Huntington Medical Research Institutes Appoints New Vice President of Philanthropy and Director Of Philanthropy

    PASADENA, CA, November 09, 2016 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Huntington Medical Research Institutes (HMRI), an independent, leading biomedical research institute based in Pasadena, California, has announced the appointment of Allyson Simpson as Vice President of Philanthropy and Susie Silk Berry as Director of Philanthropy.

Prior to joining HMRI, Allyson Simpson was the Senior Director of Gift Planning at California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena for six years. Simpson also served as associate director of gift planning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Before she transitioned into development with a focus on planned, major and leadership giving, Simpson practiced corporate and regulatory law in Los Angeles for 25 years. She is a member of the Partnership for Philanthropic Planning - Los Angeles, where she has been appointed as President-Elect in 2016-2017 and will serve as President in 2017-2018. Simpson is currently Chair of the South Central Los Angeles Ministry Project Development Committee and is a member of the Mayfield Junior School Development Committee.

Susie Berry will bring more than a decade of development experience to HMRI as the new Director of Philanthropy. Her new duties will include raising funds to further support the organization's biomedical research and development of new diagnostics and therapies.

Prior to joining HMRI, Berry was the Director of Development at the YMCA in Los Angeles where she established goals, objectives and strategies to achieve annual revenue targets through major gifts, annual giving and foundation grants. Berry wrote grant proposals and managed the operations of the Chairman's Round Table annual funding driving sponsorships among other responsibilities. During her time with the YMCA, she successfully created the South Pasadena San Marino 5K/10K YRUN fundraiser through securing sponsors and exceeding the revenue goal by 20% through raising awareness of the Y's work in the community.

"With their specialized skill sets and experience, both Simpson and Berry's work will make a tremendous impact in supporting our audacious scientific goals. They maintain strong ties in the philanthropic community and industry trade associations, and are well-respected in our community. They are true professionals who fit so well into the vision of HMRI," says Dr. Marie Csete, HMRI's President & Chief Scientist. "Simpson and Berry are exceptional, passionate individuals who will certainly make HMRI better known and better supported in our mission of changing lives through multidisciplinary, patient-focused research. I could not be happier with these new leaders of HMRI at this critical time in the organization's history with reinvigorated research programs and new labs under construction."

About Huntington Medical Research Institutes
Huntington Medical Research Institutes (HMRI) is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit, public-benefit organization based in Pasadena, California, dedicated to studying and enhancing knowledge of diseases in order to improve health and save lives. HMRI's mission is to change lives through multidisciplinary, patient-focused research. For six decades, it has been making biomedical discoveries and developments that have set new precedents in medical knowledge across the nation and around the world. HMRI is Pasadena's only independent, dedicated biomedical research organization with more than 47,000 square feet of research facilities focused on neurosciences (Alzheimer's, traumatic brain injury, migraine), cardiovascular, cell and tissue biology, advanced imaging, and liver, GI and GU research. For more information, visit: http://www.hmri.org

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