Paying it Forward
A big believer in giving back, Joyce Irwin is helping raise the bar when it comes to volunteer work
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As one of those wonderfully warm people who never meets a stranger, Joyce Irwin smiles with her eyes and laughs with all of her body. It is quite obvious that happiness comes easily to this woman. Her life is filled with joy, and she makes a conscious, daily effort to celebrate that fact.
Married 25 years to her dearest friend, Marty Irwin, she enjoys spending quiet time at her Indianapolis home with him, a couple of antisocial cats and the beloved family shelties, Dolly and Reagan.
Irwin’s career as the national director of state government affairs at Roche Diagnostics is a point of pride, but her heart also belongs to volunteer work. And this year, she has accepted an amazing challenge: Irwin is committed to raising $750,000 for the Go Red luncheon with the American Heart Association.
Raising that kind of cash might seem overwhelming for someone else. But Irwin believes all things are possible. She knows this to be true. In fact, she is a living example of how miracles not only occur in the world, but how one miracle can weave its way into life-changing moments for lots of people.
An early life lesson
As national director of state government affairs for Roche Diagnostics, Irwin is frequently on the go — and almost never without her Blackberry.
Irwin’s story began as a youngest child with two older brothers. Both parents worked outside the home, so the family was taught early about teamwork. Raised in Seymour, Ind., Irwin was an enchanting little girl who hopped up to the front of the family church to courageously belt out solos. Her love for music and laughter led her father to nickname his daughter “Sunshine” at an early age.
At 8 years of age, however, the family’s little Sunshine suddenly and mysteriously fell ill. Terrified, Irwin’s parents rushed her to Riley Hospital for Children where they helplessly watched their child slip into a coma. To this day, no one knows the exact diagnosis. Nor does anyone know what brought the energetic little girl back after 10 long days of lifelessness.
To Irwin, those answers about the coma and her full recovery are not really that necessary.
What she knows for certain about that time in her life is that once she recovered, she didn’t just return to her childhood, she immersed herself in it and collected beautiful friendships. Perhaps her energetic spirit wouldn’t have ignited at such an impressive level had she not experienced such a serious illness.
“I am still friends with people I grew up with,” Irwin says. “If someone is a friend to me, they are a friend for life.”
Years later, she would learn that her life was not the only one so profoundly affected by the long hospital stay. That family experience with helplessness and faith led her older brother, Ken Stout, now in Dover, N.H., to become a minister. The middle sibling, David Stout is a physician in Seymour currently helping build a hospital in Haiti.
For many years, she had no idea that her childhood illness helped determine her siblings’ professional directions.
“I read my brother’s application for medical school, and he talked about it,” Irwin says as tears fill her eyes. “I was so, so struck by that. You can have an impact on someone’s life and not even know it.”
The political bug
Aside from seizing every opportunity to sing at church, Irwin got her first taste of community involvement in eighth grade when she went door to door for Congressman Lee Hamilton as part of her civics class.
She merely passed out brochures, but Irwin viewed it as truly being a part of something much bigger.
“It seemed like a big thing at the time,” she recalls. “I was getting involved.”
It also was the beginning of her love for politics and public policy.
Irwin with Dr. Lisa Harris (left) and Dr. Virginia Caine (right)
“It was then that I was really struck by how decisions are made and the political process, and I really became intrigued by it,” Irwin says.
Irwin happily sang her way through high school and then
enrolled at Indiana University to study voice and education. She served on the university’s student government where she first met her future husband. Sparks flew –– but not the romantic kind.
“We actually didn’t get along that well,” she says with a grin. “We didn’t necessarily appreciate the other’s position.”
While in college, Irwin’s uncle invited her to a political dinner. If the eighth-grade civics class didn’t do the trick, attending this event definitely cemented her interest in politics.
“I started spending time really learning about issues and getting involved,” she says.
After graduation, Irwin taught remedial reading for a year in Orleans, Ind., then accepted a new challenge with the Department of Education. She and Marty ran into each other again. But this time, Marty, now the executive director of coal research and counsel at Purdue University, was mature enough to not only notice but adore “that twinkle in her eyes.”
He also notes that he was vulnerable to this vibrant woman’s sense of humor.
