Day 1 Keynote: Advocacy and Awareness: Our Family's Journey with Sepsis and the Power of ‘Using Your Voice’

Jake Tapper

Anchor and Chief Washington Correspondent

CNN

CNN anchor and chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper joined the network in January 2013. Tapper currently anchors an award-winning two-hour weekday program, The Lead with Jake Tapper, which debuted in March 2013. He has hosted CNN’s Sunday morning show, State of the Union, since June 2015. In April 2021, he became the lead anchor for CNN for Washington, D.C. events.

In addition to his reporting, Tapper has also authored five books, including his debut novel The Hellfire Club, published in 2018, its sequel, The Devil May Dance, published in 2021, both of which were New York Times best-sellers. His non-fiction works include the best-seller The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor, published in 2012, Down and Dirty: The Plot to Steal the Presidency, which was published in 2001, and Body Slam: The Jesse Ventura Story, which was published in 1999. The Outpost debuted in the top 10 on The New York Times best seller list, and Tapper was one of the executive producers of the critically acclaimed film version of The Outpost, directed by Rod Lurie and released in 2020. His next highly anticipated novel, All The Demons Are Here, was published in July 2023.

In addition to raising sepsis awareness, Tapper has been active in bringing attention and support for veterans’ issues. Since 2017 he has organized an annual celebrity eBay auction to build specially-designed mortgage-free houses for severely injured veterans of the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan via the top-rated charity Homes for Our Troops, a group for which he serves as an ambassador. In 2018, he was awarded a People’s Choice Vetty during the 3rd Annual Vetty Awards, an annual award ceremony presented by the Academy of United States Veterans. In 2014, Tapper’s book and his reporting on the veterans and troops were cited when the Congressional Medal of Honor Society awarded him the “Tex” McCrary Award for Excellence in Journalism. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude from Dartmouth College in 1991 and lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, daughter and son.

Jennifer Tapper

Sepsis Alliance – Board of Directors

Jennifer Tapper is an advocacy-based fundraising, organizing, and communications professional with more than 20 years of experience fighting for equality, equity, and basic human rights for women and children. In 2021, Jennifer’s daughter, Alice, was admitted to the hospital with appendicitis, but doctors missed the warning signs and Alice was initially misdiagnosed. By the time she was correctly diagnosed, her appendix had ruptured, and she became septic. You can read Alice’s full story here. Alice was ultimately able to make a full recovery and has become a national advocate for diagnostic change when it comes to appendicitis and sepsis. Jennifer and Alice are committed to modernizing the way emergency room doctors diagnose appendicitis. They both speak to medical students and health care providers to share Alice’s story and inform others of the dangers of not recognizing the signs of appendicitis, pre-sepsis, and sepsis. Jennifer lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband, Jake Tapper, and her two children, Jack and Alice Tapper.

Alice Tapper

Student & Patient Advocate