Derick Stace-Naughton
Education
Derick, a member of Georgetown’s undergraduate class of 2011, is pursuing degrees in both Physics and English.
Commentary
As a student in SPI’s ‘Shaping National Science Policy’ course, Derick has worked to lend an innovative youth voice to issues concerning the bleeding disorder community. Derick has von Willebrand’s Disease, a bleeding disorder affecting almost one in fifty, mostly undiagnosed Americans. With SPI classmates, Derick formed Students for the Awareness of Bleeding Disorders and began lobbying Congress in early 2009.
The group achieved its first major success by arranging for the introduction of H.Con.Res.147 to the U.S. House of Representatives on June 11th of 2009. Introduced by Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, H.Con.Res.147 supports the bleeding disorder community in several important ways, and proposes a new screening mechanism for von Willebrand’s Disease.
Derick has worked with both pharmaceutical companies and with national advocacy organizations. The Hemophilia Federation of America, National Hemophilia Foundation, and several leaders in industry have supported H.Con.Res.147. The resolution has bipartisan support in Congress.
Derick is continuing the work of Students for the Awareness of Bleeding Disorders as the first Student Fellow for Georgetown’s Program on Science in the Public Interest. Besides his work with the SPI program, Derick worked with his twin sister and the Great Lakes Hemophilia Foundation to create and write the first e-newsletter for youth with bleeding disorders. He has also worked as a Congressional intern in both the Madison, WI and Washington, DC offices of Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, and has been named a George F. Baker Scholar at Georgetown.
Press
H.Con.Res.147 and Students for the Awareness of Bleeding Disorders have begun to receive some recognition in the press.