PEMM Coordinator Raises Funds for Hurricane Harvey

Gail Egner has served as the program administrator for Dartmouth’s Program in Experimental and Molecular Medicine (PEMM) since the its inception eleven years ago. Her passion for encouraging students and promoting faculty is evidenced through student accolades and the growing network of successful alumni.

She coordinates almost every PEMM event, including the annual Celebration of Biomedical Research at Dartmouth (CBRaD) that brings together researchers from across the graduate school to create collaborations and demonstrate the scope of research at Dartmouth. Gail also serves as the advisor for the PEMM student representatives, David Mallick and Eileen Martinez, who host events every few months to bring the PEMM student body together.

But aside from everything she does for the program, Gail is a humanitarian at her core. Before she came to Dartmouth her passion for helping others was established at her local fire department where she organized fundraiser auctions and served as their treasurer and the head of their support team for six years.

In her local “mom” group, she heard about a local boy, Gus, suffering from Duchenne muscular dystrophy. To support his family with donations for a cure, Gail and a friend set up an annual yard sale to raise funds that are donated to the Hope for Gus foundation, as well as to show community for the boy’s family.  Hope for Gus funds research across the country to find a cure for the debilitating and deadly disease.

Gail finds dedicating her efforts to others  rewarding so when she received news of the police union in Texas requesting money to help hurricane Harvey victims, she acted. Using her contacts at the Hanover and Lebanon fire departments, Gail set-up drop off locations for people throughout the community to donate items to be sold at the Hanover Community yard sale, coincidentally taking place that weekend. She collected items from 4:00 p.m. Thursday afternoon to 7:00 am the morning of the yard sale, Saturday where she raised $1,200.

The effort could not have been achieved without the support of the community Gail has around her, including Monica Godfrey, from Dartmouth’s printing and mailing office, who paid for the poster advertisements, and Hanover and Lebanon fire departments who sent their trucks, filled with donations and tables, to Gail at the yard sale. Dartmouth PEMM students Paul Holzer, Eileen Martinez, and Bianca Romo also volunteered their time to organize the items and work the tables during the sale on Saturday.

All proceeds will go to the International Association of Fire Fighters Disaster Fund, which works to replace lost property of all first responders who were out saving their neighbors and community members during and after the hurricane.

Gail Egner is living proof that money can be used wisely and time can be spent compassionately to uplift others. She, undoubtedly, sets an example for the Dartmouth and Upper Valley communities.

She is currently out on the road attending various recruiting trips, so if you are interested in applying to the PEMM program and would like to meet Gail in person, come along to one of the events.

Wed 9/27 - Cornell

Thurs 9/28 - Smith

Mon 10/2 - Colby

Tues 10/3 - Bates & Bowdoin

Thurs-Fri 10/19-20 SACNAS - Salt Lake City

Wed-Sat Nov 1-4 ABRCMS - Phoenix, AZ

Thurs Nov  9 - Worcester Polytech. Inst. 

Sat-Tues Nov 11-14 - Society for Neuroscience - Washington, DC.