Doctor goes to extremes to combat malaria

	Jessie Stone will speak at Lehigh this afternoon.

Doctor-turned-professional extreme kayaker Jessie Stone, M.D., went to Uganda looking for the perfect wave. What she found were communities struggling with the devastating effects of malaria—a disease that can be easily prevented and treated with the right resources and education.

This afternoon, Stone comes to Lehigh to share how her experiences led her to create the non-profit organization Soft Power Health to combat malaria.

Her lecture, titled “Going to Extremes: From Taming Whitewater to Fighting Malaria,” will take place in Perella Auditorium, Rauch Business Center, at 4:10 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Stone has taught kayaking for the past 14 years and has competed in freestyle and extreme kayak racing events since 1999. She founded Soft Power Health in 2003. It is composed of two branches: a kayaking camp for inner-city kids based in the U.S. and a malaria education, prevention, and treatment program in rural Uganda. More information about the organization can be found at SoftPowerHealth.org.

Stone divides her time between the U.S. and Uganda to run the two projects. She has been a contributor to The New York Times op-ed page, and has been featured on ABC World News and profiled in Outside magazine, among other media outlets. When she is not teaching kids to kayak or educating people about malaria, she is running new rivers, still searching for those perfect waves.

Stone’s visit was generously arranged by trustee member Joseph Perella ’64.