The Ice Bucket Challenge has generated more than $15 million for the ALS Association. So who’s in charge of that new wave of (literally) cold cash? Barbara “Barb” Newhouse is President and CEO. She’s been in the non-profit world battling diseases for 35 years, having held senior positions at the American Cancer Society, the Alzheimer’s Association, the Autism Society of America, and the Arthritis Foundation before joining ALS Association. Newhouse manages a national executive staff of six–and only one of them is a man. (Men, however, are affected by ALS more often than women.)
Also on the ALS Association national executive staff is Lucie Bruijn, Ph.D., Chief Scientist at ALS Association. She oversees the Association’s 98 active projects and will soon oversee 21 new projects (the ALS Association recently announced $3.5 million in funding–and that was before the Ice Bucket Challenge was launched). Dr. Bruijn strongly believes that “only through collaboration among a wide range of disciplines will we be successful in changing the course of ALS and finding a cure.” She’s working with The National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense, among other foundations focusing on neurodegenerative research.
