Cara Altimus, PhD is the managing director for Breakthrough Discoveries for thriving with Bipolar Disorder (BD2) and a managing director on the Science Philanthropy Accelerator for Research and Collaboration (SPARC) team at the Milken Institute. Aligning the interests of multiple philanthropists, the research and clinical field, and people with lived experience, she facilitated the development of BD² from concept to reality. With more than a decade of experience in neuroscience research, Altimus formed SPARC to advise individual philanthropists and foundations on the state of research for various areas, including neurodegenerative disease and mental health, identifying opportunities where their capital can make the biggest impact. Altimus holds a bachelor's degree in genetics from the University of Georgia and a doctorate in biology from Johns Hopkins University. She works at the Institute's Washington office.