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When ���岻������ of New England First Lady Lynn Brandsma, Ph.D., felt something shift in her body during a mountain hike at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, she had no idea it would set off a years-long diagnostic odyssey that included chronic nerve pain, undiagnosed appendicitis, and a reckoning with what it means to search for medical answers while trying to live a public life.

Brandsma shared her story for the first time in a public setting at UNE’s fourth Health Care Story Slam on April 15 in the Harold Alfond Forum as one of seven speakers who took to the stage to explore this year's theme of balance. 

“I am a psychologist,” Brandsma began, “which means I spend a lot of time sitting quietly with people, helping them learn how to live with uncertainty: not solve it, not rush past it, just be in it without letting it take over everything. It's a skill and, in a lot of ways, so is balance. 

“I spent a lot of my life trying to find balance as a mother, as a professional, as someone learning how to fully be myself in a very visible role, and I thought I understood it until I had to use it in a way I never expected,” Brandsma added.

Left: Health Care Story Slam co-directors Hailey Carr (Marine Affairs, ’26) and Caitlyne Bobsein (Medical Biology, ’28) welcome the audience gatherted on April 15 in Harold Alfond Forum. Right: UNE First Lady Lynn Brandsma, Ph.D., shares her story of undiagnosed appendicitis for the first time in a public setting.

Brandsma’s personal account was part of the event’s raw chronicling of how it feels to be vulnerable, lost, angry, and frightened in the face of debilitating health conditions, said student co-director Hailey Carr (Marine Affairs, ’26), who organized the event with Caitlyne Bobsein (Medical Biology, ’28) as part of their Shaw Innovation Fellowship, which is made possible through the generosity of entrepreneur and philanthropist David Evans Shaw.

Established in 2021 by UNE's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Health Care Story Slam brings together patients, providers, caregivers, and community members for an evening of personal storytelling that explores how empathy and listening across perspectives can open new pathways in health care.

Seven speakers took the stage, including two students, two community members, and three faculty members. 

Balance isn't something you find and keep; it's something you return to again and again.” — UNE First Lady Lynn Brandsma, Ph.D.

This year’s evening of intense, personal accounts was transformative, and the performances were powerful, noted Lisa Herschbach, Ph.D., director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and assistant dean in the College of Business, who mentored the student fellows producing the event along with Tara McDonough, UNE’s associate director of Donor Research.

Carr, one of the student storytellers, explained how she lived with chronic pain since age 13 and found her college years a constant juggling act of internships, leadership roles, and academic demands that she prioritized while also managing an invisible illness that constantly left her overextended. 

"Balance is almost never perfection," Carr said. "Balance is almost always a juggling act."

Clockwise from top left: Carr shares her story of chronic pain; Karl Carrigan, instructional technologists in the Center of Excellence in Teaching and Learning, recounts the back injury that left him unable to walk; UNE standardized patient Dan Marois explains how he helps teach health care professions students; Tara McDonough, associate director of Donor Research, shares her personal health care story; and UNE students listen in rapt attention. 

Carr first participated in the Story Slam as a first-year student and, after participating in her third on April 15, said she felt exhilarated, surrounded by other storytellers who shared personal accounts of illness in the name of helping to educate students in health care professions. 

“This isn’t telling your story from beginning to end in a clinical setting. It’s reframing how you tell the world about it. It’s been an amazing experience,” Carr said. 

On the stage, Brandsma spoke with slow intention. When she mentioned her husband, President James Herbert, and her desire “to keep showing up for my students, who I love, for events on behalf of a ���岻������ I dearly love," she choked up.

"Balance isn't something you find and keep; it's something you return to again and again,” she reflected.

Brandsma said she decided to tell her story on the public stage in this year’s Story Slam because this year’s theme “Balance” was something her neurologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston told her he thought she worked hard to achieve. He noticed she managed to never stop searching for a cause or treatment while continuing to live and enjoy a very full and public life. 

Brandsma held onto that compliment, she said, since it showed how her physician acknowledged the person struggling inside the collection of symptoms. 

“The theme — balance — felt like a sign that I should do this,” Brandsma said after the event, surrounded by her students. “I’ve held onto a lot of resentment that doctors missed the likely reason for my nerve pain (the chronic appendicitis). But I think it’s time to try to let that go.”