Cindy K. Parseghian ’77, ’09 Hon Ph.D.

Cindy Parseghian is president of the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation. Along with her husband, Michael, she is the cofounder of the foundation which they started in 1994 in an effort to find a cure for Niemann-Pick Type C disease, a rare and fatal genetic disorder that took the lives of three of their four children. As president, Cindy has spearheaded a successful fundraising campaign, raising more than $40 million in 20 years. Of the more than 400 rare disease organizations in America, the Parseghian Foundation has raised more funds that perhaps any other. In 2009, she received the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce’s Woman of the Year award and was named one of Arizona’s Most Intriguing Women by the Arizona Historical Society in 2012. Prior to founding the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation, Cindy worked for seven years as president, CFO, and controller of MCS Telecommunications in Tucson. She earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in accounting from the University of Notre Dame and a Master’s of Management at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. In 2009, she earned an honorary doctorate of science from Notre Dame for her effort to find a cure for Niemann-Pick Type C disease and was appointed to Notre Dame's Board of Trustees in 2013. Cindy has also successfully passed the CPA exam.