Debi Brooks

CEO and Co-Founder, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research

Deborah W. Brooks is Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Co-Founder of The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (MJFF). Ms. Brooks launched MJFF with Michael J. Fox in 2000 and served as founding CEO until 2007. Since then, she served as Co-Founder and Executive Vice Chairman, overseeing the fundraising and marketing functions of the organization. Ms. Brooks stepped back into the role of CEO in May 2021 to lead the Foundation to an even stronger and more influential position in the Parkinson’s community. She is supported in this effort by MJFF’s executive team, who works together to articulate and realize the vision of MJFF as an unprecedented stakeholder in drug development — a nimble, resourceful, patient-focused problem-solver whose efforts are demonstrably accelerating progress toward treatment breakthroughs and a cure. Ms. Brooks started her career at Goldman, Sachs & Co., where she spent nine years as vice president in the Fixed Income and Asset Management Divisions. She holds an AB in Economics from the College of William and Mary, an MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth College, and an MS in Marital and Family Therapy from Northwestern University. She currently serves on the Board of Advisors of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, the Advisory Board for Women in Business at Tuck, and the Delaware Parkinson’s Disease Task Force. Ms. Brooks has been a keynote speaker at several media and industry events throughout the world and is the recipient of several achievement awards recognizing her leadership, including Forbes’ “50 Women Over 50."