The Visible Voices

Noliwe Rooks on Interdisciplinary Scholarship

Professor, Dr, and Chair Noliwe Rooks is an interdisciplinary scholar, She is the chair of and a professor in Africana Studies at Brown University and the founding director of the Segrenomics Lab at the school. Her work explores how race and gender both impact and are impacted by popular culture, social history and political life in the United States. She works on the cultural and racial implications of beauty, fashion and adornment; race, capitalism and education, and the urban politics of food and cannabis production. Follow on Twitter: @nrookieCutting School The Segrenomics of American Education (2017)Related articlesAfrican American Homeschools as Racial ProtectionismThe Rise of Homeschooling Among Black FamiliesA revealing look at America’s most controversial charter school system. Success academyMark Zuckerberg wanted to help Newark schools. Newarkers say they weren’t heard.Historical contextBrown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954)Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)  Hair Raising: Beauty, Culture, and African American Women (1996)Related articleSoul Cap, designed for swimmers with natural Black hair, banned from Tokyo Olympics Soul Cap ShopBrown University, Department of Africana StudiesProf. Anani Dzidzienyo in the Brown Daily HeraldProf. Anani Dzidizenyo in the Brown Alumni Monthly

MK Czerwiec and Mike Natter: More Graphic Medicine

MK Czerwiec is a nurse, cartoonist, and educator. She is the creator of Taking Turns: Stories from HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371, a co-author of Graphic Medicine Manifesto  and editor of Menopause: A Comic Treatment . MK is also the comics editor for the journal Literature & Medicine.  Follow MK on Twitter @ComicNurseMK co-manages the website, podcast, annual conferences, and online community of GraphicMedicine.org. Michael Natter is an artist, humanist, and doctor. He utilizes his passion for art and storytelling in his medical life in didactic, humorous, and cathartic ways. He is a graduate of Sidney Kimmel Medical College, completed his Internal Medicine Residency at NYU/Bellevue and is a current Endocrinology fellow at NYU/Bellevue. His work has been featured in media outlets such as The Philadelphia Inquirer, Annals of Internal Medicine, Buzzfeed, and others.  Follow Mike on Twitter @mike_natter

Orlando Bravo with Verónica Toro Arana Puerto Rico’s 1st Woman Olympic Rower

Orlando Bravo is is a Founder and Managing Partner of Thoma Bravo. He led Thoma Bravo’s early entry into software buyouts and built the firm into one of the top private equity firms in the world. Today, Orlando directs the firm’s strategy and investment decisions in accordance with its principles of partnership, innovation, and performance. Orlando has overseen over 300 software acquisitions conducted by the firm, representing more than $85 billion in transaction value. Forbes named him “Wall Street’s best dealmaker” in 2019, and he was part of Thomson Reuters “Eight Buyout Pros to Watch” in 2009.Orlando was born in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from Brown University in 1992 and earned a JD from Stanford Law School and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1998.He is the Founder and Chairman of the Bravo Family Foundation, the mission of which is to provide access and opportunities to young adults in Puerto Rico. Orlando directs the organization’s various programs and initiatives to promote entrepreneurship, community-based leadership and economic development in Puerto Rico. After Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017, he spearheaded a humanitarian mission to remote communities on the island. In 2019, Orlando committed $100 million to the Foundation’s Rising Entrepreneurs Program (REP) with the goal of fostering entrepreneurship in Puerto Rico.Orlando is a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Corporation of Brown University.  Read more about Orlando in this Forbes 2019 article. Follow Orlando on Twitter @OrlandoBravoTB and LinkedInVerónica Tora Arana is born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, She is the first woman Olympic Rower for Puerto Rico. She graduated from MIT in 2016, where she studied Biological Engineering and started rowing. Currently, she is an MD student at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She is a part of the Cardiovascular Biomechanics Computation Lab at Stanford, where she researches Pulmonary Valve Replacement Outcomes in children with Tetralogy of Fallot. She hopes to become a Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgeon and help to serve this patient population on the island. She began competing as the Woman Single sculler for Puerto Rico in 2014. She is named Rowing athlete of the year for Puerto Rico in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2019. In 2019, I made it to the A Final at the Pan-American Games. She has trained in the boathouse featured in The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.On March 5, 2021 at the Lagõa de Freitas in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, she became Puerto Rico's first woman Olympic rower. She aims to convey: YES WE CAN, as women and as Puerto Ricans.Follow Verónica on LinkedIn and Instagram. Help Verónica's GoFundMe on her way to the Olympics2021

Andy Slavitt on his new book Preventable

On the day Andy and I spoke the supreme court upheld the ACA and Andy's new book Preventable just dropped. PREVENTABLE: The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the U.S. Coronavirus Response is the definitive inside account of the United States' failed response to the Coronavirus pandemicAndy Slavitt was President Biden’s White House Senior Advisor for the COVID Response at the beginning of his term where he oversaw direct communication with the public  on the SARS-CoV2 pandemic. He has led many of the nation’s most important health care initiatives, serving as President Obama’s head of Medicare and Medicaid and overseeing the turnaround, implementation and defense of the Affordable Care Act. He is host of the award winning In the Bubble podcast. 

