Progress, Potential, and Possibilities Podcast / Show

Send us a textAmbassador Dr. John N. Nkengasong, Ph.D. ( https://www.state.gov/biographies/john-n-nkengasong/ ), is U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and Special Representative for Health Diplomacy, a position he was officially sworn in on June 13, 2022, where he leads, manages, and oversees the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). PEPFAR is the largest commitment by any nation to address a single disease in history, prevent millions of HIV infections, save lives, and make progress toward ending the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Born in Cameroon, Dr. Nkengasong is the first person of African origin to hold this position. In 2017, Dr. Nkengasong was appointed as the first Director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) headquartered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Through his leadership, a framework for moving Africa CDC into a full autonomous health agency of the Africa Union was established. Dr. Nkengasong led efforts to create policy frameworks to guide countries to establish and strengthen their public health institutes and defined and implemented a system to collate national surveillance data. He also led the COVID-19 response in Africa, coordinating with heads of state and governments across the continent, and among other achievements to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, he helped secure 400 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines at the height of vaccine scarcity. During his tenure, he was appointed as one of the World Health Organization’s special envoys on COVID-19 preparedness and response. Dr. Nkengasong served as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Division of Global HIV and Tuberculosis’ International Laboratory Branch Chief and as the Associate Director for Laboratory Science. Subsequently, he served as Acting Deputy Director at the CDC Center for Global Health and Co-Chair of the PEPFAR’s Laboratory Technical Working Group. As a leading virologist with over 30 years of experience in public health, Dr. Nkengasong was appointed as a board member for the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative in New York, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation, in Norway. Dr. Nkengasong received his B.Sc. from the Faculty of Science, University of Yaoundé, Cameroon; his M.Sc. from the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium; and his Ph.D. from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Brussels, Belgium. He also received a Diploma in Leadership and Management from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Dr. Nkengasong is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards and recognitions. Most recently, he served as one of the World Health Organization Director General’s Special Envoys for COVID-19. In 2021, Dr. Nkengasong was recognized as Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, where he was described as “a modern-day hero.” Additional awards include the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Award for excellence in Public Health Protection Research, the Shepard Award, the U.S. Director’s Recognitions Award and the William Watson Medal of Excellence, the highest recognition awarded by CDC; which was awarded for outstanding contributions and leadership in advancing global laboratory services and programs to support the PEPFAR. Most recently, Dr. Nkengasong was invited to become a member of the National Academy of Medicine and he became the first-ever laureate of the Virchow Prize for Global Health, for his dedication to improving the health and wellbeing of the world’s most vulnerable people. He has authored or co-authored over 250 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters in professional journals. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Peter Singer, OC, FRSC ( https://singerp.substack.com/ ) is Special Advisor to the Director General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, of the World Health Organization where he helps support the Director General to transform WHO into an Organization sharply focused on impact at the country level. Dr. Singer co-chaired the transition team; was the architect of WHO’s strategy and its “triple billion” target (1 billion more people benefitting from universal health coverage, better protected from health emergencies and enjoying better health and well-being); and supports strategy implementation of WHO’s program budget, results framework, delivery stock-takes, investment case, innovation framework, innovative finance initiatives, brand strategy, and multilateral partnerships through the UN SDG3 Global Action Plan (focused on Good Health and Well-being) and during the Covid pandemic, he has been a passionate advocate for vaccine equity. Before joining WHO, Dr. Singer co-founded two innovative, results driven, social impact organizations. From 2008-2018 Singer was Chief Executive Officer of Grand Challenges Canada, a Canadian nonprofit organization that uses a Grand Challenges model, requiring coordinated, collaborative, and collective efforts, to fund solutions to critical health and development challenges in the developing world. During this period Grand Challenges Canada raised CAN $450M to support 1,000 innovations in more than 90 countries, which have the potential to save 450,000-1.6 million lives and improve 11-35 million lives by 2030. From 1996-2006 Dr. Singer was Sun Life Financial Chair and Director of the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics. He is also Adjunct Professor of Medicine at University of Toronto. Dr. Singer has an MD from University of Toronto, an MPH from Yale University, and a Fellowship in Bioethics/Medical Ethics from University of Chicago. His book The Grandest Challenge: Taking Life-Saving Science from Lab to Village ( https://www.amazon.com/Grandest-Challenge-Life-Saving-Science-Village/dp/0385667191 ), is available at major book sellers. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Chris Altman, Pharm.D., is Director, Immunization and Clinical Programs, at Rite-Aid Corporation ( https://www.riteaid.com/ ), one of the largest U.S. drug store chains that operates 2,177 pharmacies across the United States. Dr. Altman received his Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) from Ohio Northern University, and over the past couple of decades has served in a series of roles of increasing responsibility in the organization, from pharmacy manager, to Manager, Field Clinical Services, and into his current role of Director, Immunization and Clinical Programs. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Charles Tahan, Ph.D. is the Assistant Director for Quantum Information Science (QIS) and the Director of the National Quantum Coordination Office (NQCO) within the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy ( https://www.quantum.gov/nqco/ ). The NQCO ensures coordination of the National Quantum Initiative (NQI) and QIS activities across the federal government, industry, and academia. Dr. Tahan is on detail from the Laboratory for Physical Sciences ( https://www.lps.umd.edu/ ) where he drove technical progress in the future of information technology as Technical Director. Research at LPS spans computing, communications, and sensing, from novel device physics to high-performance computer architectures. As a technical lead, Dr. Tahan stood up new research initiatives in silicon and superconducting quantum computing; quantum characterization, verification, and validation; and new and emerging qubit science and technology. As a practicing physicist, he is Chief of the intramural QIS research programs at LPS and works with students and postdocs from the University of Maryland-College Park to conduct original research in quantum information and device theory. His contributions have been recognized by the Researcher of the Year Award, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, election as a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and as an ODNI Science and Technology Fellow. He continues to serve as Chief Scientist of LPS. Dr. Tahan earned a PhD in Physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2005 and a B.Sc. in Physics and Computer Science with Highest Honors from the College of William & Mary in 2000. From 2005-2007 he was a National Science Foundation Distinguished International Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge, UK; the Center for Quantum Computing Technology, Australia; and the University of Tokyo, Japan. He served as chief technical consultant for quantum information science and technology programs in DARPA’s Microsystems Technology Office (MTO) while at Booz Allen Hamilton from 2007-2009. He has a long-term commitment to science and society including creating one of the first games meant to build intuition about quantum computing. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Aysha Akhtar, MD, MPH ( https://ayshaakhtar.com/ ) is the Co-Founder and CEO of the Center for Contemporary Sciences ( https://contemporarysciences.org/ ), which is catalyzing the replacement of unreliable animal testing with more effective human-specific research techniques. As a double Board-certified neurologist and preventive medicine/public health specialist, she is on a mission to educate the world and demonstrate how there is a mutual benefit to both humans and animals when animals are protected. A U.S veteran, Dr. Akhtar previously served as Deputy Director of the U.S. Army Traumatic Brain Injury Program developing the Army’s brain injury prevention and treatment strategies for soldiers, and as a Commander in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, Dr. Akhtar frequently deployed to assist with national public health emergencies. For a decade, Dr. Akhtar was a Medical Officer at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), most recently in the Office of Counterterrorism and Emerging Threats, implementing studies on vaccine effectiveness and safety and using her Top Secret Security clearance to develop national preparedness strategies for public health threats. She is published in peer-reviewed journals including Lancet, Pediatrics, Journal of Public Health Policy and Reviews in the Neurosciences. Dr. Akhtar is a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. She is the author of the two books, Our Symphony With Animals. On Health, Empathy, and Our Shared Destinies and Animals and Public Health, which argues for the need for health institutions to include animals as part of the “public” in public health. Dr. Akhtar is a graduate of the Eastern Virginia Medical School. She subsequently completed her general medicine internship at Washington Hospital Center and her neurology and preventive medicine residencies at the University of North Carolina Medical School in Chapel Hill. She received her Masters in Public Health at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health, where she focused on bioethics. