The Leadership Tomorrow class met at the Melinda Hoag Smith Center for Healthy Living, where we listened to Dr. Ehab Mady speak about his preventative program on vascular disease.
The class then toured the mental health center, Center for Healthy Living, Costa Mesa Family Resources Center and SOS programs.
We then were honored to hear from 3 graduate students from the CSULB-CIRM Stem Cell Biotechnology Program and their search for human disease cures through their groundbreaking research. They did a phenomenal job is educating our class on this cutting edge research.
Board member, Tim Bauer from Olive Crest then presented on the state of children and family services in Orange County and how Olive Crest works in partnership with the county on foster care and adoption needs.
The class then traveled to CHOC, where we listened to Oliver Wyss, founder of Soccer for Hope tell his amazing story of personal loss and how it has inspired him and his foundation to raise money for cancer research. Immediately following Oliver’s talk, the class was able to take a behind the scenes tour of the Cord Blood Storage and Research Lab with Dr. Azita Nourani, Cord Blood Bank Supervisor, BMT Lab. There is groundbreaking work being done in this lab that is helping pave the way to future cures for childhood cancers.
Finally, the class was able to tour CHOC and visit the NICU, Oncology and learn about the Child Life programs with a private tour provided by Foundation Staff members.