Progress, Potential, and Possibilities Podcast / Show

Send us a textThe Honorable Dr. Aminata Touré, Ph.D., is a 2024 Presidential Candidate, of the Republic of Senegal, and Former Prime Minister of the Republic of Senegal; the second female to hold that position. ​Dr. Touré also served as Justice Minister of Senegal where she was heavily focused on anti-corruption campaigns, and was a special envoy of President Macky Sall for Internal and External Affairs. She has led several Presidential election observation missions including in Mauritius, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia and Kenya, where she co-led the first round of the election observation mission on behalf of the Carter Center with then-US Secretary of State, John Kerry. She has also held the position of Harvard Kennedy School Fisher Family Fellow with the Future of Diplomacy Project. Additionally Dr. Touré was Director of the Gender and Human Rights World Department of the United Nations Population Funds (UNFPA) in New York, Senior Adviser at UNFPA Headquarters in New York, UNFPA Senior Adviser in Côte d’Ivoire, and UNFPA Senior Adviser in Burkina Faso. Dr. Touré is passionate about areas including Economic Development, Good Governance, and Gender. Dr. Touré is fluent in English, French and Wolof, has led more than 30 UNFPA worldwide publications, and holds a PhD in International Business Administration and Finance from the International School of Management ISM in New York and Paris. She also studied in France, where she obtained a MBA from University of Dijon Business School, France and a Master Degree in Economics from Aix Marseille II University. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Gonzalo Castro de la Mata, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of Earthna (https://www.earthna.qa/about-us), a sustainability center established by the Qatar Foundation ( https://www.qf.org.qa/ ), and is an ecologist recognized as a global leader in the promotion of sustainability, with emphasis on innovative free market solutions to environmental issues. Prior to joining Earthna / Qatar Foundation, Dr. Castro de la Mata was the managing director for External Affairs with Pluspetrol, the largest private gas and oil company in Latin America. From 2014 to 2018, he was the chairman of the World Bank's Inspection Panel in Washington, where he ensured compliance with the Bank’s environmental and social standards. He was also the founder of Ecosystem Services LLC and the managing director of Sustainable Forestry Management (SFM) for the Americas. Prior to that, Dr. Castro de la Mata was the head of Biodiversity at the Global Environment Facility in Washington, the largest source of funds to address global environmental challenges, and a Lead Environmental Specialist at the World Bank in Washington. Dr. Castro de la Mata has been involved in the founding of leading international conservation organizations, including Wetlands for the Americas (today Wetlands International) and American Bird Conservancy. He has served as a member of the Accreditation Panel at the Green Climate Fund, as chair of the US Ex-Im Bank’s Independent Advisory Panel on Development Issues in South-Central Peru, and as a high-level international expert engaged by the United Nations to assess the social end ecological impacts of the Barro Blanco Dam in Panama. In 2021, he was appointed as a Counselor of Honor for the Supervisory Council of Wetlands International, and as a member of the Independent Oversight Advisory Committee of the International Labour Organization (ILO) for the period 2022 to 2024. Dr. Castro de la Mata has appeared in numerous publications in topics related to ecology, environment, mining, oil and gas, and sustainable development, and is a regular editorial contributor to El Comercio in Lima, Peru, and Diario Altavoz. He has published over 250 articles in scientific journals, magazines, and book chapters. He is the author of two books. Dr. Castro de la Mata received a Ph.D. in ecology and population biology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1988, and M.Sc. in Biophysics (1985) and B.Sc. in Biology (1983) degrees from Cayetano Heredia University in Lima, Peru. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Keith Sumption, Ph.D. is Chief Veterinary Officer and Leader of the Animal Health Program at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ( FAO - https://www.fao.org/home/en ) as well as their Director of the Joint Centre for Zoonoses and Anti-Microbial Resistance (CJWZ). The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is an international organization that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security. The FAO comprises 195 members and helps governments and development agencies coordinate their activities to improve and develop agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and land and water resources. It also conducts research, provides technical assistance to projects, operates educational and training programs, and collects agricultural output, production, and development