The Visible Voices

Paula Johnson and Joneigh Khaldun: Beyond the Hospital Walls

Paula Adina Johnson MD is a Cardiologist and academic leader. She is the 14th president- of Wellesley College and the first Black woman to serve in this role. President Johnson founded and served as the inaugural executive director of the Mary Horrigan Connors Center for Women's Health & Gender Biology, as well as Chief of the Division of Women's Health at Brigham and Women's Hospital.  She was one of the first researchers in her field to identify the need for consideration of sex differences in medical treatment, and has been a significant voice in raising awareness of the importance of sex differences in understanding women's health. In her 2013 TED talk, "His and Her Healthcare, she asks: Why leave women’s health to chance?  She was the Grace A. Young Family Professor of Medicine in the field of women's health, an endowed professorship named in honor of her mother, at Harvard Medical School. She was also Professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine. You can follow her on twitter: @DrPaulaJohnsonJoneigh S. Khaldun MD MPH is a practicing emergency medicine physician in Detroit Michigan. She is the Chief Medical Executive and Chief Deputy Director for Health for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.  She advises Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and is the top medical advisor guiding Michigan’s COVID-19 response, and oversees public health, Medicaid, behavioral health, public hospitals, and aging services for MDHHS. Prior to her roles at MDHHS, she was the director and health officer for the Detroit Health Department, where she oversaw a robust community-driven community health assessment, established a comprehensive reproductive health network and led Detroit’s response to the Hepatitis A outbreak. In 2018, Dr. Khaldun was selected for the 40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health Award by the National Minority Quality Forum; Prior to that, she was the Chief Medical Officer for Baltimore City. Dr. Khaldun practices part-time at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. In her FIX18 talk Work Like there is No Tomorrow, Dr. Khaldun  shares her own medical story and how from it she learned that we must all live life so we have no regrets and work like there is no tomorrow.  You can follow her on twitter @DrKhaldunIn this episode, we discuss the 2018 NASEM report : Sexual Harassment in Academic Science, Engineering, and Medicine . We cover leadership, storytelling, mentorship. President Johnson pays tribute 2 Black women Wellesley alums who became infected by COVID19 and died due to disparities in healthcare: Zoe Mungin and Julie Butler DVM

The Visible Voices 2020 Memorable Moments

Back for the new year. For this week's episode, I decided to create a collection of memorable moments from 2020. Honestly, there are too numerous to count. I wanted to capture pieces of conversations that really moved me: Stopped me in my tracks, made me laugh and smile, made me lose my breath.  1. EPISODE 1:  HOW IS COVID19? REPORTS OF GENEVA, LONDON, AND PHILADELPHIAThe stress and anxiety was palpable in this episode. I spoke with a doctor friends one in Eva Niyibizi Geneva, one in London Segun Olusanya, and one here in Philadelphia Jamie Garfield.2. EPISODE 3:  IS COVID19 INCITING NARRATIVE VIOLENCE?I spoke with two doctors who are also storytellers.  Dr. Emily Silverman founded and hosts the Nocturnists podcast. She has taken story telling and the audio to a whole new level. A highlight of healing for me and what is amazing here is we hear the seeds that were planted for something yet to sprout: After the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, they launched a new audio storytelling series called “Black Voices in Healthcare”, hosted by Ashley McMullen, MD and executive produced by Kimberly Manning, MD3. EPISODE 9: ASHISH JHA AND MIRIAM LAUFER ON THE CDC + #COVID19 CURRENT EVENTSI laughed with Ashish Jha and Miriam Laufer when we discussed COVID19, the CDC, vaccines were on the horizon and not yet available, and what to do with kids and summer camp. The laugh surrounds the use of the word kerfuffle4. EPISODE 11: STRUCTURAL RACISM AND THE #COVID19 PANDEMIC AS HEALTH CARE CRISESHat tip  to Yale school of medicine 4th year student Max Tiako founder and host of @FlipScriptPod podcast covering health disparities in the U.S. & globally.  5. EPISODE 16: SYNDROME KI viewed the film in Miami right before the pandemic shut down everything. Syndrome K is a documentary, which tells the story of three doctors  Adriano Ossicini. Prof Giovanni Borromeo, Vittorio Sacerdoti who saved members of Rome's Jewish community by convincing the Nazis that these Jews were infected with a deadly and contagious disease that the doctors called Syndrome K. In this segment, Dr. Ignazio Marino, a transplant surgeon and former mayor of Rome, shared that his father was deported to a concentration camp. 6. EPISODE 13: ELLEN LUPTON AND ANDREW IBRAHIM : HEALTHDESIGN 101Two well known #HealthDesigners. Andrew is the chief medical officer of HOK’s architecture Healthcare group and a general surgeon at the University of Michigan, Ellen is a senior curator at the Cooper Hewitt Museum in NYC and directs the graduate program in graphic design the Maryland Institute of Contemporary Art. Andrew is a general surgeon and They really highlighted the importance of Health Design now and going forward. Take a listen as they explain #HealthDesignNow7. EPISODE 19: A CULTURE OF SILENCE: PHYSICIAN SUICIDE AND THE DR. LORNA BREEN FOUNDATIONWe paid tribute to the Dr. Lorna Breen and discussed the Lorna Breen Heroes Foundation . If we prioritize the mental health of medical professionals who are caring for some of our most vulnerable patients, and encourage help-seeking behaviors for mental health concerns and substance use disorders by reducing stigma, increasing resources, and having open conversations about mental health- maybe we can change the culture. In this moment Dr. Dan Egan reflects on his memory of Dr. Lorna Breen a colleague and friend who died by suicide in 20208. EPISODE 10: PRESIDENT AND CEO #TIMES UP TINA TCHEN ON LEADERSHIP DURING A CRISISI spoke with Tina Tchen, American lawyer Christina M. "Tina" Tchen CEO and President of Time's Up. She was a constant voice of equity and advocacy. Here she speaks on leading during a crisis: What to do9. EPISODE 12: SENATOR MAGGIE HASSAN AND DR. HIRAL TIPIRNENI: WHY GO INTO POLITICSHere I am in conversation with Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire. Hassan is one of only two women in American history to be elected as both a Governor and a Senator. She was the 81st Governor of New Hampshire, from 2013 to 2017. She has been active and focused during the recent period advocating on topics, such as PPE, Nursing Homes, the Opioid epidemic, Unemployment insurance Paid sick leave, and Training the returning workforce. 10. EPISODE 18: GLORIA STEINEM: WHY WOULD YOU NOT USE YOUR VOICE?In February 2020,  I sat with Ms Gloria Steinem. I asked her what she did for her health her self care and gave me a look of … well listen to what she said. 

