'Change can happen.' Vlogbrothers maternal care project pays off. How soap, sock sales help
Green on Tuesday announced that a Sierra Leone maternal and infant care center, for which they began fundraising in 2019, is scheduled to open in January.
In 2019, the social media stars pledged $6.5 million to support the building the Maternal Center of Excellence at the Koidu Government Hospital in Sierra Leone's Kono District.
Then, statistics indicated that one of every 17 women in Sierra Leone died in pregnancy or childbirth.
In launching the effort six years ago, Green said, 'systemic long-term problems demand systemic long-term solutions.'
Green announced on the Vlogbrothers YouTube channel Tuesday that the full $20 million needed to break ground on the project had been raised.
'Today … we get to see some of the ways that long-term sustained, open-ended attention and resources can mean long-term change for the better,' he said.
The facility will provide care to up to tens of thousands of people each year and radically reduce maternal and infant mortality in and around the district, Green said.
'The Fault in Our Stars' author Green said the brothers reached their goal with the help of supporters who became monthly donors to the project at pih.org/hankandjohn, others who came together to establish a matching fund, and those who contributed through the purchases of socks and soap at the Greens' online Good Store.
Since the start of the campaign, with efforts by the government and organizations such a Partners in Health (PIH), the maternal mortality rate in Sierra Leone has declined to one in 74, helped by increases in nursing students and residents studying there as the facility became a teaching hospital, as well as more community health workers, Green said.
PIH is an international nonprofit public health organization providing healthcare in the poorest areas of developing countries by building medical facilities and hiring and training local staff. PIH supports Wellbody Clinic and Koidu Government Hospital.
'This is a reminder that when we pay attention to a crisis and focus resources on that crisis, change can happen. The world can get better,' Green said.
Construction on the Maternal Center of Excellence will be completed in October, and it will open to patients in January 2026, starting with inpatient care before opening up to outpatients.
Most of the funds the Green brothers raised came from their Nerdfighteria fan community, but Green recognized the systematic and financial support of the Sierra Leonean Ministry of Health.
'Sierra Leone is a vastly safer place to give birth than it was in 2019 and while Nerdfighteria certainly isn't the main character of that story, we have played a role,' Green said. 'I think in many ways, we can cite this as the greatest accomplishment in the 18-year history of this strange and lovely little YouTube channel.'
'This teaching facility is going to become a reality, dramatically improving the kind of care available to babies and moms in eastern Sierra Leone,' he said.
Green encouraged continued donations through PIH and Good Store purchases to help maintain the facility.
'It needs to continue being a huge collaboration. We need your ongoing support for the MCO because its funding needs do not end with the completion of the building's construction. This will be a world-class training facility that strengthens and supports Sierra Leone's healthcare workforce.'
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Boston Globe
26-06-2025
- Boston Globe
Eric Green was the first institute director forced out of NIH. He still hasn't been told why.
