Progress, Potential, and Possibilities Podcast / Show

Send us a textMs. Maya Abi Chahine, is Program Manager, University for Seniors, American University of Beirut - AUB. The University for Seniors is a new life-long learning initiative at AUB, the first of its kind in Lebanon and the Middle East. It gives older adults (who are 50 and above) the opportunity to share their wisdom and passion, to learn things they have always wanted to learn in a friendly academic environment and to interact socially with other seniors, AUB faculty and students. Ms. Abi Chahine holds an MA in Public Policy & Ageing from King’s College London and is a passionate advocate and researcher in health, well being issues and third age learning. Her portfolio includes collaborations with UN agencies, including WHO, United Nations Population Fund, and International Labour Organization, as well as INGOs such as HelpAge International and universities in the UK. Ms. Abi Chahine has 21 years of experience in setting-up and managing programs in the fields of public health, gerontology and education, notably universities. Throughout her multifaceted career, she developed skills in establishing and restructuring programs, by spearheading strategies, setting institutionalization mechanisms and driving daily operations that ensured customers and collaborators’ satisfaction and expansion. Ms. Abi Chahine has been leading AUB’s University for Seniors for the past 10 years along with her team, and she recently co-led, with Dr. Abla Mehio Sibai (Co-founder and the current President of the newly established ‘Center for Studies on Ageing’ in Lebanon) the drafting of the first ever National Strategy on Ageing in Lebanon. The latest recognition of Ms. Abi Chahine's work came with WHO’s Centre for Health Development selecting the lifelong learning program she’s been leading and transforming at AUB, as one of the 10 most innovative community-based social innovations in low and middle-income countries. When not working, Ms. Abi Chahine would be savoring nature, discovering new countries, cultures and people. She also revels in exploring new paths to evolve and grow!Support the show

Send us a textAshley Llorens  is Vice President, Distinguished Scientist & Managing Director, at Microsoft Research Outreach, where he leads a global team to amplify the impact of research at Microsoft and to advance the cause of science and technology research around the world. His team is responsible for driving strategy and execution for Microsoft Research engagement with the rest of Microsoft and with the broader science and technology community, and they invest in high-impact collaborative research projects on behalf of the company, create pipelines for diverse, world-class talent, and generate awareness of the current and envisioned future impact of science and technology research. Prior to joining Microsoft, Mr. Llorens served as the founding chief of the Intelligent Systems Center at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), where he directed research and development in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and neuroscience and created APL’s first enterprise-wide AI strategy and technology roadmap. During his two decades at APL, Mr. Llorens led interdisciplinary teams in developing novel AI technologies from concept to real-world application with a focus on autonomous systems. His background is in machine learning and signal processing and current research interests include reinforcement learning for real-world systems, machine decision-making under uncertainty, human-machine teaming, and practical AI safety. As a subject matter expert in AI and autonomous systems, Mr Llorens has served on advisory boards and strategic studies for the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Academy of Sciences. He was recently nominated by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to serve as an AI expert on the Global Partnership on AI and was elected to serve as the Science Representative on its inaugural steering committee. Alongside Mr. Llorens career in engineering, while earning his B.S. and M.S. at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, he pursued a parallel career as a hip-hop artist, also known as SoulStice, founding Wandering Soul Records and serves as a voting member of the Recording Academy, the institution that organizes the Grammys.Support the show

Send us a textDr. Daniel Ives, Ph.D. is Founder and CEO of Shift Bioscience Ltd. (https://shiftbioscience.com), a biotech company making drugs for cellular rejuvenation in humans through the application of machine-learning 'driver' clocks to cellular reprogramming, and is the scientific founder who first discovered the gene shifting targets upon which the Shift drug discovery platform is based. Dr. Ives graduated from Imperial College with a degree in biochemistry and gained his PhD in 2013 working at the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit in Cambridge. He carried out his post-doctoral studies under Ian Holt at the National Institute of Medical Research in Mill Hill, now part of the Crick Institute, pursuing damage-removal strategies for mitochondrial DNA mutations. In 2016 Dr. Ives left the Crick Institute and founded Shift Bioscience to commercialize mitochondrial targeted drugs for age linked diseases, incorporating novel ageing biomarkers technologies, CRISPR screens, and other tools to dissect true functional 'drivers' of ageing phenotypes.Support the show

