Alumnae Leadership Award
LuLu Romano Daly ’78 grew up in River Forest, IL the fourth child in a family of seven. LuLu attended St. Luke’s grammar school, Trinity High School, and Saint Mary’s College of Notre Dame where she graduated with a BSN in 1982. After graduation, LuLu worked at Loyola University Hospital as a pediatric oncology nurse. She also practiced nursing at Mayo Clinic, St Mary’s Hospital in the neonatal and pediatric intensive care units. Moreover, she worked with hospice patients through the Health East System in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Back
In 2003, Lulu and her family volunteered at Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos (our little brothers and sisters or NPH) which was located in the mountainous region outside of Teguciagalpa, Honduras. That visit was life changing for her family. They learned that of the 7.5 billion people on this earth today, 5 billion do not have access to safe surgical care and they that surgically treatable conditions result in more deaths each year than malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS combined. This firsthand awareness of the incredible need for safe surgical centers put their family into action. LuLu and her husband, Dr Peter Daly, an orthopedic surgeon, went back to their home in Minnesota and began raising funds to build and equip a surgery center facility on the NPH home.
Their dream was realized in 2009 when Holy Family Surgery Center officially opened in Honduras. Initially, LuLu organized four to five missions annually consisting of volunteer physician’s, clinical and nonclinical support staff and their families. The organization was very successful and in 2014 another medical group, Surgical Care Associates, became interested in sending medical brigades. In 2017 the organizations combined and created the One Surgery Center to better meet the growing medical and surgical needs in underserved communities.
LuLu works full-time coordinating the brigades and monthly she visits the surgical center. She is helping to plan a second surgical facility in the Dominican Republic. LuLu is a teaching faculty member for Helping Babies Breathe and has assisted in establishing a Helping Babies Breathe outreach site in Honduras. She has received humanitarian awards from her alma mater, Saint Mary’s College of Notre Dame, and from St. Catherine’s University in St. Paul Minnesota.
Lulu spends her free time cross-training, cooking Italian food and traveling. She thoroughly enjoys being with her family, especially her grandchildren.
Click to View LuLu's Speech
Click to View LuLu's Speech
