Emily Straw

Emily Straw

Associate Executive Director, Muscular Dystrophy Association

Emily Straw has been with MDA for almost three years. She is a native of Wisconsin but spent six years in Colorado after graduating from UW-Milwaukee. Emily's lives with her husband, Danny, in Okauchee and enjoy spending time on the lake and with their three dogs, Remi, Bailey and Quinn. Emily's favorite MDA memories are any time being at summer camp!


At MDA – the Muscular Dystrophy Association – the mission is to save and improve lives for people fighting muscle disease. They fund research to find treatments and cures, support and empower families, and rally communities by aligning with supporters who care. Most people know they also do a telethon and help kids with muscular dystrophy. Actually they do much more.


MDA invests more to fight muscle disease than any other nonprofit organization in the United States. Currently, 250 research projects are being funded in 12 countries and 67 clinical trials are in progress. The typical research grant at MDA is $300,000, meaning that more than $75,000,000 is being invested in finding treatments and cures for the 43 types of muscle disease that MDA covers.