Advertisement 'I do believe there were people put into the department by the White House before Kennedy arrived. I think they had their agenda for who was going to get terminated, and why and how.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Green, who spent about three decades at NIH, reflected on his experience as a precursor of the thousands of layoffs that roiled the agency in the weeks since. He insisted he had been ready and willing to work with the new leadership at the Department of Health and Human Services — though he lambasted many of the suite of changes and proposals made by the current administration. The administration used something of a bureaucratic technicality to remove Green from his position. Institute and center directors are appointed to five-year terms, which are tied to external reviews from the scientific community. But they can serve multiple terms, and no director had failed to be renewed. Advertisement The paperwork and reviews for Green to be renewed were submitted by the Biden administration in December 2024, with the expectation he would be granted another term beginning March 17. His appointment was the first to be up for renewal since Trump was inaugurated. 'I drew the short straw,' Green said. Just three days before he was supposed to begin his new term, Green asked about the renewal, and he said it quickly became clear there was no plan to keep him. 'I was in what turned out to be a very dramatic week of back and forth and attempts to save me,' he said. Memoli seemingly agreed to keep Green on as a senior adviser, and he said at least one member of Congress campaigned to keep him in his post. He declined to name that lawmaker. Ultimately 'they just chose not to reappoint me, and it was basically a convenient way to decapitate a leader at NIH. I was never told why,' Green said. In the early days of the administration, he was one of several dozen employees at the federal health agencies to be placed on a ' Green had been a vocal advocate for promoting diversity in genomic datasets as well as the research workforce. He said the issue was important for the veracity of the science coming out of his institute, and for geneticists' ability to connect with a diverse population. But, ultimately it was simply part of his duty, given the emphasis the Biden administration put on the issue. Advertisement In his career, Green served a mix of Democratic and Republican presidents — Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden. 'As a public servant, you adapt. You have to sort of lean left, you lean right. So, Biden really pushed DEI, and it was a required element in my performance plan. So I did my job,' he said. Just as he had shifted NHGRI's priorities under the Biden administration, he had already begun the process of reorienting the institute's work toward chronic disease, a focus of Kennedy's. 'That's the tragic thing,' he said. 'We were all poised to align, because that's what we do as dedicated federal workers.' Green feels a special onus to prioritize work that centers on diverse populations given genetics' fraught history with the eugenics movement, which promoted the idea that preferable genetic traits should be encouraged, and other traits should be eliminated through measures like forced sterilization or genocide. Green sees 'tinges' of the eugenics movement in the recent backlash against diversity initiatives. 'I think it's evil,' he said of the administration's vilification of diversity initiatives. While he said there is room for reasonable discussion around the best ways to promote equity, 'I think underpinning a lot of this by some people, is just overt racism and prejudices.' Serving as 'consoler in chief' In the wake of his termination, Green continued going to the NIH campus in Bethesda for several weeks, helping his former staff navigate the uncharted waters it was in. While he was no longer being paid, Green felt as if he had been forced to 'orphan' his staff. His deputy director, Vence Bonham, was made acting director — only to be Advertisement Green was at NIH on April 1, when sweeping layoffs hit the entirety of the Department of Health and Human Services. 'I was there as the consoler in chief on April 1, when all hell broke loose,' he said. 'They took out all of my communications people, all of my education people, all my policy people, all my workforce development people, which were all my staff that have offices surrounding my suite. It's like all my immediate, daily family just got decimated.' In the two months since, the administration has begun making numerous changes to the NIH, from the way external research is paid for to how it will fund foreign-based scientists collaborating with US researchers. While he believes there are ways the agency can be improved, Green took issue with some of the changes. He called proposed revisions to research funding for overhead costs, called indirect costs, that would mean slashing payments to many leading universities, 'stupid and naive.' The current system is far from perfect but, 'we should optimize it. We shouldn't weaponize it,' he said. 'Let's get smart people in a room, including from business and from economics and from government and policy. Let's think about what is the right partnership between the federal government and the academic biomedical ecosystem.' He added that funding decisions are being made by people who don't seem to appreciate the implications of the cuts on biomedical research. 