Don't let your disease define you

Vivian Stephenson directed information technology systems at numerous companies, including Target Corporation, as Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer, and Williams-Sonoma, as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Information Officer. In 1994, Vivian was a recipient of the "Oscar" of information technology-the Smithsonian Institution and Computerworld Award-for developing the Planned Store Inventory System at Mervyn's Corporation. Vivian is a former chair of the Board of Trustees at Mills College, from which she received a Doctor of Humane Letters Honorary Degree in 2005 for her "ethical and compassionate leadership" and for serving as "an inspired, unwavering advocate for women and the power of education to transform women's lives and society as a whole." Vivian survived two different types of breast cancer, diagnosed in 1980 and 1996. In 2009, she was diagnosed with stage IV ovarian cancer.