Join us and our 1986 Sarah Ida Shaw Award winner, Deven McGraw, Maryland, for a fun conversation of wisdom, inspiration and sisterhood. This incredible Tri Delta is the current alumna advisor for Alpha Pi Chapter and a healthcare advocate. In this podcast episode, we dive into Deven’s impactful healthcare career, her dedication to volunteerism and the enduring influence of Tri Delta values in her life.
Maryland alumna Deven McGraw's brilliance shines through as she provides a glimpse into her work as a national expert on health data policy. She humbly acknowledges how our values of truth, self-sacrifice and friendship guide her through both personal and professional challenges. Friendship and relationships form the core of Deven's life, and she actively lives out her mission to bring kindness wherever she goes—whether improving the lives of patients, advising young women as a collegiate chapter advisor or interacting with strangers. Deven reflects on winning the Sarah Ida Shaw Award and how those moments of recognition continue to inspire her today. Get ready to relive some of the happiest moments in Deven's life and discover more about her journey!
Hello, and a warm welcome to another episode of our podcast, Let's Talk Tri Delta. I’m your host and Tri Delta CEO Karen White. We are so thrilled that you're with us today. Today's guest is Deven McGraw from the University of Maryland. Her service at the University of Maryland and within Tri Delta earned her the prestigious 1986 Sarah Ida Shaw Award. And she was featured as part of our Sarah Ida Shaw Reflections article in the fall 2023 Trident magazine. I hope you all got to see and read that article. Today we have the privilege of catching up with Deven and talking with her about her impactful healthcare career, her devotion for volunteerism, the influence Tri Delta’s values have had on her life, reliving some of the happiest moments of her life and so much more. So let's get to it! Deven, welcome.
Oh, thank you so much, Karen. It's really good to be here.
Well, I wanna jump ahead and start with your career journey, which is amazing. You have had a remarkable career in healthcare with a particular focus on helping patients manage their data. What does that actually mean?
What does it mean?
Well, it means that you have had a great career.
You know, at some point or another, everyone is going to get sick or care for someone who's sick or both. And, you know, when something happens to you, you know, you're not treating yourself, you obviously have a doctor, but when you're really seriously sick or you're caring for someone who's seriously sick, the data that is amassed about you, for any doctor's visit, that you have is you have a right to all that data and so if you want to go get another opinion or if you want to see if there's a clinical trial that might be available to you without those details about your condition and how you were treated you really can't get very far you're kind of stuck and you're very dependent on what your own doctors may be doing for you. And they may be trying their best, but it could be that there's a treatment available that they don't even know about.
Right.
And so what this does, you know, when patients have access to their data, they are empowered to do as much as they possibly can.
Doesn't necessarily mean that there's a cure at the end of that conversation, but there's the possibility of finding the best possible treatment that's available out there.
There's the possibility that you could contribute your data to the discovery of new treatments. And all of that is just a much more empowering place to be than sitting waiting for somebody to tell you what's the next thing to do, which I don't know about you, but I'm not a person that can sit back and say, oh, you know, well, hopefully this will get better, right?
Right. No, I love that you think that this is a way to empower patients. What motivated you to get into this work? And then, you know, tell us a little bit more about the impact of your work.
Yeah, I think what motivated me to get into the work is, you know, I've actually not, I'm not somebody who's been sick myself, but I have friends who have had serious health conditions that they weren't expecting. And then in particular, I have friends who've told me, you know, I've had serious health conditions that they weren't expecting, are going through very significant health challenges, ones that were completely unexpected and for most of them have been since birth. And just the idea that you don't have to be helpless about this. And also maybe a little bit of knowledge that the healthcare system doesn't always work as well as it should, notwithstanding well-intended efforts from all sorts of stakeholders. Doctors, nurses, everybody tries, but it's challenging and it's costly. And, you know, there's no reason why you can't sort of do whatever is in your power. And having that data is it can be very impactful. We have helped patients get second opinions. We helped a patient who has a very rare form of cancer find a clinical trial that she is doing very well. in, where before she, with her standard of care or therapy that she was getting, she wasn't doing very well. Her cancer was not, her tumors were growing, as opposed to, you know, at least not growing. And then we also helped facilitate the approval by the Food and Drug Administration of a drug to treat seizures in patients with certain rare neurological conditions. And that was, was all data contributed by patients who use the platform that I helped co-found and with their data voluntarily contributed to this research effort. So we know that it can work to actually make a difference in people's lives. And so we're continuing to try to do that with more and more patients with more and more conditions, particularly in rare disorders where the treatment options for people can be quite limited because they're under-researched and there's still a lot to learn.
