Distinguished Alumni Award recipient Lara Plewka ’98 MacGregor sharing her story of “Turning Heartbreak into Hope” on Wednesday, April 14.
At the age of 30, 7 months pregnant and a successful Associate Vice President, Lara MacGregor was diagnosed with cancer. 14 years later, Lara is still fighting Stage IV Metastatic breast cancer after 7 years of remission. Lara knows heartbreak – but she also knows hope. In 2012, she founded Hope Scarves, an organization that allows the sharing of stories and scarves among women who are fighting cancer. The Hope Scarves collection, which is constantly evolving, now contains over 15,000 scarves and 1,200 stories. Her organization has raised and donated hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to breast cancer research and Lara has also become a popular blogger, podcast host and speaker. Join us to learn how Lara has faced her personal health heartbreak with a commitment to spreading hope.
Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient Deb Heydenburg ’87 Fuller presented “From Plants to Patients: A Scientist’s Journey from Hope to Healing” on Wednesday, April 14.
In a world that has had all eyes on vaccine development in the past year, Dr. Deb Fuller has been wearing many different hats, including Professor of Microbiology at the University of Washington, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Orlance, Inc, and Division Chief and Core Scientist at the Washington National Primate Research Center in the AIDS division. In short, she has been on quite a journey since her first experiment on plant cells at Hope College to her current work developing vaccines to fight the spread of disease in humans. This talk is equal parts science, Q&A and anecdotes about our Distinguished Alumni Award winner’s personal (highly circuitous) journey.
Say hello to all my Cosmopolitan Fraternity brothers in my class of 1953 or 1954.