Don't have time to read the book, check out the movie featuring Oprah Winfrey.

We invite you to join us for pizza and discussion of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.

Please register for this event as the keynote will be April 10.

Background: Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells—taken without her knowledge in 1951—became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, and more. Henrietta’s cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown, and her family can’t afford health insurance. This years selection highlights a number of themes relevant to health care - structural factors contributing to health inequity, the power of interprofessional collaboration, and the concept of One Health.

This will be the eighth year of the One Book One Campus program. This program is designed to bring students and campus community members together across professions around shared and relevant healthcare-related issues.  

The 2024-2025 academic year’s One Book One Campus selection is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. Doctors took her cells without asking. Those cells never died. They launched a medical revolution and a multimillion-dollar industry. More than twenty years later, her children found out. Their lives would never be the same. It highlights several themes relevant to health care - structural factors contributing to health inequity, the power of interprofessional teamwork, and the concept of One Health. 

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot Keynote presentation by Jermaine Jackson - Grand Nephew of Henrietta Lacks (co-sponsored by the Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education, the Strauss Health Sciences Library, the CU School of Dental Medicine, the Center for Bioethics and Humanities, and the Colorado School of Public Health).