My Nonprofit Reviews

My first introduction to CURE was in 2000 when I heard Susan Axelrod's impassioned lecture at the 2000 White House Initiated Curing the Epilepsies Conference at the National Institutes of Health. In her lecture, Susan, one of the founding parents of CURE shared her daughter's journey with epilepsy and challenged the epilepsy research community to think beyond the symptomatic treatment of epilepsy and to dream of a day when there may be a cure for the millions of patients worldwide who suffer from unrelenting seizures and epilepsy related comorbidities including depression, anxiety and cognitive decline. I knew then that CURE was an organization that I wanted to support in anyway that was feasible and within my means to do so. Since then I have served as a volunteer, advisor, grantee and Research Director from 2011-2015.

As a grantee, CURE funded a high risk proposal that aimed to characterize a new animal model of viral encephalitis. This funding was important for us to advance the Theiler's Murine Encephalomyelitis model of epilepsy. Since then, the use of this model has provided the research community with new insights into how brain infection leads to epilepsy and may someday lead us to more effective therapies for the treatment and prevention of encephalitis induced epilepsy.

This is just one of many examples of how CURE funding has helped shape a better understanding of epilepsy and aided in the advancement of cutting edge science that aims for a CURE. When one looks at some of the major advances in epilepsy research over the last two decades, you often find that early funding of the investigative team came from CURE.

Since their inception in 1998, CURE has remained true to their original vision and mission and they have been an outstanding steward of valuable donor resources. As a DONOR, I know that any financial support that my wife and I might be able to provide is being used to fund outstanding peer-reviewed science that I know will someday change how we approach the prevention and treatment of epilepsy.