Ain't Dead Yet - ADY Life Center
    LIFE CENTER

    Built by someone who's been there

    Because it didn't exist when she needed it

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    Brass bands, beignets and brutal chemo

    How this all started

    Julie Lenzer has been obsessed with Mardi Gras since college. The parades, the people, the brass bands, the unapologetic joy of it all. She wanted to be in the action, not just watching it.

    So when a colleague gifted her a checklist for throwing her own second-line parade, Julie didn't hesitate. She threw a Mardi Gras-themed dinner for her friends, and they all got to planning. What would they celebrate? Simply that they ain't dead yet.

    Bourbon Street welcomed the first-ever Ain't Dead Yet parade in 2023. A seven-piece brass band, a stilt walker, a king on a pedicab, and over 100 strangers joining in. "We all felt an incredible sense of joy and freedom," Julie recalls.

    Eighteen months later... record scratch ...Julie was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer.

    Ain't Dead Yet second-line parade on Bourbon Street with brass band and revelers
    Julie making a snow angel during treatment, from the ADY blog post Don't call me a survivor

    Part of the treatment was a chemotherapy so brutal it's nicknamed the Red Devil (though Julie chose to call it the Red Warrior). But yeah, it complicated joy.

    "The actual physical feeling of joy was muted," Julie says. "It was elusive and fleeting. I guess it was chemically depressed." There were glimmers: Making a snow angel with icy flakes hitting her face, sitting around the kitchen table playing games on New Year's Eve, her daughter surprising her at her last chemo session.

    What Julie didn't find was a support program that understood that all she could manage were these small, quiet joys, or something that met her where she was and helped her find joy again, during and after the worst of it all.

    So she built it.

    Thrivership™ is in the process.
    It's not a destination.

    What we believe

    Thriving and hard times aren't opposites. A trauma therapist once told Julie that thriving is not the next step after surviving. They can coexist.

    Joy looks different for everyone. It can be loud and boisterous or quiet and content. Sometimes it's elusive. That's OK too.

    Joy isn't a reward to be earned at the end of the hard stuff. It's for every day, for everyone.

    Because joy is proven to make us more resilient and happier, it has a clear place in handling any major life change. It's not frivolous or a luxury.

    Nobody should have to figure this out alone. Finding people who get it (really get it) changes everything.

    The humans behind the confetti

    Meet our team

    Julie Lenzer, Co-Founder and Board Chair at ADY Life Center

    Julie Lenzer

    Co-Founder and Board Chair

    Julie believes some of life's most meaningful journeys are the ones we never planned.

    An entrepreneur, innovation leader, and keynote speaker, Julie helps people and organizations discover how to lean into unexpected change, find possibility in adversity, and build lives and communities centered around joy and purpose.

    She is the Co-Founder and CEO of ADY Celebration too (the ADY Life Center is its non-profit arm). Both initiatives were inspired by the belief that life is meant to be celebrated even through its most difficult chapters. Julie is building communities and experiences that help people joyfully reconnect with meaning, resilience, and each other.

    Before launching ADY, Julie spent decades leading innovation at the highest levels of business, academia, and government. She served as Chief Innovation Officer at the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute and University of Maryland as well as the Director of the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the U.S. Department of Commerce, where she helped shape national innovation policy and represented the United States at the G20.

    A serial entrepreneur herself, Julie founded a technology company whose software supported global manufacturing operations for Fortune 100 companies.

    More about her work and speaking can be found at JulieLenzer.com.

    Finds joy in... A baby's laugh, a spontaneous dance party, and snowflakes on my skin while making a snow angel.

    Hype song: Tubthumping by Chumbawumba: 'I get knocked down but I get up again. Ain't never gonna keep me down!'

    Lily Bengfort, Co-Founder and Executive Director at ADY Life Center

    Lily Bengfort

    Co-Founder and Executive Director

    Lily believes that even in life's hardest seasons, people deserve spaces where joy, creativity and community can help them breathe again.

    As Executive Director of ADY Life Center, she's the one making sure those spaces actually exist, and that they keep getting better.

    An award-winning entrepreneur, nonprofit leader and advocate for the arts, Lily brings more than 30 years of experience leading organizations across nonprofit, public and private sectors.

    She has held C-level roles in growth and marketing, guided early-stage ventures, and helped build brands and partnerships that lift communities as they scale. Her career has included serving as President and CEO of CenGen Inc., Vice President at DRS Technologies, and growth and marketing leadership at several technology companies.

    Deeply committed to creative expression, Lily served as a Governor's appointee to the Maryland State Arts Council for eight years, collaborating with fellow council members to steward a multimillion-dollar grant program supporting the arts across Maryland.

    She also teaches Guided Autobiography, helping people write and share their own life stories. Which turns out to be pretty good preparation for running an organization built on Thriver stories, community and joy.

    More about her work in Guided Autobiography at thestoryguides.com.

    Finds joy in... Reading, dancing, doing anything with friends and family.

    Hype song: Dancing Queen by ABBA.

    Board of Directors

    Joe Kapp, Board Vice Chair at ADY Life Center

    Joe Kapp

    Board Vice Chair

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    Karin Myerson, Board Member at ADY Life Center

    Karin Myerson

    Board Member

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    Kelly Kenney, Board Secretary at ADY Life Center

    Kelly Kenney

    Board Secretary

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    Greg Hubbell, Board Member at ADY Life Center

    Greg Hubbell

    Board Member

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    Jack Miner, Board Member at ADY Life Center

    Jack Miner

    Board Member

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