So you recently took back a company that you sold back in 2021 to scale it for broader impact.
Yeah.
So tell us about that and tell us about your plans for the company now and, you know, your vision for maybe how you'll even help more underserved patients and populations.
Yeah. So, this was, this is the same company that empowers patients with all their medical records. Yeah. And, you know, we had gotten acquired a couple of years ago by a wonderful company in a similar healthcare space, but they were experiencing. some financial challenges and we were finding that it just really felt like we were stuck, right? We couldn't grow, we couldn't improve the way that the product was working for patients. We were limited in terms of our ability to add new types of conditions to the platform despite a very strong interest from patient communities, again particularly in the rare disorder. So we, you know, in talking with the company that acquired us, or they were like, it's probably better if you guys go back out on your own, if you can figure out the way to do it. And it takes a bit of money. And so finding, you know, some investors that were willing to take a chance on us, and allow us to take the product that we had developed and you know was kind of stuck a little bit, not making the kind of growth that you really want to see in terms of helping more patients to taking it out independent again and with some funding and investment in order to allow it to grow so that we're not just serving the 20 some thousand patients that are on the platform today but being able to say oh, we can now work with more rare cancers than just the cancer groups that we have been working with from the start. We can work for more rare conditions and give people more hope. It's really what it's about more than anything is giving people hope. Can't guarantee that a treatment will be developed in time for all of the patients in our platform, but they're all incredibly selfless in their desire to help others like them, and it's an incredibly empowering space to be in. And I feel like, you know, I think the desire to help other people to, you know, to do well from a business standpoint by also doing something that helps people to thrive to people to live the best possible lives they can is an enormous gift. And one where I sort of feel like I, you know, for the same reasons that I chose Tri Delt when I pledged, it's like it suited me very well to be in the in the field that I'm in because it really is about how do you make the world better for other people?
Love it. I love it. And you also have a cool connection to St. Jude, right? You even mentioned St. Jude, so we're playing a role in your career, patients using your platform. Tell us a little bit about your work and how it connects back to St. Jude.
Well, this is, I mean, talk about worlds colliding, right? So we, again, we work with a lot of patients with rare neurological disorders. And in particular, those patients, almost all of them are pediatric patients. These are kids born with a genetic mutation that causes them to have really pretty significant developmental and physical delays. And for many of these kids, their prognosis is very poor. This is exactly the type of patient that St. Jude serves every day with the best possible clinical care for those kids. But, and St. Jude's does a ton of medical research.
Right, absolutely.
It's aimed at a full range of pediatric conditions, including many of the same ones that we serve. And so we actually have academic researcher agreements with some researchers at St. Jude. We provide them with data on patients using our platform who have consented to share data back with researchers. It goes to these two academic researchers for free so that they can continue the good work that they do to try to understand more of the natural history of some of these rare neurological diseases and then ultimately lay the groundwork for the development of better treatments and ultimately hopefully a cure for some of them. It's not just St. Jude that we work with in terms of providing data that helps them meet their missions to change the trajectory for patients like this. But it's kind of amazing given the commitment that Tri Delta has made to St. Jude that that's just an intersection that really makes me proud of what I do. I think there are lots of intersections here to me. I mean, Tri Delta’s values stand out so brilliantly here to me, truth and self -sacrifice and friendship, and this idea of a society that would be kind alike to all.
Those things seem to just resonate very deeply with you and do you want to talk a little bit about maybe how Tri Delta’s values have impacted your life, you know, especially when life gets challenging? That's sort of when they occur to me, right?
Yeah. Oh, for sure.
And how you draw on them like for inspiration in daily life?
I think the kind alike to all value is one that I have drawn on a lot lately. And it's not just in the career, but just in the fragmentation that we're experiencing in culture where everything feels so mean sometimes.
Yeah.
Like, you know, there's just this, I never, you know, I'm a social media user. That's how I keep in touch with a lot of my sorority sisters that I don't get to see as often. That's how I keep in touch with family members that are far away from me geographically. And yet some of the things I see, like why people feel like it's an advantage to be mean. And you know, as though they can't, they can't succeed or feel successful unless they've pulled somebody else down.
Right.
And I'm like, that's not like, that's not a value that feels good. It's not value that feels good at all. And it's no way to build a better world.
Right.