'It's all political, and it's punitive, and they're not engaging the experts to know what the implications of how you're harming the ecosystem are.' Advertisement The administration has also floated a 40 percent cut to funding for the NIH along with a massive reduction in the number of institutes it has. Green is hopeful Congress won't go along with such a drastic reduction, but if it were to come to pass, he said 'it'll be decades before we recover. I think other countries will surpass us quickly. I think it'll be catastrophic.' A more pressing concern, he said, is the administration's centralization of grant reviews. In the past, the NIH has employed reviewers at each of its institutes alongside a centralized staff at the Center for Scientific Review. While the latter typically approves more grants, Green worries its staff will not see the promise in innovative research. 'You think you're stamping out waste, fraud, and abuse,' he said. 'You're also stamping out innovation and creativity and the cutting edge.' Green is looking for his next gig. He hopes to return to academia, to mentor and teach students. He said he is excited about teaching students who may not be geneticists. But, he's also on standby to help rebuild the NIH. He said he is not sure who would take up the mantle of NHGRI director at such a tumultuous time. 'The current state of the NIH is unsustainable, because there's too much functionality that's been destroyed and lost. So many of us will be [at the] ready to help, advise, or do whatever, rebuild it brick by brick,' he said. 'People keep asking me 'How long will it take to rebuild?' I don't know the answer. I don't know how much more damage is going to be done.' Advertisement
Yahoo
24-06-2025
- Yahoo
NeoGenomics Appoints Dr. Marjorie Green to Board of Directors
FORT MYERS, Fla., June 24, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NeoGenomics, Inc. (NASDAQ: NEO), a leading provider of oncology diagnostic solutions that enable precision medicine, today announced the appointment of Marjorie Green to its Board of Directors, effective June 19, 2025. Dr. Green is currently Senior Vice President and Head of Oncology, Global Clinical Development at Merck. Dr. Green, a seasoned executive with extensive experience in the life sciences industry, brings a strong track record of leadership in oncology, corporate strategy, and business development. As Head of Oncology, Global Clinical Development at Merck, a premier biopharmaceutical company, she oversees the company's research for its single biggest area of commercial revenue and pipeline investment. "We are thrilled to welcome Marjorie to the NeoGenomics Board," said Lynn Tetrault, Chair of the Board of NeoGenomics. "Dr. Green's deep expertise in clinical oncology and pipeline development, combined with her experience in business development, will be invaluable as we continue to accelerate innovation into the precision oncology market." Prior to joining Merck, Dr. Green served as Senior Vice President and Head of Late-Stage Development at Seagen. Prior to that, Dr. Green was Vice President of Product Development and Global Head of the Breast and Gynecologic Cancer Franchise at Genentech. She began her career as a Medical Oncologist and Associate Professor at MD Anderson Cancer Center where she later became the Medical Director of the Nellie B. Connally Breast Center. Dr. Green earned her BA in History from the University of Notre Dame and her MD from the University of Texas Medical Branch. She completed her residency in internal medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and her medical oncology fellowship at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. "I am honored to join NeoGenomics' Board at such an exciting time in the company's journey," said Dr. Marjorie Green. "Neo's unique oncology diagnostics offerings are well positioned for growth, and I look forward to contributing to the company's mission of improving patient care." About NeoGenomics, Inc. NeoGenomics, Inc. is a premier cancer diagnostics company specializing in cancer genetics testing and information services. We offer one of the most comprehensive oncology-focused testing menus across the cancer continuum, serving oncologists, pathologists, hospital systems, academic centers, and pharmaceutical firms with innovative diagnostic and predictive testing to help them diagnose and treat cancer. Headquartered in Fort Myers, FL, NeoGenomics operates a network of CAP-accredited and CLIA-certified laboratories for full-service sample processing and analysis services throughout the US and a CAP-accredited full-service sample-processing laboratory in Cambridge, United Kingdom. Forward-Looking Statements This press release includes forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of words such as "anticipate," "expect," "plan," "could," "would," "may," "will," "believe," "estimate," "forecast," "goal," "project," "guidance," "plan," "potential" and other words of similar meaning, although not all forward-looking statements include these words. This press release includes forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements address various matters, including statements regarding improving operational efficiency, returning to profitable growth and its ongoing executive recruitment process. Each forward-looking statement contained in this press release is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Applicable risks and uncertainties include, among others, the Company's ability to identify and implement appropriate financial and operational initiatives to improve performance, to identify and recruit executive candidates, to continue gaining new customers, offer new types of tests, integrate its acquisitions and otherwise implement its business plan, and the risks identified under the heading "Risk Factors" contained in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and the Company's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We caution investors not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. You are encouraged to read our filings with the SEC, available at for a discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements in this press release speak only as of the date of this document (unless another date is indicated), and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any of these statements. Our business is subject to substantial risks and uncertainties, including those referenced above. Investors, potential investors, and others should give careful consideration to these risks and uncertainties. View source version on Contacts Investor Contact Kendra Sweeneyir@ Media Contact Andrea Sampsonasampson@ Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Business Wire
