Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Join RESOLVE’s leadership team for an in-depth look at what it takes to pass pro-family legislation, protect IVF, and what we’re up against.
HOSTS
President & CEO, Barb Collura
Chief Engagement Officer, Betsy Campbell
Chief External Affairs Officer, Rebecca Flick
ABOUT RESOLVE
RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association is the largest non-profit patient advocacy organization in the country focusing on increasing access to all family building options through insurance coverage and policy changes as well as protecting fertility care like IVF from legislation.
Welcome to this episode of Infertility Discourse, a podcast from RESOLVE, the National Infertility Association. We wanna inform our listeners that today's discussion may include mentions of loss, treatment success, pregnancy, and children. We understand that these topics can be sensitive and may evoke strong emotions. If you find any part of this episode distressing, please take care of yourself and consider pausing the episode. For those seeking support, resources, or someone to talk to, please visit resolve.org/support. Thank you for listening.
Rebecca Flick:Hi. This is Infertility Discourse, a podcast brought to you by RESOLVE, the National Infertility Association, And I wanna say welcome back. We've taken a little bit longer hiatus than we originally anticipated, but January turned out to be an incredibly busy month for us at RESOLVE. I'm one of your hosts, Rebecca Flick. And with me today is...
Barb Collura:Barb Collura.
Rebecca Flick:And for our listeners, you can't see them, but we have some special guests. So we are really excited to, bring our first episode with outside guests, and they're really, really special to RESOLVE. Today's podcast, we are going to title, as we always do, around a song. Duh, Barb, what do you think it is?
Barb Collura:Sweet Home Alabama.
Rebecca Flick:Absolutely. As we get ready at RESOLVE to acknowledge the one year since, major event happened in Alabama and really impacted our community and definitely impacted RESOLVE's mission. And so much of what we're doing today, is a result of what happened in Alabama a year ago. So, Barb, why don't you talk a little bit more about that?
Barb Collura:Well, thank you, Rebecca. And I am so thrilled that the first podcast that we have guests are these two amazing people because they are so, incredible and inspiring, and I know you're all gonna just love hearing from both of them. So let's let's dial back the calendar. It's February 2024, and it's a Friday. It's February 16.
Barb Collura:In fact, Monday is president's day, so it's a long three day weekend. And, late in the day on Friday, February 16, the Alabama supreme court put out, one of their rulings. This one was a real blockbuster. What this ruling did is in a nutshell, it said that a frozen embryo outside the human body is actually a child and any harm that could come to that embryo falls under a statute passed in the 1800s called the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act, stating that if there is some sort of harm or death that comes to a minor, in this case a child, then that is has severe penalties. And this ruling said that any harm that could come to a frozen embryo outside the body is actually a harm to a person.
Barb Collura:And, so that put IVF and the practice of IVF in grave danger in the state of Alabama. It took a few days for people to catch on to what was going on. The Monday holiday, quite honestly, had a big impact on the news media and the story catching up with people. I know that by Wednesday, the twenty-first, we had the largest practice in the state, Alabama fertility specialists, announced that they were pausing, seeing patients. In fact, they had embryo transfers scheduled the next day for IVF, and those were canceled.
Barb Collura:So we had a situation unprecedented. I know that's an overused word, but Rebecca, you and I have been at RESOLVE for twenty years, each of us, and never in our careers. And we've checked with people before has anything like this happened before. So it was a moment in our country and in this field and in the family building community that quite honestly, we will never forget.
Rebecca Flick:And people might be saying, well, RESOLVE stops personhood all the time, and we've stopped many personhood bills over the years, but this was judicial.
Barb Collura:Yeah. This was-
Rebecca Flick:That's what's so different for us. It would kind of-
Barb Collura:Yeah.
Rebecca Flick:Obviously, you you can't see it happening. Right? I don't even think we really even knew about the court case.
Barb Collura:We did not at RESOLVE. Of course, some other some other folks did, but certainly the ruling coming out on that particular day and knowing what was going on and what was at stake. So I'm really here to just set that stage. We're gonna really now turn to two key voices in this story, and I'm gonna let them do the talking. The first is Corinn O'Brien, and you're also gonna hear from Jamie Heard.
