Jay Newton-Small was an only child born to Sue S. Newton-Small, an international lawyer who had been born in Hong Kong as Sok Chun Tang on December 13, 1948, and who fluently spoke Cantonese, and Graham 'Gray' Newton-Small, an Australian economist whose Alzheimer's disease later inspired her to begin MemoryWell. Both of her parents were United Nations diplomats who traveled and reared Jay overseas, outside the United States. They had met in Zambia while both traveled the world for the United Nations and continue to do so thereafter. They were married for forty years and retired to Naples, Florida. Her mother, Sue S. Newton-Small, was a passionate Republican fundraiser and socialite who loved George W. Bush and disliked Barack Obama.
Reporter, Bloomberg News – 2003–2007 – Covered the White House and US politics
Washington Correspondent, Congressional Correspondent, Time Magazine – 2007–present. She covered politics as well as stories on five continents from conflicts in the Middle East to the earthquake in Haiti and the November 2015 terror attacks in Paris. She has written more than half a dozen TIME cover stories and interviewed heads of state, including Barack Obama and George W. Bush during their Presidencies, foreign dignitaries, senators, state governors, and other elected officials.
MemoryWell
Newton-Small's father died with Alzheimer's disease. After several years of incubating the ideas, she cofounded in 2016—with Denver Nicks, and Steve Gettinger—MemoryWell, a network of professional journalists who write and retell the life stories of those suffering from Alzheimer's and other dementias, supporting their caregivers and preserving memories of the lives who forgot how to remember. She and Denver Nicks were staff writers at TIME magazine and graduates of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Steve Gettinger reminisced personal about his mother in "The Zen of Alzheimer's" for The New York Times Magazine. One of MemoryWell's goals is to extend the memory in others of those whose memory has failed by developing professionally written profiles of persons with a dementia. In February 2017, Newton-Small began a six-month live-in residency at Halcyon House Located in the heart of the Georgetown section of in Washington, D.C., where start-ups can develop their business strategy. MemoryWell's website and the Halcyon profile for Newton-Small claim that its stories help assisted living caregivers build empathy and get to know and engage in a more deeply personal way with their residents.
Personal life
Ms. Newton-Small lives in Washington, D.C.
Awards
2017 – Halcyon Incubator Fellow, Halcyon House
2016–2017 – New America Fellow, to explore Alzheimer's disease and end of life care through a book she is writing about her father's diagnosis and treatment.
2016 – Deadline Club award for community service reporting, awarded to Don Von Drehle, Jay Newton-Small, and Maya Rhodan, "What It Takes to Forgive a Killer" in TIME Magazine
