Photo: Paul Fetters, HHMI

Monica Coenraads

Monica Coenraads co-founded the Rett Syndrome Research Foundation (RSRF) in late 1999, a year after her daughter, Chelsea, was diagnosed with the disorder at the age of two. As Director of Research, she oversees all aspects of RSRF's research program including the strategic development of funding initiatives and the active management of RSRF's research portfolio. Coenraads' hands-on style has been the catalyst for fruitful collaborative scientific partnerships. She has recruited the world's leading researchers to focus on Rett Syndrome. Coenraads organizes the premiere scientific meeting on the disorder, the annual Rett Syndrome Symposium, which gathers thought-leaders and provides them with a venue to share their latest work and ideas.

Since 2000 Coenraads has helped RSRF raise more than $11 million, funding more than one hundred research projects and fellowships. She spearheaded the creation of RSRF's Strollathon program which now has a national presence. She is also responsible for the Foundation's communications.

She is a member of the Society for Neuroscience, is on the Board of Trustees of the American Brain Coalition, and was awarded Redbook magazine's Mothers & Shakers Award, alongside Katie Couric and Matilda Raffa Cuomo. In 2006, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute highlighted Coenraads' efforts in the November issue of the HHMI Bulletin.

Coenraads has an MBA with an emphasis in International Business from the University of Connecticut. She lives in Trumbull, Connecticut with her husband, Pieter, and their children, Chelsea, Alex and Tyler.



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