So this, I mean, I don't think at the time that when I was, you know, first became a new member of Tri Delta, then we called them pledges, and then ultimately was Initiated. And those values, I mean, that ceremony is so beautiful. It made me cry the first time. It made me cry again, when I saw it agai, a couple of years ago, as I was coming becoming an advisor to the chapter. It had been a really long time since I had been through the Ritual. And I was like, oh, tears just started pouring in my eyes. This is so beautiful and meaningful. And it really, it speaks to that. absolute best that is in all of us. And it's really easy to lose that when you're just so caught up in people being negative and driving on the road and honking horns and being mean. And I was like, what is this all? Calling people names and like that is terrible. And, and to reach, I feel like it's really easy for the past several years like reaching back to those values and saying you know what that's not you you are not that you are someone who believes in self-sacrifice for others who believes in looking out for other people who believes that we're all in this together and that kindness as the basic value is just a much better way to live You know even when it comes down to okay that person said a mean thing something must be going on in their lives.
Right.
Giving them the benefit of the doubt and I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and not come right back at them and like it's just it just makes you feel so much better at the end of the day.
Yeah, great.
A hundred percent of that credit goes to our Founders for figuring that out.
Right, and they were so young, right? They were probably 20, 21 when they wrote those words.
And yes, we are absolutely fortunate to have had Sarah Ida Shaw, right? We're going to talk about that in a minute. And Eleanor, right, Dorcas Pond, right in the beginning, just to share that wisdom. Now, you've made a full circle, right? To Tri Delta, right? You are back at Maryland serving as the alumna advisor for the chapter. So, A, thank you, right? That is a big and hard job. And how did we get so lucky to get you back?
I feel, you know, I'll admit that at first I didn't want to say yes. The advisor for the chapter who had been the advisor for quite a while, like, she was feeling like it's a lot. It's a big commitment to be on call for the women, to be going out there for lots and lots of different meetings or being able to be on the phone. And she was ready for a break. And the chapter had been through some challenges and I was living in California.
Oh my.
I had decided that, you know, pandemic, I don't have to go into an office anymore. Why don't I go back and be closer to where my roots are? And so, you know, some of my sisters who had been working with the chapter, like, come on, Deven, you can be the advisor. I'm like, Oh, no, I have this really demanding job. I don't know that I can do that. And they were like, we will help you, you won't be by yourself.
There it is.
But they really needed us with like recruitment all over again. But it, but that worked and they have been, you know, we have a team, it's not just me, but it's, but I've gotten a ton out of being around these women, like if I think about like, I hadn't been through the Ritual in a very long time, being able to experience that again and reconnecting to Tri Delta through this service has been it's just been great for me. Does it take time? Yes. Does it feel like super valuable time for me personally? A hundred percent.
I love it. Yeah, I love it. I mean I say all the time that we are, yes, we are a social fraternity. We are sorority, right? But we're developing women and we meet them at such an amazing time in their lives as they're coming into their own, right? We also meet them at a challenging time as they're coming into their own. And, you know, so many decisions to be made and then you'll get them all right, right? But when they've got that support from advisors like you, mentors they're looking up to, it's like they have a soft place to land,
right?
And the development that happens, I can speak for myself, I was not ready for the real world by any stretch. And college was a great launch pad and certainly, you know, in Tri Delta that not everybody wins the Sarah Ida Shaw Award. So it still amazes me that I did. I mean, honestly.
Tell me, were you surprised when your chapter nominated you and then you were chosen as the national recipient? So take us back to 1986. What were you thinking? How did that feel?
It felt amazing. I probably wasn't completely shocked that my chapter had nominated me. But the idea that I would win. I had been to Leadership School.
Yeah. It was the time when we alternated Leadership School and Convention.
I'd been to Leadership School as the chapter president and I saw someone receive the award and the description of what she had done and who she was and she gave a speech. I'm like, this is really incredible. Like, I don't think anybody from our chapter has ever won. And, you know, what these women are doing is pretty fantastic. And I, I can't even imagine. But I was super flattered that the chapter had nominated me and I thought that was it. And then I get this phone call like right before exams or maybe during exams. And I just, I could not believe it. I was like, wait, I won the Sarah Ida Shaw Award over all of these nominees from all these chapters across the country, each chapter having this like, a shining example of the best. best that they have. And it was already hugely flattering to get that from my own chapter. And now I'm getting the whole thing. I'm still, I'm still pretty taken aback by it. And I wrote my speech out by hand.
Of course. That's what we did in 1986. That's what we did.
That's right. Absolutely. Scribbles and cut and paste, literally cut and paste and nervous. nervous, really nervous, but feeling, you know, tremendous pride, tremendous pride in my chapter, like, you know, just, and it still was the most amazing moment for me, and I was fortunate that my alumna advisor was there, and the incoming chapter president who, who I had mentored was there, and it was, it was huge thrill that I continued to be incredibly flattered by.
