Empathy Affect

Boston asked residents what they needed before spending a dollar of its opioid settlement money. Christian Arthur, senior policy and strategy specialist at the Boston Public Health Commission's Recovery Services Bureau, illustrates in this episode how the city started with a community assessment and turned that feedback into real programs—a first-in-the-nation fund for families who've lost loved ones to overdose, public health vending machines that dispense naloxone, and grants to the organizations already doing the work. It's a candid conversation about community engagement, spending with intention, and what other cities can learn from it. 

Christian Arthur is a senior policy and strategy specialist at Boston Public Health Commission's Recovery Services Bureau. He has served the commission for the last seven years and has focused his career on building and launching harm reduction solutions that save lives and advance public health innovation.  

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Learn how Boston is using its opioid settlement funding  

Explore Boston's Overdose Data to Action 

What does it take to help someone not just survive an overdose, but find their way to recovery? This Recovery Month, Brad Finegood, strategic advisor at Public Health – Seattle & King County, illuminates how his team is trying to answer that question. He opens up about losing his brother to an overdose, how that loss shapes his work, and why empathy is central to public health. We discuss how King County, Washington, cut overdose deaths by roughly a third from 2023 to 2025, the tools making a difference—medications, mobile outreach, a post-overdose center, and new crisis care centers—the promise of opioid settlement funds, and campaigns to confront stigma.  

Brad Finegood serves as strategic advisor at Public Health Public Health – Seattle & King County where he guides the county’s overdose prevention strategy. He has served as drug and alcohol coordinator and health integration specialist for the county’s Behavioral Health and Recovery Division, where he also co-chaired the Heroin and Prescription Opioid Task Force. He has more than 25 years of experience in the field, has delivered two TED Talks on substance use, and roots the commitment to his work in the loss of his brother to overdose.  

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Learn how to recognize an overdose

Explore King County’s Opioid Recovery & Care Access Center

Contact the National Help Line

Colorado has stopped calling wildfire a season and started calling it a year-round condition. At the same time, it’s facing that threat with a firefighter workforce that’s shrinking. Serve Colorado and the Colorado National Guard got together to bring an innovative solution to the table: the first program in the country to let a Guard member serve simultaneously as an AmeriCorps member on a wildfire mitigation crew. 

Serve Colorado Executive Director John Kelly and Colorado National Guard Director of Homeland Defense and Resilience Col. Thomas Banker join us to discuss how two service organizations that had never worked together built a joint crew in Steamboat Springs, and why the model is already spreading beyond wildfire into critical infrastructure and cyber resilience. 

John Kelly is executive director of Serve Colorado. He previously worked on the founding team of the civic-tech startup Generous, and he also served on the White House Domestic Policy Council. He was also deputy chief of staff at the Corporation for National and Community Service.  

Col. Thomas Banker is director of homeland defense and resilience for the Colorado National Guard. He oversees the statewide collaboration and coordination of critical infrastructure and cyber defense activities with civilian, public, and private partners.  

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Learn more about Serve Colorado 

Explore the Colorado National Guard 

Interested in joining the wildfire crew? Check out what it takes 

The 2026 National Drug Control Strategy has made a notable shift toward primary prevention—stopping substance use before it ever starts—and reframes what a national approach to substances can look like. We speak with Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Chief Medical Officer Dr. Roneet Lev and Institute for Behavior and Health (IBH) Vice President Dr. Caroline DuPont about what that shift actually means, why delaying substance use matters so much for the developing brain, how the science of social norming is changing prevention, and why consistent and clear messaging about non-use may be one of the most powerful tools we have. 

Dr. Roneet Lev is the White House ONDCP chief medical officer and assistant director in the Office of Public Health. She has served as chief of Scripps Mercy Hospital’s emergency department, president of the California Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians, and executive director of Independent Emergency Physicians Consortium. 

Dr. Caroline DuPont is vice president of IBH. She was formerly the founding president and principal investigator of DuPont Clinical Research Inc., and she maintains a private practice specializing in anxiety and addiction.  

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Read the 2026 National Drug Control Strategy 

Explore IBH’s One Choice Prevention 

What does it take to rebuild trust in a public health institution, and can listening be a leadership strategy? Virginia State Health Commissioner Dr. B Cameron Webb explored these questions as he stepped into his role earlier this year, beginning his tenure with a statewide listening tour. Dr. Webb shares what Virginians told him was standing between them and being healthy, how he’s translating community voice into action inside a 3,200-person agency, and why trust is one of the most critical commodities in public health. He also digs into Virginia’s recently released 2025–2029 Plan for Well-Being, what it means to lead through federal funding uncertainty, and how Dr. Webb is rebuilding morale inside a department that has had its own healing to do.  

Dr. B. Cameron Webb is the Virginia State Health Commissioner. He previously served as a White House fellow and was a senior advisor for the White House Office of COVID-19 Response. He has advised on public health policy, access to care, and prescription drug pricing. Dr. Webb was also an assistant professor of medicine and public health science at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and in the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy.  

