2022 Hope Award Honorees
RESOLVE is proud to honor the following people and companies who have performed outstanding work for the infertility community. These awards will be presented at Night of Hope on November 14, 2022.
Joy Lewin, Barbara Eck Founder's Award
Joy Lewin has been a force in the fertility space for decades. Starting her successful career at Organon/Schering-Plough in the early '80s, she's made a big impact at Ferring Pharmaceuticals for the last 12 years as Senior Director, Reproductive Health Business Unit.
It's not just what Joy does to meet the objectives and goals for her employers. It's the impact her ideas and decisions have on the infertility patient. She launched the Ferring HeartBeat Program in 2012, providing Ferring medications at no cost to newly diagnosed cancer patients-affording them the opportunity to freeze eggs prior to starting chemotherapy. Joy was also instrumental in starting the Alliance for Fertility Preservation (AFP) which helps cancer patients access fertility preservation services. Today she serves on the AFP's Board of Directors. Recently, she guided the implementation of the Ferring Fertility House Calls platform driving, fertility awareness and assisting patients an easy entry into treatment.
Joy is a connector, always looking for ways to connect RESOLVE or AFP and other non-profits working to make a difference with people and companies who can help.
Paula Amato, MD, Risa A. Levine RESOLVE Advocacy Legacy Award
Dr. Amato is a Professor of OB/GYN and REI Division Director at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), where she specializes in caring for patients with infertility. The science of reproduction and connecting with individuals and families as they pursue their family-building goals are what inspired her to pursue a career in reproductive endocrinology and infertility. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of ASRM and is slated to become President in October 2023.
Dr. Amato is a tireless advocacy leader in Oregon to help get an IVF and fertility preservation insurance mandate passed. Dr. Amato is RESOLVE's lead advocate and works closely with the state coalition and RESOLVE staff. If that weren't enough, Dr. Amato utilized RESOLVE's Coverage at Work materials to gain infertility insurance coverage for employees at her institution. She also participates in federal Advocacy Day. True to the Risa A. Levine Advocacy Legacy Award's description, she encourages her patients and fellow healthcare professionals to participate in our community's advocacy work.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Hope Award for Access
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is leading the way the world understands, treats, and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Their mission drives nearly 6000 employees to advance cures and means of prevention for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment. They remain consistent with the vision of their founder Danny Thomas that no child is denied treatment based on race, religion, or a family's ability to pay.
As an employer of choice, St. Jude continuously reviews its employee benefits offerings. Their goal is always to provide benefits that best meet the evolving needs of their remarkable employees. St. Jude takes pride in its ability to offer exceptional benefits to talented people. They want their employees to bring their whole selves to work and understand that what happens in their life significantly affects how they approach their job each day.
An emerging desire for fertility benefits appeared in various feedback channels, including the annual employee survey and direct contact from interested employees. These comments opened the door for St. Jude to engage in thoughtful review and discussion with leaders and our employees affected by fertility issues. In 2021, St. Jude proudly announced that it would join an elite group of employers offering fertility programs. Their current program provides coverage that includes but is not limited to IVF and IVF prescriptions. In addition, they offer adoption reimbursement for employees who use this method to grow their families.
With fertility benefits well received within the St. Jude community, employees frequently share testimonials, stories, and pictures of their growing families. The team loves seeing these families thrive.
Honor St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Broken Brown Egg, Founder Regina Townsend, Hope Award for Achievement
The Broken Brown Egg is a non-profit founded by Regina Townsend. BBE "exists to inform, empower, and advocate for individuals and couples experiencing infertility and reproductive health issues, with an emphasis on the Black experience of them." The organization started as a blog in 2009. At that time, Townsend was one of the few patient advocates speaking about the Black experience and infertility.
Townsend is a leader in speaking up for Black women and men and their infertility and is a sought-after speaker and media resource. She's been interviewed or quoted in The New York Times, The Oprah Magazine, The Atlantic, and more. She is an invited speaker on panels, including at the ASRM conference, serves on the international Ferring patient advisory board, is a social media presence, and is a tireless advocate for infertility. Regina Townsend is a committed attendee at RESOLVE's Advocacy Day and uses BBE to encourage her followers to advocate and raise their voices.
In her personal life, Townsend is a librarian and lives on the Southside of Chicago with her husband Jabahri and their son 6-year-old son Judah. Townsend published a book, part memoir, part guide, "Make IF Make Sense" in 2021.
Alliance for Fertility Preservation, Hope Award for Advocacy
The Alliance for Fertility Preservation (AFP) is a 501c3 charitable organization. Their mission is to increase information, resources, and access to fertility preservation for cancer patients and the healthcare professionals who treat them.