Barb Collura:Corinn, you and I met on a Zoom call on Sunday, February 25. I would love for you to share with us what happened in your life between February 16 and and the twenty-fifth, and then what led us to be on a Zoom call on a Sunday afternoon. Turn it over to you, Corinn O'Brien.
Rebecca Flick:Hello, Corinn.
Corinn O'Brien:Hi there. Thank you for having me today. Barb, just hearing you I talk about this so much now, but hearing you lay out the days like that, I mean, I just I don't know if you saw me. I was getting teary eyed, emotional kind of just thinking going back to that time. Even was looking at the calendar earlier today thinking, oh my gosh.
Corinn O'Brien:We're almost at the year anniversary and getting kinda choked up. So to kind of talk about how I landed involved with all of this this work and connected to RESOLVE and to Jamie. I had been navigating on February 16, Friday, February 16th, I had been navigating almost three and a half years of secondary infertility. I'd gone through every treatment before IVF, several I mean, four IUIs, and finally, my first round of IVF.
Corinn O'Brien:And that morning on February 16, I was six weeks pregnant and was heading to my first ultrasound to see, you know, this child, this but, you know, that we had been long prayed for, and got horrible news in that ultrasound that this pregnancy would not be viable. And then later that day, got the news about the Supreme Court decision and was just devastated. But really at that time, didn't know what it meant. I just knew it probably wasn't great. And then I was at, fast forward, you know, Wednesday, saw I was checking Instagram in the middle of my office, see Alabama fertility services closed down, burst into tears.
Corinn O'Brien:I mean, just it was a week of uncertainty and feeling like I'm gonna lose this baby, and I'm gonna lose access to the only thing that's gonna allow me to to give my child a sibling. And I was just blown away and, pretty frozen for a couple of days, like, not really knowing what to do. The morning of Thursday, I don't even know the day. I guess it's the 22nd. The Thursday after the decision came down, I woke up and I was in you know, I was spent the night in Montgomery because the work I do has me in Montgomery a lot, working at the state house with legislators for my day job.
Corinn O'Brien:And I woke up that morning with this feeling of, like, oh my gosh. I can't just sit here and do nothing. Like, I cannot just sit here and do nothing. And, Barb, you know this story, Rebecca. All of you know this story.
Corinn O'Brien:I lost my mom to pancreatic cancer about six years ago, and she was my person, and she was my biggest cheerleader. And, you know, she she was also tough. And I think she would say, okay. You got five minutes to be upset about something, and then what are you gonna do? You know, like, what's your plan?
Corinn O'Brien:And I could hear her that morning in my head saying, like, Corinn, you work at the state house. You know these legislators. Like, you're literally going through IVF. Like, you gotta do something about this. And so I opened up my computer, and I wrote an email really quickly and kind of I figured out who are the, who are the legislators we need to contact and throw that in an email and and send it to about 40 friends and colleagues around the state.
Corinn O'Brien:And by the end of that day, we got reports that hundreds of emails had been sent to legislators and that the speaker of the house was getting an email every two minutes. And, you know, over the next couple of days, we were working round the clock because we knew that there was gonna be legislation in the following week potentially to solve this issue, and we knew we needed to get people kind of activated around it. And so that Sunday, fast forward, is when I think doctor Beth Malizia texted me from Alabama fertility service. She said, "Can you join a Zoom call?" I was like, Absolutely.
Corinn O'Brien:She's like, "We're meeting with the RESOLVE team," and I joined the Zoom call. It was like 30 people. It was like a war room of, like, you know, the the RESOLVE team and just this incredible team of people who were gonna help us figure this out and put all this together. And that's when I met you, Barb, and we figured out and planned those next couple of days kind of, like, round the clock.
Corinn O'Brien:I mean, we were working all the time, pulling together the plans for that rally, which is Wednesday. That was the day bills would be in committee, so we needed to be present at the State House. We needed to make a statement, and we did. We made a statement that was heard around the world.