data. Dr. Sumption has worked on disease ecology at the interaction of wildlife, domestic and the environment for more than 30 years. Dr. Sumption holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from the University of Reading, gained following 3 years of field and molecular epidemiology research upon African Swine Fever in southern Africa, and veterinary medicine (Vet.MB) and Natural Sciences degrees from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Dr. Sumption has served as Executive Secretary of European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease (EuFMD), where he has been responsible for developing strategy, negotiating funding and managing implementation of the Commission's work programs, which now involve over 80 countries, and reports to the member states of the Commission and FAO Regional Conference and Department (AGD) for progress. Prior to FAO, Dr. Sumption was a research group leader and Master’s program Coordinator at the Centre for Tropical Veterinary Medicine (CTVM), University of Edinburgh, managing projects on African high impact tick borne and contagious diseases including heartwater , theilerioses, mycoplasmoses (CBPP and CCPP), and viral Transboundary Animal Diseases TADS (rinderpest , PPR and sheep and goat pox) and as a seconded technical officer to the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID), leading work to define demand and impact of research at the primary animal health care level in Kenya, for almost 2 years. Support the show

Send us a textJoel Greshock is VP, Oncology, Data Science & Digital Health, Janssen Research & Development ( https://www.janssen.com/oncology/leadership-team ). In this position, he is responsible for creating unique and actionable medical insights using large and increasingly available datasets. The focus of this research includes discovering novel therapeutic targets, identifying areas of unmet medical need, and enhancing clinical trial recruitment and execution. Prior to joining Janssen R&D, Joel served as Vice President of Bioinformatics at Neon Therapeutics, Inc., where he built and managed the Data Sciences organization. At Neon, he was responsible for the design and deployment of personalized cancer therapies now under clinical evaluation. Prior to joining Neon, Joel served as Head of Oncology Translational Informatics for Novartis, where he was responsible for the correlation of patient outcomes with molecular biomarkers, identification of mechanisms of clinical resistance and computational research for assets approaching or being evaluated in early phases of development. Before joining Novartis, Joel assumed numerous roles for GlaxoSmithKline Oncology, which included Head of Bioinformatics. Earlier in his career, Joel was a Data Analyst at Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, where he built early generation microarray platforms and developed widely used predictive models for cancer predisposition mutations. Joel holds a Bachelor of Science in Comprehensive Science and a Master of Science in Biology/Biostatistics, both from Villanova University. He also completed studies at the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University in Statistics and Computer Science. Support the show

Send us a text Dr. Sadid Hasan, Ph.D. ( http://sadidhasan.com/ ), is AI Lead at Microsoft, and member of the leadership team in Microsoft's AI Development Acceleration Program (MAIDAP) at the Microsoft New England Research & Development (NERD AI) center ( https://www.microsoftnewengland.com/maidap/ ). Dr. Hasan leads teams to drive the state-of-the-art in AI by developing advanced AI capabilities, products, and solutions applicable across the enterprise, as well as growing the next generation of AI leaders who can make a transformational impact to the world. Previously, Dr. Hasan was an Executive Director of AI at CVS Health, where he led the team responsible for AI-based clinical care planning initiatives. Prior to that, he was a Senior Scientist and Technical Lead of the AI Group at Philips Research North America, where he focused on solving various Natural Language Processing (NLP) problems such as Clinical Information Extraction, Clinical Question Answering, Natural Language Inference, Paraphrase Generation, and Medical Image Caption Generation using Deep Learning. Before joining Philips, Dr. Hasan was an NSERC-Engage Post Doctoral Fellow at the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Lethbridge, Canada, from where he obtained his PhD. in Computer Science with a specialization in NLP and Machine Learning. Dr. Hasan has over 12 granted patents along with 35+ patents pending, and 80+ peer-reviewed publications in top-tier NLP/Machine Learning venues, where he also regularly serves in the program committees, including ACL, EMNLP, COLING, NeurIPS, ICML, IJCAI, AAAI, ICLR, NAACL, EACL, JAIR, AI Journal, Nature etc. Support the show

