Melissa Hanson

Journal Contributor

Suffolk University’s Center for Innovation and Change Leadership (CICL), run by Robert Defillippi and Colette Dumas, will honor the Accelerated Cure Project at its third annual award and recognition day.
The CICL was created to enable the Sawyer Business School to come together through mutual interest and make an innovative change in the world.  An important aspect of the organization is their annual Global Leadership in Innovation and Collaboration award and recognition day.  The ceremony is held to honor a project invented outside of Suffolk’s community that shows their dedication to using innovation in a positive manner. Many organizations are reviewed for this prize and are analyzed through a long application process with particular criteria to meet.   This year, the CICL stuck to a specific theme when choosing a winner, as they wanted to award a group that used innovation and collaboration to save lives.
Upon evaluating the credentials of many projects competing for the award, the CICL chose the Accelerated Cure Project, a group of people fighting to find a cure for multiple sclerosis (MS), a condition that stops the body from engaging in activities due to the detriment of the nervous system.  The project is a small organization started in Massachusetts who dedicate themselves to researching the disease, which happens to be under researched and under supported, allowing no second thought as to why they deserve to be honored by the CICL.
“The important story is what they’re doing,” said Defillippi, referring to the outstanding use of innovation on Accelerated Cure’s research and fight towards a cure. “It is not being done by anyone else.”
The project collects blood samples from MS patients and distributes them to bio tech scientists and pharmacies around the world.  Their position as a middle man who collects then distributes research samples to the many organizations they are connected with speeds up the process of finding a cure, and uses the collaboration the CICL was looking to acknowledge.
“Cure can also mean prevention,” said Defillippi, and and although they have not yet found a cure for MS, Accelerated Cure’s exertion to researching and treating MS patients proves they are on their way.  “It’s not just an innovation that makes money,” he said.
The Global Leadership in Innovation and Collaboration Award will be given to Accelerated Cure on November 7, 2011 at the Sawyer Business School (SBS).
The day will include activities to honor the project, starting with CICL’s co-director Colette Dumas interviewing Robert McBurney, CEO of Accelerated Cure, which will be recorded by Suffolk’s television studio, and will be available on their YouTube channel.  Then there will be a meeting with faculty regarding innovation and its place here at Suffolk’s business school.  McBurney will also speak for an audience of students, faculty, and alumni about Accelerated Cure, followed by a short reception accepting questions about the project.
Also will be the unveiling of a portrait of McBurney in the Suffolk Library to hang alongside previous award winners and represent the Accelerated Cure Project and what it stands for.