After 25 years of bliss, Marty says he can readily shrug off the fact that his wife seems to function in one of only two gears –– either she is running in fifth gear or in low gear, sleepily trying to enjoy a good book.
“She also has no patience,” he laughs.
It’s true, Irwin says with a laugh. She truly doesn’t have patience. She hates to wait. She is obsessed with planning. And she is very likely addicted to her Blackberry.
But she and her husband balance each other beautifully. They know –– and often laugh at –– their shortcomings. They even out the wrinkles of everyday stress with lots of laughter and genuine support for each other’s goals.
“I would be nothing if it weren’t for my husband,” Irwin says.
Though Irwin started her career in education, she soon moved over to the business side of health care, where she could still be a part of something that ultimately helped others.
“I’ve loved every minute of it,” she says.
Her career has spanned more than 20 years, always with demanding leadership roles –– vice president of Anthem Alliance for Health, senior executive consultant for KSM Healthcare Resources, and consultant for corporate public policy at Eli Lilly & Co., to name a few. Irwin has been with Roche since January 2004.
In her current position, Irwin is responsible for lobbying for Roche and working with legislative and executive branches of state governments throughout the U.S. on regulatory and business issues. She helps shape policy positions and develop strategic responses to emerging issues.
Irwin’s job requires her to travel frequently and impeccably plan her life. So it’s easy to get so dependent on her Blackberry, which is always within her reach. If she lost that beloved device, Irwin says, she would frantically contact her assistant, requesting that a new one be overnighted to her along with some emergency hints about her weekly agenda.
Receiving recognition
Irwin loves working in the medical field. So taking on fundraising responsibilities for the Go Red for Women luncheon speaks directly to that commitment.
“I’m working with an incredible group of women throughout central Indiana,” Irwin says. “It is definitely a passion of mine to be involved with health care and the education, diagnosis and treatment of women with heart disease.”
Irwin brings a vast amount of volunteer expertise to her role as chairwoman for the executive team for the Go Red luncheon. She’s part of an Executive Leadership Team made up of several women tasked with reaching out to contacts and raising money for the American Heart Association. It’s a cause she holds dear.
“Heart disease has impacted both of my parents,” Irwin says.
And she definitely has the heart for such a huge undertaking.
She serves on the boards of directors of the Marion County Health and Hospital Corporation and the Wishard Hospital Health Foundation and is president of the board of governors for the Lugar Series for Public Health.
Former Gov. Robert Orr honored Irwin with the Sagamore of the Wabash in 1988.
In 2003, former President George W. Bush rewarded her many community accomplishments by presenting Irwin the Outstanding Volunteer award during a USA Freedom Corps event at the Langham Logistics facility in Indianapolis.
Irwin greets President George W. Bush.
At first, Irwin didn’t believe it when someone from the White House called her at work.
“When the White House called for background information, I thought it was a joke. I hung up on them,” she recalls with a laugh. “I thought it was friends playing a joke.”
To fondly remember this amazing time in her life, Irwin reaches for a stack of well-tended scrapbooks, thumbs through the pages and stops at a color photo of herself accepting the award from the president. Then she shares a copy of the president’s speech from the event.
“Help those who need to be loved. Help your fellow Americans,” Bush addressed the crowd. “Joyce Irwin is a soldier in the army of compassion. She’s one of the thousands of people all across our country who have heard a call to love a neighbor just like you’d like to be loved.”
“Until that point, I had been doing volunteer work,” Irwin says. “But I kept waiting for the ‘big thing’; I wanted to be called or led to do ‘the big thing.’ That speech showed me that it never was about the big things. It’s about the little things. All things we do for others are important. They all make a difference in someone’s life.”
She says meeting the president and having him recognize her work was an “incredible, incredible experience.”
That event had a profound effect, and she continues to live that life lesson by defining all volunteer efforts in the community as “the big things.”
A perfect example is her work on Go Red’s Executive Leadership Team –– bringing people together and making sure her love for the cause is contagious.
Jack Phillips, president and CEO of Roche Diagnostics, says getting involved in the community gives Roche employees a practical way to live out the company’s mission of improving lives.
“As a company, we try to encourage our employees to support causes that are important to them and find opportunities to give back to the community,” he says. “Joyce is an outstanding example of that.”
