Ep 207. Liya Shuster-Bier: Alula is Making Cancer Less Lonely

Liya Shuster-Bier is the founder and CEO of Alula, a radically honest platform for cancer patients, caregivers, and survivors.  She is a cancer survivor herself.  Prior to Alula, Liya built a career in community development and impact investing, partnering with mayors and governors across the country to create innovative financing solutions that improved community outcomes. She started her career at Goldman Sachs, on the corporate currency derivatives team. In addition to receiving her MBA in Entrepreneurial Management from The Wharton School, where she was a student in Stew’s Total Leadership course, Liya is a proud Dartmouth alum, a native of Queens, NY, and an immigrant.

In this episode, Stew talks with Liya about the story of her experience as a caregiver during her mother’s fight against cancer and about her own journey from the discovery of her own cancer to her current life as a survivor.  With compelling examples, Liya vividly describes the trials and tribulations -- the physical, social, economic, and emotional challenges -- of living with cancer and how she realized, because she felt lost, the need for a resource that could help people with cancer and their caregivers deal with the realities of the world beyond hospitals.  Liya talks about Alula’s mission, it’s fast-growing number of partnerships with product and service providers as well as investors, and how her company’s culture is focused on sustaining the real lives of all its stakeholders.  Hers is an inspiring leadership story of how you can transmute an excruciating pain in your life into something of value to others.

Here then in an invitation for you, if you or someone you care about is struggling with how to treat and survive cancer: Explore myalula.com and find help. 

Share your reactions and suggestions for future episodes with Stew by writing to him at friedman@wharton.upenn.edu or via LinkedIn. 

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