Susan Morrow kept too busy to be bored, whether she was teaching deaf children to speak, starting new business ventures or confronting cancer.

Ovarian cancer crept into her life the way it most often does — unsuspected and without warning. The first symptom occurred in 2020 when she noticed herself gasping for breath during a trip to the North Carolina mountains and thought she might have COVID-19.

After receiving the cancer diagnosis, she met the challenges with heroic stamina and analytical reasoning. She sought emerging treatment options, volunteered to raise awareness about the disease, and chronicled her journey with meticulous emails.

Two years after her death, her story continues. The Susan Morrow Legacy Foundation has made a generous donation to support ovarian cancer research at Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

“She was an incredibly driven, incredibly interesting person and the light of my life,” said her husband, Ron Morrow, who has filled the seat on the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center Board of Advisors that she once held.

Vanderbilt-Ingram was where she received her initial treatment and surgery. The gift in her honor will support studies that are evaluating new microbubble imaging strategies and other molecular studies being developed by Todd Giorgio, PhD, professor of Biomedical Engineering and of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, to detect the earliest cancer or precancer lesions within the fallopian tubes.

Morrow’s tenacity and energy left an impression with Ronald Alvarez, MD, MBA, chair and clinical service chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology. This support will continue her legacy and help other women facing this disease.

“Past attempts to develop effective ovarian cancer screening strategies have been unsuccessful. The research we have asked the Morrow Foundation to support will hopefully provide preliminary evidence in preclinical models that this novel imaging strategy may be an effective ovarian cancer screening approach,” said Alvarez, the Betty and Lonnie S. Burnett Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Ben Ho Park, MD, PhD, director of Vanderbilt-Ingram, said Susan Morrow was an engaged and energetic member of the Board of Advisors.

“Beyond this generous gift, Ron and Susan Morrow have both been valuable to our mission by volunteering to serve on our board,” said Park, the Benjamin F. Byrd Jr. Professor of Oncology and professor of Medicine. “We appreciate the leadership that Susan provided and the continuing commitment from Ron to advance cancer care and research.”

The daughter of a U.S. Army colonel, Susan Morrow spent her early years wherever her father was stationed, but she grew up in El Paso, Texas, following his retirement. After graduating from the University of Texas and then receiving a Master of Education from Harvard University, she taught speech to children with profound deafness, worked in the investment business and then transitioned into an entrepreneurial career, establishing an executive search firm as well as direct sales company for women’s clothing. When she moved to Park City, Utah, she met Ron Morrow, and the couple married in 2006.

He changed the name of the family’s charitable foundation to honor her following her death on Sept. 28, 2022.

“Medical issues became extremely important, and we made ovarian cancer a focus because often a woman doesn’t know she has it until it’s Stage 3 or maybe Stage 4,” Morrow said. “That was certainly the case with Susan. She had no cancer in her family at all, ever.”

Awareness about ovarian cancer and improving early detection is a focus for the foundation, which will host the Susan Morrow Drive to Survive Golf Tournament at the Old Tabby Links course in Spring Island, South Carolina, on Oct. 6.

Morrow said she left him a gift of peace that he and his family would like to keep giving.

“When we were married, I didn’t think she was an extremely religious person,” he said. “She obviously believed in God, but we didn’t go to church every week. It was something that was in our life, but it didn’t encompass us. As she was dying, she had read a book called ‘Proof of Life.’ And as she was dying, I was holding her, and she looked off into the distance and looked up, then looked over to me and said, ‘It’ll be OK.”

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Kaille Meguiar, DO, MPH, an oncologist in the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, has been awarded a $100,000 Hyundai Hope on Wheels Impact Award to research the psychosocial and neurocognitive outcomes of survivors of pediatric, adolescent and young adult cancers.

Hyundai Hope on Wheels, which includes funding from Hyundai Motor America and local dealerships, has awarded more than $2 million in funding to pediatric cancer researchers at Monroe Carell since 2007.

Every year, more than 15,000 children are diagnosed with cancer. Thanks to advancements in treatments, approximately 85% of these children now survive five years or longer. However, there is an increasing need to address the long-term challenges survivors face beyond physical health, including higher rates of anxiety and depression; impaired task efficiency and memory; and long-term problems with attention and executive functions.

With the latest grant award to Monroe Carell, Meguiar’s work will focus on understanding how cancer and its treatment impact survivors’ mental and cognitive well-being, as well as how to better support them and their caregivers.

