The Visible Voices

Nina Jacobson on Color Force and the Film Industry

Nina R. Jacobson is the founder and president of Color Force productions.Nina Jacobson built an impressive career as a senior film executive at three major motion picture studios before founding the independent company Color Force in 2007.  Jacobson has produced The Hunger Games franchise, grossing $2.9 billion worldwide, the groundbreaking feature Crazy Rich Asians, and the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.  Jacobson and her partner Brad Simpson have executive produced The People V OJ Simpson: American Crime Story and The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, which received two Emmys and two Golden Globes. Color Force recently wrapped production on Impeachment: American Crime Story and Y: The Last Man.Timeline of Nina's professional roles:—1988: Jacobson joins Silver Pictures as director of feature entertainment—1993: Jacobson moves to the role of Senior Vice President of Production at Universal Studios, where she oversees the development and production of ‘90s gems like Dazed and Confused, 12 Monkeys, and many more—1995: Jacobson comes on as a senior executive at DreamWorks, where she helped shepherd films such as Antz and The Sixth Sense—1995: Jacobson and producer Bruce Cohen establish Out There, a collective of gay and lesbian entertainment industry activists, formalizing their colleagues’ efforts to raise the visibility, awareness and collective power of queer filmmakers—1998: She begins her role as a senior exec at Disney, overseeing film production and developing scripts for Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures and Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group. It’s during this period she would help helm gigantic properties like the Pirates of the Caribbean, Chronicles of Narnia and Princess Diaries franchises—2003: Jacobson wins a Women in Film Crystal Award—2005: Forbes includes the power player in its list of 100 “Most Powerful Women,” as the business world takes note of the influence Jacobson has had both on the industry and the world at large—2007: Jacobson makes the move from studio exec to producer when she founds Color Force with partner Brad Simpson. The shingle quickly emerges as an incubator for the wonderful projects she’s helped usher in during the past decade—2009: Jacobson and Color Force acquire the film rights to The Hunger Games book series, a property that would spawn four films and go on to become an enormous worldwide success. The Hunger Games becomes another shining example of how you can build a blockbuster franchise (almost $3 billion in combined revenue) around someone other than a male—2016: Color Force takes on the small screen as their production of The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story premieres on FX and is met with immediate acclaim and a slew of awards—2018: Jacobson and Color Force release the feature adaptation Crazy Rich Asians, which — spoilers — is also a huge success and underscores how vital, fun and profitable stories of underrepresented communities can be on the big screenSelected articles and interviews—https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/hunger-games-producer-nina-jacobson-interview-300719/—https://www.indiewire.com/2019/01/nina-jacobson-sundance-producers-brunch-keynote-speech-1202038685/—https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/crazy-rich-asians-producer-nina-jacobson-inclusion-hollywood-timeline-successful-career-1167199/—https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27L2NnO2LRc—https://deadline.com/2019/01/sundance-usc-annenberg-inclusion-initiative-stacy-l-smith-angela-robinson-nina-jacobson-karim-ahmad-diversity-inclusion-representation-1202541675/—https://www.latinheat.com/everything-related-to-film/film/nina-jacobson-to-speak-at-hollywood-networking-breakfast/—https://brownbears.com/news/2019/3/20/diversity-and-inclusion-womens-history-month-2019-nina-jacobson-87-film-executive.aspx—https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/09/fashion/nina-jacobson-hollywood-diversity-hunger-games-american-crime-story.html—https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/style/residence-nina-jacobson-382231/

Matt Carrano and Barb Natterson-Horowitz Chat Dinosaurs

Matthew Carrano always wanted to be a paleontologist and is still somewhat amazed that he actually is one. He is currently the Curator of Dinosauria at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, where he studies dinosaur evolution and paleobiology. Most recently, he served as lead curator for the museum’s new paleontology exhibition, Deep Time, which opened in 2019. Matthew graduated from Brown University in 1991 with a B.S. in Geology-Biology, and earned his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Originally from Branford, Connecticut, he now lives in Washington, DC with his wife, Diana and son, Max.B. Natterson Horowitz, MD, is a New York Times bestselling author of the award-winning books Zoobiquity  (Twitter) and Wildhood. A cardiologist and evolutionary biologist on the faculty of Harvard and UCLA, Dr. Natterson Horowitz studies animals in their natural settings to find solutions for human health challenges. 

