It is with deep sadness that we must inform our membership that Marietta Wheaton Saunders, Managing Director of the Society for In Vitro Biology, passed away on Monday, February 27, 2023.
Marietta was synonymous with SIVB. If you reached out to the Business Office, she was the person responding to your questions day or night. At the annual meeting, she was there making sure everything went smoothly and helping everyone enjoy the best possible event. When contracts were to be negotiated, she worked painstakingly to make sure that the SIVB received the best opportunities possible. At every Board of Directors meeting, she guided each new officer as they assumed their responsibilities. SIVB members understood that she was happily available to provide them with the best advice and support. She cared deeply about the SIVB and its mission, vision, and values. It was clear in everything she did.
Marietta was at the heart of SIVB for 31 years. A graduate in Business Administration from Strayer University, she was hired by the Society in 1992 as their Business Manager and, after 1 year, was promoted to the position of Managing Director. Her accomplishments were many including reorganizing the meeting format so that conveners and sections would consciously fund their sessions and reducing SIVB`s budget in 2000 by streamlining the Business Office from a staff of 5 to a staff of 2.5, while producing the same work with the smaller staff. She worked countless additional hours to fill in the void that fewer employees created and, during that time, simultaneously planned the SIVB`s 2002 Congress and the IAPTC&B Congress as their Secretariat.
Marietta’s deep understanding of SIVB was integral in allowing the organization to succeed. During challenging times, she persevered tirelessly to ensure a bright future for our society. In 2004, she moved back to North Carolina, and established her own company, New Beginning Management, transitioning from a full-time employee into a consultant for SIVB while still functioning as our Managing Director. With her guidance for other cost savings and investment measures, within 10 years, she was not only able to get the SIVB “back in the black,” but also raised the end-of-year Net Assets by more than half a million dollars.
Marietta was acknowledged for 25 years of service to the SIVB at the 2016 World Congress (pictured with Delia Bethell)
In addition to her work with SIVB, Marietta has worked for the American Red Cross, Washington International Center, United Way, North Carolina Academy for Family Physicians, The Arc of Durham County, and the Mental Health Law Project. As President of New Beginnings Management, Inc., Marietta managed the 6th International Workshop on Anthocyanins; XIth International Rubus and Ribes Symposium; and 2017 International Symposium on Growing Media, Soilless Cultivation, and Compost Utilization in Horticulture, all with North Carolina State University, as well as the 2nd World Congress on Electroporation and Pulsed Electric Fields in Biology, Medicine, Food and Environmental Technologies.
We ask for your understanding as we work through one of the most difficult challenges that we have ever had to face as an organization, moving forward without her. Rest assured, we will continue to support our members and do all we can to make the SIVB what she wanted and envisioned it to be. We hope that Marietta’s love of SIVB can be found in each of you, too. While SIVB will not be the same without her, we hope that each of us can honor her memory by getting involved, volunteering for a committee, organizing a session at our annual meeting, spreading the word about our Society, mentoring young scientists, or simply renewing your membership and being part of SIVB.
Marietta receives the 2011 Distinguished Service Award from David Songstad.
Marietta’s obituary can be found at https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/mrs-marietta-saunders-obituary?id=48871981. We are in the process of setting up a fund in her honor and will send out an announcement to the membership regarding how to contribute once everything has been set in place.
Submitted by SIVB’s Executive Committee and the SIVB Business Office