Barb Collura:I like to say that all I did on that call was say yes because Corinn would say, we need this. I go, okay. Yes. We need this. Okay. Great. Yes.
Barb Collura:You were the one who knew exactly what needed to be done, who had the vision, and I was just honored to be on the other end of that Zoom call, having the ability to say yes, and also the ability to actually deliver on all of those promises that I made to you on on that day. And, luckily we had a lot of help, from our friends at Fenton Communications, our advocacy team. Your knowledge obviously was incredible.
Barb Collura:The doctors were so all in, and that was unbelievable. And you could focus on what was gonna happen and not all the logistics and worrying. And you put together an advocacy day, on February 28. We publicized it. You guys publicized it, but the doctors publicized it. And they told all their patients to to come. And I don't know if you thought, is it just gonna be a few of us or what's gonna happen? We didn't know how many orange t-shirts to order. But on that call, Fight For Alabama Families was born.
Barb Collura:Remember, we actually, like, came up with the name on that call. And within a couple of hours, t-shirts were ordered, and the media was alerted, and I got down. You invited me to come. I was so honored to be there. And I showed up, and I tell this story, I was just somewhere and I told this story that I had to take an Uber out to pick up copies.
Corinn O'Brien:I remember that. Because at the time of the tweets.
Barb Collura:We had handouts. Right? We were gonna and we helped draft them. I think you started, we finished it, we got them finished, and it was gonna be handouts for people who showed up, how many copies to get. I don't know.
Barb Collura:We just guessed. And I took an Uber and I got the Uber to take me out to some place to get the copies and then pick them up and bring them back. And the Uber driver said, "Oh, there is something big going on down at the capitol." And I go, Really? And he goes, "Yeah. I just dropped somebody off and there were tents and there were all these cameras and all this stuff." And I'm like, "Oh my god. I think, I think that's what I'm going to."
Barb Collura:So Jamie, you showed up in Montgomery on that day, February 28. I'm, I'm so curious for our listeners to understand what possessed you to be there?
Barb Collura:What inspired you to be there? Why were you there on 02/28/2024?
Jamie Heard:Absolutely. So ironically, I had just had my doctor's appointment on February, Valentine's Day, 2 days before the ruling came down, And that was the day where we kick-started our second IVF cycle. Met with the doctor. We put a plan together. We're gonna do this procedure.
Jamie Heard:We're gonna do this med. Start here. Put the whole plan together. And this is after, you know, like Corinn, I also lost my mom, and then I eventually lost my only sibling. And so I got the courage up after telling myself I didn't wanna go through the IVF process again, but with it only being me left in my immediate family, I got the courage up to do the process again.
Jamie Heard:And so once I saw the news of what happened, it was a gut punch. Like literally listening to you and Corinn talk about it, my heart is just beating so fast because it brought back all of those feelings back up. And initially, the feelings were and I'm watching social media just like Corinn, and I'm seeing where Alabama Fertility is sharing all of the posts about what's gonna happen. We're gonna rally at the State House this day, and they I saw what they mentioned that they had also, you know, stopped IVF services, that they're not they're gonna put a pause on it. And that was a gut wrench for me because I got the courage of after doing what I was going through and making my mind up that I didn't want to go through IVF again, but I got the courage up and now you're telling me that you're not going to be doing it anymore and you can't do it because of this law.
Jamie Heard:So initially my feelings were I was confused, I was hurt, I was sad because I had finally wrapped my mind around expanding our family again and now that option was being taken away from me. So initially the feelings were hurt and sad, but then it quickly moved into anger. Like now I'm upset because now it felt like you were literally knocking at my door coming after my family. And I had you know I told you this, Barb, I've never done advocacy before that was this is something completely outside of my realm, because I'm usually that person I like to stay in a corner, tucked in a corner, I don't like to speak too much because I'm afraid I may say something wrong or afraid how I'm going to be seen, but I didn't have that option with this. So once I saw that there was going to be a rally in Montgomery, I'm like, babe, we have to be there.
