Lauren Duran Joins the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation as Vice President Communications, Marketing, and Public Relations

Rubenstein Associates, Inc.

Public Relations

Contact: Nadine Woloshin 212-843-8041/917-699-9456 nwoloshin@rubenstein.com

For Immediate Release



NEW YORK CITY—Lauren Duran has joined the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation as its Vice President, Communications, Marketing and Public Relations. She will be responsible for developing and overseeing all communications, marketing and PR strategies for the organization, which raises money to fund cutting-edge research for the understanding, early detection, treatment, prevention and cure of mental illness. The Foundation has awarded over $320 million in NARSAD Research Grants to more than 3,800 scientists around the world.

The announcement was made by Foundation President and CEO Jeffrey Borenstein, M.D., who said Ms. Duran would oversee the organization’s work in communicating with the general public to increase awareness of the Foundation’s role as a global catalyst for advancing mental health research.

“Ms. Duran brings an exceptional background and record of success in developing and executing effective marketing and communications programs,” says Dr. Borenstein. “She will play a key role in shaping strategies that drive awareness of the Foundation’s mission to alleviate the suffering caused by mental illness by funding research grants that lead to advances and breakthroughs in scientific research, and, ultimately, improve the lives of people who are affected by mental illness.”

In her new position, Ms. Duran will lead the Foundation’s internal and external marketing and communications teams in raising awareness for the organization itself, broadening the donor base, disseminating results of its research grant funding, and inspiring key constituencies with messages of tangible benefit and hope.

Before joining the Foundation, Ms. Duran spent more than a decade serving in a variety of capacities at CASAColumbia, formerly The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. As Director of Communications, she developed communications strategies and created all messaging aimed at publicly positioning CASAColumbia to key audiences. Before that, she served as Special Assistant to the President, working directly for the organization’s founder and Chairman Emeritus, Joseph A. Califano, Jr, former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare under President Carter, and Chief Domestic Advisor to President Johnson.

Prior to that, Ms. Duran served as the Senior Public Relations Manager and corporate publicist for FUBU The Collection, a multi-million dollar fashion company run by ABC Shark Tank star, Daymond John and his three partners. Before that, she worked as a writer/producer in the television industry where her credits included the Emmy award winning children’s television program, Reading Rainbow, CBS special, Home for the Holidays with Martha Stewart, and Lifetime’s Intimate Portrait of Sally Field, Audrey Hepburn and Bette Davis.

Ms. Duran is a resident of Westchester County, NY.

About the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation



The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation is committed to alleviating the suffering caused by mental illness by awarding grants to scientists and researchers that will in turn lead to advances and breakthroughs in scientific research. Since 1987, the Foundation has awarded over $320 million worldwide to more than 3,800 scientists selected by a Scientific Council comprised of two Nobel prizewinners, four former directors of The National Institute of Mental Health, 13 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 21 chairs of psychiatric departments, and 47 members of the Institute of Medicine. Funded through private contributions; the Foundation invests 100% of donor contributions for research directly into its NARSAD Grants. For more information, visit www.bbrfoundation.org.