24-06-2025
- Business Wire
NeoGenomics Appoints Dr. Marjorie Green to Board of Directors
FORT MYERS, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- NeoGenomics, Inc. (NASDAQ: NEO), a leading provider of oncology diagnostic solutions that enable precision medicine, today announced the appointment of Marjorie Green to its Board of Directors, effective June 19, 2025. Dr. Green is currently Senior Vice President and Head of Oncology, Global Clinical Development at Merck. Dr. Green, a seasoned executive with extensive experience in the life sciences industry, brings a strong track record of leadership in oncology, corporate strategy, and business development. As Head of Oncology, Global Clinical Development at Merck, a premier biopharmaceutical company, she oversees the company's research for its single biggest area of commercial revenue and pipeline investment. 'We are thrilled to welcome Marjorie to the NeoGenomics Board,' said Lynn Tetrault, Chair of the Board of NeoGenomics. 'Dr. Green's deep expertise in clinical oncology and pipeline development, combined with her experience in business development, will be invaluable as we continue to accelerate innovation into the precision oncology market.' Prior to joining Merck, Dr. Green served as Senior Vice President and Head of Late-Stage Development at Seagen. Prior to that, Dr. Green was Vice President of Product Development and Global Head of the Breast and Gynecologic Cancer Franchise at Genentech. She began her career as a Medical Oncologist and Associate Professor at MD Anderson Cancer Center where she later became the Medical Director of the Nellie B. Connally Breast Center. Dr. Green earned her BA in History from the University of Notre Dame and her MD from the University of Texas Medical Branch. She completed her residency in internal medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and her medical oncology fellowship at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. 'I am honored to join NeoGenomics' Board at such an exciting time in the company's journey,' said Dr. Marjorie Green. 'Neo's unique oncology diagnostics offerings are well positioned for growth, and I look forward to contributing to the company's mission of improving patient care.' About NeoGenomics, Inc. NeoGenomics, Inc. is a premier cancer diagnostics company specializing in cancer genetics testing and information services. We offer one of the most comprehensive oncology-focused testing menus across the cancer continuum, serving oncologists, pathologists, hospital systems, academic centers, and pharmaceutical firms with innovative diagnostic and predictive testing to help them diagnose and treat cancer. Headquartered in Fort Myers, FL, NeoGenomics operates a network of CAP-accredited and CLIA-certified laboratories for full-service sample processing and analysis services throughout the US and a CAP-accredited full-service sample-processing laboratory in Cambridge, United Kingdom. Forward-Looking Statements This press release includes forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of words such as 'anticipate,' 'expect,' 'plan,' 'could,' 'would,' 'may,' 'will,' 'believe,' 'estimate,' 'forecast,' 'goal,' 'project,' 'guidance,' 'plan,' 'potential' and other words of similar meaning, although not all forward-looking statements include these words. This press release includes forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements address various matters, including statements regarding improving operational efficiency, returning to profitable growth and its ongoing executive recruitment process. Each forward-looking statement contained in this press release is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Applicable risks and uncertainties include, among others, the Company's ability to identify and implement appropriate financial and operational initiatives to improve performance, to identify and recruit executive candidates, to continue gaining new customers, offer new types of tests, integrate its acquisitions and otherwise implement its business plan, and the risks identified under the heading "Risk Factors" contained in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and the Company's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We caution investors not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. You are encouraged to read our filings with the SEC, available at for a discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements in this press release speak only as of the date of this document (unless another date is indicated), and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any of these statements. Our business is subject to substantial risks and uncertainties, including those referenced above. Investors, potential investors, and others should give careful consideration to these risks and uncertainties.
