About
Our story
She ROCKS began with three friends, a diagnosis, and a decision to answer it with hope. More than a decade later, that decision has become a community across Wilmington and the Triad.
It began with Beth
In December 2013, Beth Quinn was diagnosed with stage IV ovarian cancer. Just months later, in May 2014, she founded She ROCKS in Wilmington together with her friends Mary Barto and Tracy Brown, determined that what she was facing would become the reason other women faced better odds.
The name says exactly what they set out to do: Research, Ovarian Cancer, Knowledge, Support. Fund the science. Spread the word about a disease with no screening test. Stand beside women in treatment, close to home.
What began as one luncheon among friends grew year by year into one of the region’s most dedicated ovarian cancer organizations. Beth led it with a spirit that everyone who met her remembers, until her death in January 2018 at age 57. Her outlook remains the organization’s compass.
“I am in charge of today, and I choose hope.”
– Beth Quinn, founder
Tracy, Emma, and the run that remembers
Co-founder Tracy Brown fought her own battle with ovarian cancer, and passed away in February 2015, less than a year after helping bring She ROCKS to life. She was a founding Board member, and her family has carried her place in this story forward ever since.
In 2019, her daughter Emma Brown, then a high-school senior, planned, organized, and ran the first She ROCKS 5K & Fun Run in her mother’s memory. Emma still leads the race team today, and the 5K has become one of our signature events: hundreds of runners, every fall, every stride funding research.
Where we are today
In 2018, She ROCKS grew beyond Wilmington with a Triad chapter serving the Greensboro area. Today the organization Beth, Mary, and Tracy started has given more than $1.3M+ to ovarian cancer research at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, with endowments at hospitals in both Wilmington and Greensboro supporting local patients every year, 75% of every dollar to research, 25% to patient support close to home. Almost entirely volunteer-run, exactly as it began: friends, showing up for one another.