Jamie Heard:Like, we cannot afford to sit on the sidelines because we have too much banking on this, because I need IVF, we need IVF, so we can't just sit and wait and see what happens. We absolutely need to be on the front lines and then as we're planning to be there I'm getting messages and calls from my girlfriends neighbors was like okay I see that your clinic I had no idea they were following my clinic on Instagram, but clearly they are and they are texting me and they're like okay what time are we leaving? I'm like what you guys are going with me? And one of my girlfriends showed up and she made a poster, and my heart was just so overwhelmed with having that support there. But it hit home, and I knew that we needed to be there.
Rebecca Flick:Okay. This is why we don't do video podcast because we're all in different stages of tearing up..
Barb Collura:Blowing our nose...
Rebecca Flick:...waving our eyes. But, yeah, it just it it was so personal for both of you. Not to make light of what happened, but I had massive FOMO not being able to be in Alabama with all of you. But, like, so tell us about the the day. I know, like, you all have such different perspectives.
Rebecca Flick:I mean, Barb's running around dealing with press and our PR agency, and Jamie's rolling up doing something she's never done before. And, Corinn, this was, you know, kind of your, you know, work life prior, but you're, it's now super personal. So who wants to start?
Barb Collura:Corinn, you organized it, and Corinn had the spot and we had a stage and, Corinn had orchestrated, like, a program. She was sort of the MC. And maybe you could just walk us through what the goal was of that day, and then I'd love to hear Jamie because I know Jamie's story.
Corinn O'Brien:No. Jamie needs to tell that story.
Rebecca Flick:Yeah.
Barb Collura:I would love to hear it. So, Corinn, what was what was the goal of that day?
Corinn O'Brien:Yeah. You know, the goal was that there there were gonna be two bills in committee that day that would potentially you know, they weren't ideal. Right? Like, what the law that we passed is not ideal. It is a short term goal. Right? Short term law that we have more work to do. We'll talk about that in a bit.
Rebecca Flick:But these were bills that would help get services online again, and we wanted to be there to, you know, talk to our legislators, tell our stories, and to urge them to quick action and to pass these bills as quickly as possible. And so, you know, the goal of that day was just to pack the State House with all of us in our orange shirts and to have everybody have our talking points and to be all singing from the same hymnal. And we had people from both sides of the aisle. It was very bipartisan. It was it was just the most incredible crowd of people because it wasn't just women. It was families. It was grandparents. It was aunts and uncles. It was babies themselves. I mean, it was just the most incredible crowd.
Corinn O'Brien:And, you know, that morning, I remember showing up to the State House and and, Barb, we were trying to figure out all the logistics of, you know, talking points and t-shirts and signs and all that. But I parked. I remember walking up, and there was no less than 25 different media tents. You you know what I mean? Like, groups of media, you know, New York Times, all of the big national, you know. And I just I remember walking up, but feeling the sense of calm. Like, I just you know, the sense of complete calm and clarity of what we had to do that day and rehearsing the things I was gonna stay as I stepped up to the mic. And, you know, we all kinda had a moment when once the actual program began, we had our crowd there, and it was a huge crowd. And stepping up to that mic and delivering those comments, I just felt so calm.
Corinn O'Brien:I was never nervous, and it just felt like really my mom being there with me to say, like, it's okay. You can do this. And there's this incredible photograph of from behind someone took of me of all the different microphones and, like, the crowd, and then it's just this incredible picture. And the goal of that was just to get everybody ready, to pack everybody in the State House, and to have as many conversations as possible, which is different from, you know, advocacy days normally are pretty structured. You have days you have your meetings, right, with meeting times.
Corinn O'Brien:That wasn't what this is. We were catching legislators in the hallway. We were telling them our stories. You're gonna hear from Jamie and the way she did that here in a moment in such a beautiful way. And that was what made the impact is that we were so overwhelmed.