Continuing to give back
Joyce Irwin puts her heart into volunteer work
On the other end of the helping-others spectrum, she and Marty have a plan for this evening after they end the workday. They will meet at the church they attend to play games with and gather coloring books, crayons and storybooks for a group of homeless children.
Volunteer work is a “de-stresser,” according to Irwin. “I really mean that. It’s a whole different mindset.”
The couple has gone on mission trips to New Mexico, helping build a church and rehabbing a home on an Indian reservation, and Appalachia, where they also worked on homes.
As the holidays approach, friends and family will flock as always to the Irwin household, where a delicious meal will likely be followed by loved ones gathering around the piano for a sing-along.
“I really love any music from The Sound of Music,” Irwin says with a smile. One song that especially stands out is “Climb Ev’ry Mountain.” Its lyrics, “Climb every mountain, ford every stream, follow every rainbow, till you find your dream,” resonate with Irwin.
“We as individuals need to help others climb the mountains and ford their streams so they can find their passion and dreams,” she says.
She also enjoys Shirley Temple movies “even though they are basically the same plot –– always adversity, but good prevails. I like happy endings,” Irwin says. Another favorite female character is Lucy Ricardo.
“Lucy could always do something zany and crazy –– often by design with good intentions, but it could end up disastrous,” Irwin says. “Several times I have been involved in zany adventures, but they are not by design.”
Yes, she has a loving husband, cherished relationships with nieces and nephews, a wonderful career and rewarding volunteer work, but Irwin is quick to chuckle about her shortcomings.
Her extremely busy life can easily be thrown off kilter by the slightest change in her schedule.
“I often multitask, even at the car wash,” she says.
Being distracted from the task at hand resulted in a car wash catastrophe, actually –– a true I Love Lucy moment. Irwin accidentally opened the sunroof one time when she thought she was switching on the dome light. Water and soap gushed inside the car. And the sunroof would not close since the water shorted out the wiring.
“I was covered in soap, wax and water. Then the big dryer came on.”
Irwin delights in telling the story. Until she looked at her appearance, she insists that she intended to go to the office. Damp clothes and wet hair were no big deal.
But her reflection in the rearview mirror was the deal-breaker –– especially the wax smushed into her hair. Shampooing the gunk from her hair required numerous showers. Her mother even tried using mayonnaise to get out the wax, causing Irwin to “smell like a big salad bar” for days.
So yes, she continues to multitask, but never again at the car wash.
Not taking herself too seriously is another charming trait. Irwin authentically lives in her own skin. Maybe that’s why much of her conversation includes laughter.
Marty finds his wife’s humor to be a wonderful comfort. No matter how trying his days might be, she always makes him laugh.
Julie Griffith, one of Irwin’s many longtime friends, says she looks forward to holiday invitations to the Irwin home.
“Joyce always goes all out for parties,” Griffith says. “She and Marty are always so good at hosting get-togethers.”
Raised a few miles from Irwin in southern Indiana, Griffith is the vice president of public affairs at Purdue University. Through the years, she has worked in numerous volunteer efforts with her friend and also serves with Irwin on the Go Red Executive Leadership Team. Their phone conversations sustain a friendship that has spanned at least 15 years of girlfriend chats.
“Joyce is such an uncomplicated person,” Griffith says. “She is very authentic and down-to-earth. She cherishes her friends. She makes everything fun, and she’s really the most selfless person I know.”
Irwin calls Griffith one of her “foxhole” friends.
“Like the military expression of being under attack,” she explains. “If I am under attack, I want to be in the foxhole with people I trust in my life. I am blessed to have many foxhole friends.”
Irwin is a big believer in paying it forward. All she has to do is close her eyes and see herself as a little girl in a big, scary hospital room, when smiling strangers from the Ruth Lions Club showered her with toys and stuffed animals, and doctors and nurses she didn’t know comforted her family.
“There are so many people doing so many wonderful things,” she says.
It all goes back to what she calls a “ripple effect” that occurs when one helps others.
“I got started because I had an eighth-grade teacher who cared and an uncle who cared,” she says.
And Irwin firmly believes it is God’s miracle that she is alive.
“I am blessed,” she says. “It defines me.”
