Halli Nicole (Herling Stewart) Lannan 

Halli Nicole (Herling Stewart) Lannan

It is with great sadness that Halli Nicole Lannan’s family announces her death on December 29, 2020, due to conditions surrounding a 5 year assault by metastatic breast cancer i.e. not the pink kind. Halli faced her cancer like she faced the other obstacles in her life, with determination, integrity, and an overriding concern for making things better for others.

Halli was born in Racine, Wisconsin, on August 17, 1977.  She enlisted in the U.S. Army at 17, serving as a medic. And yet she could never stand the sight of blood from anyone she loved. After leaving the Army, Halli went back to school to begin her career as a passionate educator and advocate for equity. Though treated with discrimination – and sometimes violence – in her early life, she fought hard to help others gain the voice that she was not always accorded. In order to have the tools she needed to effect change, she pursued ever more advanced degrees and certifications, continuing to work through her last months of life on concluding her Ph.D. studies in Urban Education and her Superintendent’s Certification at U.W. Milwaukee. Throughout her 20 years as an educator with the Racine Unified School District, she refused to give in to short-sightedness, discrimination, or inequity in any form. She was a dedicated warrior for the marginalized. For this – and many other reasons – she was named a Pat Tillman Scholar in 2015.

Outside of her job, Halli worked tirelessly on behalf of sexual assault survivors and the LGBTQ community, finally converting her grim health diagnosis into a passion for informing and inspiring others around the issue of metastatic breast cancer. Along the way she built a huge community of friends, colleagues, and admiring followers. She was smart, passionate, and often just plain ridiculous in the very best way.

Halli will be lovingly remembered by her wife Erica (McCorkindale), her son Noah Stewart, daughter Elliot,  sisters Kristen Wyatt and Charity (Herling) James, her great-aunt Carole Svebakken, a huge gaggle of nieces and nephews for whom Halli could always select the absolute best books, her large family of wildly loving and accepting in-laws, and countless friends including her best friend Marie.

Upon hearing of her death, area friend Jim Lautenbach wrote the following about Halli: “It is not an overstatement to say she worked to make the world a better place; it is not a hyperbole to say she succeeded in doing so. She was an inspiration.” Halli was not only a fighter, a friend, a devoted wife and mother, but also the owner of more Ryobi cordless tools than anyone cared to count.  While she never ran out of metaphorical walls to smash, Halli’s wife did eventually ask her to refrain from taking down any more literal walls. In sum, Halli was a powerful force for good in the world and will be missed by many.

A celebration of Halli’s life will be held at a later date.

METAvivor has established a research grant in Halli’s name. Memorials may be sent to  https://secure.metavivor.org/hallilannan

https://racine.revtrak.net/r1#/f/halli-lannan-memorial-scholarship