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Paul-Peter Tak, M.D., Ph.D., FMedSci ( https://www.candeltx.com/our-team/paul-peter-tak-m-d-ph-d-fmedsci/ ), is President, Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors of Candel Therapeutics, a biotech company developing and commercializing novel viral immunotherapies to induce immunogenic cell death in cancer cells at the site of injection, with a focus on unmasking tumor neo-antigens within an activated microenvironment, leading to a systemic, durable immune response against the tumor, with the potential to change disease outcomes across a variety of indications. Dr. Tak received his medical degree cum laude from the Free University in Amsterdam and was trained as an internist, rheumatologist and immunologist at Leiden University Medical Center, where he also received his Ph.D. Dr. Tak has been Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of California San Diego as well as Professor of Medicine and founding Chair of the Department of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology at the Academic Medical Center/University Medical Center Amsterdam, during this time, where he founded Arthrogen b.v., a biotech company focused on gene therapy. Dr. Tak has published over 580 papers in peer-reviewed journals, received numerous awards, and been elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (U.K.). Dr. Tak previously served as Senior Vice President, Chief Immunology Officer, and Global Development Leader at GlaxoSmithKline from 2011 to 2018 where he oversaw a cluster of Therapy Area Units including Dermatology, Immuno-Inflammation, Infectious Disease, and Oncology, where he oversaw the creation of a portfolio of new medicines. He was also the President and CEO of Tempero Pharmaceuticals, which was integrated into GSK in 2015. From 2018 to 2020, Dr. Tak served as venture partner at Flagship Pioneering and also as President and CEO of Kintai Therapeutics (Senda Biosciences). In addition, he has served as board director of Galvani Bioelectronics, ViiV Healthcare, and Omega Therapeutics. Currently, he is also on the Board of Sitryx Therapeutics (co-founder), Levicept, and Citryll. He is a 2021 PharmaVOICE100 honoree (100 most inspiring people in life sciences). Dr. Tak has also been a member of the Scientific Advisory Boards of Index Life VI and Medicxi Ventures funds. Support the show

Send us a textThe University Kidney Research Organization ( UKRO - https://ukrocharity.org/ ) is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit charity, co-founded prominent entertainment attorney Kenneth Kleinberg, inspired by his personal journey with kidney disease, focused on supporting medical research and education related to the causes, treatment, and eradication of all forms of kidney disease. Dr. Andrew McMahon, Ph.D. ( https://keck.usc.edu/faculty-search/andrew-p-mcmahon/ ) is Director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC, Provost Professor and the inaugural holder of the W. M. Keck Professorship of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, and is responsible for overseeing UKRO's Synthetic Kidney Project. In addition, Dr. McMahon chairs the recently created Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the Keck School. He also holds an appointment in the Department of Biological Sciences in the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences. Previously Dr. McMahon served as professor in the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and principal faculty member in the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, as well as led the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at the Roche Institute for Molecular Biology. Dr. McMahon received his bachelor’s degree from St. Peter’s College, Oxford University and his Ph.D. from University College in London. He subsequently worked for three years as a postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology. Lewis Kleinberg, a board member of UKRO and son of Kenneth Kleinberg, is a writer/producer who has written, developed and produced projects for Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Pictures, New Regency, 21st Century Fox, TNT, Anonymous Content, BBC Productions, Renegade 83, Kapital Entertainment, and USA Network, among others, and currently creates and produces films for UKRO’s website, media outreach, and benefit dinners. A graduate of the USC School of Cinematic Arts, he serves as an advisor to Donate Life Hollywood and as a mentor for USC’s Compass program, which supports undergraduate students pursuing careers in regenerative medicine. Support the show

