Student Activities Council hosted the fall 2024 Last Lecture featuring Dr. Darcy Russell in Rice Auditorium on Sept. 17 . The Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences started her session on patterns and finding her voice by briefly recapping her time at Baker University.

Russell said her intent behind the lecture was to leave “a love letter to Baker students” when she retires at the end of the 2024-2025 academic year after 26 years as a professor of biology. Her presentation really began as she talked about her different identities. While she listed many pieces of her identity, including daughter, sister and now great-aunt, she emphasized the importance of the chosen pieces of our identities.

“My faith was my first chosen identity,” Russell said. “I love my family, but I didn’t pick ’em.”

Russell then went on to talk about important figures in her life, starting with her father, an economics professor whose footsteps she somewhat followed while forging her own path. One of the most significant people on Russell’s journey, she said, was an adjunct for Organic Chemistry Professor Diana Ordway. In a time when women did not have much representation in the scientific community, Professor Ordway offered her guidance.

“You love science, don’t back down from the challenge,” was the advice Ordway gave to Russell when she questioned her role in the field. This advice, Russell said, is what helped lead her to the discovery of a mutation in the Sindbus virus that “inactivated it.”

Russell ended the lecture with a call for students to “find a role model that can see the patterns” and better help them find their path. She encouraged students to find their voices by looking to people they admire, taking risks in the things they do, “refusing to see problems as obstacles” but as the gifts they are, leaning into a path that will bring joy to their lives and finally, being kind.