Dr. Alice Luo Clayton serves as the McKnight Brain Research Foundation’s inaugural Chief Executive Officer. In this role, she oversees the organization’s programs, finances, marketing, and grant distributions.

Before joining the MBRF in 2025, Dr. Luo Clayton served as the Senior Science Advisor at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies® (BRAIN) Initiative. Previously, she spent a decade as Senior Scientist at the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative, overseeing neuroscience programs and consortia. Her career began as an AAAS Science & Technology Policy fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health, where she worked on pediatric translational research.

Dr. Luo Clayton received her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and completed postdoctoral training at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Her research focused on novel afferent circuitry to the Ventral Tegmental Area and specifying the role of these circuits in circadian rhythms, motivation, and contextual learning.