Send us a text Dr. Joseph Dituri, Ph.D., DMT, CDR - US Navy (ret) is a retired Navy Diving Saturation Officer, who after 28 years of service to the U.S., went back to school to earn a PhD in Biomedical Engineering ( https://drdeepsea.com/ ) from the University of South Florida, with the goal of performing research in the field of hyperbaric medicine ( https://underseaoxygenclinic.com/ ), to address not just diving related maladies, but also for the development of breakthrough treatments in the areas of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), as well as the related symptoms of PTSD, depression, and long-term mental and physical impairments. Dr. Dituri is the author of numerous diver-training manuals, a co-author of the book “Tao of Survival Underwater”, a contributing author to Hyperbaric Medical Practice (4th edition) and the Navy Diving Manual. Dr. Dituri has been published in several journals including those by the American Society of Naval Engineers and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. As a Director of the International Board of Undersea Medicine, and in partnership with the Marine Resources Development Foundation Marine Lab, Dr. Dituri has just embarked on a fascinating 100-day adventure in the Jules Undersea Lodge in Key Largo, FL. Called the Neptune 100 Day Undersea Mission, the work Dr. Dituri is undertaking will further medical research, ocean conservation, and technical development. Dr. Dituri also has a recently released novel entitled "Secrets in Depth". Support the show

Send us a textMichelle Catts is the Senior Vice President of Nuclear Programs at GE-Hitachi ( GEH - https://nuclear.gepower.com/ ) located in Wilmington, NC. Ms. Catts has over 18 years of demonstrated managerial and technical expertise in nuclear Regulatory Affairs and currently is responsible for ensuring world-class Quality, Continuous Improvement, Regulatory Affairs, and oversight of Environment, Health & Safety programs. She manages a multimillion-dollar budget and over a 30-member organization. She provides licensing and quality leadership and guidance to support nuclear fuel facility licensing, current nuclear fleet fuel reload/outage licensing activities, new reactor and new fuel opportunities, Technical Regulations and Standards, and GE-Hitachis’s Vallecitos and Morris sites. Prior to joining GE-Hitachi, Ms. Catts worked for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) where she held positions of increasing responsibility including as a nuclear reactor inspector stationed onsite at nuclear power plants up to the Policy Advisor to the Presidential Appointed NRC Chairman. Ms. Catts holds a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering from North Carolina State University and is currently working on her MBA at UNCW. Ms. Catts is also on the board of Smart Start of New Hanover County, an organization that seeks to build bridges to develop, sustain and enhance health, family support and early education services for all children, ages birth to five. Support the show

Send us a textCommander Dr. Jean-Paul Chretien, MD, Ph.D. ( https://www.darpa.mil/staff/cdr-jean-paul-chretien ) is a Program Manager in the Biological Technology Office at DARPA, where his research interests include disease and injury prevention, operational medicine, and biothreat countermeasures. He is also responsible for running the DARPA Triage Challenge ( https://triagechallenge.darpa.mil/ ). Prior to coming to DARPA, CDR Dr. Chretien led the Pandemic Warning Team at the Defense Intelligence Agency’s National Center for Medical Intelligence, and as a naval medical officer, his previous assignments include senior policy advisor for biodefense in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; team lead for Innovation & Evaluation at the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch; and director of force health protection for U.S. and NATO forces in southwestern Afghanistan. A proud mentor to nine graduate students and Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) fellows, CDR Dr. Chretien received the Rising Star Award from the American College of Preventive Medicine, Best Publication of the Year Award from the International Society for Disease Surveillance, and Skelton Award for Public Service from the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation. He has published over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and 10 book chapters. CDR Dr. Chretien earned a Bachelor of Science degree in political science from the United States Naval Academy, Master of Health Science in biostatistics and Doctor of Philosophy in genetic epidemiology degrees from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a Doctor of Medicine degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He completed his residency in general preventive medicine at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and fellowship in health sciences informatics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Ismahane Elouafi, Ph.D. is the Chief Scientist at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations ( https://www.fao.org/about/leadership/elouafi ). The FAO is an organization that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security. Dr. Elouafi