Fatima Goss Graves and Reshma Jagsi on Equity in the Workplace

Fatima Goss Graves is president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center, She has a distinguished track record working across a broad set of issues central to women’s lives, including income security, health and reproductive rights, education access, and workplace fairness. She is the recipient of the 2020 John W. Gardner Leadership Award in recognition of her groundbreaking work to advance the rights of women and girls. Fatima is among the co-founders of the TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund, which connects those who experience sexual misconduct including assault, harassment, abuse and related retaliation in the workplace or in trying to advance their careers with legal and public relations assistance. 
Ms. Goss Graves received her B.A. from UCLA in 1998 and her J.D. from Yale Law School in 2001. She began her career as a litigator at the law firm of Mayer Brown LLP after clerking for the Honorable Diane P. Wood of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She currently serves as an advisor on the American Law Institute Project on Sexual and Gender-Based Misconduct on Campus and was on the EEOC Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace and a Ford Foundation Public Voices Fellow. Follow Fatima on twitter @FGossGraves
Reshma Jagsi, M.D., D.Phil., is Newman Family Professor and Deputy Chair in the Department of Radiation Oncology and Director of the Center for Bioethics and Social Sciences in Medicine at the University of Michigan. Founding member of TIMES UP Healthcare. Spoken and published extensively on topics related to equity and harassment. She is the recipient of the 2020. Woman Oncologist of the Year Presented by Women Leaders in Oncology
She graduated Harvard College and Harvard Medical School. She also served as a fellow in the Center for Ethics at Harvard University and completed her doctorate in Social Policy at Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar.
Dr. Jagsi’s medical research focuses on improving the quality of care received by breast cancer patients, both by advancing the ways in which breast cancer is treated with radiation and by advancing the understanding of patient decision-making, cost, and access to appropriate care.  A substantial focus of her research considers issues of bioethics and gender equity in academic medicine. Her investigations of women’s under-representation in senior positions in academic medicine and the mechanisms that must be targeted to promote equity have been funded by an NIH R01 grant and grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, AMA, and other philanthropic funders. She leads the national program evaluation for the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation's Fund to Retain Clinician Scientists, a large national intervention that was inspired in part by her own research. She also leads an NIH R01-funded investigation using deliberative democratic approaches to illuminate patients’ attitudes towards secondary use of data collected in routine clinical encounters and a current Greenwall Foundation-funded investigation of patient attitudes towards approaches used by hospitals to encourage donations from grateful patients.  Follow Reshma on twitter @reshmajagsi
[Fatima Goss Graves in Washington DC][Reshma Jagsi in Ann Arbor, Michigan]

