Emily Frances Applegate is a seasoned impact investor and strategic leader with extensive experience accelerating growth across startups, venture capital firms, and sustainable enterprises. Before joining the Board of the Neuroplasticity Alliance (NPA, she served as Director of Strategy and continues to guide the organization’s development and investment initiatives.

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Emily’s career reflects a progressive record of leadership in mission-driven finance. She has evaluated opportunities in impact-focused venture funds, led state-level innovation investments, and scaled an emerging impact investing firm. Her work spans financial modeling, due diligence, portfolio strategy, and stakeholder engagement—driving multimillion-dollar investments in clean technology, energy efficiency, sustainable infrastructure, and other sectors where financial returns and social impact intersect. Earlier in her career, Emily built foundational skills in traditional finance before moving into sustainability-focused consulting and venture roles, informing her holistic approach to capital deployment and systems-level change.

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Inspired by her recovery from a traumatic brain injury sustained in a ski accident, Emily brings a deeply personal lens to her work with NPA. She identifies and shapes strategic opportunities, cultivates partnerships across healthcare, nonprofit, and patient communities, and leads initiatives that advance equitable access to neuroplasticity-based therapies. Over the past five years, her research and outreach have strengthened NPA’s national network and contributed to expanding access to therapeutic innovations for stroke, Alzheimer’s, developmental disorders, and other neurological conditions.

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Emily holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Washington and Lee University and an MBA from Vanderbilt University. Known for her curiosity, persistence, and systems thinking, she excels at translating lived experience into actionable strategies that align resources, partners, and innovation toward improving neurological recovery outcomes.