After completing her DO degree and internal medicine and pediatric residencies at Corewell Health/Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital, Meguiar joined Monroe Carell as a Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology fellow. During her fellowship, she developed a research project to identify the risk factors for negative psychosocial outcomes in childhood cancer survivors. Her work earned a National Institutes of Health training grant. With the support of the Hyundai Impact Award, she will expand her research by creating a cohort to study neurocognitive outcomes and develop interventions to improve survivors’ quality of life.

“I am honored to receive this award, which will allow me to continue my work focused on improving the lives of childhood cancer survivors and their families,” said Meguiar, who joined the Vanderbilt faculty in July 2025. “I look forward to advancing our understanding of these challenges and finding ways to make a meaningful difference. Thank you to Hyundai and the local dealerships for supporting this important work to enhance the comprehensive long-term care for childhood cancer survivors.”

Representatives from Hyundai and local dealerships presented a check and an honorary lab coat to Meguiar during a special celebration at Monroe Carell. The event also included patient Greta Ford, 4, and her dad, Adam, and mom, Rachel Modhal, who shared their daughter’s cancer journey with leukemia and described Meguiar as their “rock” through it all.

The event was followed by a “handprint” ceremony where cancer patients dipped their hands in paint and put their handprints on a white Hyundai Palisade, with each handprint representing their personal stories of hope and courage.

“This is about the families who inspire us every day — and the scientific pioneers, like those here today, who are leading innovative and lifesaving research,” said Scott Harrison, senior sales manager for Hyundai Motor America Southern region. “Their breakthroughs are pushing the boundaries of medicine and providing kids with treatments that were unthinkable five or 10 years ago. Because of this, more children are surviving this disease. More kids can play sports, make friends, graduate from high school, build a life for themselves and find their place in the world. More kids have a second chance at life. This is the beating heart of everything we do.”

In celebration of Hope on Wheels’ 27th anniversary, Hyundai will award $27 million in grants to institutions across the country, including Monroe Carell. HHOW has donated more than $277 million in grants since its inception in 1998.

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The growing number of pediatric and adolescent patients with cancer at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt will soon have access to expanded and upgraded space for outpatient cancer infusion treatments and clinic visits, as well as updated inpatient space — a project made possible through the generous support of individuals and businesses in the community.

The expansion and renovation, part of a philanthropic initiative, “A Campaign Against Childhood Cancer,” will also help support research and training efforts.

“When the opportunity arose to envision a space dedicated entirely to clinical care for pediatric and adolescent cancer, allowing us to accommodate even more patients and families in a more age-appropriate way, philanthropic supporters truly rallied around Monroe Carell to meet this critical need and make this vision a reality,” said Meg Rush, MD, MMHC, President of Monroe Carell. “We are so very grateful to the many individuals, families and businesses in the community who gave generously to support our children and families through this project.”

Currently, outpatient infusion happens in two large rooms on the sixth floor of Monroe Carell’s Doctors’ Office Tower (DOT), with patients of all ages seated side by side in recliners. The renovation will provide private infusion rooms and dedicated, tailored space for young children, teenagers and young adults, all of whom have different needs. Some infusion rooms will have partitions that can be lowered when patients want to interact with each other.

“We see somewhere between 250 to 300 new patients with cancer each year, and we have about 13,000 provider visits each year,” said Debra Friedman, MD, MS, director of the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and holder of the E. Bronson Ingram Chair in Pediatric Oncology.

“To put that into perspective, when I came here in 2008, we saw 90 (new patients each year), and we have been in the same space since then. The timing is right to expand to accommodate our growing community and patient population.”

Two years ago, Monroe Carell had a record number of visits in the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, with last year’s number being about the same.

The new outpatient space will occupy the entire sixth floor of the DOT — currently it inhabits a little less than half of that floor, with the remaining half occupied by other specialties who have relocated to the eighth floor.

This current renovation is the final of a three-phase expansion that also included moving the pediatric primary care clinic from DOT to a newly constructed clinic space at Vanderbilt Health One Hundred Oaks and renovating the eighth floor of DOT to prepare for the move of medical specialties.

Besides the side-by-side infusion chairs, the prior outpatient space on the sixth floor of DOT had three private infusion rooms and 10 exam rooms for clinic visits.

The renovations will include 25 individual infusion spaces, with two rooms set up for patients who are getting partial exchanges of blood cells (apheresis), and 25 exam rooms.

“With each of the patients in their own infusion area, there will no longer be a young adult seated next to a 2-year-old. They’ll each have their own space but will have the ability to walk around the infusion area if they want to,” Friedman said.

“On the other hand, if there are siblings getting infusions at the same time, or kids who have become friendly with each other and want to hang out while they are getting infusions, the partition can come down so they can talk to and see each other.”

