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Caroline Montojo, Ph.D., Dana Foundation President
Caroline Montojo, Ph.D., is the President and CEO of the Dana Foundation, a private philanthropic organization in New York City dedicated to advancing understanding about the brain. Dr. Montojo leads the Foundation into its next chapter, which focuses on neuroscience within society, how neuroscience both reflects and informs society. This includes fields where neuroscience interfaces with the world, such as ethics, law, humanities, medicine, arts, social sciences, policy, education, and public engagement.
Dr. Montojo was previously the Director of Life Sciences and the Director of Brain Initiatives at The Kavli Foundation, where she worked closely with the Kavli Institutes to advance science. Dr. Montojo has been deeply involved in catalytic efforts to advance neuroscience, including the U.S Brain Initiative and the International Brain Initiative (IBI). She served as an elected spokesperson for the IBI, giving talks at multiple scientific conferences such as the International Conference on Learning and Memory, the US National Institutes of Health Advisory Committee to the Director of NIH Working Group on BRAIN Initiative 2.0, and the UC Irvine Brain Initiative Launch. She also contributes to publications on international neuroscience and neuroethics in editorials, articles, and perspectives.
Dr. Montojo completed postdoctoral research in the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her research at UCLA focused on investigating neural biomarkers for psychiatric illness using functional magnetic resonance imaging and behavioral techniques, for which she was awarded the Arnold Scheibel Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow in Neuroscience Award and the Stephen R. Mallory Schizophrenia Research Award. Dr. Montojo received her B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, and completed her M.A. and Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University. She holds a Women in Leadership Certificate from the Cornell SC Johnson School of Business and was an invited member of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Neurotechnology and the National Academy of Sciences' Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders.
We have all been impacted profoundly by the events in this country over the past several weeks. The recent events are a manifestation of the systemic injustice and racial prejudice that sadly pervades much of our society. We at the Dana Foundation condemn intolerance in all of its forms. As American
Dr. Roland Pochet (Belgium), Dr. Laura López-Mascaraque (Spain), and Université Côte d'Azur (France) will be awarded prestigious prizes for their contribution to advancing public education and awareness about the progress and promise of brain research.