Well, we are so thrilled that you, you know, talked with us and shared your story so we could share it in the Trident. And, as you know, we found your letter from January 19 of 1987 to Normita Error right? Sharing what you had done since graduating. So you've received the award and you're updating Normita, Mrs. Error, right? As we call her. And I know we shared it with you recently. And among other things, you said that Tri Delta is a gift that you gave yourself for a lifetime. And I just, I love that. So how was it reading your 1980s letter all these years later?
A little embarrassing. I was a very verbose individual. Like Mrs. Error has time to read a four-page letter. I mean, it wasn't my handwriting. It wasn't tight. So it could have been worse. But, you know, I was still had so much pride being a Tri Delta and in having won the Sarah Ida Shaw Award that I just, I was super excited to be able to communicate all of my, all of my feelings about it. I still feel like Tri Delta is this amazing gift. The values, again, that I continue to reach back to that helped to guide me in my life personally, professionally, and then of course, the relationships that I, the friendship of the, of my sisters in the chapter of now, the women that I am helping through my role as an alumna advisor, the wonderful relationships on our advisory board team because we've expanded to have advisors that live in the area and that are not necessarily Alpha Pi alums and getting to know them and what their experiences have been and just how much they care about helping the chapter that is near and dear to my heart succeed because they live close by and they wanna give back. It's really, really incredible. And I wish that more people could have the experience that I had, which is the experience part about recruitment, right?
It's right if you have this wonderful gift you want to share it.
It's a little hard to you know to tell our incoming new members right our potential new members that this is going to be something you're going to love for the rest of your life. They're not really thinking of that time horizon at that point, right?
No, I'm not sure they're not doing it either, right?
No, I know I didn't.
Yeah, I didn't at all, right?
But you know, again, like I think about our obligation, right, the oaths we take, our membership oath, where we talk about spreading her influence abroad, right? And recruitment is one of the ways we do that, right?
Yeah, there is so much in terms of personal development, in terms of, you know, contributing to the social fabric that we all live in that Tri Delta really gives you some principles and some values again that you can go back to again and again and again. And then, you know, I'm biased. Like, other sororities don't have these things, right? It's just Tri Delta. Just us.
It's totally us. Just us.
But we're a pretty special bunch, and we're unselfish in our desire to share that with others and to be as influential as we can in building a better world.
That's just beautiful, and clearly, right, Tri Delta plays a beautiful role in your life. I heard you just attended the Philadelphia Ballet with some Tri Delta sisters.
Yes, oh my God, this was, wow, this was really wonderful. So one of our chapter members, her, she has four children and Jason is her youngest and her only boy. And he watched his sisters go to dance class and decided that he wanted to be a dancer. And he is in the Philadelphia Ballet Company, and is performing with the Nutcracker there. And because Philadelphia is only a couple of hours drive, you can get there by train too if you don't feel like driving. We're like, we want to go, we want to go support her and her child, who's not really a child anymore, but, you know, Jason, and it was so much fun. We had, well, we had like three or like five members of the Alpha Pi Chapter.
Oh, I love it.
Most of us started from the '80s, but one of my sister's mother, who was a Tri Delta in the early 1960s, she came too. So, yeah.
Well, Jason had quite a fan section.
Yes, he did. (both laughing)
That is awesome. I love it so much. This has been so fun to talk to you and thank you for just sharing so beautifully about Tri Delta, what it means in your life and for giving us a glimpse into your work and your success. We appreciate you being with us today.
Well, thank you. you for that opportunity. It's really, it's a thrill. I appreciate it, thanks.
Absolutely, and thanks for your volunteerism, right? We really appreciate that. Tri Delta does not, we do not go without volunteers. It's really the lifeblood of the organization. So thank you for stepping up to advise Alpha Pi and happy 90th this weekend. Enjoy.
Thank you very much. Thank you. We'll have a good time remembering days of the 1980s. I don't think we have anybody still around from the 1934 era, but there'll be a number of women there. I'm really excited about it.
That is just awesome. Well, thank you so much. And for our audience today, have you registered for Tri Delta's Convention? It's our 61st Biennial Convention. It's Thursday, July 11th, through Sunday, July 14th, 2024 in Magical Orlando, Florida. You'll want to get ready for an epic weekend of celebration, inspiration, and connection with your Tri Delta sisters. The details and information to help you register are on our website, TriDelta .org/events. And as always, thanks for joining us for the Let's Talk Tri Delta podcast. When you get a minute, please like, subscribe and rate our podcast. We do love five-star ratings. Thanks for joining us, and until next time, Delta Love.