Volunteer and Tour Guide at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital:

Shortly after finishing college Lisa started volunteering at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Her Lebanese-immigrant grandparents met with Danny Thomas in Jackson, MS in the early 50’s as he toured the country speaking to Lebanese American descendants about his dream of building a hospital for children with catastrophic illnesses. Because of that meeting, her family began to help fundraise for the hospital years before the doors opened.

“They said it couldn’t be done, they said it was a task which would break my heart, they said it was impossible” but Danny Thomas persisted and on February 4th, 1962, when the doors of the hospital opened Danny said “It took your hearts, loving minds, and generous souls to make this dream come true. If I die tomorrow, I will know why God placed me here on earth.” Even with all his show business success, Danny considered the opening of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital the crowning achievement of his life.

With the St. Jude mission deeply embedded in her heart Lisa has been volunteering at the hospital for over three decades, giving tours, raising money, helping put on events for the children to find comfort and a little bit of happiness as they face the challenges of a cancer diagnosis.

When Lisa was only 12 years old, her sweet cousin Tammy, only 2-year-old at the time, came to Memphis and spent the next two years at the hospital fighting neuroblastoma. Tammy would lose her battle with the disease. It was a pivotal moment in Lisa’s life that forever changed her. But even though Tammy lost her battle with cancer, her cancer cells continue being used in research to find a cure for neuroblastoma. Lisa has never forgotten about her cousin Tammy and neither has St. Jude. New research is being developed every day, in part because of Tammy and her legacy will always be essential to St. Jude’s mission of “finding cures, saving lives.” In all the years since Tammy died, her life and legacy has guided Lisa in volunteering to help other children.