Lucille Smith

Lucille Smith

Lucille Smith recalled how a patient once told her that she knew she was having a stroke yet the ailing woman told concerned onlookers, “Don’t call an ambulance! I can’t afford it!” A longtime hospital administrator in Detroit, Smith had heard too may variations of...
Leah Margulies

Leah Margulies

After years working in the nonprofit sector, Leah Margulies moved to the private sector, needing the income to support her young child. After 10 years as a technology consultant, Margulies missed nonprofit work. “I especially missed feeling that my energy was...
Kathleen Hull and Barbara Beach

Kathleen Hull and Barbara Beach

Kathy Hull, a clinical psychologist, and Barbara Beach, a pediatric oncologist, met while colleagues at Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland working with terminally ill children and their families. Both women had long lamented the limited options for...
Nancy Romer

Nancy Romer

Nancy Romer, a psychology professor at City University of New York’s Brooklyn College, has long focused on social change. During a 2006-2007 sabbatical spent volunteering in hurricane-devastated Louisiana – and then traveling to Bolivia to experience grassroots food...
Karen Mercereau

Karen Mercereau

During her decades-long career as a clinical registered nurse, Karen Mercereau informally helped friends and family through the maze of modern health care. In 2002, she decided to turn her passion for helping others into a business – RN Patient Advocates PLLC. As a...