Laura S. Thrall

Laura Thrall is Vice-Chair of the Melwood Board of Directors and serves on Melwood’s Governance Committee. Laura is President and Chief Executive Officer at the Epilepsy Foundation, where she brings over 30 years of leadership experience.

Ms. Thrall was previously CEO of CureSearch for Children’s Cancer. Taking the helm at CureSearch in 2012 at a pivotal moment in the organization’s 30-year history, she transformed the foundation from its role as the largest Federal grantee in childhood cancer to a privately funded entity focused on driving promising therapeutics into the clinic.

Ms. Thrall developed the CureSearch Catapult model; an evergreen fund supporting clinic–‐ready projects led by academic investigators and small biopharma companies. She created and seated a community of 40 expert stakeholders including scientific, industry, and venture capital councils, and established the annual CureSearch Catapult Summit, an invitation-only, outcomes-based forum to advance childhood cancer therapeutics. Ms. Thrall is a frequent speaker and panelist on issues related to financial innovation and the role of philanthropy in orphan disease drug development.