leads the scientific mission of the organization, advocating for diversifying into neglected and underutilized crops, promoting use of non-fresh water in agriculture, rethinking food systems as a whole, and empowerment of women in science ( https://www.fao.org/science-technology-and-innovation/en ). From 2012 until her appointment at FAO, Dr. Elouafi was Director General at the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture based in the United Arab Emirates. In this role, she spearheaded the development and implementation of the center’s long-term strategy and expanded its mandate to marginal environments, an agroecosystem concept which she helped to mainstream in the global research and development discourse. Dr. Elouafi had previously held senior scientific and leadership positions, including Senior Adviser to the Assistant Deputy Minister, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Research Branch in Ottawa, Canada (2006-2007); the National Manager of Plant Research Section (2007-2010); and Director of Research Management and Partnerships Division at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (2010-2012). Dr. Elouafi had also worked as a scientist with several international research organizations, including the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences, and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center. Dr. Elouafi has been a member of various strategy expert panels and advisory groups, including with the Global Commission on Adaptation and HarvestPlus. Dr. Elouafi sits on the boards of the International Food Policy Research Institute, the USA; the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International, the UK; and the Professional Development Institute, Canada. Dr. Elouafi is also a member of the Scientific Group for the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit and of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) System Management Board. Dr. Elouafi's contributions to science and policy have been recognized with a number of prestigious awards and accolades, including the National Reward Medal by His Majesty Mohamed VI, the King of Morocco (2014), and the Excellence in Science Award from the Global Thinkers Forum (2014). Dr. Elouafi holds a B.Sc. in Agricultural Sciences (1993) and an M.Sc. in Genetics and Plant Breeding (1995) from the Hassan II Institute of Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine, Morocco, and a Ph.D. in Genetics (2001) from the University of Cordoba, Spain. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Moupali Das, MD, MPH, is Executive Director, HIV Clinical Research, in the Virology Therapeutic Area, at Gilead Sciences ( https://www.gilead.com/ ) , where she leads the pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) clinical drug development program, including evaluating the safety and efficacy of a long-acting, twice yearly, subcutaneous injection being studied for HIV prevention. Her responsibilities also include expanding the populations who may benefit from PrEP. Dr. Das has led high-performing teams in academic medicine, public health, implementation science, and cross-functionally in drug development. She has successfully helped develop, implement, and evaluate how to better test, link to care, increase virologic suppression, and improve quality of life for people with HIV, and to prevent HIV in those who may benefit from PrEP. During the COVID19 pandemic, Dr. Das assisted her colleagues in the COVID-19 treatment program, leading the evaluation of a COVID-19 treatment for use in pregnant women and children from the compassionate use program. After completing her undergraduate degree in Biochemical Sciences at Harvard College, medical school and internal medicine residency training at Columbia University and New York Presbyterian Hospital, Dr. Das came to University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) for fellowship training in Infectious Diseases and to University of California, Berkeley for her MPH in Epidemiology. She cared for HIV patients at San Francisco General’s storied Ward 86 clinic and attended on the inpatient ID Consult Service. She is recognized internally and externally for her expertise in epidemiology, public health, advocacy, and community engagement. Prior to joining Gilead, Dr. Das developed a novel population-based indicator, community viral load (CVL), to evaluate the impact of treatment as prevention. Her CVL research was the basis for using viral suppression to evaluate the effectiveness of President Barack Obama’s National HIV/AIDS Strategy. She also served on the Institute of Medicine Committee on Data Systems for Monitoring HIV/AIDS care. Dr. Das has authored over 60 manuscripts, presented at scientific conferences, policy forums, and for community and advocacy organizations. Her publications have been highly cited and garnered significant press coverage including in The New York Times and Nature. Dr. Das appears in her personal capacity and any views expressed are her own. Support the show