Progress, Potential, and Possibilities Podcast / Show

Send us a textDr. Jennifer Ogeer, DVM, MSC, MBA is Vice President of Medical Science & Innovation at Antech Diagnostics (https://www.antechdiagnostics.com/), one of the world's largest reference laboratory networks, and a unit of Mars Veterinary Health (https://www.marsveterinary.com/). Dr. Ogeer is also Chair of the Board Of Directors of Veterinarians Without Borders (https://www.vetswithoutborders.ca/), an organization that works with governments, educational institutions, non-governmental organizations, local communities, farmers’ groups, and international agencies, to tackle root-cause issues affecting public health, animal health and ecosystem health in developing communities around the world. Dr. Ogeer is also Vice-Chair of the Diversify Veterinary Medicine Coalition (https://diversifyvetmed.org/) which is working to bring greater diversity to the veterinary profession. Dr. Ogeer is a graduate of the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC), University of Guelph, Canada. She completed an emergency medicine/critical care residency at Tufts University/Angell Memorial Animal Hospital in Boston and a Master of Science degree in Critical Care at the Ontario Veterinary College. She also has completed an Executive MBA at Western University (Canada). Dr. Ogeer is a highly experienced residency-trained emergency and critical care veterinarian with a rich and diverse background in clinical practice, academic teaching/education, research and business management consulting. As a former associate professor she has worked in specialty referral hospitals and several university teaching hospitals, including University of Guelph, University of Saskatchewan and Texas A&M University. Dr. Ogeer is an active member of the veterinary community, and has published various articles in peer-reviewed journals and conducted research on hospital-acquired infections and developed protocols for infectious disease outbreak management and prevention.Support the show

Send us a textDr. Mona Flores M.D., is the Global Head of Medical AI, at NVIDIA (https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/author/monaflores/), the American multinational technology company, where she oversees the company’s AI initiatives in medicine and healthcare to bridge the chasm between technology and medicine. Dr. Flores first joined NVIDIA in 2018 with a focus on developing their healthcare ecosystem. Before joining NVIDIA, she served as the chief medical officer of digital health company Human- Resolution Technologies after a 25+ year career in medicine and cardiothoracic surgery. Dr. Flores received her medical degree from Oregon Health and Science University, followed by a general surgery residency at the University of California at San Diego, a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Stanford, and a cardiothoracic surgery residency and fellowship at Columbia University in New York. Dr. Flores also has a Masters of Biology from San Jose State and an MBA from the University at Albany School of Business. She initially worked in investment banking for a few years before pursuing her passion for medicine and technology.Support the show

Send us a textDr. Eric Verdin, MD (https://www.buckinstitute.org/lab/verdin-lab/) is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, as well as Professor of Medicine at University of California, San Francisco (https://bms.ucsf.edu/people/eric-verdin-md). Dr. Verdin's lab currently studies the relationship between aging and the immune system per associated defects in the adaptive immune system, and over chronic activation of the innate immune system, as well as programs on how metabolism, diet, and small molecules regulate the activity of histone deacetylases and sirtuins, and thereby the aging process and its associated diseases, including Alzheimer’s. Dr. Verdin has published more than 200 scientific papers and holds more than 15 patents. He is a highly cited scientist (top 1 percent) and has been recognized for his research with a Glenn Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging and a senior scholarship from the Ellison Medical Foundation. Dr. Verdin is an elected member of several scientific organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and the Association of American Physicians. He also serves on the advisory council of National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Verdin has extensive experience working with biotech companies. He is a founder of Acylin (purchased by Abbvie). He served on the scientific advisory boards of Elixir, Sirtris (purchased by GSK), Calico (Google), and Nokia, and he also served as advisor to Sofinnova Ventures. Dr. Verdin has also worked for several years as a consultant to Novartis, GSK, J&J, Altana, Roche, Pfizer, and other biotech companies. Dr. Verdin received his Doctorate of Medicine (MD) from the University of Liege, completed additional clinical and research training at Harvard Medical School, and has held faculty positions at the University of Brussels, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Picower Institute for Medical Research.Support the show

