MSF Announces New Leadership for 2012!

For Immediate Release: February 20, 2012:

MIND SCIENCE FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES NEW LEADERSHIP

Catherine Nixon Cooke named Interim President

Catherine Nixon Cooke, a well-known leader in the non-profit community, has been appointed interim president of The Mind Science Foundation (MSF). In addition to Cooke’s appointment, Paul Ingmundson, Ph.D., current executive director of the foundation, was appointed chief scientific officer; and Meriam Good as its executive director.  All three appointments were made by the MSF board of directors, effective February 1, 2012.

Founded in 1958 by the late Tom Slick, a legendary oilman and explorer, MSF supports research and education about the human mind and consciousness.

Cooke is not a newcomer to the Mind Science Foundation.  She served as executive director from 1983 to 1998, and returns as president after more than a decade.  In the interim, she wrote a biography about its legendary founder---philanthropist, wildcatter and explorer Tom Slick (Tom Slick Mystery Hunter, Paraview Press, 2005), served as CEO and president of the Mountain Institute, an international nonprofit working in the Himalayas, the Andes, and Appalachia, and published another historical biography, The Thistle and the Rose, last year.

Ingmundson is vice chair of MSF’s board of trustees and former executive director of the Foundation.  In the newly created position of chief scientific officer, his responsibilities will include leading the foundation’s efforts in organizing an international conference on the neuroscience of consciousness set for July 2012.

Ingmundson is also a clinical professor in Neurology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, the clinical director of the Alamo Sleep Center, and a staff psychologist for South Texas Veterans Health Care System.

For the last 20 years, Good has held leadership positions with several non-profit organizations; she joined the Mind Science Foundation in 2008 as director of programs and development, specializing in operations and donor relations.

The Mind Science Foundation is a San Antonio-based operating foundation, with a mission to support research, scientific conferences, and educational programs on mind, brain, and consciousness.  Under Cooke’s leadership in the 1980s and ‘90s, the Foundation established its Distinguished Speakers Series and the Imagineer Awards. She also developed a large membership base to support MSF’s research on the effects of psychological processes on health and disease (“mind-made” health) and on the effects of television violence on children.  In 2005, the Foundation expanded its scientific focus and established the Tom Slick Research Awards in Consciousness. During the last ten years, the scientific work supported by the Mind Science Foundation has been recognized in major scientific journals, as well as Newsweek, US News and World Report, and most recently Time Magazine (November 28, 2011 issue).

Says Robert Cocke, Mind Science Foundation’s board chairman, “Our entire board of trustees is thrilled to have this triple infusion of talented leadership to steer the Foundation on its course to support research and education about the human mind and consciousness.

“Catherine Nixon Cooke is a seasoned president with a long affiliation with our organization and a reputation for “building” successful nonprofits.

“Paul Ingmundson is internationally respected for his achievements as a scientific director and Meriam Good is a strong executive director who excels in business operations, development and programs.

“We are poised for great things.  I have no doubt that someday a Nobel Prize will be given for consciousness studies, and I predict that the Mind Science Foundation will be in the room. Tom Slick would be proud.”

For a complete staff listing, click here. 

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