Alissa Anderegg (born April 8, 1994) is an American beauty pageant titleholder and national Alzheimer's activist who was crowned as the winner of Miss World America 2020 to represent the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Miss World Miss World is the oldest existing international beauty pageant. It was created in the United Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951. Since his death in 2000, Morley's widow, Julia Morley, has co-chaired the pageant. Along with Miss Universe, Mi ...

. Anderegg represented

New York (state) New York, also called New York State, is a U.S. state, state in the northeastern United States. Bordered by New England to the east, Canada to the north, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey to the south, its territory extends into both the Atlanti ...

in the national competition as Miss World New York.

Early life

Anderegg was raised in

Danville, California The Town of DanvillePronounced is located in the San Ramon Valley in Contra Costa County, California, United States. It is one of the List of municipalities in California, incorporated municipalities in California that use "town" in their nam ...

. As a child, she starred several professional theatrical productions - including the Los Angeles premiere of ''

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'', the world premiere of ''Night of the Hunter,'' and a three-year contract in the West Coast premiere of ''An American Girls Revue''. Anderegg graduated from

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

in 2016. She went on to graduate with a Masters in Science from

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

's Medill School of Journalism.

Alzheimer's activism

Anderegg began advocating for

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease and the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems wit ...

at age 11, in honor of her grandmother Mary Fran Anderegg who had the disease. She has been featured in the Emmy-winning

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

documentary The Alzheimer's Project, contributed an essay to ''The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Takes on Alzheimer’s'' and ''Alzheimer's in America'', served as a face of Maria Shriver's Women's Alzheimer's Movement national campaign, and more. In 2021, she partnered with CaringKind: The Heart of Alzheimer's Caregiving as an ambassador and joined the Board of Directors of the Youth Movement Against Alzheimer's.

Pageantry

On 16 August 2020, Anderegg was awarded the title of Miss World America New York 2020, a preliminary to Miss World America 2020. On 16 October 2020, Anderegg was crowned as Miss World America 2020, succeeding the outgoing Miss World America 2019 and

Miss World 2019 Miss World 2019 was the 69th edition of the Miss World pageant, held at the Exhibition Centre London in London, England, on 14 December 2019. At the end of the event, Vanessa Ponce of Mexico crowned Toni-Ann Singh of Jamaica as Miss World 20 ...

Top 40 semifinalist, Emmy Rose Cuvelier. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the pageant was conducted virtually over the course of a month. Anderegg also won the Beauty with a Purpose Award.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderegg, Alissa Miss World America 1994 births Living people American beauty pageant winners