The Visible Voices

Nora Volkow Director The National Institute on Drug Abuse

Nora D. Volkow, M.D., is a researcher and psychiatrist. She is the Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) soon to be the  National Institute on Drugs and Addiction at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NIDA is the world’s largest funder of scientific research on the health aspects of drug use and addiction.Dr. Volkow's work has been instrumental in demonstrating that drug addiction is a brain disorder. She pioneered the use of brain imaging to investigate how substance use affects brain functions. In particular, her studies have documented how changes in the dopamine system affect the functions of brain regions involved with reward and self-control in addiction. She has also made important contributions to the neurobiology of obesity, ADHD, and aging. Dr. Volkow was born in Mexico and grew up in Mexico City. She earned her medical degree from the National University of Mexico in Mexico City. Her psychiatric residency was at New York University, where she earned a Laughlin Fellowship from The American College of Psychiatrists as one of 10 outstanding psychiatric residents in the United States.

Megan Ranney on Public Health and Gun Violence Awareness

Megan Ranney MD MPH is an emergency physician, researcher, and advocate for innovative approaches to health. Her work focuses on the intersection between digital health, violence prevention, and population health.  She is the incoming dean of the Yale School of Public Health and former Deputy Dean of the School of Public Health, as well as founding Director of the Brown-Lifespan Center for Digital Health . She is co-founder and Senior Strategic Advisor to the American Foundation for Firearm Injury Reduction in Medicine (AFFIRM) at the Aspen Institute which creates practical, scalable, and immediate health-based solutions to reduce all forms of firearm-related injuries in the United States. She recently served as co-founder and president of the board for GetUsPPE.org, a startup dedicated to matching donated personal protective equipment to those who need it most. She is a Fellow of the fifth class of the Aspen Health Innovators Fellowship Program and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.  She is the Warren Alpert Endowed Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Alpert Medical School of Brown University and a Professor of Behavioral and Social Science / Health Services, Policy, and Practice at the School of Public Health. 

Robin Marty and Kimi Chernoby on the Dobbs Decision at One year

"On June 24, 2022, the United States Supreme Court officially issued a ruling in Thomas E. Dobbs, State Health Officer of the Mississippi Department of Health, et al. v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, refusing to strike down a Mississippi state law banning abortion after the fifteenth week of pregnancy."We discuss the Dobbs decision and its impact 1 year later.Kimi Chernoby is Counsel for Reproductive Rights and Health at the National Women’s Law Center. She is a Clinical Instructor of Emergency Medicine at the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Kimi was the first graduate of the University of Florida’s MD/JD program and previously served as a Health Policy Fellow for the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. As a resident physician in Indiana, she helped pregnant minors obtain the right to consent to their own medical care including post-partum contraception. Her work focuses on increasing access to contraception at the state and federal level, specifically using clinical experience to advance policies that center the needs of patients.Robin Marty is the Director of Operations for the West Alabama Women's Center and a freelance reporter and the author of the book "Handbook for a Post-Roe America," a guide for what to do if and when Roe is overturned and states make abortion illegal, and the co-author of "The End of Roe v. Wade" Robin's work is frequently published in Time Magazine, Cosmopolitan, NBC, The Guardian, Politico and other news outlets, and she is a regular guest on MSNBC.

Selwyn Rogers and Everett Lyn on Gun Violence as a Public Health Epidemic

June is Gun Violence Awareness Month. Today's episode is one recorded and dropped in 2021 with Drs. Selwyn Rogers and Everett Lyn. Unfortunately, the conversation is as relevant today as it was then.  Selwyn O. Rogers is the Dr. James E. Bowman Jr. Professor of Surgery (first James E Bowman professorship) and the Chief, Section of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery Founding Director, Trauma Center. He is the Executive Vice President, Community Health Engagement University of Chicago Medicine Everett T Lyn is the Former Clinical Director and Director of Faculty Affairs and Development Brigham and Women's Hospital.Former Chair, Department of Emergency Medicine North Shore Medical Center. He is also the Former Chief Medical Officer Dignity Health Care and Former Assistant Professor of Medicine Harvard Medical School.

Lois Lee and Annie Andrews Pediatricians on Gun Violence Awareness

Lois K. Lee is a Senior Associate in Pediatrics, Division of Emergency Medicine at The Boston Children's Hospital. She is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine, Harvard Medical School  Dr. Lee is a researcher passionate about health policy and injury prevention, including firearm safety and children. She was the inaugural Nick Littlefield health policy fellow at the Network for Excellence in Health Innovation (NEHI; www.nehi.net). During this time she worked as a health policy staffer for Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).Dr. Annie Andrews is the Founder and CEO of Their Future Our Vote, an organization focused on mobilizing resources and support for policies that put the needs of children first and educating leaders and lawmakers about these policies. Annie had decided to run for Congress to give children a voice in Washington, D.C. She was the Democratic nominee in South Carolina’s first congressional district in 2022.  Dr. Andrews is currently a Professor of Pediatrics at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, South Carolina, where she cares for children and adolescents at the Children’s Hospital. 

