Institute for the Study of Affective Neuroscience

Audrey Butvay Gruss

Audrey Butvay Gruss is a philanthropist of international scope. She is President of the Audrey and Martin Gruss Foundation which she and her husband Martin established as a private philanthropic foundation to support a wide range of charitable activities, especially focusing on the cultural arts and education.  Mrs. Gruss has over twenty-five years of experience in the fields of international marketing and advertising, acquired as an executive at J.P. Stevens, Revlon and as Director of Advertising and Creative Services Worldwide for Elizabeth Arden. She was former co-owner and President of Terme di Saturnia, Inc., and international skincare company.  Mrs. Gruss graduated with honors from Tufts University with a Bachelor of Science in Biology.  A Fellow of Tufts University, she established the Audrey Butvay Gruss Science Award for women.

Mrs. Gruss is an active Board member and patron of numerous charitable and cultural organizations in New York, including Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center Theater, The Frick Museum, The Guggenheim Museum, The Public Theater, The New York Public Library, Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, The New York Botanical Garden and Literacy Partners.

In Palm Beach, Florida, she is an active fundraiser for numerous charities such as the Intracoastal Health Foundation Board, where she received the Chamber of Commerce Charitable Achievement Award, the Hospice Guild, the Community Foundation, the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, Society of Four Arts, Preservation Foundation, Norton Museum and ORBIS International.

In Europe, Mrs. Gruss is a benefactor of the American Academy of Rome, a member of the International Council of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris, and is on the Advisory Board of FAI, the premier architectural preservation group in Italy.  She is a Board member of the American Friends of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and is the International benefactor Co-Chairman of the American Friends of the London Symphony Orchestra.

Audrey Gruss is a native Lithuanian and a major benefactor of culture, social services and democratic educational training in her native Lithuania.  She is a founding Board member of the US-Baltic Foundation and was honored with a Founder’s Award for her leadership.  She supports a large number of charities including Lithuanian Orphan Care and Religious Aid.  She is a founding member of the American Lithuanian Economic Advisory Council.  In 2002, the President of Lithuania awarded Mrs. Gruss the “Gediminas Medal” one of the nation’s highest honors.

Mrs. Gruss is the Founder and Chairman of the Hope for Depression Research Foundation which funds advanced medical research in behavioral neuroscience.  The Foundation provided a generous endowment for the establishment and operation of the Institute for the Study of Affective Neuroscience at the University of Haifa, Israel.  It continues to provide grants for innovative research in neuropsychology at ISAN.