Corinn O'Brien:We just, like you could not look away from us because we were everywhere, And we were all telling our stories, now all from a different perspective. Right? Everybody has a different story to tell, but it was truly amazing.
Barb Collura:And the amazing thing is that the doctors were on the stage with their white coats. Patients were there. I think later, I was listening to some Alabama political podcast and and there was somebody who said, you know, I think some legislators were actually thinking, like, well, what what kind of I don't wanna say it this way, but maybe, you know, pit patients against doctors and figure this out. They showed up and we were all together. We were all together and it was, it was unbelievable.
Barb Collura:So Jamie, you've already told us you've never done anything like this. Here you are with all this going on, and you get let into the building. Tell us what happened.
Jamie Heard:Oh, boy. My account is so different than Corinn. It's almost funny because she's like, I get there and I just feel this sense of calmness. I'm not nervous, and I was all of that, because I had no idea what to expect right again because I've never advocated for anything before, let alone speak to a legislator. Like, the most I've ever done is just voted at the polls. That's it.
Jamie Heard:And so I get there and I see all these people with orange shirts. That was definitely something so amazing to see, but, again, I didn't know what to expect. I'm thinking that they have meetings set up for us. So we would just get there and they'll let us know who we're gonna meet with and where we're going to go.
Jamie Heard:And we get there and I see that they're passing out talking points, I'm like, okay. Good. Because I definitely didn't know what to say. I didn't know how to tell my story at that time, especially without getting emotional and making sure I can get, you know, the message across. I had no idea what to say.
Jamie Heard:So the talking points were amazing. And then I remember Corinn telling the crowd, like, "Okay. You, you, you, you go to Floor 1. You, you, you, you, go to Floor 2." And I'm like, "Wait. What?" And she was like, "You just go from door to door." And I'm like, "Wait. What?" And so I had a moment there.
Jamie Heard:I'm like, "Okay, husband, maybe we should go because I absolutely can't do this," and I know that he's not a talkative person either. So we contemplated on leaving. And I don't know what made me stay, but I'm glad we did. And I remember so we started going we were pointed, I think, to maybe the seventh floor.
Jamie Heard:So we get there, and we're going through all the doors. And I'm using the talking points, and I'm telling my story. So we got through all of the office on that floor, and he was like, "Okay, well, maybe we should go to another floor." So we get to the elevator, and there were already a lot of people on the elevator.
Jamie Heard:So my husband couldn't get on with me. So I went ahead and jumped on, and I remember I think it was Corinn, someone told us just look for a pin on their lapel that lets you know that they are a representative. Like, okay. So I get on the elevator and I see all these pins.
Jamie Heard:It's literally nothing but pins and before I knew it, I yelled out, Jackpot. So everyone on the elevator started laughing because they knew what what I was there for. And so I began to tell them my story, literally, true life elevator pitch. Never had to be like a true life. So I gave my elevator pitch and they all-
Barb Collura:Literally in the elevator.
Jamie Heard:Literally in the elevator. And they all, once I got done in the elevator open for them to get off, they all, you know, kinda one guy, I remember he hugged me and he was like, "It's okay. I know you're nervous, but you did amazing." So they gave me confirmation and assured me that my message was received. And so that was amazing.
Jamie Heard:And my husband tells me to this day, he was like, "Dude, when you got off the elevator, like, you were a completely different person." And I didn't recognize it until he pointed it out to me after I testified at the senate. And he was like, "Yeah. You completely changed after you got off that elevator."
Rebecca Flick:That's Barb's favorite part that that gets her every time. I'm also wondering if we change the song. It's like, I keep just Love in an Elevator by Aerosmith keeps going through my head, which is completely inappropriate.
Barb Collura:Completely. We're keeping Sweet Home Alabama.
Barb Collura:I am so honored. One of my highlights of 2024 was meeting Corinn and meeting Jamie, and now having them in my life, I feel very blessed that, professionally and personally, I've had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with both of these amazing women who chose to do something very brave and who also have made such a difference. Jamie mentioned she came to Washington DC and she testified before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee, all of that.
