Summit speakers
Learn more about the speakers you'll hear from at our 2024 Builder Summit.
Richard C. Shadyac Jr.
President and Chief Executive Officer
ALSAC
A tireless advocate for the importance of philanthropy and the not-for profit sector and a driven business leader who has led a near-quadrupling of annual revenue for the multi-billion-dollar organization he serves, Richard C. Shadyac Jr. was named the President and Chief Executive Officer of ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, in September 2009. He serves as ALSAC’s sixth CEO since the organization’s founding in 1957, stewarding ALSAC through unprecedented growth.
As the largest healthcare charity in the world and the second-largest charity in the U.S. ranked by cash revenue (over $2.6 billion in fiscal year 2024), ALSAC employs more than 1,650 team members who operate from its headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee, and 33 offices in seven territories across the country. ALSAC relies on some 12 million supporters who make donations and support tens of thousands of fundraising activities annually to help support the mission of St. Jude: Finding cures. Saving children.
Shadyac has guided strategic efforts that have achieved 58 quarters of consecutive year-over-year growth for ALSAC, including record-growth during the pandemic. During his tenure, ALSAC’s endowment/fund balance grew five times its value, all debt was paid off and the St. Jude campus implemented over $2.6 billion in capital improvements.
Executive Leadership Speaker
Hospital Speakers
Seth Karol, MD, MSCI
Associate Member, Leukemia and Lymphoma Division
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Dr. Karol is an oncologist at St. Jude, treating patients with Leukemia, specifically the more common subtypes called acute lymphoblastic leukemia and acute myeloid leukemia. At St. Jude, cure rates for ALL have reached higher than 94 percent and have shown remarkable progress in the last 50 years.
Despite the high cure rate, these cancers provide unique challenges for a couple of reasons. For one, children not cured of their disease with current therapies need better targeted therapies to cure their disease, to eventually reach 100 percent survival. The second effort at St. Jude is to limit the side effects of treatment, making sure childhood cancer survivors have the best quality of life possible after they have achieved remission, and are cured.
Dr. Karol gets to work with both of these challenges as a clinician. For relapsed patients whose cancer has reoccurred, or refractory cancers that don’t respond to the standard treatments, Dr. Karol tells his patients that he’ll need to go into his bag of tricks to cure their cancer. These tricks involve trying new chemotherapy agents or combining the chemotherapies in new ways. Some examples of the clinical trials, or treatment plans, to test new medicines include RAVEN and APAL2020D, both of which combine a new oral chemotherapy called Venetoclax with traditional chemotherapy treatment.
St. Jude has worked to improve the cure rate and limit side effects for ALL patients since the hospital opened more than 60 years ago. Those treatments are called “Total therapy” and the most recently completed trial was the 17th rendition of that treatment which was first designed by the hospital’s first director and CEO Donald Pinkel, MD. Dr. Karol treats patients on Total XVII which uses an approach called precision medicine. The goal is to identify unique features of each leukemia patient’s genetic makeup, and help develop individualized treatment plans, or “personalize” them.
Dr. Karol has been at St. Jude for over 12 years (as of 7/1/2024) and served as a Hematology/Oncology Fellow for four years before he joined as a member of the faculty. He earned his medical degree at The Ohio State University, completed pediatrics training at University Hospitals of Cleveland Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, and routinely presents his research at medical conferences such as the American Society of Hematology.
Amy Love, MA, MT-BC
Music Therapist
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Amy Love is the first music therapist at St. Jude who joined the institution in 2014. She works alongside child life specialists in the Child Life department. Amy provides music programming for groups and individuals both inpatient and outpatient that is geared to towards emotional expression, management of pain and anxiety, quality of life and physical rehabilitation.
Amy received her bachelor’s degree in music therapy from the University of Dayton, and her master’s degree in music therapy from St. Mary-of-the-Woods College. She holds additional certifications in NICU music therapy, guided imagery in music, neurologic music therapy and pediatric massage therapy. Amy also directs St. Jude’s music therapy internship, which provides training for students prior to seeking their licensure. She currently co-chairs the pediatric task force for the American Music Therapy Association and hopes to continue to advocate for this growing profession.
Patient Speaker
Nick
24 years old
Tennessee
In 2014, Nick was a gifted and hard-working young basketball player with dreams of going pro. But all of a sudden, Nick started to experience fatigue during training. Some days he could barely keep up.
Nick’s pediatrician ran his bloodwork twice before referring him immediately to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital®, where he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. His treatment included two-and-a-half years of chemotherapy. While in treatment, temporarily sidelined from his sport, Nick started writing and rapping about what he was going through. He finished treatment in March 2017. He continues to rap, and to share his story to support St. Jude.
Guest Speakers
Chris Boysen
Senior Vice President, Experiential Programs
ALSAC
As Senior Vice President of Experiential Programs for ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Chris Boysen is a transformative and people-centered leader who excels in driving revenue and crafting meaningful opportunities for donor engagement.
In his current role, Chris leads a team of nearly 80 fundraisers in developing brand-awareness and revenue producing programs and campaigns, including music and audio events, youth-focused events, galas, golf tournaments, fitness-focused events, community and organizational partnerships and the St. Jude Dream Home® Giveaway. Under his leadership, the Experiential team currently raises more than $270 million annually.
In his 30 years at ALSAC, Chris has achieved significant career milestones, including the launch and continued growth of the St. Jude Memphis Marathon Weekend, establishing a thriving partnership with the Rock ‘n Roll Race series, and the expansion of our music and audio engagement efforts and partnerships with streaming platforms. He also has been the driving force for the continued success of major annual events such as the FedEx St. Jude Championship, Legends for Charity, St. Jude JAM and The Patrick Warburton Celebrity Golf Tournament.
Chris has a passion for motivating and cultivating the next generation of
St. Jude supporters. He was instrumental in the development of various
St. Jude collegiate fundraising relationships, including partnerships with Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Incorporated, that led to a recent major fundraising commitment and Tri Delta Fraternity, which has raised more than $100 million over the past 25 years.
A lifelong Memphian, Chris bleeds blue having received his Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Memphis. He also completed a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Administration and Planning from the University of Tennessee.
Joy Redmond
Anchor
Joy Redmond is a Detroit native with nearly 20 years of television journalism experience. She loves fashion, shoes in particular. When she's not on your TVs in the evening, you may see Joy hanging out on Beale Street or checking out a local eatery.
Joe Birch
Anchor
Joe Birch marked his 40th year at Action News 5 in 2018. The Emmy Award-winning news anchor has traveled the world for WMC, filing stories from the People's Republic of China, the Vatican Museums in Italy and the 1996 Atlanta Games. He is a graduate of Christian Brothers University and a member of the Tennessee Journalism Hall of Fame.