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Explore the Virginia Department of Health

Read up on Virginia’s Plan for Well-Being 2025–2026

Military families move every few years. They navigate deployments, career interruptions, childcare waitlists, and the daily weight of a life built around service. So, while service members navigate the changing tides of military life, their families do too. And when military families are strong, supported, and ready, so is the force—because behind every effective warfighter is a family that made it possible. 

This month, in honor of Military Appreciation Month, we sat down with Stephen B. Simmons, deputy assistant secretary of war for Military Community and Family Policy (MCFP), to talk about what it really takes to support the families behind our nation’s warfighters. From spouse employment programs and childcare access to real-time data and proactive family outreach, Simmons breaks down how his office is working to ensure that readiness starts at home.  

Stephen B. Simmons is the deputy assistant secretary of war for MCFP. He previously served 17 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, exiting as a Major in 2022. During his military service, Simmons served in roles as a site commander, operations officer, and retention officer.  

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Explore Military OneSource 

Use Plan My Move to help with transitions 

Review spouse employment resources with MySECO and the Military Spouse Career Advancement Account Scholarship. 

See other military family resources, like the Education Directory for Children with Special Needs, the Exceptional Family Member Program, and MilitaryINSTALLATIONS. 

Most of us only visit a government website when we really need something—unemployment benefits, a license renewal, or emergency aid. So when the experience is confusing, slow, or just broken, it doesn't just cost time. It quietly erodes something harder to rebuild: trust. 

Marcy Jacobs is Maryland's first chief digital experience officer and the driving force behind the Maryland Digital Service (MDDS)—a team that's spent the last two years redesigning how six million residents experience their state government. In this episode, Marcy digs into what human-centered design actually looks like inside a bureaucracy: the discovery sprints that change everything an agency thought it knew, the veteran who wouldn't click a link because he didn't have a trust fund, and why making it easier to file for unemployment might be one of the most important things the government can do right now. 

This one is for the builders, the public servants, and anyone who's ever rage-clicked a website and wondered if anyone noticed. 

Marcy Jacobs is the State of Maryland’s chief digital experience officer. She was previously the executive director of digital service at the Department of Veterans Affairs and had served over four years with the U.S. Digital Service. She was also an associate partner at McKinsey & Company.  

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 Explore Maryland Digital Service 

 Dive into the Maryland Digital Playbook and MDDS Impact Report 

What happens when the people who keep America moving start disappearing faster than we can replace them? Across the country, state transportation agencies are facing a workforce crisis that's been quietly building for years—and most of us have no idea it's happening.   

This episode of Empathy Affect pulls back the curtain on one of the most underreported challenges in public infrastructure: not the roads themselves, but the people behind them. From knowledge transfer and AI adoption to career pipelines and organizational culture, this conversation is something bigger than transportation. It’s about what it takes for any public institution to hold onto what it knows and build toward what’s next.  

Lorri Economy has served as the Utah Department of Transportation chief learning officer since 2014. She previously served the state's Department of Workforce Services.

Amanda Holland is the principal owner of Holland Enterprise Resource Solutions. She previously worked for the State of Alaska for more than 20 years and advises organizations in building resilience, workforce capacity, and effectiveness.

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Explore Utah DOT 

Most of us don’t think about food safety until something goes wrong—a recall notice or a moment in the kitchen when we wonder, “Is this still safe to eat?” 

In this episode, we take a look behind the scenes at how food safety is ensured long before our food reaches our grocery carts or kitchen tables. Dr. Conrad Choiniere, a senior leader in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Human Foods Program, discusses why fresh produce can be especially challenging when it comes to food safety, how recalls actually work, and the coordination in farming, production, and distribution that keeps food safe. 

We also break down your common food safety myths and offer practical, science-backed tips you can use at home to reduce risk while handling the food you love to eat. 

Dr. Conrad Choiniere is the director of the FDA Human Foods Program Office of Microbiological Food Safety. He has spent over 20 years at the FDA, leading food safety initiatives and studying consumer attitudes and behavior. On top of working on food safety at the FDA, Dr. Choiniere was also director of Population Health Science for the department’s Center for Tobacco Products. 

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Explore the Human Foods Program 

Stay up to date on FDA’s recalls 

Learn more tips about safely handling food 

Caring for your mental health isn’t just about treatment. It’s about living a full life.

This is how the New York State Office of Mental Health is rethinking how we handle mental health—by centering recovery, resilience, and the whole person—not just a diagnosis. 

The office’s Chief Recovery and Resilience Officer Julie Burton explains what recovery in the context of mental health looks like practice, why thriving—not just surviving—matters, and how empathy, choice, and community connection shape better mental health outcomes. We also explore mental health workforce challenges and how supporting them is essential to effective care. 

As the new year begins, this episode offers a timely reminder that recovery happens not only in clinics, but in communities and everyday human connection.

Julie Burton is the first chief recovery and resilience officer at the New York State Office of Mental Health. She has over 30 years of experience in both community-based direct care for individuals and families, focusing on training and education and implementing programs to help people in care move toward full recovery. She previously served as her office’s director of adult services. 

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Explore Community Oriented Recovery and Empowerment (CORE) services 

Learn more about the New York Office of Mental Health