Debbie Millman: Designing the Arc of Your LIfe

Debbie Millman is a writer, designer, educator, artist, brand consultant and host of the podcast Design Matters.Design Matters is one of the world's very first podcasts. Broadcasting independently for 16 years, the show is about how incredibly creative people design the arc of their lives. Design Matters won a 2011 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award, in 2015 Apple designated it one of the best overall podcasts on iTunes, and in 2018 the show was honored by the Webby Awards. In addition, Design Matters has been listed on over 100 “Best Podcasts” lists, including one of the best podcasts in the world by Business Insider. Debbie is also co-founder and chair of the world’s first graduate program in branding at the School of Visual Arts in New York City; editorial director of Print magazine; and the author of six books on design and branding. She has worked on the design and strategy of over 200 of the world’s biggest brands (shout out to Dunkin Donuts, Burger King, Hershey’s, Haagen Dazs, Tropicana, Star Wars, Gillette, and the No More movement) . Debbie is also President Emeritus of AIGA, one of five women to hold the position in the organization’s 100-year history.and is currently Chair of the Board of Directors for Law & Order SVU actor and activist Mariska Hargitay’s Joyful Heart Foundation. Read about the Rape Kit Backlog. Watch the documentary: I Am EvidenceDebbie recently joined the TED audio collective. She did 4 visual stores: Love Letters to What We Hold Dear: New York City, Gardening, Travel, Visual StorytellingFollow Debbie on twitter @DebbieMillman.Photo: John Madere

Paula Scher: Master of Design

Paula Scher is one of the most acclaimed graphic designers in the world. She has been a principal in the New York office of the  international design consultancy Pentagram since 1991, where she has designed identity systems, environmental graphics, packaging and publications for a wide range of clients that includes and is not limited to, the Public Theater, the Museum of Modern Art, the High Line, the Metropolitan Opera, the United States Holocaust Museum, Tiffany & Co., Citibank and Microsoft. Scher has been the recipient of hundreds of industry honors including the National Design Award and the American Institute of Graphic Arts medal. She is an established artist exhibiting worldwide, and her designs are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, the Library of Congress, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and other institutions. Scher is the author of many books including and not limited to Paula Scher: Twenty-Five Years at the Public: A Love Story (2020),  Paula Scher: MAPS (2011), and Make It Bigger: (illustrated monograph on the design process and work of Paula Scher) (2005). Her #HealthDesign projects have included Period Equity,  Planned Parenthood, and Square Peg Round Hole. A must watch documentary on Scher and her work can be seen in the Netflix series “Abstract: The Art of Design.”

A Culture of Silence: Physician Suicide and the Dr. Lorna Breen Foundation

According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the rate of suicide among male physicians is 1.41 times higher than among men in the general population. For women, the risk is 2.27 times greater. If we prioritize the mental health of medical professionals who are caring for some of our most vulnerable patients, and encourage help-seeking behaviors for mental health concerns and substance use disorders by reducing stigma, increasing resources, and having open conversations about mental health- maybe we can change the culture.Visit afsp.org/actioncenter to learn more about the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act (H.R. 7255/S. 4349). Learn more about the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation.Why Do Female Physicians Keep Dying By Suicide At Mount Sinai St. Luke's Hospital?Unspoken: Doctor Depression and Suicide Jennifer Breen Feist  is an attorney in Charlottesville, VA specializing in finance, real estate and wealth management. She is the Co-Founder of the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes' Foundation.  J. Corey Feist,  is a health care executive with over 20 years of experience. Corey is the Co-Founder of the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation. He serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the University of Virginia Physicians Group, the medical group practice of UVA Health. He holds an adjunct faculty appointment at the UVA Darden School of Business where he currently teaches a course entitled “Managing in a Pandemic: The Challenge of COVID-19″.  Jessica (“Jessi”) Gold, MD, MS, is an Assistant Professor and the Director of Wellness, Engagement, and Outreach in the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University in Saint Louis. She works clinically as an outpatient psychiatrist and primarily sees college graduate students, as well as faculty, staff, and hospital employees. In her administrative role, Dr. Gold is helping her university and hospital's overall mental health response to covid for faculty and staff and finding acute and sustainable ways to take care of our own. Daniel J Egan MD is the program director of the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency Program in Boston. Prior to Boston, Dr. Egan worked at several sites in NYC where he was involved in residency leadership as APD and PD and most recently a Vice Chair of Education. If you or someone you know is suicidal, please, contact your physician, go to your local Emergency Department, or call the suicide prevention hotline in your country. For the United States, the numbers are as follows. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255), or message the Crisis Text Line at 741741. Both programs provide free, confidential support 24/7.Project Parachute   In cooperation with Eleos Health, the project provides pro-bono therapy for front line health care professionals.The Emotional PPE Project is a directory that provides contact information of volunteer mental health practitioners to healthcare workers whose mental health has been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. Frontline workers counseling project The Frontline Workers Counseling Project (FWCP), formerly called the COVID-19 Pro Bono Counseling Project, is an initiative that helps connect frontline workers with free, confidential psychotherapy and counseling. The project is now open to all frontline and essential workers in the following counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, and Yolo.Change the culture: Reframing Health Licensure Questions

Gloria Steinem: Why Would You Not Use Your Voice?

