Abigail Weiss, Reporter
@AWeissCourant
The Women in the Workforce club held its sixth luncheon, with special guest Kathy Giusti. Ms. Giusti, a Harvard graduate and CEO of the Multiple Myeloma Research foundation (MMRF) gave career advice and told of her experience in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) field.
As a person who has survived terminal cancer, Ms. Giusti recognizes the importance of time and uses it as her motivation. “If you believe that you’re going to live only three years and you need to get something done, you need to get it done now,” she said. “And I also think that attitude allows you to take more risks. I’m not saying make crazy decisions, make calculated ones, but don’t take forever to do them.”
Ms. Giusti’s organization, MMRF, has many achievements such as creating ten new FDA-approved drugs and accelerating the rate of treatment by 60 percent, and she is grateful for the opportunity to help others. “The thing that I’m most proud of is that we have saved so many lives,” Ms. Guisti said. “The beauty of it is that you wake up in the morning and you say, ‘Okay we’re curing cancer and we’re saving tens of thousands of lives.”
To emphasize the theme of being a woman in a high office position, Ms. Giusti noted that most of her meetings consist of significantly less women than men and feels that it sends a message about gender equality in top positions. “Most of the meeting I attend, women make up ⅓ of the room,” she said. “It could be that a lot of the people I work with are usually Chief Medical Officers, Chief Executive Officers, Chief Marketing Officers. It might also be a reflection, not only how many women are working in healthcare, but how many women are making it to that top echelon,” she said.
Senior Emma Dahill was one of the many students that attended the luncheon and looks to Ms. Guisti as a driving influence. “She inspired self confidence in us and encourages us to never be afraid of taking risks and being bold,” Emma said.
Senior Dana Lurie also attended the luncheon, feels as though she learned a lot from hearing Ms. Giusti and was amazed by all her achievements. “She was fascinating because of the way that she basically created a business model that helps science and health move forwards – I definitely haven’t thought about that intersection before,” she said.
Ms. Giusti stressed that for anybody interested in a STEM job, especially women, to focus on your work and not feel threatened by the job. “The worst decision is no decision. If you do your homework and you stand by your opinion, Do it and do it well, articulate well, that will get you farther in life,” she said. “Be bold, be decisive and be urgent. Don’t wait around to do the things you really want to do.”