Send us a textH.E. Salem Humaid Al Marri, is Director General, Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC), in Dubai, UAE, which is an advanced scientific and technological hub, responsible for making the UAE a world leader in space services and exploration. Established in 2006, MBRSC started out with five engineers but since then, the center has significantly expanded on a journey to be the incubator of the UAE National Space Program, building, developing, and operating a number of Earth observation satellites, providing imaging services and analysis, as well as producing relevant data to scientific communities and research centers around the world. Among the satellites that the center operates are DubaiSat-1 & DubaiSat-2. The MBRSC is also responsible for KhalifaSat, celebrated as the first satellite that was fully built by Emiratis in 2018. Recently, the center revealed its plan to develop the new satellite MBZ-SAT, which is expected to be launched at the end of 2023 and to be the latest in the field of high-resolution imaging from outer space. Mr. Al Marri’s role is centered on ensuring that the vision and mission of MBRSC are achieved through the different technical and scientific programs being run at the Center and has previously held the same position at the Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST) before it was integrated into the Center. He is currently overseeing the expansion of the Center in different scientific and technical fields along with the center's continued development in the space field, and working towards ensuring all initiatives at MBRSC serve the stakeholders with useful value added services, with one of his major goals ensuring the achievement of domestic satellite development through Emirati engineers. Mr. Al Marri’s has over 10 years experience in the Space Field, was part of the team which setup EIAST and MBRSC, was formally the Director of the Space Program Department at (EIAST), and he was the Project Manager for MBRSC’s earlier satellite projects DubaiSat-1 and DubaiSat-2. Support the show

Send us a textColonel Alex Cann serves as both Chief Instructor, Ghana Military Academy and Operations and Training Staff Officer, Headquarters Central Command, Ghana Army, as well as a Research Fellow, Africa Research Institute, Doctoral School on Security and Safety Sciences, Obuda University. Colonel Cann has over 20 years of military experience with extensive backgrounds in Leadership, Security Policy, Operations Management, Humanitarian Operations, Program Management, Monitoring & Evaluation, Training, And Conflict, Crisis & Security Management. His extensive, management and leadership experience and positions on national and international United Nation missions has equipped him with a variety critical problem-solving skills. Colonel Cann is also a professional security management specialist, a certified protection professional, Senior Consultant for United Nations Institute for Training and Research’s Multilateral Diplomacy Program, a member and Subject Matter Expert for the International Association of Professionals in Humanitarian Assistance and Protection (PHAP) Program, and a member of ASIS International, an American professional security management group with about 40,000 members. Colonel Cann previously has served in a wide variety assignments including as Chief Military Training and Evaluation Officer of UN Peacekeeping Mission in Mali; led the operational, logistics, and administrative efficiency of Ghanaian troops UN peacekeepers in South Sudan; led an international team of commissioned Officers to monitor and report cease fire violations in a remote village in Democratic Republic of Congo; served as Director of Army Peacekeeping Operations, Army Headquarters in the Ghana Army. Colonel Cann has studied at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration with a focus on Public Administration and Defense and Conflict studies, the Ghana Military Academy, with a focus on Military Operational Art and Science Studies, has an MBA in Finance from University of Leicester, and is currently completing his PhD, with a focus on Conflict Analysis and Resolution. Support the show

Send us a textIlana Golant is the Founder and CEO of The Food Allergy Fund ( https://foodallergyfund.org/ ) a leading nonprofit dedicated to funding food allergy research, with a focus on identifying underlying causes, discovering new therapeutics, and improving the lives of all people living with food allergies, and through their ground-breaking research and unique thought leadership summits, accelerating innovation to find solutions. Ms. Golant is a marketing and PR executive, an attorney, and a former government official, as well as a mother of a child with food allergies. Ms. Golant has extensive experience working with media organizations, academic institutions, and Fortune 100 clients. She has held executive roles at WPP, the world’s largest advertising and PR conglomerate, as well as at NBCUniversal, specifically working with CNBC, MSNBC, and NBC News. Prior to joining NBCU, Ms. Golant was an attorney-advisor in the Office of Financial Stability at the U.S. Department of Treasury and an attorney at Mayer Brown LLP. She received her B.A. from Columbia University and her J.D. from the New York University School of Law. Support the show