I sat with Gloria Steinem in February 2020 just before the acute wave of the #COVID19 pandemic in New York City. Gloria Steinem is a writer, political activist, and feminist organizer. She was a founder of New York and Ms. magazines. We discuss one of her recent books  The Truth Will Set You Free, But First It Will Piss You Off. Gloria co-founded the National Women’s Political Caucus, the Ms. Foundation for Women, the Free to Be Foundation, and the Women’s Media Center in the United States. She helped found Equality Now, Donor Direct Action, and Direct Impact Africa. For her writing, Steinem has received the Penney-Missouri Journalism Award, the Front Page and Clarion awards, the National Magazine Award, the Lifetime Achievement in Journalism Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Society of Writers Award from the United Nations, and the University of Missouri School of Journalism Award for Distinguished Service in Journalism. In 1993, her concern with child abuse led her to co-produce an Emmy Award–winning TV documentary for HBO, Multiple Personalities: The Search for Deadly Memories. She and Amy Richards co-produced a series of eight documentaries on violence against women around the world for VICELAND in 2016. In 2013, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. In 2019, she received the Freedom Award from the National Civil Rights Museum. Gloria is the subject of Julie Taymor’s 2020 biopic, The Glorias. 

Viruses, Vaccines and the Eloquent Rage of Angie Rasmussen and Esther Choo

Resa speaks with Angela Rasmussen PhD and Esther Choo MD MPH. Esther is an emergency physician and professor of emergency medicine at the Oregon Health & Science University. She is a researcher, an educator, and a writer. She is a popular science communicator, who has used social media to talk about racism and sexism in healthcare. She was the president of the Academy of Women in Academic Emergency Medicine and is a member of the American Association of Women Emergency Physicians. She is a founding member of TIMES UP Healthcare. View some of her publications HERE. Angie is a PHD virologist who "uses systems biology techniques to interrogate the host response to viral infection. She has studied a huge range of viral pathogens, from the “common cold” (rhinovirus) to Ebola virus to highly pathogenic avian influenza virus to SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19. View some her publications HERE. The discussion ranges from COVID19 to viruses in general, to Vaccines, to the Eloquent Rage of equity, social media, and being women in STEMM.   

Documentary Discussion: Syndrome K

Syndrome K is a documentary, which tells the story of three doctors  Adriano Ossicini. Prof Giovanni Borromeo, Vittorio Sacerdoti who saved members of Rome's Jewish community by convincing the Nazis that these Jews were infected with a deadly and contagious disease that the doctors called Syndrome K. (It is thought that the K is mocking in nature and represents the K in Albert Kesselring- the General of the German army  and chief for Italy or the K in Herbert Kappler, the chief, colonel of the SS in Rome.) The occupying Nazis deported over 1,000 Jews to Auschwitz from the Jewish Ghetto in Rome in October 1943. During that period, some Jewish people sought refuge in Fatebenefratelli hospital where the doctors invented the disease to protect them. The hospital is located on Tiber Island in Rome and 200 meters from the Jewish ghetto and near to the great synogogue of Rome. At the time it was run by Catholic friars and controlled by the Vatican. Resa engages guest discussants Dr. Ignazio Roberto Maria Marino, a transplant surgeon, scientist, and former politician, who was Mayor of Rome from 2013 to 2015, Dr. Silvana Boccanfuso, a phD historian with extensive training and experience leading tours in Europe and specifically Italy, and an author of a 2019 biography of Ursula Hirschmann, and Stephen Edwards, the film director and producer, who is best known for his work as a film composer.  Further reading: 2016 article on Syndrome KThere are almost 30,000 Jewish people in Italy today. They are concentrated in Rome (13,000) and Milan (8,000), with smaller communities in Turin (900), Florence (1,000), Venice (600) and Livorno, was (600). Other communities number in the few hundred can be found in Bologna, Genoa, Triste, Ancona, Naples Padua, Pisa, Modena, Siena, Parma, Verona and other areas.  

On Mentorship with Drs. Adaira Landry, Gretchen Diemer, and Stephen Klasko

In this episode, Resa centers the conversation with an early career (Adaira Landry MD MEd) , mid career (Gretchen Diemer MD) and later career physician (Steve Klasko MD MBA) on the topic of Mentorship. At its highest level, Mentorship is about being “good people” and having the right “good people” around us - individuals committed to helping others become fuller versions of who they are. There is brief discussion on extroverts and introverts with a nod to the book Quiet by Susan Cain and Ted talk: The Power of Introverts. Articles to learn more about the topic: What The Best Mentors Do + Mentoring Millennials + Demystifying Mentoring + Social Distancing Doesn't Have to Disrupt Mentorship