dementia and their caregivers through interactive education and sensory activities.

Jose Cordero had seen the news reports. When the lingering bands of Hurricane Maria finally gave way to blue skies, the enormity of the storm’s impact on the island of Puerto Rico was laid bare.

Beginning in the southeast corner of the island, the storm had slowly crawled across the land, dumping unprecedented amounts of rain and battering homes with 155 mile per hour sustained winds.

Puerto Rico was devasted.

As soon as the first non-emergency flights could return to the island, Cordero, Patel Distinguished Professor of Public Health and head of the department of epidemiology and biostatistics, was on one.