Meet Your Atlanta 3-Day Coaches

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The 3-Day is heading south to Atlanta this weekend, and we are ready for another sunny 60 miles with all our amazing 3-Day walkers and crew. Part of your Georgia welcoming committee will be your amazing Atlanta 3-Day Coaches: Karen Odell, Susan Wynne and Libby Riordan. These ladies have been preparing all year long to host another fantastic weekend for our 3-Dayers, so before you put on your tutus and lace up your walking shoes, we wanted to help you get to know them better.

The first thing you need to know about Libby, for example, is that she is “is rock solid, she knows her stuff and conveys a sense of confidence while being completely approachable and helpful.” That’s according to Coach Karen!

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Coach Libby (right)

If you ask Libby about herself, she will also let you know that she would choose Mexican food all day long, and that she listens to FloRida when she needs extra motivation on her training walks and other work outs. She has been involved with the 3-Day since 2005, when she applied for a job on our team one month after walking her first 3-Day.

“It’s been a long journey with a community that I am lucky to call family!”

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Coach Susan

Coach Susan joined the 3-Day family not long after Libby, walking her first 3-Day in 2007 in honor of one of her closest friends, whom she had lost to breast cancer. She still walks in other 3-Day cities to this day!

When she’s not 3-Daying, she is craving Mexican food and sushi, and listening to The Lumineers and The Avett Brothers. They might not seem like the traditional “pump up jams” to some, but she says they’re still her favorite to train to.

Coach Karen says Susan “makes our participants feel as if they’ve known her forever and she is a great resource for any question.”

Susan echoes that same love when talking about Coach Karen, saying, “Karen is so thoughtful and dedicated to making our participants have the best experience possible.”

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Coach Karen (center)

Karen says that is she could have one superpower it would be to have “the ability to always know the right path in life,” and if you want to make her dinner, make sure to bring the seafood! She loves halibut, scallops, lobster, mussels and more!

Through and through, these ladies are a fun and enthusiastic group who are anxiously waiting to welcome everyone to Atlanta next week!

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Coach Karen (left)

Karen describes their coaching team as “supportive, cohesive, and thoughtful,” and Susan says they all work their hardest to “connect with our participants and crew on such a personal level and truly care about our 3-Day family.”

Who wouldn’t want to spend a weekend with these women?!

Meet the 3-Day Team: Karen Odell, Atlanta Coach

We are lucky to work with some of the best in our 3-Day family. From coaches to volunteer coordinators to event planners, we are always working to make your sixty miles the best they can be! With that in mind, we are highlighting some of our amazing team members each month, so you can get to know the people working to help you every day.

Our 3-Day rock star of the month is Karen Odell, a new coach for our Atlanta 3-Day. She will be out and about in the community, working with our amazing participants to help bring new walkers and more awareness to the Atlanta 3?Day this year.

Karen has just re-joined the 3-Day team working with a lung cancer non-profit, and she is very happy to be settled in with the Atlanta 3-Day team.

“I love the nature trails along the river. We have several miles of hiking that take you along beautiful hilly stretches and lead to lovely views of the Chattahoochee River!”

The trails are perfect for 3-Day training for Atlanta natives, and walkers from all cities should keep an eye out for Karen on the event.

“I am looking forward to reconnecting with participants and volunteers who I haven’t seen in a few years. It is wonderful to see how many are still engaged with the event!”

That includes Karen herself, who became involved with the 3-Day after realizing she had a true passion for cancer research fundraising. She then turned that passion into her daily work, and now focuses her work “to drive registrations to the best of my ability, to connect and communicate with participants on a personal level and to ensure that the event experience is of the highest standard.”

Have a question or a concern? Don’t worry! Karen says the 3-Day is “easier than you expect,” and encourages first-time walkers, potential walkers, and even veterans to reach out to her.

“We are available to coach and mentor you through the journey and have the tools to make sure you succeed. I think when we have the opportunity to meet face-to-face and introduce new participants to our seasoned veterans, they are put at ease and realize this event is something they can do!”

That support also helps participants to create their own experience as they trek those 60 miles.

“The 3-Day is unique for each participant because everyone comes to it with a different perspective and world view. When they arrive on event, all the training and hard work culminate in an experience that unfolds as uniquely their own. Although the experience is shared with many, each person creates their own personal journey.”

Want to know more about Karen’s journey? Offer her a trip to Greece or some seriously good seafood, and she just might tell you! These are a few of the Southern girl’s favorite things, along with tunes by Florence and the Machine, The Eurhythmics, Paul Simon and Prince.

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Plus, if she ever needs a new career, she could always be a chef or an actress! She earned a culinary degree, and was also an extra on Saturday Night Live before joining the 3-Day team. So, when you see her on the Atlanta 3-Day, feel free to tell her a joke or share a recipe, as well as asking any of your questions about the 3-Day.

See you in Atlanta!

Susan G. Komen Mission Webinar: What We Learned

In June, we had the pleasure of bringing you our first ever Komen Mission Webinar. The purpose of this online meeting was to allow 3-Day participants and Komen supporters in all corners of the world to hear firsthand about the impact that Komen funds are making to one researcher’s groundbreaking work.

The webinar began with an introduction from Chrissy Mathews, Susan G. Komen 3-Day Project Manager. Chrissy welcomed Victoria Wolodzko, Vice President of Research and Community Heath Program Operations at Susan G. Komen, who shared some important information about Komen’s granting process and why it is vital for these grants to continue.

From there, it was on to the webinar’s guest of honor. Dr. Justin Balko is a researcher and professor at Vanderbilt University. With a small but brilliant team of scientists, Dr. Balko is primarily studying treatment options for triple negative breast cancer, which he succinctly defined as breast cancers that are missing certain hormone receptors; put simply, the absence of these elements means that these types of cancer often don’t respond well to many current breast cancer treatments. He described triple negative breast cancer as “a small proportion [of all breast cancers] but also the worst outcome of all of the clinically recognized subtypes. It tends to impact younger patients, it tends to have a very aggressive course, and there are really no targeted agents approved, and unfortunately because of that, it’s currently only treated with chemotherapy.” Dr. Balko went on to explain how his lab seeks to identify which patients will benefit from certain treatments, and how they can make it so that more patients respond to treatment, often involving a combination of drugs/therapies.

Up next, Dr. Balko continues with an explanation of the particular type of treatment that his lab is working on: immunotherapy. Please take a few minutes to view the next few clips from the webinar to see and hear about the truly exciting advances that are being made in this emerging field of treatment.

In the last few clips from the webinar, we hear Dr. Balko share what the “next steps” goals are for him and his team, and he offers his appreciation for the support that his lab gets from Komen and its supporters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAmzfeNR5y0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_bI08ROjA8

If you’d like to view the Komen Mission Webinar in its entirety, please visit here.