Featured Testimonial About Creighton University
We cannot all be on the front line defending our country. Somebody must fundraise. Someone must deliver aid. Someone must care for civilians. We can all do little things. Every little thing is important.
Feb. 24, 2022, is a day Lyudmyla Lyashenko, PharmD’19, will never forget. It was the day she watched — sick with worry for her family — as Russia invaded her home country of Ukraine.
“My sister, her husband, my nephew, my niece — they were all fleeing,” she says.
The Creighton pharmacy alumna’s first instinct was to do everything she could to help.
Lyashenko, who came to America from Kherson, Ukraine, 20 years ago, took action. She stayed in touch with her family and helped coordinate their escape, sending money and booking hotel rooms from her home in Clinton, Iowa. Her family soon made it to western Ukraine, where they spent a little more than a month in a refugee camp before finding a more permanent home.
With her family safe, Lyashenko began searching for ways to support her fellow Ukrainians. She attended protests in Iowa City, Des Moines and Davenport, joining her voice with many others in opposition to the hostilities. She found the process of making her protest poster therapeutic. It provided an outlet for her feelings of uncertainty and powerlessness.
Her poster read (in Russian): Kherson, We Are With You.
“My native language is Russian,” she says. “I was raised in a Russian-speaking environment, but I am Ukrainian.”
With Ukrainian pride, Lyashenko made her next move. She changed a previously planned trip to Poland into a visit to the western part of Ukraine, where she could connect with her sister and distribute aid to the refugees.
Lyashenko’s professional contacts helped significantly. As a staff pharmacist at a local hospital, she knew there were opportunities to gather donated medical supplies and aid for displaced Ukrainians. She began writing letters and making personal visits to hospitals in the area. This soon led her to the Chicago-based Ukranian Medical Association of North America (UMANA), which had coordination in place to accept medical donations.
As her planned trip to western Ukraine neared in April of last year, Lyashenko packed a dozen suitcases full of medical aid for civilians and defenders of Ukraine. Her reunion with her sister in Ukraine was emotional, and together they worked to distribute the supplies Lyashenko had brought all the way from Iowa.
Inspired by the trip, Lyashenko began planning another. To make it easier to accept and distribute donations, she worked with two other local Ukrainians to found a 501(c)(3) organization called the Ukrainian Society of Eastern Iowa. Her outreach included fundraising lunches and educational opportunities in her community. She began taking overtime shifts to supplement her fundraising efforts. In September she went back to Ukraine with another dozen suitcases of medical supplies and aid for refugees.
“That is how I approach all my work,” she says. “I treat people the way I would like to be treated. So, we must work together to make the right choices and take the right actions.”
Her full schedule of work, her desire to serve, her solidarity with others — none of it was new for Lyashenko. It was something she fostered during her time at Creighton.
The pharmacy program at Creighton appealed to Lyashenko’s sense of service and community. She appreciated the focus on patient-first decision-making and care. Her training taught her to be part of a team with the patient at the center.
After graduation, Lyashenko got involved in her professional community. She joined the Quad City Area Pharmacy Association, served as treasurer and is now the organization’s president. The contacts and connections she built through her service have been invaluable in her efforts to organize support for Ukraine.
Today, Lyashenko continues to raise funds. Her current project is collecting money to purchase generators for schools and universities in conflict areas. She wants to support those who are continuing their education and training through the war.
“We cannot all go be on the front line defending our country,” Lyashenko says. “Somebody must fundraise. Someone must deliver aid. Someone must care for civilians. We can all do little things. Every little thing is important.”
