Rick Willis has been President and CEO of the Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) since 2022. With nearly 30 years of leadership experience in the nonprofit space, Rick brings robust experience in patient advocacy and community development working within a number of chronic disease states. In his role as BIAA’s President and CEO, Rick reunited with the United States Brain Injury Alliance. In bringing the organizations together with their networks of state affiliates, a wider, more impactful community of brain injury survivors, caregivers, advocates, and professionals was created. Additionally, Rick has worked with decision makers at both the federal and state level to advocate for the removal of barriers to access and care for the brain injury community, and worked with national partners to raise awareness and generate support.

Prior to joining the BIAA, Rick was the Senior Vice President of Community Engagement and Revenue Strategy with the Arthritis Foundation, where he led a nationwide community engagement enterprise of staff and volunteers to expand the organization’s impact. During his tenure at the Arthritis Foundation, Rick enhanced community outreach, scaled program delivery, initiated new corporate relationships, and collaborated on the largest patient-reported outcomes study in the organization’s history. He also served as the Senior National Director of Corporate Development for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and was the Nationwide Executive Manager of Relay For Life with Cancer Council Victoria in Melbourne, Australia.

Rick’s exposure to and involvement in different models to advance community outcomes has helped him to see and to understand how the power of a community can change the landscape for a disease, using effective policy and mobilization of volunteers to create awareness and fundraise.

A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Rick lives in Alexandria, Virginia, with his wife Terrie, an Occupational Therapist, and they are the parents to three adult children Alex, Sophie and Isaac.

Rick is a member of Vistage Worldwide, the world’s largest CEO advisory organization. He sits on the National Health Council’s Special Committee on Health Equity and is a representative of BIAA in the National Academies Forum on Traumatic Brain Injury.