Progress, Potential, and Possibilities Podcast / Show

Send us a textMr. Viren Shah is Vice President & Chief Digital Officer, at GE Appliances (GEA - https://www.geappliances.com/), the American home appliance manufacturer, now a majority owned subsidiary of the Chinese multinational home appliances company, Haier (https://www.haierappliances.com/). Mr. Shah has been with GEA since October 2018, in which time he was appointed to lead the business through a digital transformation with a focus on data/intelligence at the center of gravity. Prior to becoming part of the Haier company, Mr. Shah was the CIO at Masco Cabinetry, and CIO Council Leader for their parent company, Masco Corporation, the international conglomerate manufacturer of products for the home improvement and new home construction markets. Mr. Shah has more than 20 years of global experience in creating business value using technology with a strong focus on customers for Fortune 10 organizations, such as his decade at the Walmart organization. He has contributed as a senior leader towards the success of startups, turnarounds and global mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Shah implemented “Think Global and Act Local” methodologies, utilizing operational and cultural experience in areas of IT strategy, omnichannel, business development and governance in more than 20 countries across the Americas, Australia, Europe, Asia and Africa. Mr. Shah holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Bombay University, a master of business administration degree in international marketing/short-term finance from the New York Institute of Technology, and an executive education certificate in digital marketing strategies for digital economy from the Wharton School.Support the show

Send us a textMr. Larry Curley is Executive Director of The National Indian Council on Aging (https://www.nicoa.org/), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1976 by members of the National Tribal Chairmen’s Association who called for a national organization focused on the needs of aging American Indian and Alaska Native elders. The mission of NICOA is to advocate for improved comprehensive health, social services and economic well-being for American Indian and Alaska Native elders. Mr. Curley is a member of the Navajo Nation with over 40 years of experience working in the aging and healthcare fields. He has worked with Congress, other branches of the federal government, and national organizations on aging to develop support for programs affecting elder American Indians. After receiving his master’s degree in public administration at the University of Arizona, along with a certificate in gerontology, Mr. Curley worked as a gerontological planner at an Area Agency on Aging in Pima County, Arizona, where he was instrumental in establishing a county public fiduciary program. As a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., he successfully advocated for the passage of Title VI of the Older Americans Act, an amendment which he wrote. Mr. Curley directed the Navajo Nation’s Head Start program, one of the five largest Head Start programs in the country, and has served as a nursing home administrator of a tribal, long-term care facility, a hospital administrator in northern Nevada, and as a college instructor at the University of Nevada-Reno and Eastern Washington University. Mr. Curley was named as the assistant dean of the Four Corners region for the Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine. He’s also served as the public representative on the American College of Physicians Clinical Guidelines Committee, and as the director of program development for the Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services in northwest New Mexico.Support the show

Send us a textEric G. Meyer is the Founder and Director of Generation Atomic (https://generationatomic.org/), a nuclear advocacy non-profit which he founded after hearing about the promise of advanced nuclear reactors, and he decided to devote his life to saving and expanding the use of atomic energy. Eric worked as an organizer on several political, union, and issue campaigns while in graduate school for applied public policy, taking time off to attend the climate talks in Paris and sing opera about atomic energy. Eric began his full time nuclear work in May of 2016 with Environmental Progress by organizing marches, rallies, and trainings in California, New York, and Illinois, before leaving to found Generation Atomic in late 2016. In only a short period of time, Generation Atomic has made significant progress in the world of nuclear advocacy. Over the last year they've held several advocacy trainings at conferences, Marched for Science, talked to over tens of thousands voters, and carried the banner for nuclear energy at the climate talks in Morocco, Germany, and Poland. Eric attended University of Minnesota-Duluth where he obtained a Master's Degree in Advocacy and Political Leadership, with Concentrations in Public Sector and Non-profits, and a Bachelor of Arts in Music Performance.Support the show

