{"id":6726,"date":"2024-12-11T20:00:33","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T20:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/?p=6726"},"modified":"2025-03-28T14:09:26","modified_gmt":"2025-03-28T18:09:26","slug":"adjunct-volunteer-helps-fund-research-for-rare-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/2024\/12\/11\/adjunct-volunteer-helps-fund-research-for-rare-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"Adjunct Volunteer Helps Fund Research for Rare Disease"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.kadence-column6726_830173-90 > .kt-inside-inner-col{padding-right:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-left:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);}.kadence-column6726_830173-90 > .kt-inside-inner-col,.kadence-column6726_830173-90 > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-left-radius:0px;}.kadence-column6726_830173-90 > .kt-inside-inner-col{column-gap:var(--global-kb-gap-sm, 1rem);}.kadence-column6726_830173-90 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;}.kadence-column6726_830173-90 > .kt-inside-inner-col > .aligncenter{width:100%;}.kadence-column6726_830173-90 > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{opacity:0.3;}.kadence-column6726_830173-90{position:relative;}@media all and (max-width: 1024px){.kadence-column6726_830173-90 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}@media all and (max-width: 991px){.kadence-column6726_830173-90 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-column kadence-column6726_830173-90\"><div class=\"kt-inside-inner-col\"><style>.kb-image6726_a4328e-e6.kb-image-is-ratio-size, .kb-image6726_a4328e-e6 .kb-image-is-ratio-size{max-width:225px;width:100%;}.wp-block-kadence-column > .kt-inside-inner-col > .kb-image6726_a4328e-e6.kb-image-is-ratio-size, .wp-block-kadence-column > .kt-inside-inner-col > .kb-image6726_a4328e-e6 .kb-image-is-ratio-size{align-self:unset;}.kb-image6726_a4328e-e6 figure{max-width:225px;}.kb-image6726_a4328e-e6 .image-is-svg, .kb-image6726_a4328e-e6 .image-is-svg img{width:100%;}.kb-image6726_a4328e-e6 .kb-image-has-overlay:after{opacity:0.3;}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-image kb-image6726_a4328e-e6\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"360\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Education-art-360x480.jpg\" class=\"kb-img wp-image-16467\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Education-art-360x480.jpg 360w, https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Education-art-187x250.jpg 187w, https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Education-art.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px\" \/><figcaption><em>Jennifer Lopez<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jennifer Lopez<\/strong>, an adjunct at Wilmington University, plays a key role in coordinating MickeyFest, an annual music festival to raise awareness and funds to research Sanfilippo Syndrome, a rare genetic condition that causes childhood dementia and fatal brain disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now in its fifth year, Lopez is one of the main coordinators of the fundraiser, responsible for volunteers, marketing, and meeting minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been there since the very beginning,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s important for us as individuals to help other people in this world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lopez is close friends with <strong>Donny and Molly Merrill<\/strong> of Newark, Mickey\u2019s parents and the founders of the Save Mickey foundation, a nonprofit organization. Mickey and her younger brother Declan both have Sanfilippo Syndrome. Their sister Maya does not have the disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An adjunct at WilmU for 11 years, Lopez teaches Humanistic World View and Contemporary Global Issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s about problems that we see in the communities and finding solutions,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lopez also teaches full time in a dropout prevention program in the Christina School District.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe all have such busy lives\u2014but it\u2019s essential to find the time to volunteer and make a difference,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jennifer Lopez, an adjunct at Wilmington University, plays a key role in coordinating MickeyFest, an annual music festival to raise awareness and funds to research&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":17705,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[78,14,15],"class_list":["post-6726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","tag-college-of-education-liberal-arts","tag-wilmington-university","tag-wilmu"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":2,"label":"ACADEMIC NEWS"}],"post_tag":[{"value":78,"label":"College of Education &amp; Liberal Arts"},{"value":14,"label":"Wilmington University"},{"value":15,"label":"WilmU"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/pexels-pavel-danilyuk-7653323-657x480.jpg",657,480,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Mckayla Imperatrice","author_link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/author\/mckayla\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":2,"name":"ACADEMIC NEWS","slug":"academic-news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":559,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":460,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":2,"category_count":460,"category_description":"","cat_name":"ACADEMIC NEWS","category_nicename":"academic-news","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":78,"name":"College of Education &amp; Liberal Arts","slug":"college-of-education-liberal-arts","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":635,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":90,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":14,"name":"Wilmington University","slug":"wilmington-university","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":571,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":357,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":15,"name":"WilmU","slug":"wilmu","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":572,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":291,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6726"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17707,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6726\/revisions\/17707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}