Dave Smith and Brad Johnson: Men Can Be Better Allies

Women are at a disadvantage. At home, they often face an unequal division of household chores and childcare, and in the workplace, they deal with lower pay, lack of credit for their contributions, roadblocks to promotion, sexual harassment, and more. And while organizations are looking to address these issues, too many gender-inclusion initiatives focus on how women themselves should respond, reinforcing the perception that these are "women's issues" and that men—often the most influential stakeholders in an organization—don't need to be involved.A Navy pilot-turned-associate-professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, David G. Smith PhD led combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Trained in military sociology and social psychology, he now focuses his research on  gender, work, and family issues. W. Brad Johnson PhD, who served as a lieutenant commander in the Navy’s Medical Service Corps,  is a professor of psychology at the U.S. Naval Academy. He specializes in mentoring, professional ethics, and counseling. Dave and Brad have co-authored 2 books and numerous articles including those in the Harvard Business Review: Good Guys: How Men Can Be Better Allies for Women in the Workplace and Athena Rising: How and Why Men Should Mentor Women. Some HBR articles:How Men Can Confront Other Men About Sexist BehaviorThe Missing Link in Gender Equality EffortsHow Men Can Be More Inclusive LeadersMale Allyship Is About Paying AttentionGender Equity Starts in the HomeMen Can Improve How They Mentor Women. Here’s How.How Men Can Become Better Allies to WomenGender Equity Is Not Zero SumRead more on their website:  Workplace Allies.Dave on twitter @davidgsmithphd

Lenox Hill : Award-winning Medical DocuSeries

Lenox Hill is a Netflix original TV series that hit the streaming service in 2020. Lenox Hill is a nine-episode documentary series about the real-life Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. The series follows four medical professionals in Obstetrics-Gynecology (Amanda Little-Richardson), Emergency Medicine (Mirtha Macri), and Neurosurgery (David Langer and John Boockvar). The Lenox Hill team filmed the first ever COVID-19 episode of television, highlighting the pandemic in the early stages of the virus. Lenox Hill in the NewsIsraeli Makers of Netflix Hit 'Lenox Hill' on Capturing Coronavirus and BLM StrugglesThe top-rated Netflix shows available to watch right now (June 2021)How the Lenox Hill Doctors' Lives Have Changed Since the Show Was FilmedHow a Neurosurgeon (and Netflix Star) Spends His SundaysYulari films : Ruthie Shatz and Adi Barash founded Brooklyn-based Yulari Films. They are a prolific and award winning director - producer - writer team. The company excels in the documentary arena by penetrating complex organizations to address themes of community and diversity, revealing the strength and drive of the human spirit as their guiding force. Barash and Shatz go deep into a subject’s core while creating ambitious character-driven verite projects that touch on taboo subjects with their unique cinematic lance. Follow Ruthie on TwitterMirtha Macri DO is originally from New Jersey. She graduated from New York College of Osteopathic Medicine, and completed residency in Emergency Medicine at Mt Sinai West and North, formally St Lukes Roosevelt Hospitals. She has over 10 years experience in Emergency Medicine, and  currently practices at Lenox Health Greenwich Village stand alone emergency department in Manhattan where she also focuses on community outreach. Apart from Emergency Medicine,  she has focused on international medicine specifically in remote regions of the Peruvian Amazon with a group Amazon Health Project. Dr Macri also collaborates with Northwell Health's Minority Medical Education Committee working with youngElan "Lonny" Levy MD graduated from the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine.  He trained at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital in Emergency Medicine and has been a New Yorker ever since.  He serves as the Chair of Emergency Medicine at Lenox Health Greenwich Village, part of Northwell Health.  His interests include operations, strategy, and financial performance.  

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