Brené Brown gives powerful speech, donates honorarium to UTHealth
Powerful speakers marked the UTHealth Partners spring luncheon.
UTHealth president Dr. Giuseppe Colasurdo, School of Nursing dean Dr. Lorraine Frazier and Partners board chair Roberta Prazak addressed the River Oaks Country Club’s packed ballroom. Then the Rev. Dr. Linda Christians, a former nurse, delivered a moving invocation. “I’ve always said that I make a better pastor for having been a nurse,” she said.
Afterward, a video presentation illustrating how the PARTNERS program allows medical students to complete their education with little to zero debt streamed on projection screens, and lifetime member Sara Howell acknowledged honorees Suzie and Phil Conway.
Keynote speaker, research professor and New York Times bestselling author Brené Brown spoke next on the importance of supporting aspiring nurses. She shared a number of personal milestones.
“If I look at my life and think about the very best and very worst times, there was a nurse standing across from me in each of those moments,” she said, full of emotion. Brown, a Houston resident whose TED talk “The Power of Vulnerability” has more than 25 million views, also repeated a valuable piece of advice from her husband, pediatrician, Dr. Steven Alley: “Nurses have a very sensitive BS detector; don’t mess with them. Tell it like it is.”
The founder and CEO of COURAGEworks, an online platform that offers classes based on Brown’s research, closed her remarks with the surprise announcement that she would donate her honorarium to Partners.
“The first time I came to River Oaks Country Club, I had to borrow a dress from a friend and shoes from my mom,” Brown said. “If you have $10,000 to give, then give it. But if you’re embarrassed to put your $5 in an envelope, don’t be. Your Starbucks money makes a dif- ference, too.”
Master of ceremonies Kevin Kline, of 93Q, persuaded the 480 attendees to fill out the support cards at each table setting. Thanks to his and co-chairs Susan M. Cooley and Bette Thomas’ efforts, the crowd raised more than $250,000 for the School of Nursing’s scholarship and financial assistance programs.