33N83W

Our guest today is Dr. Pedro Villegas, a worldwide renown expert in avian virology, vaccine inventor, and a retired professor from UGA’s College of Veterinary Medicine. He has been bestowed countless honors for his legendary work in his field, including one by the Georgia House of Representatives, and in 1999, he was the co-recipient of the University of Georgia Inventor Award for the discovery of the Villegas-Glisson/GA strain of Newcastle disease virus vaccine. In 2013 he was elected to the Hall of Honor of the World Veterinary Poultry Association.

Born in Líbano, Tolima, Colombia, Dr. Villegas obtained his Veterinary degree from Universidad del Tolima in Colombia, completed his Master’s degree at Texas A&M University, and his PhD at the University of Georgia before becoming a professor at UGA. During his tenure at the University, he mentored numerous graduate students at the Master’s and PhD levels. His main work has been in the area of avian virology and control of poultry diseases, for which he has developed vaccines and procedures that help to stop the spread of poultry disease or mitigate its effects. He has published close to 100 peer reviewed articles covering different avian viruses and given nearly 300 presentations in 56 different countries.

He is a father to 3 children, including Dr. Andres Villegas, President & CEO, Georgia Forestry Association and Patricia Elena Villegas, both UGA alumni; and Pedro Villegas, a graduate from Notre Dame and UC San Diego. His wife, Angela, received her Master’s degree from UGA and retired from working at UGA as a clinical microbiologist.

With gratitude and grace, Sumit Roy leads Realty Income, a $58 billion San Diego-based company, as its CEO & President. Realty Income owns and manages a portfolio of over 11,200 commercial properties located across the United States as well as in Puerto Rico, the UK, and Spain; and since being promoted to his current roles, he has overseen the doubling of the company’s assets from approximately $28B to $58B and with his team of employees.
Prior to joining the company, Mr. Roy was an Executive Director at UBS Investment Bank where he worked for seven years. During his tenure at UBS, he was responsible for more than $57B in real estate capital markets and advisory transactions. Prior to joining UBS, he worked in investment banking at Merrill Lynch, and as a Principal in technology consulting at Cap Gemini.
He received an undergraduate degree from Georgia College & State University, a graduate degree from the University of Georgia and an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

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Have you ever wondered what it takes to become a Michelin starred chef? Well you’ll find out today because my guest is Michelin-starred Chef Drew Deckman! Drew grew up in Peachtree City, GA. After graduating from Rhodes College with a degree in Philosophy, he embarked on a culinary journey that took him thru Europe, and that journey included working with some of the biggest names in the culinary world, and earned him a coveted Michelin star for his work in Restaurant Vitus in Germany as well as 2003’s Rising-Star Chef award while executive chef at the Four Seasons in Berlin.
After many years of working here and abroad, he finally found his home in Baja, Mexico, which is just south of the border in California. He is the proprietor of Deckman’s in Valle de Guadalupe, Mexico, an area that has grown into an exciting new wine and culinary scene.
Ever the Bulldawg fan, Drew generously donated two 5-course meals from his acclaimed restaurant in Valle de Guadalupe to support the San Diego Alumni Chapter’s local scholarship fundraiser last year! He keeps his restaurant doors open to all fans of Bulldawg Nation!

Joining us today are Will and Catherine Ostick, foreign service officers within U.S. Department of State and UGA Grady School of Journalism college sweethearts! Will is a career Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. Department of State. He has served as Public Affairs Officer for the U.S. Consulate in Kabul, U.S. Consul General in Tijuana, Director for the Office of Brazilian and Southern Cone Affairs for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs and as information officer at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, to name a few of his exotic posts from around the globe. He graduated from the University of Georgia in Athens with a BA in journalism and holds a Masters Degree in international commerce and policy from George Mason University. He is also a graduate of the Industrial College of Armed Forces with a Masters Degree in national resource strategy.
Catherine is also a graduate of UGA with a Bachelors in Broadcast Journalism, and a Master's in Physical Education and taught P.E. and Spanish for over 10 years. She too has held various positions alongside Will within the U.S. Department of State. Currently, she is the Consular Assistant with the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City and prior to that as a Community Liaison Office Coordinator in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Together they established 2 of UGA’s more exotic alumni chapters – the first in Kabul and the second in Mexico City!
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Joining us today is Shelton Wilder, a UGA graduate with a Bachelor in Business Administration. As a savvy serial entrepreneur, she has started a luxury lifestyle management company, a celebrity fashion stylist business, and invented the Shemie, which she debuted on Shark Tank. She is now the CEO of the Shelton Wilder Group and has become one of the top luxury real estate agents in Los Angeles. The Shelton Wilder Group has achieved a staggering $300 million in total sales, putting her in the top 1.5% of realtors nationwide. She was named 2021 Real Estate All-Star by Los Angeles Magazine and nominated for Entrepreneur of the Year by the LA Business Journal, and in Forbes Magazine she was named to the Top 10 Business Professionals to look out for in 2022 list. But life has not always been a smooth ride as we will hear from her having hit rock bottom in more ways than one, including surviving bankruptcy and achieving sobriety, but like every good “bulldawg in business,” she picked herself up and found her passion for real estate and is now one of the most successful realtors nationwide!