Kim Scott on her books Radical Candor and Just Work

Kim Scott is the author of Just Work: How to Root Out Bias, Prejudice, and Bullying to Build a Kick-ass Culture of Inclusivity and Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity and co-founder of the company Radical Candor. Kim was a CEO coach at Dropbox, Qualtrics, Twitter, and other tech companies. She was a member of the faculty at Apple University and before that led AdSense, YouTube, and DoubleClick teams at Google. Prior to that Kim managed a pediatric clinic in Kosovo and started a diamond-cutting factory in Moscow. She lives with her family in Silicon Valley.Follow Kim:https://kimmalonescott.com/

Jillian Patricia Pirtle CEO National Marian Anderson Museum

May is National Historic Preservation Month!Please remember the National Marian Anderson Museum with your giving in support of the recovery repair and restoration process for the treasured National Landmark and programming. You can pledge support to the National Marian Anderson Museum and Historical Society .Marian Anderson was a contralto and international singer that triumphed over racial prejudice and became an inspiration for the civil rights movement. She was denied a performance at The Daughters of the American Revolution’s (DAR) Constitution Hall in 1939. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the DAR and an integrated team of activists from the NAACP to Howard University and Secretary of the Interior, Henry Ickes organized Anderson’s iconic 1939 concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial  to an unprecedented 75,000, featured on newsreels and heard on radio by millions around the world. In 1955 she became the first black woman to sing at the Metropolitan operaJillian Patricia Pirtle is a professional American Stage & Opera Artist  Jillian received her BFA Degree in Musical Theater & Operatic Performance from the University of the Arts in 2004. She also has a degree History and is a licensed historian with the state of Pennsylvania.  In 2018  Lady Blanche Burton Lyles the founder of The National Marian Anderson Museum & Historical Society died and Jillian became the museum & organizations CEO. The museum is run and maintained by The Marian Anderson Historical Society  in Philadelphia

Amy Bernstein Editor Harvard Business Review

Amy Bernstein is the editor of Harvard Business Review (HBR) and the Vice President and Executive Editorial Director of Harvard Business Publishing. She also co-hosts HBR's Women At Work podcast."I lead HBR, the leading journal of management and leadership thinking, and its team of editors. During my tenure we were twice named National Magazine Award finalists for general excellence. I am also responsible for the editorial strategy and content development of the learning and educator assets for our Corporate Learning and Higher Education businesses."

Janene Fuerch Neonatologist and Biodesign Entrepreneur

Janene H. Fuerch, MD is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Neonatology at Stanford University Medical Center, as well as an innovator, educator, researcher and physician entrepreneur. She has an undergraduate degree in Neuroscience from Brown University and a medical degree from the Jacobs School of Medicine at SUNY Buffalo. At Stanford University she completed a pediatrics residency, neonatal-perinatal medicine fellowship and the Byers Center for Biodesign Innovation Fellowship. She is the Assistant Director of the Stanford Biodesign Faculty Innovation Fellowship, Assistant Director for the UCSF-Stanford Pediatric Device Consortium funded by the FDA and core faculty at the Center for Pediatric and Perinatal Education or CAPE (a specialized simulation center at Stanford). Janene is the co-founder of Emme - a women’s reproductive health company acquired by SimpleHealth in 2022. "Our mission is to put women’s health in women’s hands. We’re starting with the birth control pill, because missed pills, hormone imbalance, and unplanned pregnancy are all too common parts of the pill experience."

Robbie Felton CEO Intuscare with Geriatrician Louise Aronson

Robbie Felton is the Co-founder and CEO of Intus Care. Intus Care provides data and services to help integrated care programs improve outcomes for their patients in Medicare managed care. The company serves 25 health plans and care programs nationwide with tens of thousands of patients. Prior to Intus Care, he studied Public Health at Brown UniversityProgram of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) is a type of  home and community based service HCBS that provides medical services and supports everyday living needs for certain elderly individuals, most of whom are eligible for benefits under both Medicare and Medicaid. These services are provided by an interdisciplinary team of professionals. For example, a primary care physician, nurse, social worker, physical therapist, and dietitian are a few of the necessary members.Louise Aronson, MD MFA, is a leading geriatrician, writer, educator, professor of medicine at UCSF and the author of the New York Times bestseller and Pulitzer Prize finalist Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, and Reimagining Life.