Nicole Willmarth, PhD

Chief Mission Officer
American Brain Tumor Association

Background
Nicole Willmarth, PhD joined the American Brain Tumor Association (ABTA) in 2015. In her role as Chief Mission Officer, she has oversight of the strategic direction, expansion and operation of the ABTA’s research program, patient services, and advocacy efforts. She leads a team in developing and executing ABTA’s investment toward the mission to improve the lives of people living with a brain tumor.

Prior to joining ABTA, Nicole served in a leadership position at Susan G. Komen® where she oversaw the business and science management of Komen’s portfolio of funded research program grants. She began her career in scientific grant management with the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) where she developed, launched and managed several grant mechanisms as part of AACR’s donor-directed research grants programs and provided oversight for the application and scientific review process and science management. She also managed AACR’s Scholar-in-Training Awards, the Associate Member Council and the Molecular Epidemiology Working Group.

Nicole received her Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology at the University of Michigan where she first developed her passion for advancing treatments in the cancer field. She went on to publish in a number of peer reviewed scientific journals over the course of a decade in research. Most recently, she received an Executive Scholar Certificate in Non-Profit Management from the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University.

Nicole is currently a member of several organizations and committees including the Society for Neuro-Oncology (SNO), the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Guidelines Panel for Central Nervous System Cancers and the National Cancer Institute’s Board of Scientific Counselors. Nicole was formerly a member of the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Council of Research Advocates and was the 2021 recipient of SNO’s Jan Esenwein Public Service Award.