Send us a text Stephan Gans is Senior Vice President, Chief Consumer Insights and Analytics Officer at PepsiCo, where he leads the company’s focus on better understanding emotional motivations, anticipating consumer behaviors, strengthening customer connections and driving overall business growth. Prior to joining PepsiCo, Stephan was the chief strategy officer for Interbrand North America, overseeing North American and Global practices. Before joining Interbrand, Stephan was co-owner and CEO of the global marketing consultancy EffectiveBrands, which focused exclusively on building effective marketing organizations for global brand leaders, until it was acquired by WPP in 2014. Stephan began his career at Unilever, where he held both brand management and leadership roles in Europe and the U.S. Stephan has a Masters in Econometrics from University of Amsterdam. Support the show

Send us a textBjørn Haugland is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of SKIFT Business Climate Leaders (https://www.skiftnorge.no/english), a Norwegian business-led climate initiative with a mission to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy and support the government in delivering on its national climate commitments by 2030. The coalition hopes to demonstrate, to businesses and the government, the business potential that exists in the low-carbon economy and help drive the transition. Mr. Haugland is the former Executive Vice President and the Chief Sustainability Officer in DNV GL Group where he oversaw the groups sustainability performance and drove company-wide sustainability initiatives. Mr. Haugland has extensive experience assisting multinational companies in areas such as corporate sustainability, innovation and business development. He was responsible for the Global Opportunity Report, a joint initiative together with UN Global Compact and Sustainia, a fact-based sustainability consulting and communication firm. Mr. Haugland is today a board member at the University of Bergen, WWF, The Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), Sporveien and Kezzler. He is also member of the advisory Board for Centre for Responsible Leadership. He is co-founder of Zeabuz, a new service for urban, emission free, autonomous ferries and Terravera, a tech foundation to make sustainability a reality by giving anyone insights to support their everyday decisions. He is member of the The Norwegian Board of Technology (NBT) that advises the Norwegian Parliament and Government on new technology as well as a member of Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences. Mr. Haugland has a M.Sc. in Naval Architecture – Marine Structures and Hydrodynamics, from The Norwegian Institute of Technology and attended the “Strategic International Leadership” program at International Institute for Management Development (IMD) and "Leading Digital Transformation" (INSEAD). Mr. Haugland is widely recognized in the global debate on sustainability and technology and he has his own blog on the Huffington Post and he is regularly writing articles for Recharge, Teknisk Ukeblad and Sysla Maritime.Support the show

Send us a text Dr. James Allen is a primary care internal medicine specialist who developed a fascinating career in international health management and leadership. Dr. Allen served in the U.S. public health service before moving to Indonesian Borneo in 1994. For the next 22 years he worked in community and occupational health across Asia, managing health teams in 14 countries. As Chevron’s Asia Pacific medical director, he led projects for TB control in Myanmar, primary care in the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Bangladesh; and emergency medicine in Azerbaijan and rural China. After moving to California headquarters in late 2015, Dr. Allen created a global strategy on corporate responsibility for health, establishing a data-based approach in alignment with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation of Seattle. As Chevron’s senior consulting health scientist, he advised social investment teams in Australasia, Central Europe, Latin America, North America, and West Africa. Dr. Allen completed his career at Chevron in 2021 by leading the implementation of Covid-19 management practices for a consortium of oil and gas companies in Angola. In 2012, Dr. Allen became an adjunct faculty member for the Levinson Institute’s Strategic Leadership for Healthcare Executives, previously affiliated with Harvard Medical School, and now with Pariveda Solutions and Rice University. His education includes a BA from Antioch College, MS from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and his medical degree from Kirksville, MO. He is certified in internal medicine by the American Board of Internal Medicine, and has completed graduate studies in public health, occupational medicine, tropical medicine, toxicology, and healthcare finance and systems management from various institutions – Cornell, the Medical College of Wisconsin, NY Medical College and Singapore Management Institute. Dr. Allen serves on the Global Advisory Board for the Texas Children’s Hospital HOPE project (Hematology and Oncology Pediatric Excellence), to improve cancer care for children across sub-Saharan Africa. His most recent endeavor is a start-up organization to help corporations and private donors effectively invest in community health in low-resource settings, called Health Systems Thinkers, LLC. Support the show

