Carey to address December graduates about life lessons

Carey
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Lisa Carey, associate professor of medicine and UNC Breast
Center medical director, will continue Carolina’s tradition of faculty speakers
at December commencement when she delivers the address during the 2 p.m.
ceremony on Dec. 20 in the Dean E. Smith Center.
Carey will speak about things she has learned about life in
a talk tentatively titled “Bedside Learning: My Education Since the 29th
Grade.”
“I remain honored and perplexed by my choice as speaker,”
she said. “However, I will be happy to talk about what I’ve learned –
largely from my patients and my children – about choosing to spend your
time doing things that are meaningful (not just to you!), about never feeling
that you have it quite right (and that that feeling is OK) and about how the
curve balls in life are the norm.”
People are better and stronger than they think they are, she
said.
“I am a researcher, so I’m constantly reminded that what I
don’t know far exceeds what I do know; a cancer doctor, so I’m constantly
reminded of the importance of perspective and that people can and do handle the
hardest things; and a mother, so I’m constantly hoping my kids accomplish what
these kids at Carolina already have,” she said.
“I hope they take the time to congratulate themselves and
don’t just rush off to the next challenge.”
Carey joined the faculty in 1998 and has served as the
director of the breast center since 2003. After graduating from the Johns
Hopkins School of Medicine in 1990, Carey was a resident in internal medicine
and then a fellow in oncology at the school. She earned her master of science
in clinical research at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health
in 1998.
Her research focuses on breast cancer, particularly why
younger, premenopausal, black women are more likely to develop aggressive types
of breast cancer. Carey is also involved in evaluating the use of specific
tumor markers as predictors of response to new chemotherapy agents. Carey is
the author or co-author of more than 70 manuscripts and book chapters.
During commencement, Carey will wear the regalia of Carol
Johnson Johns, who was former president and an internationally recognized
professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins. Johns pioneered the study of
sarcoidosis, a disease that leads to inflammation and can affect various organs
in the body.
“She died in 2000 at the age of 76, and I have the proud
honor of wearing her regalia,” Carey said.
It was passed to Carey by way of Johns’ husband to Carey’s
mentor, Nancy Davidson, who heard that Carey was giving the commencement
address. “It is a remarkably touching gesture,” she said.
Parking for commencement will be available in the Manning
and Bowles lots and the business school and Craige parking decks. |