There will also be a designated consult room and a designated room where Child Life Services can meet with patients, or where patients can watch a movie or play with toys while they are getting infusions. An expanded nutrition area will be incorporated in the space with snacks and an ICEE machine.

“The new area is really patient- and family-centric and also allows us to be much more efficient in our clinic. Our growing number of patients won’t be waiting so long to be seen because we have more exam rooms to seat them,” Friedman said.

Patients and families were instrumental in planning the new space, she noted.

“We listened to what they told us. We met with them to ask if we were going to redesign this space, what would be important to them. We did this when we created the teen lounge on the sixth floor of the inpatient unit,” Friedman said. “When we talked about individual infusion rooms, we heard from several parents that they often scheduled infusions on the same day as a friend so the kids could sit next to each other and talk. Individual infusion rooms would take that away, so designing some of the rooms with the glass partition was a direct response to what we heard from multiple patients and their families.”

Lighting and decor were also chosen based on patient and family recommendations.

In addition to the outpatient space, the 31 existing rooms on 6A and 6B of the pediatric hematology/oncology area of the hospital are currently being renovated. The rooms are being updated with renovated cabinetry and an updated sleeping area for parents. There will be brighter lighting and updated hallways. Wallpaper is being removed, and the flooring will be uniform throughout.

“It will be a brighter, more modern and positive environment for our patients and families, particularly for those who have repeated visits or long inpatient visits,” Friedman said.

Many patients with cancer treated at Monroe Carell are participating in clinical trials where tests and imaging are required. The new DOT space will provide more room to accommodate this.

Part of the community’s philanthropy will also support research and training initiatives, developing the next generation of leaders who will contribute to the overall field — ultimately improving outcomes for all patients.

“All of the advances we have made in treating children with cancer have come from discovery brought to patients,” Friedman said. “Donor support allows us to have funds to further ongoing research led by faculty here at Monroe Carell and to recruit new faculty who contribute to our research, educational and patient care missions.”

Allison DeMarcus, who co-chaired this campaign with Kailey Hand, said she hopes the renovation will help both patients and their families deal with a cancer diagnosis. DeMarcus and Hand are both Monroe Carell Advisory Board members and longtime supporters of the hospital and its programs. DeMarcus is former chair of the board.

“We are thrilled that Monroe Carell will be able to offer children with cancer this renovated and expanded space for their clinic visits and infusions,” DeMarcus said. “The children treated here already receive the best care available, but they deserve to receive those treatments in a space that is as comfortable and inviting as we can possibly make it for them. It’s unbelievably hard for families to go through the experience of a child having cancer, but due to the generosity of individuals and businesses in our community, we will soon be able to offer this wonderful space as one small thing we can provide to make their experience a little easier and a little brighter.”

Friedman said the new space will be a win for everyone.

“Providing care in an atmosphere that’s more spacious and bright affects everyone’s morale — the patients, their families, and our staff and faculty. Our donors recognized that, and also the cost of those renovations, and were very generous so we were able to really do this well for our patients and families.”

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The Nashville Predators hosted a special night Feb. 27 for Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, as it was the second and final Hockey Fights Cancer night of the 2024-25 season.

Each year the Nashville Predators Foundation hosts two nights to benefit pediatric cancer awareness and research efforts at Monroe Carell through the 365 Pediatric Cancer Fund presented by Twice Daily. For more than a decade, the Predators have supported Monroe Carell with more than $4 million in donations and in-kind contributions.

As part of the evening, 7-year-old Arlo, a Monroe Carell patient ambassador, and his twin brother, Luca, joined in the game experience as the Nashville Predators took on the Winnipeg Jets. Ambassadors are on the ice with the team during starting lineups, drop the puck and take part in other special game day activities. Arlo was diagnosed with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia in December 2023 and went into remission in early 2024.

“We are tremendously grateful for the unwavering commitment of the Nashville Predators and the 365 Pediatric Cancer Fund to make a difference in the lives of pediatric cancer patients and to help advance critical cancer research that improves outcomes for children,” said Meg Rush, MD, MMHC, President of Monroe Carell. “It is a true joy and honor to see our community come together twice a year for Hockey Fights Cancer nights to celebrate our pediatric cancer patients while also raising awareness around childhood cancers and our programming that truly offers hope and healing.”

The Predators also partnered with musician and cancer survivor Harry Hudson and his charity, Hey I’m Here For You, to sell merchandise at the game. Proceeds from the sales benefited the 365 Fund as well as the Teen Cancer Lounge at Monroe Carell.

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