Article by Jordan Galerkin – Scientific Writer

The Foundation for the Advancement of Clinical TMS, or FACTMS, was founded in 2022 by the Board of Directors of the Clinical TMS Society. We met with the President of FACTMS, Dr. Randy Pardell, and Executive Director Anna Taylor to learn more about the Foundation.

FACTMS was launched with the help of the Foundation Special Committee created under Dr. Mohamed Abdelghani’s presidency and chaired by Dr. Randy Pardell, who at the time was the immediate past president of the Society and a longstanding CTMSS member. Dr. Pardell was instrumental in the founding of FACTMS and remarked that the idea for a foundation went back to 2018. “[The idea] was to develop a nonprofit, charitable organization to help increase awareness of TMS…and increased access,” Dr. Pardell explains. A foundation could do things the Society could not, such as raise money and directly fund projects.

The Launch of FACTMS

“[The Foundation] was always on the agenda of our board meetings and our Executive Committee meeting, but nobody was doing anything about it. And if people know me – I just can’t stand that! I’m always saying, ‘We have to do something; we have to make it work!’” Dr. Pardell says with a laugh. “During the strategic planning meeting of the CTMSS Board of Directors in June of 2021, the board and I did a SWOT analysis and made it a goal for the Society to form FACTMS…We got the legal paperwork done in May of 2022, started working on the IRS forms and bylaws in the fall of 2022, and had our first board meeting in January of 2023.”

FACTMS is made up of the Board of Directors, Executive Committee, Education and Research Funding Committee, Development Committee, Clinic Expansion Committee, and Patient and Family Advisory Committee. Many of the members held committee or board positions within the Society as well. The Executive Committee is led by President Dr. Randy Pardell and Vice President Dr. Ian Cook. Dr. Kevin Kinback is the chair of the Education and Research Funding Committee, Dr. Martha Koo is the chair of the Development Committee, Dr. Mohamed Abdelghani is chair of the Clinic Expansion Committee, and Cindy Elkins is the chair of the Patient and Family Advisory Committee.