Send us a text John Wright is the Senior Vice President And Global Head of Food, at Sodexo (https://www.sodexo.com/home.html), the French food services and facilities management company, headquartered outside of Paris. Sodexo employs over 400,000 employees across 80 countries, and serves many sectors, including private corporations, government agencies, schools from preschool through university (including seminaries and trade schools), hospitals and clinics, assisted-living facilities, military bases, and prisons. Every day, Sodexo is responsible for serving meals to 100 million consumers. John has served in various roles of increasing responsibility over the past 25 years, including responsibility for management of both Sodexo signature brands and national brand portfolio, consumer insight, new offering development, and management of internal design teams, and culinary and retail / food management systems. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Corinne Leach, PhD, MPH, MS, is a gerontologist, digital health strategist, and behavioral scientist, who serves as the Senior Principal Scientist, Behavioral Research, at the American Cancer Society (https://www.cancer.org/). Dr. Leach, leads survivorship research on behalf of the Population Sciences group, serving as the Principal Investigator of the American Cancer Society (ACS) survivorship cohorts, and as the ACS-lead for the ACS-National Cancer Institute online self-management platform, Springboard Beyond Cancer, a novel eHealth tool that empowers cancer survivors to better manage their cancer-related symptoms, live healthier, and improve their communication skills about cancer (as well as other health conditions), during and after treatment. Dr. Leach’s cancer survivorship research focuses in the areas of aging, cancer-related symptom assessment, and chronic disease self-management, and her research aims to improve the understanding of: behavioral factors that contribute to healthy aging and the best way to promote them, the unique experiences of older cancer survivors, such as physical late effects and psychosocial issues, and ways to improve survivors’ self-management of cancer-related issues. Dr. Leach also studies accelerated aging after a cancer diagnosis, including the accumulation of multiple chronic conditions after a cancer diagnosis, and she evaluates the benefits of health behavior interventions, such as chronic disease self-management. Dr. Leach is also a Gerontological Society of America Fellow, member of the Cancer and Aging Research Group (CARG), Scientific Advisory Committee member for Pack Health and Dr. Susan Love Foundation for Breast Cancer Research, Adjunct Professor at Emory, Rollins School of Public Health, Susan B Anthony Aetna Award Winner for Excellence in Research on Older Women, American Public Health Association (APHA), and has authored over 70 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Leach has an MPH from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, a PhD in Gerontology from University of Kentucky, and an MS in Experimental Psychology from Villanova University.Support the show

Send us a textDr. Patrick van der Smagt is Director of ArtificiaI Intelligence Research, Volkswagen AG, and Head of Argmax.AI (https://argmax.ai/), the Volkswagen Group Machine Learning Research Lab, in Munich, focusing on a range of research domains, including probabilistic deep learning for time series modelling, optimal control, reinforcement learning robotics, and quantum machine learning. Dr. van der Smagt is also a research professor in the Computer Science faculty at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. Dr. van der Smagt previously directed a lab as professor for machine learning and biomimetic robotics at the Technical University of Munich while leading the machine learning group at the research institute fortiss, and before that, founded and headed the Assistive Robotics and Bionics Lab at DLR, the German Aerospace Center. Besides publishing numerous papers and patents on machine learning, robotics, and motor control, Dr. van der Smagt has won a number of awards, including the 2013 Helmholtz-Association Erwin Schrödinger Award, the 2014 King-Sun Fu Memorial Award, the 2013 Harvard Medical School/MGH Martin Research Prize, the 2018 Webit Best Implementation of AI Award, and best-paper awards at various machine learning and robotics conferences and journals. Dr. van der Smagt also serves as a scientific reviewer for governmental funding organizations and served on various conference and journal boards. Dr. van der Smagt is founding chairman of a non-for-profit organization for Assistive Robotics for tetraplegics, and co-founder of various tech companies. In 2018, he started a for-good initiative called 10-to-GO (https://10togo.eu/), by supporting teams using machine learning for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Also then, he initiated etami (https://www.etami.eu/en.html), an initiative on Ethical and Trustworthy Artificial and Machine Intelligence, creating an organization with almost 20 multinationals and universities. Dr. van der Smagt has his Master of Science (M.Sc.), Computer Science from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Computer and Information Sciences, from University of Amsterdam.Support the show

Send us a textGwen Darien is Executive Vice President for Patient Advocacy and Engagement, at the National Patient Advocate Foundation (https://www.npaf.org/), an organization with a mission of bringing patient voices to health system delivery reform, developing and driving initiatives promoting equitable access to affordable quality health care, and prioritizing the patient voice in health system delivery reform to achieve person-centered care. She is also Executive Vice President at their sister organization, Patient Advocate Foundation (https://www.patientadvocate.org/), a national non-profit organization which provides case management services and financial aid to Americans with chronic, life threatening and debilitating illnesses. Gwen is a longtime patient advocate who has played leadership roles in some of the country’s preeminent nonprofit organizations. As a three-time cancer survivor herself, Gwen came into cancer advocacy expressly to change the experiences and outcomes for the patients who came after her and to change the public dialogue about cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. In 2005, Gwen started the first stand-alone advocacy entity in a professional cancer research organization, at the American Association for Cancer Research, launching CR magazine – a magazine for people with cancer and those who care for them. Later, she served as the executive director of the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation; director of The Pathways Project; and executive vice president of programs and services at the Cancer Support Community, where in each role, Gwen championed placing patients at the center of health system change, whether it was for research, public policy or direct services. While serving as the chair or on the board of a wide range of program committees and workshop faculties, including the Community Engagement in Genomics Working Group of the National Human Genome Research Institute; a member of the US Pharmacopeia Board of Trustees; and as the past chair of PCORI’s Patient Engagement Advisory Panel, Gwen also continues to write about her experiences. Her most recent piece, Transformation: My Experience as a Patient and an Advocate in Three Chapters appeared in the National Academy of Medicine Perspectives (https://nam.edu/transformation-my-experience-as-a-patient-and-an-advocate-in-three-chapters/)Support the show