Barb Collura:The whole committee. Tough, tough crowd. Both of you have done multiple, multiple media interviews over and over and over. And, you've really put yourself out there.
Barb Collura:So first of all, I'm so grateful for both of you, and I'm so honored to know both of you. Where are we today, Corinn? What's happening today in our sweet home Alabama?
Corinn O'Brien:Oh, Barb. So much to share. You know what, Fight for Alabama Families, we strongly believe, and Jamie is, I consider, now a founding member of Fight for Alabama Families. The work she has done at the grassroots level, you know, since since that day, those days in February.
Corinn O'Brien:We have two big goals, and the first is to secure full and permanent protection of IVF in Alabama. I mentioned this earlier, the the law that we passed, everyone pretty much accepted as a short term measure to get clinics open again. It's what we needed to do. But just like you mentioned, Barb, earlier, we're not done. We don't have a full and permanent measure protecting, And we've been hard at work identifying the legal legislative way to that.
Corinn O'Brien:We think we have a pretty solid proposal, but it's a constitutional amendment that it's going to require us to change Alabama's constitution, and that's long term work. And so that's the work that we're already starting to do, and and you'll see a lot of the work that Fight for Alabama is doing is just telling the story, showing legislators these are real Alabama families that are impacted by this and that won't will be impacted if we don't have this full and permanent support. And so that's kind of a long term play that we're gonna be working towards several years. In the short term, our second goal is defending against harmful regulation and harmful legislation. So there's a lot of groups talking about, well, IVF is okay, but there are some aspects that are unethical, or we don't we disagree with.
Corinn O'Brien:And so we wanna propose, like, there's there's this one group in Alabama that has on their their policy agenda for this session regulation around IVF, regulating things like how many eggs could be retrieved, how many embryos could be created, regulating genetic testing, regulating storage of embryos. And so those are the sort of things that we're pushing back against, and we're saying those that would be harmful for patients and families. That would increase costs. That's going to increase risks. It's going to change standard of care IVF.
Corinn O'Brien:We're pushing back against that, and that's the sort of short term work we're going to be working on this session because there's a real potential for a bill this session to to be more along the lines of those regulation. So that's the work we're gonna be doing. And so Jamie and I have been working with a lot of other grassroots advocates, to organize along with RESOLVE. Right? RESOLVE's gonna be a part of this as well.
Corinn O'Brien:And advocacy day and our one-year anniversary. First of all, to say thank you and that we're not done, and then please don't pass regulations.
Barb Collura:Yeah. I mean, it's amazing to work with, with Corinn on the ground, with Jamie on the ground. We, RESOLVE has lobbyist in the state. We have a lot of other support around us. Corinn and Jamie have been doing a lot of fundraising and just getting the word out.
Barb Collura:So we need more and more people in Alabama telling their stories. This is not over. If you're listening, if you're in Alabama, you don't know what's going on, please connect with us. Email us at resolve.org, and you're gonna, we'll connect you to the Fight For Alabama Families movement. And this is really, Rebecca, sort of a model for potentially how we could see protecting IVF in many states.
Rebecca Flick:Mhmm.
Barb Collura:But you, you know, we got lightning in a bottle.
Barb Collura:So you don't necessarily wanna start it the same way. Right?
Barb Collura:Well, Corinne but, you know, having a person like Corinn who I say this all the time. I mean, she mentioned it very, you know, lightly, but her her knowledge of the state house, her ability to mobilize people, and her knowledge of the legislative process played such a huge role in this. And to have her personally impacted was devastating. At the same time, we had somebody who, who could lead us. And, and I think that was amazing.
Barb Collura:And then our whole objective at RESOLVE around advocacy is inspiring people to act. So you've got Jamie who was inspired, scared, but you can be scared and inspired, right? Jamie at the same time. People like Corinn who took that and mentored others and led others. And so here we are.
Barb Collura:We're not, we're not walking away. We're not giving up. We are in this for the long haul because as I just told the reporter about an hour ago, the status of a frozen embryo outside the body in Alabama is still a child. And a lot of people don't recognize that that is what the status is today in 2025. So back to you, Rebecca.