Maria Uloko and Gina Northington The Pelvic Floor and Female Sexual Health

During her residency at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Maria Uloko launched her podcast, “Battle Cry,” as “a love letter” to minorities pursuing careers in STEM.Maria Uloko is a urologist, Inclusive Sexual Medicine, prosthetic/reconstruction, transgender health and Male Infertility Fellow at San Diego Sexual Medicine. Interested in making medicine progressive and innovative. For the 2020-2021 year she completed a fellowship in male and female sexual dysfunction, infertility and prosthetic urology in San Diego under the guidance of Irwin Goldstein, MD, Director of Sexual Medicine at Alvarado Hospital Medical Center and founding editor of the Journal of Sexual Medicine, Dr. Martin Bastuba, a urologic reproductive specialist, and Dr. Jordan Spiegel, a reconstructive urologist at Scripps hospital in La Jolla California. Maria completed her internship in general surgery and residency in urology at the University of Minnesota. Follow Maria on TwitterIn 2011, Dr. Gina Northington joined the faculty at Emory University School of Medicine. She is currently Associate Professor and Director of the Division of Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery (FPMRS) in the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics. She is also Chief of Clinical service for OB/GYN at Emory University Hospital. Gina's clinical areas of interest include geriatric gynecology, neuromodulation, pelvic organ prolapse, urinary incontinence, and overactive bladder. She currently participates in several clinical trials and translational research projects investigating mechanisms of female pelvic floor disorders. Prior to joining the faculty at Emory, Dr. Northington was an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania where she also completed her fellowship training. In addition to her administrative positions at Emory, Gina is also fellowship program director for FPMRS at Emory and was responsible for Emory receiving ACGME Accreditation for the Fellowship program the first year it was offered by the ACGME in 2013.  Follow Gina on Twitter

Lash Nolen and Alister Martin are Impacting Healthcare

LaShyra “Lash” Nolen is a second-year student at Harvard Medical School where she is serving as student council president of her class. She is the first documented black woman to hold this leadership position. She is a published author and fervent advocate for social justice with commentary published in the Boston Globe, New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, and HuffPost. Lash is a Foster Scholar in Health Policy, Advocacy, and Media at the MGH Stoeckle Center for Primary Care Innovation and a co-host for the Clinical Problem Solvers Anti-Racism in Medicine podcast. Most recently she founded https://www.wegotusproject.org/, a grassroots community empowerment project with the goal of bringing vaccine education and access to Black communities in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her work has earned her the honor of becoming the 2020 National Minority Quality Forum’s youngest “40 under 40 Leader in Minority Health”, named a “2020 Young Futurist” by The Root Magazine, and the 2021 recipient of the American Medical Student Association's Racial Justice in Medicine Award.  Follow Lash on Twitter @LashNolenAlister Martin MD MPP is faculty at the MGH Center for Social Justice and Health Equity  at Harvard  Medical School and Founder of Get Waivered, a campaign aimed at transforming emergency departments nationwide into the front door for recovery for patients with opioid addiction. This work serves as a  national model at the NIH with several state partnerships including Get Waivered Texas and Get Waivered Nebraska. Alister trained at Harvard after working in state health policy and after getting an MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School  of Government where he was a fellow at the Center for Public Leadership. In 2013, he accepted a position  as a Health Policy Aide to Governor Peter Shumlin of Vermont given that state's ongoing transition to a single payer system at the time. Over the subsequent year, he led a team in the Governor’s office responsible for building the communications plan for Vermont’s proposed single payer plan called Green Mountain Care.  Alister previously served as Chief Resident at MGH/Brigham Hospital. He now leverages his background in politics, healthcare policy, and the field of behavioral economics to use the ED as a place to build programs that serve the needs of vulnerable patients. He leads a program which offers patients who are unregistered voters the opportunity to register to vote through a program called VotER.  Follow Alister on Twitter @AlisterFMartin

