Ray Carson was named President and CEO of The ALS Association Florida Chapter in April 2019. Before joining the Florida Chapter, Carson served as director of media advocacy the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. In that role, he served as lead communications counsel in 24 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, leading a team of 4 media advocacy professionals who promoted the organization’s legislative priorities at the local, state and federal levels.

Carson joined ACS CAN after a 14 year career with the American Cancer Society. While at ACS, he served in a variety of executive leadership positions in the Florida Division including chief operating officer, senior vice president for support services and vice president of communications and marketing. After the American Cancer Society went through a nationwide restructuring, Carson spent two years serving as regional director of human resources covering 14 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

Before joining the American Cancer Society, Carson served as director for public relations at Cranbrook Educational Community in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. for nine years. Prior to that, he helped lead a nationwide campaign designed to advocate for the passage of safety-belt-use laws in every state and increase safety-belt-usage rates across the country. That campaign was named one of the top 10 most successful public relations campaigns in history by PR News.

Carson received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and attended Albion College as well as the Gerald R. Ford Institute for Public Service. In 2007, he participated in an executive education program at Harvard Business School in Cambridge, Mass.