Rebecca Flick:I just want to give a plug for Jamie too. She also started a support group in Alabama after connecting with RESOLVE. So inspired to act in multiple ways and bring RESOLVE's mission to life. And what's that experience? Little sidebar, but what what has that experience been like, Jamie?
Jamie Heard:That experience has been, I'll say, eye opening, because you get to meet people whose experience is so different than yours, and you hear of just unimaginable things. But I remember the very first meeting. I left the meeting feeling very heavy. It was very heavy.
Jamie Heard:But it has been an amazing experience getting to connect with those who are just looking for people who have had similar experiences and just want someone to talk to without having to, as some people would say, mansplain it. You know, not having to constantly re-explain certain things or being asked dumb questions. You know? So it's been amazing having that sort of support that many of us didn't have beforehand.
Rebecca Flick:Well, we have to thank you for that. It was, I think, the first Alabama support group we've had in a while.
Barb Collura:Yeah.
Rebecca Flick:In a long, long time. So thank you. Well, you know, anniversaries are supposed to be celebratory, but I am hoping there's a little bit of a celebration when you all are together again to honor this date, but also keep inspiring people to act.
Rebecca Flick:I think that's what this year has got to be, and we gotta keep moving our issue forward in Alabama and, protect IVF. I think we saw how important it is to Alabama families, and we are are inspired by both of you and all of your, volunteer colleagues in the state.
Barb Collura:So inspired. Talk about inspiring the inspirers. I mean, wow. You guys are you guys are doing it day in and day out. I just wanna take this opportunity to thank both of you, both personally, professionally, but thank you from our board, our supporters, our partners, and just are so grateful for your advocacy and for sharing your story.
Barb Collura:Thank you.
Corinn O'Brien:And I just wanna jump in here and say, like, thank you to RESOLVE because none of this would have been possible. You know, like, we were pulling together the advocacy day. We were pulling together things, you know, but none of the impact that we were able to have was absolutely possible because of RESOLVE stepping in and helping us to to get to where we got, and none of that would have been possible without you and your team. So personally, professionally, we are all better because of you as well. So thank you.
Corinn O'Brien:Absolutely. Ditto.
Rebecca Flick:Well, thank you. Sometimes we have to say we're just doing our job. All right. Well, this was an inspiring, episode. We'll have links to all of the information about, Fight For Alabama Families in our show notes.
Rebecca Flick:And, you can listen to this podcast wherever you listen to your podcast. And we always close with something that we reserve the right to get better or smarter. I did prep Corinn and Jamie on this and just wanted to know if you had anything you wanted to share.
Jamie Heard:I would say the biggest things for me is the confidence to speak up because it was definitely intimidating showing up at the State House, it was intimidating showing up at the Capitol in DC and being intimidated to talk to legislators. But what I've learned is they're regular ordinary people just like me. They just have a different job title than I do. But they're humans. They're regular humans, and it's okay.
Jamie Heard:Like, just speak from your heart is what I've learned. And it's okay if they don't get the message. Just continue to try to tweak how you're communicating, so that you do eventually get the message across, but it's okay. They are humans. It's okay.
Jamie Heard:So that's something that I've learned personally through the advocacy work.
Rebecca Flick:Awesome.
Corinn O'Brien:I think I've learned, you know, sometimes we get caught up in making sure we have the right talking point or the right thing to say. But, really, it's not the talking point or the data point that moves people. It's the story. It's your story.
Rebecca Flick:Mhmm.
Corinn O'Brien:And that was the power of that day, and that continues to be the power of of patient advocacy is the stories that we tell. That is what moves people. And I think just even to Jamie's point, even if you're like, I've never done this before, your story alone is is worth showing up and telling, and and being confident in that. That will move people. And so, yeah, I think that's the thing that that I've definitely taken away.
Rebecca Flick:That's a great way to end because it's exactly why RESOLVE exists. So thanks, Corinn. Thanks, Jamie, and thanks for listening.