Jay Bailey, President and CEO of the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs (RICE), commands a $40 million dollar project that is the largest center in America, dedicated to empowering African American entrepreneurs and small business owners. Jay is an Atlanta native and die-hard Georgia Bulldog, He has been recognized by 3 U.S. Presidents for his leadership and community efforts. In 2012, he was one of eight Americans honored at the White House as a “Champion of Change: Following in the Footsteps of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”

Dedicated to service, he is the National Point of Light Award and a Presidential Lifetime Volunteer Service Award recipient from the Obama Administration and officially named an “Amazing Atlantan” by the city of Atlanta. He is a recipient of the coveted Whitney M. Young National Community Service Medallion, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drum Major for Service Award, a New Leaders Council Fellow, member of Alpha Phi Alpha and the 100 Black Men of Atlanta.

Jay is married to NBC news correspondent Blayne Alexander and together with their daughter Sage live in Atlanta.

In this episode, meet Doug and Jane Root, UGA college sweethearts and co-founders of Rustic Roots Wood in Monroe, GA! Doug started their reclaimed wood business after embracing his entrepreneurial spirit and finding the courage to walk away from his long-time family business, Atlanta Lightbulb. In changing careers, he went from the known to the unknown to become an incredibly successful purveyor of reclaimed wood and wood products. And in it he has found more than just success, but also renewed joy in his career. And if the reclaimed beams that he sells could talk, the stories rich in history and intrigue they would surely tell, but since they can’t literally talk, Doug shares some of those stories with us, including one with George Washington.

Jane started college at UGA, where her and Doug’s love story took root, and then graduated from Medical College of Georgia with a Bachelors of Science in Nursing. Jane first served as a nurse within the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta network, first on the hematology and oncology floor and then as a nurse coordinator for the spina bifida clinic. Her and Doug are the proud parents of 2 smart and beautiful teenage daughters, Riley and Elizabeth Root.
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In this episode UGA alumnae Dr. Mila Shah-Bruce takes a break in between surgeries to join us and talk about how she manages life as a mom of 2 boys, a wife, an MD at Ochsner LSU Health with 2 American Board certifications – one in Obstetrics and Gynecology and another in Obesity Medicine, and a focused practice designation in Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology (in which she is among the few elite doctors in the state of Louisiana with that designation). She is also an Assistant Professor and the medical student Clerkship Director at Ochsner LSU Health. She was inducted in the Gold Humanism Honor Society in 2018 for excellence in teaching; and as if all her accolades and certifications to date were not enough, she is currently pursuing her PhD with an emphasis in health professionals education with a view to becoming dean of a medical school.

Today’s guest is back by popular demand – Darrell Blocker! Darrell is a UGA alumni and former CIA agent. We spoke with Darrell over a year and a half ago, and since then he has expanded his portfolio as a successful Hollywood creative consultant, ABC News Contributor, and as of recent he joined the elite group of speakers for TedxUGA 2022. He was also President Biden’s short list to be the Director of the CIA. In our catch up with Darrell, he talks about his TedxUGA talk on how being in the CIA taught him the ultimate lesson in kindness; growing his brand and role as a Hollywood creative consultant; and the moment when he got the phone call that he was being vetted and considered for the role of the Director of the CIA.

Darrell has achieved feats that most do not come close to attaining. In his 32 years in the Intelligence Community, he rose to the rank equivalency of a 3-star general, served as a member of the Senior Intelligence Service (SIS), Chief of CIA’s iconic operational training facility, Deputy Director of the Counterterrorism Center, Chief of Africa Division, and served multiple times as a Chief of Station. When he retired in October of 2018 he was the most senior black CIA officer in the Directorate of Operations.

He’s now an ABC News Contributor as the go-to guy for all things North Korea, Iran, Counterterrorism, and Counterintelligence; he can also be found on set serving as creative consultant to the tv shows and film, and also working as Chief Operating Officer for MOSAIC, a strategic crisis management intelligence and security advisory firm.

To hear more about Darrell's days as a CIA agent, listen to Part I from Season 1.

Listen to 33N83W on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Amazon Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spreaker.

Joining us today is Terrel Sanders, MD and Lieutenant Commander with the U.S. Navy, Naval Medical Research Unit No. 3 working as Lab Director in Infectious Diseases and with the Navy’s Global Health Engagement, currently stationed in Ghana. He was named to UGA’s prestigious 40 under 40 list in 2021, and was a graduate of UGA's Franklin College of Arts & Sciences. During the pandemic, LCDR Sanders took on the additional role as a health ambassador, helping to combat Covid-19 while in Ghana. He gives us the inside scoop on what it was like to be on the ground in Africa during the pandemic and what a day in the life of an infectious disease doctor really looks like! Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, iHeartRadio, and Spreaker!