Send us a textDr. Mindy Howard is a Future Astronaut, and Founding Director and Lead Trainer of Inner Space Training (https://www.innerspacetraining.com/), an organization focused on psychologically preparing commercial astronauts for their space flights, including psychological acclimation to the different flight phases, as well as optimizing conditions for creating peak performance and a peak experience in space. She also serves as Director of Inner Space Training at Blue Abyss Diving, a unique human physiology and space sector research, training and development facility with one of the world’s deepest diving pools. Dr. Howard obtained her Bachelor’s and Master’s of Science in Industrial Engineering at SUNY Buffalo and University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the Technical University Eindhoven in The Netherlands, and after obtaining her Ph.D., applied to NASA and was placed on NASA's "Highly Qualified" astronaut candidate list. Dr. Howard began her career at the Royal Dutch Shell Group of companies, and held several technical and leadership roles in the company, including responsibility for creating strategy and leading implementation globally across four main specialist areas: Sustainable Development, Social Performance, Environment, and C02 management, within the Gas and Power Division. She also served as Corporate Responsibility Manager, Aramco Overseas Company, of the Saudi Aramco oil company, as well as Sustainable Strategy Manager, Aegon N.V., the Dutch multinational life insurance, pensions and asset management company. Dr. Howard has also written publications on a variety of subjects, including human factors design of cabins of spaceships, expert systems to help pilots with fault diagnosis, and quality of group decision making as groups undergo several tasks. Dr. Howard has successfully completed her certification at the National AeroSpace Training and Research (NASTAR) Center's Suborbital Scientist Training Program, which provides space flight physiology training for prospective "Suborbital Scientist-Astronauts" wishing to fly experiments on upcoming suborbital space missions. Dr. Howard has appeared on the Discovery and Travel Channels, and on the radio, both in the United States and in Europe, as a space correspondent and commentator. Dr. Howard is also a TEDx speaker (“Train your fear away, like an astronaut”) and is a Guest Lecturer at the International Space University. She is the author of her book entitled, “Blast off! Train like an astronaut for success on earth.” Blast Off! is the first book to use the techniques of commercial astronaut training to help people on earth maintain the anxiety-free emotional equilibrium and sustained mental focus needed to successfully overcome the day-to-day challenges and obstacles in their personal and professional lives.Support the show

Send us a textDr. Judith Campisi, PhD (https://www.buckinstitute.org/lab/campisi-lab/) is a biochemist, cell biologist, and Professor of Biogerontology at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. Dr. Campisi received a PhD in biochemistry from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and completed her postdoctoral training in cell cycle regulation at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. As an assistant and associate professor at the Boston University Medical School, she studied the role of cellular senescence in suppressing cancer and soon became convinced that senescent cells also contributed to aging. She joined the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as a senior scientist in 1991 working with Dr. Mina Bissell. In 2002, she started a second laboratory at the Buck Institute. At both institutions, Dr. Campisi established a broad program to understand the relationship between aging and age-related disease, with an emphasis on the interface between cancer and aging. Dr. Campisi is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Campisi has received numerous awards for her research, including two MERIT awards from the National Institute on Aging and awards from the AlliedSignal Corporation, Gerontological Society of America, and American Federation for Aging Research. She is a recipient of the Longevity prize from the IPSEN Foundation, the Bennett Cohen award from the University of Michigan, and the Schober award from Halle University, and she is the first recipient of the international Olav Thon Foundation prize in Natural Sciences and Medicine. Dr. Campisi currently serves on advisory committees for the Alliance for Aging Research, Progeria Research Foundation, and NIA’s Intervention Testing Program. She is also an editorial board member for more than a dozen peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Campisi is a scientific founder of Unity Biotechnology, a California-based company focused on developing senolytic therapies for age-related pathologies. She has served on the scientific advisory boards of the Geron Corporation, Sierra BioScience, and Sangamo Biosciences.Support the show

Send us a textDr. Björn Lárus Örvar, Ph.D. is Chief Scientific Officer, Executive VP of Business Development, and a Co-Founder of ORF Genetics (https://www.orfgenetics.com/), an innovative plant biotechnology company and a pioneer in developing and manufacturing high-quality recombinant proteins, such as growth factors, derived from barley plants. ORF Genetics was established in 2001 to develop innovative, economically viable and enabling solutions to produce recombinant proteins, using barley grain as a vehicle for their production, providing a more efficient and safer method than other protein expression systems provide. Dr. Örvar served as the CEO of the company from 2006 to 2013, and the Executive V.P. and Chief Scientific Officer of ORF Genetics since 2013, and was the Member of the Board of ORF Genetics from 2001 to 2006. Dr. Örvar received his Ph.D. in plant molecular genetics in 1997 from the University of British Columbia, Canada, and was a post-doctoral fellow at McGill University, Montréal for three years, focusing on plant cell stress signalling. Dr. Örvar is responsible for research and innovation within the company as well as being the international spokesperson for ORFs skincare brand, BIOEFFECT.Support the show