In this episode of Heinz Radio, we sat down with Erin Dalton to talk about the intersection of equity and community health and the role that the Allegheny County Department of Human Services plays in that space. We also spoke about the impact that COVID-19 has had public health, and concluded with a touch of optimism for the future of equity in community health.

Erin Dalton is the Director of the Allegheny County Department of Human Services, which provides community-based programs to families and individuals across the region. Prior to her role as director, Ms. Dalton led DHS’s analytics, planning, and information technology functions. Ms. Dalton is a 2004 alumna of Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College, earning a Master of Science in Public Policy and Management.

The arts and technology are often considered to be opposites of one another; however, they can also be merged to create immersive spaces that inspire wonder, creativity, and imagination. One such example is ARTECHOUSE, an immersive artspace that engages the audience in innovative hi-tech art both in physical locations as well as on their mobile app. In this episode, we had a chance to talk to Lena Galperina, the Visitor Experience Director at ARTECHOUSE, about her views on how the arts and tech inform each other, as well as how it applies in the context of ARTECHOUSE.

Lena Galperina is passionate about bringing impactful art experiences to audiences. She believes that the arts have the power to help us understand each other and bring us closer together. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from American University in Art History and International Relations, as well as a Master’s degree from George Mason University in Arts Management. She has professional and personal experience in both visual and performing arts: she loves to paint and draw (especially using watercolors and ink), tell stories and dance with Carpathia Folk Dance Ensemble, where she is also the Assistant Director. Currently she works as the Visitor Experience Director at ARTECHOUSE, an innovative art space dedicated to showcasing artists whose primary medium is technology. Her role focuses on enhancing the visitor's experience and working with the entire team to ensure audiences' connection with the artwork on view.

In the last episode, we spoke to two distinguished professors of economics at Heinz College, doctors Lowell Taylor and Martin Gaynor, to explore the economics of how a company like Amazon could grow so quickly to control half of the US online retail market, what the consequences could be for consumers, and whether we should be worried about a complete monopoly.

Today, we will explore how existing anti-trust laws could be maneuvered to deal with Amazon and other tech giants. We spoke with Attorney Michael A. Finio, and Prof. Ari Lightman from Heinz College.

Ari is a Distinguished Service Professor, Digital Media and Marketing at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy. Ari is an internationally recognized expert in digital transformation and technology disruption focusing on online communities, digital collaboration, information dissemination and content analysis. He has worked with organizations across entertainment, technology, manufacturing, Consumer Packaged Goods, finance and healthcare.

Mike hails currently from Camp Hill, PA where he and his wife Amy live with their two dogs - Newfoundland Harper, and hound mix Ollie. After spending his formative years in Southwest Philadelphia and Springfield (Delco) PA, he went to the University of New Hampshire, in Durham, NH and then the (Penn State) Dickinson School of Law, in Carlisle PA. He’s been practicing law since 1983 and over his 38 years at the bar, he has from one client matter to the next over time increasingly focused on antitrust, merger review and control and other competition matters, and those things now occupy almost all of his lawyering time. He’s also an Adjunct Professor of Law at Penn State Dickinson, where he teaches Antitrust Law.

This week’s episode is the first in a special two-part series investigating the question, “Is Amazon evil?” We take a close look at the e-commerce giant and some of the most alarming warnings that have been raised about their meteoric rise to market dominance. In Part 1, we spoke with two distinguished professors of economics at the Heinz College, Dr. Lowell Taylor and Dr. Martin Gaynor, to understand the economics of how a company like Amazon could grow so quickly to control half of the US online retail market. We also asked what the consequences could be for consumers and whether we should be worried about Amazon forming a complete monopoly.

Dr. Lowell Taylor is the H. John Heinz III University Professor of Economics at the Heinz College and a Senior Fellow at NORC at the University of Chicago, where he serves as Principal Investigator of the 1997 National Longitudinal Study of Youth.  He previously served as a senior economist with President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors. Taylor’s research interests are in labor economics and economic demography.

Dr. Martin Gaynor is the E.J. Barone University Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University and former Director of the Bureau of Economics at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Professor Gaynor's research focuses on competition and incentives in health care and on antitrust policy.

