Recently, I had the deeply personal honor of serving as the Creative Director for the inaugural Susan Wojcicki Foundation gala at the SF Masonic. Bringing this to life alongside my incredible team at AEON Point and so many old YouTube friends was more than just a project, it was a labor of love for someone who meant so much to all of us.

A Visionary Leader, A Warm Mentor

Having worked closely with Susan for years, this undertaking was incredibly close to my heart. Susan was a visionary leader who seamlessly balanced the demands of a high-pressure CEO role with being a dedicated wife and mother. She was a fierce advocate for workplace parental leave, diversity, and technology for good.
But on a personal level, Susan always encouraged me to find the awe-inspiring, human moments in our work. Bringing her community together to launch this foundation in a warm, human, "Susan" way was truly the experience of a lifetime.

The Architecture of the Evening

To honor her, the "Evening of Impact" had to be intentionally designed. Working in close collaboration with key Foundation players, specifically Kelly Galvin, Daria Kissner, and Nadia Litterman, we structured the night to build an immersive, multimedia narrative where data and artistry constantly spoke to one another.
The goal was to connect world-class science with compelling, public-facing storytelling, shifting culture, sparking action, and educating the public on the critical need for early lung cancer screening.
Susan herself was healthy, active, and a lifelong nonsmoker, yet she fell through the cracks of a system where screening is strictly tied to smoking history. Today, lung cancer shockingly leads to cancer deaths more than breast, colon, and prostate cancers combined.

A Journey From Legacy to Action

We wanted the audience to travel on a true narrative journey. We opened with a grounding sense of purpose, using cinematic video storytelling and an intimate acoustic performance of "Fight Song" by Rachel Platten to set a resilient emotional tone.
From there, we shifted to urgent hope, bringing the audience close to breakthroughs in AI-driven early detection and cancer vaccines with world-leading researchers Dr. Sarah Blagden, Dr. Bryant Lin, and Dr. Lecia Sequist. To ensure complex medical data didn't feel clinical, we threaded a powerful spoken word performance by Prince EA and a deeply moving piece by Taylor Swift Eras Tour dancers, Jan Ravnik and Sydney Moss, to translate the human stakes of the science. Finally, to highlight Susan's impact with the YouTube creator community, we had Mark Rober, Matthew and Stephanie Patrick take the stage.
The evening culminated in a powerful pivot from inspiration to unified action. We were privileged to have Susan's husband, Dennis Troper, her sisters, Anne Wojcicki and Janet Wojcicki, and Susan's children take the stage to deliver deeply moving tributes to her life and mission, earning a powerful standing ovation from an audience that included Sundar Pichai, Marc Benioff, Neal Mohan and Senator Chuck Schumer.
By the time the legendary Alicia Keys took the stage to close with "Girl on Fire," the room had sat with the science, felt the legacy, and understood the path forward. The experience earned the partnership of the room. Thanks to the staggering generosity of the attendees and major contributors, the event raised over $15 million to fund early detection research.
I hope this evening did exactly what Susan always taught me to do, find the human heart in the work, and carry on her final wish to do something truly meaningful.

With Gratitude

A massive, heartfelt thank you to the village it took to bring this beautiful evening to life:
  • Kelly Galvin, Daria Kissner, Nadia Litterman & the Foundation Team: For your incredible, close partnership in shaping the vision and architecture of this event.
  • My @AEON Point Team: James Klein, Ashley Ellefson, Claire Dundee, Akash Bartlett, Michaela Cathey and Laura MacFie Glass for working around the clock and pouring your hearts into every detail.
  • Our Creative Partners & Friends: Brett Bailey Ben Stokes Ron Robinson Emmett Feldman, Quentin Regos, Jeremy Milford, Carri K., Aaron Black, Mark Johnson, Amanda Taylor, Regina Seidman Miller, Karlie Valine, Ali Rivera, Vivien Lewit, Matt McLernon, Kelly Rowe Lurie, L. Camille Hackney and Bill Hetler for your collaboration, talent, and shared dedication to Susan's memory.
  • Susan Wojcicki Foundation Board: For your trust and guidance in allowing us to steward this legacy.
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