Dr. Gilles LaMarche, who serves as VP for Advancement and oversees the LIFE Vision/Fall CElebration Extravaganza event, writes:

“WOW! A sincere and heartfelt thank you to all who participated in making LIFE Vision Extravaganza the success that it was. In addition to all thanks and congratulations we received during the event, here’s a few messages that I received after the event:

  • “Great job this weekend. You always put together a class event.”
  • “Good job this weekend under strange and surrealistic circumstances. As usual you pulled it off with professional pizzazz.”
  • “I want to brag on you and your team. What a great CE event. You make us all proud to be members of LIFE.”  

None of this could happened without the efforts of so many dedicated individuals committed to delivering the best product possible, even under strange circumstances. Please accept my deepest gratitude:  

  • To the three members of the postgraduate education department who worked tirelessly for weeks managing all the changes from applications to state boards, to changes in presentation format, registration, hundreds of phone calls when the platform failed early Friday morning, and so much more. Thank you, Kathy Bannister, Shay Coffey and Robin Parker. Your diligence made a BIG difference.
  • To Shelly Batcher, Lindsey Farley, David Honeycutt, Matthew Shaul, Will Brooks and the entire Marketing team for your design excellence and promotional activities, as well as for the superb printed program.
  • To the grounds crew lead by Kelly Reade, Javier Cabanas and Stacey Baker, thank you for making it all happen. Thank you also to Maria Avelar and her team from Varsity who kept the premises clean and tidy all weekend.
  • To all who volunteered time to scan our attendees in and out, and for being gracious hosts. Thank you, Rebecca Koch for leading this group of fine individuals. Thank you, Dr. Lydia Dever, Emily Drake, Dr. Saphronia Johnson, Michelle McPherson, Dr. Maria Michelin, Dr. Deborah Roche, Dr. Brian Sheres and Dr. Stephanie Sullivan.
  • To Brenda Boone for her assistance in creating an inviting atmosphere for all to enjoy.
  • To our AV team led by Dan Carlton and Tasha Richardson – what an exceptional job you did making the University and the speakers look great.
  • To Billy Tice, our IT point man, and the IT team who made sure we had the right connectivity to make this happen.
  • To Officer Robert Koker and the Campus Safety team who managed all the details that helped everyone stay safe.
  • And to my Advancement team who were all awesome and fully engaged. Thank you, Cheryl Lawlor, Lauren Nielsen, Angela Getter, Derek Herron, Darcie Wallace, Kathleen Mele, Victoria Burson and Dr. Veronica Garcia Chaparro, for managing all the intricate details that most will never see, because you do such an amazing job at focusing on excellence.

It is such an honor to do work of significance with people we care about. And I sincerely care for each of you. Thank you seems inadequate to share my level of gratitude. Please know that from this one thank you, comes hundreds of words of praise and thanks for each of you.

Sincerely,

Gilles” (10/6/20)