Dr. Merit Cudkowicz is the Chief of the Massachusetts General Hospital Neurology Service, Director, Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Julieanne Dorn Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Dr. Cudkowicz is one of the founders and former co-directors of the Northeast ALS Consortium (NEALS), a group of over 140 clinical sites in the United States, Canada, Europe and the Middle East dedicated to performing collaborative academic-led clinical trials and research studies in ALS. She is leading the first Platform Trial initiative in ALS and is also the Principal Investigator of the Clinical Coordination Center for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke’s Neurology Network of Excellence in Clinical Trials (NeuroNEXT). Dr. Cudkowicz mentors neurologist in careers in experimental therapeutics.