Debra Black is Co-Founder and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Melanoma Research Alliance. As a melanoma survivor, she learned first-hand that new insights about cancer have not translated into significant clinical benefits for most patients with advanced melanoma, one of the fastest growing cancers in the U.S. In 2007, Ms. Black and her husband, Leon, decided to accelerate progress toward a cure and founded the Melanoma Research Alliance (MRA), a part of the Milken Institute.

Ms. Black is a Broadway Producer and presently serves on the boards of Lincoln Center Theater, The New York State Council on the Arts and Rockefeller University. Her productions include The Pillowman, Tony Award winners The History Boys and August:Osage County , Butley, The Vertical Hour, The Year of Magical Thinking, Deuce, Inherit the Wind, Frost/Nixon, Coram Boy, Gypsy, Thurgood, The Country Girl, Mary Stuart, Superior Donuts and A Behanding in Spokane.

Ms. Black holds a B.A. in English from Barnard College and resides in Manhattan with her husband. They have four children.