Helmrich is Newest Member of Orange Plus Hall of Fame
10/19/2000 4:20:03 PM | Swimming / Diving
Helmrich, who resides in Berkeley, California, was a letterwinner in the mid-1970s as a member of the Orangewomen swimming team. She blazed a trail for future student-athletes at Syracuse as the first student-athlete to receive financial aid from the athletic department. Helmrich's battles in college athletics and in the scientific field have prepared her to handle adversity in her own life. Orange Plus, founded in 1979 is the support organization for women's athletics at Syracuse University.
A successful epidemiologist, Helmrich began her academic career at Syracuse in 1973. As a student-athlete, she earned dean's list honors each of her four years in school while participating in the Eastern Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (EAIAW) Swimming Championship on numerous occasions. Her work at Syracuse culminated in her receiving a bachelor's degree in biology in 1977. After receiving her degree, Helmrich was diagnosed with vaginal cancer, the result of a drug medication (DES). She overcame the disease and went on to create the DES Cancer Network in 1982, a research and support group to help others like her. She earned a master's degree in epidemiology-the study of disease and how it spreads--from Harvard University in 1980 and settled in Boston to continue her work with the DES Network and at the Slone Epidemiology Unit.
Helmrich remained an active swimmer after Syracuse, competing in the U.S. Masters National Championship for 14 years (1982-1996). In addition, Helmrich has competed in the New York Marathon.
Helmrich moved West to work on her doctorate in epidemiology from UC-Berkeley. Following her last academic endeavor in 1989, she served as a consultant for a number of organizations including the California Public Health Foundation and the Alameda County Department of Health. She has appeared on a number of television shows--including CNN Health Report, ABC's World News Tonight with Peter Jennings and PBS' Frontline-and serves as a reviewer for numerous medical journals, among them the American Journal of Epidemiology. Her dissertation was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1991. As of late, her health has forced her to put her career on hold again. She was recently diagnosed with lung cancer and has fully recovered.
A Kingston, NY native, Helmrich resides in Berkeley with her two children, David and Aly, and her husband, Richard Levine.
