Jeff Yoo has a Father’s Day tradition: having his picture taken holding his three children.
The strain doesn’t show in his face, but over the years, the lift has gotten heavier.
Finley, Jeff’s oldest son, now is almost 13.
Rowan is 11.
And daughter Ruby is 8.
But for Jeff, holding his kids has never felt lighter.
When she was 2, Ruby caused a huge scare when she was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a rare cancer that mostly affects babies and young children.
Her health odyssey began in 2017 a couple of months after Jeff, his wife, Jane, and their three kids moved from Chicago to Orange County. Within two months, they became “CHOC parents” and now are grateful to say that Ruby has been cancer free for just over five years.
Jeff’s CHOC experience not only has been transformative personally, but also professionally.
He joined CHOC in April 2019, two years after moving to Orange County while Ruby was in the thick of her oncology treatment.
As director of partnerships, insights and events for the Marketing and Communications and Patient and Family Experience department, Jeff’s a familiar face in the gift store in the Bill Holmes Tower, at Ducks games at the Honda Center on CHOC Night, and as frequent escort of beloved mascot Choco at CHOC’s hospitals in Orange and Mission Viejo and its more than 20 primary care clinics throughout Orange County and beyond.
CHOC, Jeff says, has completely changed his and his family’s lives – something he’ll be sure to remind himself this Father’s Day.
“Having experience being a CHOC parent, I feel such appreciation,” Jeff says. “Knowing what the whole team does, from the doctors and nurses to environmental services to our valet team, we’ve been through all of it.
“Having this special connection to CHOC helps me to do my best to try to make CHOC even better.”
Former beer marketing executive
Jeff’s life in Chicago was very different than his life today.
“My time in beer was really lucky,” he says with a smile.
He’s not referring to drinking with his buddies, but his former career.
A native of Nashville, Jeff earned a B.A. in economics and Spanish from Vanderbilt University and, in 2009, an MBA in marketing from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
That year, he began his career at Miller Coors and worked his way up to marketing manager, a role that had him and his team managing an annual budget of around $55 million.
It was an MBA recipient’s dream job: pulling in a good salary at a consumer-packaged goods (CPG) behemoth that spends a billion dollars a year overall on marketing.
“It’s a really fun industry, and I was able to cut my teeth in marketing there,” Jeff recalls. “There were many days where I was, ‘I can’t believe they pay me to do this.’ I felt a lot of times I should be paying them. It was a dream job.”
Jeff and his family relocated to Orange County to live near his parents, both retired computer science professors who immigrated to the United States from South Korea. Jane, Jeff’s wife, also is from Orange County.
“Having experience being a CHOC parent, I feel such appreciation. Knowing what the whole team does, from the doctors and nurses to EVS environmental services to our valet team, we’ve been through all of it. Having this special connection to CHOC helps me to do my best to try to make CHOC even better.”
Jeff Yoo
He found a job as marketing manager at Bosch Home Appliances Corp. North America in Irvine – another billion-dollar brand.
Two months later, at the recommendation of Ruby’s doctor back in Chicago, Jeff and Jane took her to see CHOC gastroenterologist Dr. Ashish Chogle.
For some time, Ruby had been having some gastrointestinal issues.
New job, new diagnosis
Two months after Jeff started his new career in Irvine, Ruby was diagnosed with cancer. Fortunately, his new employer was very flexible in allowing him to work mostly offsite for about three months while he helped care for her after doctors removed a large tumor in her abdomen.
“It was super stressful,” Jeff recalls. “I still remember the first words Dr. Maryam Gholizadeh said when Ruby came out of surgery: ‘That was a nightmare.’”
But surgery was a success, and Ruby didn’t suffer many complications – just the anxiety-inducing process of having to undergo several MRIs.
The Yoos praise Ruby’s team of caregivers, who include oncologist Dr. Josephine HaDuong; Dr. Michael Muhonen, who assisted in surgeries; and oncologist Dr. Lilibeth Torno.
Jeff and Jane, an audiologist who used to work at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago, were talking about volunteering for CHOC when Jeff found a posting for the job he eventually landed at CHOC.
It all seemed so predestined, he says.
At CHOC, Jeff helped start the Squires Guild with a few other grateful dads in 2019. With a dozen or so core members, the fundraising group is focused on dads and being a support group for one another, while raising money for CHOC.
In addition to being a regular blood donor at CHOC, Jeff has raised almost $19,000 in the past two years for the annual summer CHOC Walk fundraiser.
“I usually feel a little shy about asking for donations and such,” Jeff says, “but I have no problem doing it for CHOC Walk because they all know how important CHOC is to our family in caring for Ruby.”
Jeff also serves on the Associate Giving Committee and helps with the Foundation Latino Advisory Council and BDEI (Belonging, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) council.
“I really see my job as a way to give back to CHOC, and so I’m happy to tackle any additional opportunities I have to fundraise or help here,” Jeff says.
Fun moments
Ruby’s last MRI was in October 2022, and she won’t be back for a few years to make sure her cancer is gone.
This Father’s Day weekend, Jeff plans to get in some golf with his father, Sung, and mother, Jungsoon.
In high school, Jeff used to be close to a scratch golfer (a par golfer) but work and family have kept him off the greens a lot. He’s hoping to soon start playing more.
Because Jeff’s birthday is June 20, it sometimes falls on Father’s Day and the two celebrations are combined. Regardless, it’s always a special weekend for him.
And working for CHOC is super special, he says.
“Even compared to my other marketing jobs, this job is the one I’ve loved the most – even though from a marketing side, the budget is a lot less.
“But for me, it’s more meaningful. In a way, at that level when you’re spending that much, everything is like a number but to me every person at CHOC, whether an associate or patient or parent, they’re a person.
“At CHOC, it’s very personal and every moment matters, and that is something that I love and I feel like in my job, and marketing overall, we’re lucky because we don’t have to deal with the hard stuff like the clinicians, so part of the great thing about my job – in particular with events and partnerships – is figuring outs how to create more joy and fun here.
“Getting people excited about a new Choco T-shirt or taking Choco to a Ducks game or being able to send a family or an employee to a Ducks game – these little bright spots are fun, and I’m very thankful to be able to be a part of these moments.”
Learn more about the Hyundai Cancer Institute at CHOC