Erin Peavey and Jennifer Roberts on Health Design and the Built Environment

Impact of the Build Environment on Health (CDC)Erin K. Peavey is a believer in the power of place to heal, connect, and serve vulnerable people — from hospital patients and staff, to people struggling with social isolation and mental health challenges. In her leadership role at HKS, she helps integrate research and practice to advance the creation and communication of knowledge across the firm. Erin served as research chair on the board of trustees on the Academy of Architecture for Health Foundation for close to a decade, and was adjunct faculty at The Pratt Institute and New York School of Interior Design. She is an industry scholar with the Cornell Institute for Health Futures and is a widely-sought after author, speaker and facilitator. Her podcast, Shared Space, explores how architecture and design can help us live healthier, happier and more connected lives.  Podcast Host @ Shared Space Erin on Twitter: @erin_peaveyEin on Linkedin Erin K PeaveyErin's Website: https://www.erinpeavey.comErin on WKRA March 2021: After Social Distancing, This Architect Is Hoping for A 'Renaissance of Connection'Erin in Psychology Today May 2021: Is your Environment Making You LonelyJennifer D. Roberts is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology, School of Public Health at the University of Maryland College Park (UMD).  Dr. Roberts is also the Founder and Director of the Public Health Outcomes and Effects of the Built Environment (PHOEBE) Laboratory as well as the Co-Founder and Co-Director of NatureRx@UMD, an initiative that emphasizes the natural environmental benefits interspersed throughout and around the UMD campus.  Her scholarship focuses on the impact of built, social, and natural environments, including the institutional and structural inequities of these environments, on the public health outcomes of marginalized communities. Presently, Dr. Roberts’ is leading the Purple Line Light Rail Impact on Neighborhood, Health and Transit (PLIGHT) Study in order to investigate changes in light rail use, active transportation, overall physical activity, obesity and related comorbidities among Prince George’s County, Maryland residents.  She is also examining the risk of transit-induced gentrification related to this light rail train through funding she was awarded with her JPB Environmental Health Fellowship. Follow Jen on her Website JenniferDRoberts website Twitter @ActiveRoberts Twitter, LinkedIn Jennifer D. Roberts LinkedInJen on Episode 172 Therapy for Black Girls podcast September 2020 Plant Parenthood Is More Than a TrendJen on NPR April 2021:  Closing the Gap on Transportation Walking or Biking while Black can be Deadly

The Visible Voices Podcast Trailer

The Visible Voices Podcast trailer

Essen Bakery founder Tova Du Plessis and Chopped Sweets Winner Abby Dahan

From the Visible Voices podcast archives, Tova du Plessis of Essen Bakery and Abby Dahan of the Bake School join to discuss Philadelphia award winning baking. 

Jahan Mantin of Project Inkblot and Steven Christian talk Design and Equity Design

Jahan Mantin is the co-founder of Project Inkblot, a consultancy that specializes in design education and partners with companies on adopting models and tools that supporting equitable products, services, content, and experiences. Jahan began her career in advertising and marketing at Time Out New York and later as the Associate Editor for Beyond Race Magazine. Jahan earned a B.A. in Communications and Culture from Clark University and reived the Kate Spade and Company Fellowship at the New Museum Incubator.  "I'm a designer and futurist, partnering with companies to build equitable products/services using Design for Diversity™ D4D.  Design for Diversity™ helps illuminate blind spots around cultural and racial biases within your team’s design processes, before they are embedded into the end product.  As the co-founder of Project Inkblot, our team has developed a framework to guiding how we design, create and build services, content etc. to not just guardrail against racial biases – but to center the voices, leadership and vision of those most impacted within our design process. I'm a relationship builder, a natural storyteller (before "storytelling" was a buzzword), connector, curator and community builder." Follow Project Inkblot on TwitterSteven Christian started his creative journey as a student-athlete. He got injured so he began to explore design. This path has led him into the augmented reality space where he empowers Black communities to express themselves through creativity, art, and technology. Born and raised in Sacramento, CA, Steven Christian grew up playing sports. He earned a football scholarship at the University of Hawaii. During his college career, he injured his hips and had to get bilateral hip reconstructive surgery. It was then that he began to explore art, comics, and development for mobile devices. It became an avenue of self-expression as well as therapy. He then received his Master of Arts from Oregon State where he focused on visual representation of social issues through an interdisciplinary lens: primarily animation and illustration. This path has led him into the augmented reality space where he is empowering Black communities to express themselves through creativity, art, and technology, and is now admitted to Medical School.  At Iltopia Studios, he tells stories about the Black experience in America using art and technology. His goal is to educate, empower, and entertain through immersive content creation.He founded Iltopia Studios as a creative studio to scale what he does into a platform that inspires and empowers people from his community to push beyond what is expected of them. Follow Steven on Twitter