Send us a text Dr. Dennis McKenna is an American ethnopharmacologist, research pharmacognosist, lecturer, author, and Founder of the McKenna Academy of Natural Philosophy (www.mckenna.academy). Dr. McKenna is a founding board member and the director of ethnopharmacology at the Heffter Research Institute, a non-profit organization concerned with the investigation of the potential therapeutic uses of psychedelic medicines. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the American Botanical Council; as Founder and Executive Director for the Institute for Natural Products Research; as an Independent Research Consultant to the Phytomedicine and Nutraceutical Industry; was formerly on the Editorial Board of Phytomedicine, International Journal of Phytotherapy and Phytopharmacology; and is an adjunct professor in the Center for Spirituality and Healing at the University of Minnesota. Dr. McKenna received his Master’s Degree in Botany from the University of Hawaii in 1979, his Ph.D. in Botanical Sciences from the University of British Columbia in 1984, and continued into post-doctoral research fellowships in the Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacology, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and in the Department of Neurology, Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. McKenna’s research led to the development of natural products for the Aveda Corporation, as well as greater awareness of natural products and medicines. He has authored or co-authored over 50 peer-reviewed scientific papers and written multiple books, including “The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss: My Life with Terence McKenna”, co-author of “The Invisible Landscape” with his brother Terence, and co-author of a widely recognized reference work on herbal medicines, titled “Botanical Medicines: the Desk Reference for Major Herbal Supplements”. Dr. McKenna's publications have appeared in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology, European Journal of Pharmacology, Brain Research, Journal of Neuroscience, Journal of Neurochemistry, Economic Botany, Alternative and Complementary Therapies, and elsewhere. Support the show

Send us a text Dr. Ingo Rauth, is the Founder and Career Purpose Coach, of The School of Becoming, a learning platform focused on purpose-led professional development, supporting individuals and organizations on the path from paycheck to purpose. Dr. Rauth is also an Adjunct Professor in Design and Innovation Management at IE business School in Madrid, Spain. Dr. Rauth's current research is focused on facilitating innovation capabilities in large organizations to improve their innovation efforts. Dr. Rauth's background includes several years of working as a design consultant concerned with innovation projects of major companies such as Nokia, Philips and Steelcase. This experience led to his current interest in supporting large organizations in utilizing design as a driver for innovation. In 2003, Dr. Rauth launched his first nonprofit organization to help teenagers, interested in design, get started with their education, and until today, this self-financed organization, has helped more than 14.000 of them to find their way. Dr. Rauth has his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Innovation Management & Design from Chalmers University of Technology and did Post Doctoral work at the University Of Cincinnati and the University Of Toronto. Dr. Rauth is also a Fellow of The Modern Elder Academy (MEA), the world's first "midlife wisdom school" dedicated to career and life transitions, and recently published a white paper with MEA founder Chip Connelly, hospitality entrepreneur of Joie de Vivre Hospitality and Airbnb fame, entitled "The Emergence of Long Life Learning". Support the show

Send us a textDr. Bonnie Offit, MD is the Chief Digital Health Officer at the technology company Self Care Decisions which has an innovative online medical symptom tracker and triage system which helps healthcare organizations provide self care decision content to their patients, plan members and communities. Dr. Offit also recently served as Clinical Advisor in Digital Health, at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Dr Offit has been a general pediatrician in both primary and urgent care settings for more than 30 years at CHOP, and now she combines her clinical experience with her passion for using technology to solve healthcare problems. After gaining personal experience as a Tele-health provider, she learned the value of video visits first hand. Highlights of Dr. Offit's past work at CHOP include implementing a free School Tele-health program in an under-served school district, running tele-health pilots, and participating on several digital health projects including store and forward dermatology e-visits and symptom checkers. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Dr. Offit helped scale tele-health in every department at CHOP including primary care, urgent care, specialty care and surgery. Outside of her medical practice, Bonnie has experience in starting small businesses including several frozen yogurt shops, a café, a food truck, a local magazine and most recently, Murphy Cares (https://murphycares.com/), which offers a novel type of digital pet therapy. Dr. Offit received her medical degree from The University of Virginia then completed her pediatric residency at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She received a certificate in health informatics from Drexel University.Support the show

Send us a text Christina Hunger is a speech pathologist and the creator of Hunger for Words, which is working at the fascinating intersection of animal psychology, speech pathology, and Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). Christina is known for her groundbreaking work in being the first person to teach her dog Stella to talk using a customized communication device and speech therapy techniques. Christina has a B.A. in Psychology from Case Western Reserve University and a graduate degree in speech language pathology from Northern Illinois University, and has professional expertise in augmentative and alternative communication working with young children with significant delays in language development as an early intervention speech therapist. She is also an author of a new book - How Stella Learned to Talk: The Groundbreaking Story of the World's First Talking Dog Support the show