Send us a textDr. Evelyne Bischof, MD  is an expert in internal medicine and oncology, with a focus on preventative and precision medicine, bio-gerontology, and geronto-oncology. Dr. Bischof is deeply passionate about next-generation medical technology, and the applications of artificial intelligence for biomedical research and practice. Dr. Bischof spent a decade practicing medicine and performing translational research in Switzerland, US, and China. Dr. Bischof is a medical doctor with an MD from Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biology and Genetics, and interned at Columbia University, Harvard MGH, and Beth Israel Medical Deaconess. Dr. Bischof is the author of over 40 peer-reviewed papers and is a frequent speaker at scientific and medical conferences. Dr. Bischof serves as Assistant Professor - Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences; Associate Faculty Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Researcher at University Hospital of Basel. In addition to those roles, Dr. Bischof is Longevity Physician at Human Longevity, Inc., Clinical Advisor, Insilico Medicine, and Scientific Advisor, Holmusk. Dr. Bischof is also Chair of the Visionary Board of The Longevity Science Foundation (https://longevity.foundation/), a new Swiss foundation committed to distributing more than $1 billion over the next ten years to research, institutions and projects advancing healthy human longevity and extending the healthy human lifespan to more than 120 years.Support the show

Send us a textDr. Morgan Levine, PhD (https://www.morganlevinelab.com/) is Assistant Professor of Pathology and Epidemiology, at the Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Levine is also a member of both the Yale Combined Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, and the Yale Center for Research on Aging. Her work relies on an interdisciplinary approach, integrating theories and methods from statistical genetics, computational biology, and mathematical demography to develop biomarkers of aging for humans and animal models using high-dimensional -omics data. As PI or co-Investigator on multiple NIH-, Foundation-, and University-funded projects, she has extensive experience using systems-level and machine learning approaches to track epigenetic, transcriptomic, and proteomic changes with aging and incorporate this information to develop measures of risk stratification for major chronic diseases, such as cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Levine's work also involves development of systems-level outcome measures of aging, aimed at facilitating evaluation for gero-protective interventions. A number of the existing biological aging measures she has developed are being applied in both basic and observational research.Support the show

Send us a text Dr. Volkmar Weissig, Sc.D., Ph.D. is a Tenured Full Professor of Pharmacology, Chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Co-Director of the Nanomedicine Center of Excellence in Translational Cancer Research, at Midwestern University, Glendale, AZ, USA. Dr. Weissig received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry, and his postdoctoral Sc.D. degree in Biochemistry and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology from the Martin-Luther University in Halle (Germany). Dr. Weissig completed several years of postdoctoral fellowships at the Cardiology Research Center in Moscow (Russia), at the Academic Department of Medicine at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine in London (UK), at the Institute of Organic Chemistry at the Czechoslovakian Academy of Science in Prague (CSFR), at the College of Pharmacy and the College of Medicine at the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, and at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA. Before joining the faculty at Midwestern University, Dr. Weissig was an Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. Dr. Weissig holds 16 patents and he has published over 100 research papers, review articles and book chapters, mostly in the area of nano drug delivery systems. He also edited and published 8 books. He serves as the Associate Editor of the Journal of Liposome Research and he is member of several other Editorial Boards. In July 2009 he was inducted into the World Technology Network as a Fellow. In October 2014 Dr. Weissig was elected Inaugural President of the World Mitochondria Society. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Sana Farid, MD (https://www.drsanafarid.com/) is a Surgeon, Entrepreneur, and Futurist, who strives to utilize Emerging Technologies to make the world a better place, and has been key to pushing this vision and the boundaries of innovation through her extensive research and development of impactful programs using immersive technologies like Extended Reality (XR). A driving force in the progression of these Immersive Technologies, Dr. Farid has been hailed as one of the top 100 women in XR globally due to her outstanding achievements in creating industry standards, designing implementation strategies and best practices to help organizations take advantage of what immersive technologies have to offer and develop initiatives to make the use of XR safe. Dr. Farid’s major work involves helping organizations implement XR with a successful and scalable strategy and she is an avid researcher determined to use future tech solutions for societal well-being. A qualified surgeon and a distinguished ambassador of women empowerment programs in the region, she supports government and non-governmental initiatives leading them to envision, strategize and streamline AI/AR/VR based programs in various sectors, including healthcare, aviation, education and public services. Dr. Farid obtained her MBBS in Medicine & Surgery from Dow University of Health Sciences, and did a General Surgery Residency at King Hamad University Hospital in Bahrain.Support the show

