Diane Stephenson is a neuroscientist by training with 30 years’ experience in academic neuroscience and drug discovery. In her academic career, her research focused on Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer’s disease; in industry, she supported identification/validation of new targets for Alzheimer’s disease, stroke and Parkinson’s disease (PD). Dr. Stephenson transitioned to industry with the hope that greater access to resources and teamwork would bring the urgently needed therapeutics to those suffering from ALS. She collaborated with pioneers of the amyloid hypothesis and led characterization of new animal and cellular models. While in industry, Dr. Stephenson developed a passion for public-private partnerships and engaged in translational research including biomarker identification and validation across multiple CNS diseases. She presently leads the Critical Path for Parkinson’s a trans-continental consortium aimed at bringing together data from around the world to enable effective delivery of treatments at early stages of PD.