Cure Alzheimer’s Fund announces Josephine (Jo) Antonellis has been named Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Julie Harris, Ph.D., has been named Executive Vice President, Research Management for the nonprofit organization.
As CFO, Josephine Antonellis will be responsible for the financial management of the nonprofit organization, including leadership of the accounting and financial teams. She will be a member of the management committee and report directly to Meg Smith, Chief Executive Officer.
“We are fortunate to have a person with Jo’s depth and breadth of experience to lead our financial operations,” said Smith. “Jo has played a key role as our Controller and I expect she will move seamlessly into the CFO role, ensuring continuity of all our financial operations.”
Antonellis joined Cure Alzheimer’s Fund in 2021 as Controller. She came to the organization with more than 25 years of diverse accounting experience, including responsibility for accounting operations and human resource functions. She started her career as an auditor for Arthur Andersen, where she became a licensed CPA. She holds a B.S. in accounting from Bentley University.
Harris will be responsible for research management and funding for Cure Alzheimer’s Fund in her new role. She will bring new ideas and perspectives to managing the research portfolio, and partner with the scientific community to further the nonprofit’s mission to eradicate Alzheimer’s disease.
“When we hired Julie, I knew that her deep experience as a scientist and as the central leader of large scientific teams and projects meant that she would be an immediate contributor to our research program,” said Smith. “Julie has also shown us all that she is a natural ambassador for our science, our scientists and our organization.”
Prior to joining CureAlz, Harris was vice president of preclinical biology at Cajal Neuroscience, a biotech startup focused on identifying novel therapies for neurodegenerative diseases. Before that, she spent 10 years at the Allen Institute for Brain Science, where her team was responsible for employing whole brain microscopy and transcriptomics in Alzheimer’s mouse models to characterize molecular, cellular and circuit patterns of disease.
Harris received a B.S. in zoology from Michigan State University and a Ph.D. in neurobiology and behavior from the University of Washington. She trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease in San Francisco.
Since its founding in 2004, Cure Alzheimer’s Fund has provided grants to more than 750 of the world’s leading researchers and contributed more than $175 million to research. Its funded initiatives have been responsible for many key breakthroughs in understanding the causes and pathology of Alzheimer’s disease. Cure Alzheimer’s Fund has received a 4-star rating for 12 consecutive years from Charity Navigator. With 100% of funds raised going to support research, Cure Alzheimer’s Fund has been able to provide grants to many of the best scientific minds in the field of Alzheimer’s research.