Send us a textJoanna Bensz is Founder and CEO of Longevity Center (https://longevity-center.eu/), a boutique preventive health and longevity medical center, that focuses on scientifically and medically advanced technologies and protocols for healthy longevity and sustainable health. Joanna is also Founder and CEO of the International Institute of Longevity (IIOL - https://l-institute.com/), an international organization with offices in Liechtenstein and Poland, co-founded in partnership with H.S.H. Prince Michael of Liechtenstein, focusing on developing a healthy longevity agenda in Europe, identifying, highlighting and promoting solutions, technologies and lifestyle choices that prevent chronic and age related diseases leading to increasing vitality and healthy life spans. Over her career, Joanna has spent time in a range of regional, general and business development director positions, with a number of Fortune 500 companies across Central and Eastern Europe, including at the international project management, architectural and engineering PM Group, Lockheed Martin, and at Geopolitical Intelligence Services, an organization providing independent political intelligence, strategic analysis and future scenarios to companies, governments, organizations and individual leaders, also founded by H.S.H. Prince Michael of Liechtenstein. Joanna has also served as the Vice Chairman and Board Member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Poland, and was responsible for development and leadership of AmCham regional offices in Wroclaw and Kraków. Joanna holds a Master of Arts degree in German Studies from University in Wroclaw, as well as a Diploma in Strategic and International Marketing at the Dublin Business School. She also completed the Advanced Management Program at IESE, University of Navarra in Barcelona.Support the show

Send us a textDr. Paul A. Offit, MD, (https://www.paul-offit.com/) is an internationally recognized expert in the fields of virology and immunology, Co-Inventor of a landmark vaccine for the prevention of Rotavirus gastroenteritis, and holds multiple titles including - Director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital Of Philadelphia (CHOP), Maurice R. Hilleman Chair of Vaccinology and Professor of Pediatrics, Perelmann School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and Adjunct Associate Professor, The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology. Dr. Offit was a member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a founding advisory board member of the Autism Science Foundation and the Foundation for Vaccine Research, a member of the Institute of Medicine, and co-editor of the foremost vaccine text, Vaccines. Dr. Offit is a recipient of many awards including the J. Edmund Bradley Prize for Excellence in Pediatrics from the University of Maryland Medical School, the Young Investigator Award in Vaccine Development from the Infectious Disease Society of America, a Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health, and the Sabin Vaccine Institute Gold Medal. Dr. Offit has published more than 150 papers in medical and scientific journals in the areas of rotavirus-specific immune responses and vaccine safety. He is also the co-inventor of a landmark rotavirus vaccine recommended for universal use in infants by the CDC. For this achievement, Dr. Offit received the Luigi Mastroianni and William Osler Awards from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, the Charles Mérieux Award from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, and was honored by Bill and Melinda Gates during the launch of their Foundation’s Living Proof Project for global health. In addition, he has received numerous other awards and honors for his groundbreaking work. Dr. Offit is also an author of many books including, but not limited to: Vaccinated: One Man's Quest to Defeat the World's Deadliest Diseases, Overkill: When Modern Medicine Goes Too Far, The Cutter Incident: How America's First Polio Vaccine Led to the Growing Vaccine Crisis, Breaking the Antibiotic Habit, Do You Believe in Magic, and his most recent, You Bet Your Life: From Blood Transfusions to Mass Vaccination, the Long and Risky History of Medical Innovation.Support the show

Send us a textMike Graglia is the Managing Director & Co-Founder of the SynGAP Research Fund (SRF - https://www.syngapresearchfund.org/), an organization that he set up in 2018 with his wife Ashley, after their son was diagnosed with a rare neurological disease caused by an insufficiency in SynGAP protein, which causes the life-changing diagnoses of Epilepsy, Autism, sleep disorder and intellectual disability. The mission of SRF is to improve the quality of life of SynGAP1 patients through the research and development of treatments, therapies and support systems. Previously, Mike worked at the Emerson Collective, New America Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, BCG, the World Bank/IFC and the US Peace Corps/Namibia. During his time in Africa he created a small charity to fund girls' education. Mike graduated from Gonzaga University with a BS in mathematics. He then attended the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and Columbia Business School.Support the show