Page 18 - RxBound Winter 2020

Cancer is a life-changer

for former aeronautical

engineer turned

student pharmacist

By Jeff Malet, WesternU

The loss of her father to leukemia and her mother
being diagnosed with ovarian cancer were life-
changing moments for second-year WesternU College

of Pharmacy student Stephy Lee, and a catalyst for
changing her career.

At the time of her father’s death, Stephy was a rising star as a
Boeing aeronautical engineer working on commercial and
military planes in the company’s wind tunnel simulation lab in
Philadelphia. She’d been there for about five years.
Stephy was working at Boeing when both her parents had cancer.
Her journey with their treatment and not being able to
understand how acute her father’s disease was caught her off
guard. Only four days elapsed between her learning he was sick
and his death.
“At the time, I was helping design and test airplanes, making
things fly better and faster,” Stephy said. “I was making good
money, but people are dying everywhere, and I realized I couldn’t
work for Boeing anymore because I have to help people and I
have to save lives. I want to be part of health care and help
educate patients and families about different disease states and to
help patients to not have to go through what I went through.”

16 WesternU, College of Pharmacy