The Alliance is run by a team of professionals who have come together to advance the field of fertility preservation. Board Members are recognized leaders with expertise in all aspects of fertility preservation including, oncology, reproductive endocrinology, urology, psychology, oncology nursing, and reproductive law.
Their focus is fertility preservation for cancer patients because they understand how overwhelming a cancer diagnosis can be. So many aspects of an individual's life are altered the moment they hear those words, "You have cancer." And while many organizations address various facets of cancer treatment, the AFP is uniquely positioned to help alleviate one of the most distressing, life-altering consequences of cancer treatment - infertility.
Because patients must undergo sperm, egg, and embryo banking very quickly before starting their cancer treatment, the high cost of these services can be prohibitive. The primary way this barrier can be overcome is establishing insurance coverage. Over the past several years, the AFP has, along with RESOLVE (and others), founded the Building Families Coalition and the Coalition to Protect Parenthood After Cancer to fight for this coverage across the country. By locking arms with RESOLVE and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, along with industry supporters, they have been instrumental in bringing fertility preservation coverage to approximately 40 million people through legislation in 12 states and federal employees.
Honor Alliance for Fertility Preservation
American Medical Women's Association (AMWA), Hope Award for Advocacy
The American Medical Women's Association (AMWA) works to advance women in medicine, advocate for equity, and ensure excellence in healthcare. Founded in 1915, AMWA is the oldest multispecialty organization of women physicians and the vision and voice of women in medicine.
In 2020, AMWA launched a Physician Fertility Committee to address the infertility issues among women physicians who experience infertility at a rate double that of the general population. In 2021, AMWA hosted the first Physician Fertility Summit to convene stakeholders around this important topic, followed by in-depth seminars in 2022 around storytelling, advocacy, and building a reproductive life plan. AMWA has also created their version of RESOLVE's Coverage at Work Toolkit for their members to use at their place of employment to advocate for coverage. AMWA is a Community Partner for RESOLVE's Annual Advocacy Day and National Infertility Awareness Week.
Honor American Medical Women's Association
Sue Johnston, Hope Award for Service
Sue Johnston fully embraces every part of RESOLVE's mission and has so for decades. Today, she and her husband Bob and Airedale Terrier Griff, reside in Michigan, where Johnston runs RESOLVE support groups, answers calls from our national HelpLine, and brings community to the cause through the Detroit DIY Walk of Hope. Through the DIY Walks, Sue and her community have raised more than $45,000 for RESOLVE's mission.
Johnston always answers the advocacy call by participating in RESOLVE's Federal Advocacy Day as an advocate and State Captain for Michigan. Sue is also a board member of the Michigan Fertility Alliance and helped to create the first-ever Michigan Infertility Advocacy Day (MIAD) in September of 2021. Since then, MIAD has become an annual event to promote pro-family building legislation in her state. Sue wears "all the volunteer hats" for RESOLVE. And she uses her experience with RESOLVE to mentor others looking to get involved and give advice to others through her blog and website.
She took her infertility experience and gave back to others through her book Detours: Unexpected Journeys of Hope Conceived from Infertility. In this book, she shares the inspirational stories of her core group of warrior friends whom she met through RESOLVE over thirty years ago.
Kellee Stewart, Hope Award for Social Influence
Kellee Stewart is an actress and self-proclaimed egg advocate who created "Warrior Wednesdays," a live IG talk show, during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020. After preserving her fertility, Kellee learned how little she knew about reproductive health. She made it her mission to create a platform where physicians and passionate patients could gather weekly to have transparent and often emotional conversations about everything from fibroids, endometriosis, IVF, and MRKH, to name a few.
Kellee became focused on speaking to communities often left out of the national conversation of infertility and debunking the myths surrounding Black and Brown men and women facing challenges in building families. As host of "Warrior Wednesdays," Kellee has welcomed celebrity guests such as Niecy Nash and Danielle Brooks, along with doctors, and dozens of people from the US and abroad who have a story to share, a tragedy to heal, and a miracle to give hope.
As an actor and writer, Kellee has been on our tv and movie screens in Chicago Med, All American, Guess Who, Hot Tub Time Machine, and the upcoming Netflix comedy Obliterated. She proudly shared her egg freezing journey in the 2021 OWN Network documentary Eggs Over Easy by director Chiquita Lockley. In 2022, Kellee helped take National Infertility Awareness Week to new heights by being one of the official celebrity partners to flip the switch and turn the Empire State Building orange in honor of infertility awareness everywhere.
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