Alumni Profiles

BY DANA KOBERNICK, LCC Communications Manager

Hailey S. Laxer ’11: A Story of Courage & Grit

Ask yourself every day what you would do if you weren’t afraid, and then go out and do that thing.

Hailey S. Laxer ’11

Hailey S. Laxer ’11 believes that resilience is built over time, primarily by battling through adversity. She would know, having lived with the often-debilitating symptoms of cystic fibrosis (CF) for her entire life. And this is what she considers to be one of her greatest achievements. “I am living with a chronic, life-threatening illness,” she says. “But maintaining a growth mindset has allowed me to continue doing all that I want to do.”

Admittedly, Hailey has tough days when just walking up the stairs can be challenging. And then there are days when she feels able to take on the world, which she does with steadfast determination. Through her involvement with Cystic Fibrosis Canada, she has raised over $360K for research, advocacy and patient care across the country. She also educates the public through speaking engagements and meets with politicians and companies to lobby for equitable, timely, and affordable access to medications for people with rare diseases like CF.

“It’s a bit of a thankless job,” Hailey says. “And it’s hard to get people to listen. But when they do, and when they tell me that I have changed the way they think about life, those are the moments that make me most proud.”

Hailey’s efforts to cast light on the struggles of those living with CF are in addition to her full-time position at TD Bank Group in Toronto.

Hailey S. Laxer ’11

Fittingly, as a communications associate in global corporate citizenship, she helps the bank tell stories of impact and assists in determining how and where the bank’s funds can have the greatest positive social influence on the communities it serves. With this demanding role, she is thankful for her employer’s flexibility, allowing her to work regularly from home and save her energy.

Hailey recalls being granted this same kind of flexibility at LCC. Both the administration and her teachers were determined to facilitate Hailey’s progress, a task that proved particularly challenging when she had to undergo a liver transplant in grade 10 and was unable to be at school for seven months. The relationships she built at LCC also helped power her through the journey.

Hailey’s LCC experience further bolstered her well-developed sense of confidence. “At LCC, I was made to feel like I had a stake in the conversation,” she says. “We were taught to make our voices heard.”

This confidence served her well in her postsecondary studies. After attending Dawson College, Hailey was awarded a full scholarship to university through TD’s Scholarship for Community Leadership in recognition of the work she had done with CF Canada, among other initiatives.

She went on to the University of Ottawa where she earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and public administration. During that time, she received the Killam Fellowship through Fulbright Canada for her leadership and academic excellence, allowing her to attend American University in Washington, DC for one semester.

Recognizing that all of these experiences have shaped who she is, Hailey offers this advice: “Don’t just exist. Truly live. Ask yourself every day what you would do if you weren’t afraid, and then go out and do that thing.”

John Batsis ’92 Unlocks the Potential of Technology

[At LCC I learned that] there will always be obstacles in my way, that everyone fails, and that I will have to surmount these challenges and use them as learning opportunities.

John Batsis ’92

Guided by the principle that hard work and perseverance always pay off, Dr. John Batsis ’92 has been striving to improve the quality of life of older adults for most of his career.

Currently an associate professor at Dartmouth College’s Geisel School of Medicine, as well as clinician-researcher at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, John is tackling the challenge of diagnosing cognitive impairment at an earlier stage. He is co-leading a multidisciplinary research project that brings together professionals with varied backgrounds, including computer scientists, neuropsychologists and linguists. It aims to use voice assistant systems—think Amazon’s Alexa—to detect changes in speech patterns that may signal the development of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s, at some point in the future.

John takes great pride in his professional achievements. “It has been exciting from an academic standpoint,” he says. “I have had excellent support that has allowed me to mentor future generations of professionals, participate at the local and national levels in professional societies, and secure grants from many funding bodies, including the National Institute of Health. Ultimately, my hope is that the work of our team can help the patients and families I have the privilege of caring for on a day-today basis. It’s about furthering science and applying it to real-world clinical care.”

At the same time, he notes that balance in one’s life is critical, and family remains very important to him. After graduating from LCC, Marianopolis, and then McGill, he headed to Trinity College at the University of Dublin to study medicine, and remained in Ireland for a year to do his medical-surgical internship.

He notes, “The hardest part for me was being away from my family. I left Montreal in 1997 and I missed that support system I had when I was growing up.”

Distance from family was largely what motivated his return to North America. Before moving on to Dartmouth, John first spent five years at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, first as an internal medicine resident, and then as a geriatric medicine fellow. He describes this experience as second-to-none, not only because he acquired invaluable clinical and professional skills, but it is also is where he met his wife.

John’s tenacious spirit had been encouraged at LCC, where supportive teachers guided him and taught him important life skills. He was involved for three years with the yearbook, serving as editor in grade 11. Managing deadlines, being part of a team, working with mentors, and developing organizational skills proved to be invaluable to him. “At LCC, not only did I learn never to be afraid of hard work,” he says, “I also understood that there will always be obstacles in my way, that everyone fails, and that I will have to surmount these challenges and use them as learning opportunities. I now realize that having a foundation early on in one’s development is critical to achieving long-term goals.”