In the second part of our "Building Equitable Transportation Networks" series, we sat down with Allante Whitmore to talk about the autonomous vehicle landscape and how future developments in this space can take equity considerations into account. We examined the synergies between public transportation innovation and autonomous vehicles. We explored the ways in which autonomous vehicle research and development has been both bolstered and hindered by COVID-19. We concluded the interview by talking about recommendations for how policymakers can ensure that autonomous vehicle developments are properly managed and effectively regulated. 

Allante Whitmore is a fourth-year PhD student pursuing a joint-PhD in Civil Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. Her PhD research focuses on how to equitably deploy autonomous vehicles, how to integrate autonomous vehicles into public transportation systems, and how to develop shared autonomous vehicle networks to improve mobility for transit-dependent populations. Allante also serves as a Mobility21 Diversity Fellow where she explores the intersection between autonomous vehicle development and public policy.

Happy new years! In this episode, we sat down with Haley Townsend to discuss the use of artificial intelligence in the transportation space. How can artificial intelligence be used to ensure that transportation systems are equitable across socioeconomic and accessibility lines? In what ways has the COVID-19 pandemic complicated and enhanced attempts to use artificial intelligence in the transportation industry? We explored these questions and concluded by discussing how policymakers can ensure that artificial intelligence developments in the transportation industry are properly managed and effectively regulated.

Haley Townsend is a transportation data scientist at Noblis. Noblis is a science, technology, engineering, and strategy company based out of Washington D.C. Haley attended Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University and obtained a masters degree in Public Policy, Management, and Data Analytics in 2019. She has worked at the intersection of data science and transportation for 2 years and focuses specifically on intelligent transportation systems.

In our final part of the Arts & Entertainment in the time of COVID-19 series, we had the opportunity to chat with Christine Barnes, a theme park creative and video game enthusiast. We discussed the effects of the pandemic on the theme park industry, what ways theme parks are integrating aspects from video games, how theme parks are changing and ways it will continue to evolve.

Christine M. Barnes is an Alumni  of Carnegie Mellon University has been bringing magic to the stage since she was a little girl and has a lifelong passion with storytelling. She has enthusiastically shared this love through her work in theatre and theme parks enabling others to experience characters, stories, and worlds only dreamed of through their imaginations.  She currently conducts workshops focused on the creative process and the importance of teamwork. 

In the second part of our series on arts & entertainment in the time of COVID-19, we spoke with Whitney Jefferson about the state of live entertainment. Whitney is a second-year Master of Entertainment Industry Management Student here at Heinz College, and she spent the summer doing research on how live entertainment venues are handling the pandemic with the AMT lab.

Whitney’s passion for the entertainment industry began when she was a teenager. She decided to attend Albright College to get a bachelor degree in music industry studies. This degree equipped Whitney with the understanding of the industry she wanted to work in, but she wanted to know how the music industry worked with film and television.

During her graduate studies, Whitney has had the opportunity to intern with Calliope, a non-profit concert promoter, the Arts Management and Technology Lab, and Trend: PR, Branding, & Social Media. Whitney is interested in music licensing and live entertainment. She’s excited to see how the reliance on virtual and augmented reality for concerts during Covid-19 will impact physical concerts and licensing in the future.

The Arts Management & Technology (AMT) Laboratory, a research center of Carnegie Mellon University’s Master of Arts Management Program, serves as an exchange, a catalyst for innovative ideas, and a conduit for knowledge circulating at the intersection of arts, management, and technology.

We had the chance to sit down with Lisa Alexander, in the first episode of our series on arts & entertainment in the time of COVID-19. Lisa Alexander is currently the PR Marketing Manager for Calliope: The Pittsburgh Folk Music Society, where she has worked for nine years and taken on a variety of roles. Also a writer, she holds an MFA in poetry from Drew University and has published her poems widely. She lives in Pittsburgh.

Most of us have heard about precision medicine, but do we know how this patient-centered care actually works? This week, we’re sharing our interview with Dr. Philip Empey, Associate Director for Pharmacogenomics of the Pitt/UPMC Institute of Precision Medicine. Dr. Empey helps us understand precision medicine and pharmacogenomics, discussing its potential for improving healthcare and the preparation necessary for its success. 

Dr. Philip Empey is the Associate Director for Pharmacogenomics of the Pitt/UPMC Institute of Precision Medicine and leads the PreCISE-Rx and Test2Learn teams to implement pharmacogenomics clinical, research, and educational initiatives. He also directs the University of Pittsburgh - Thermo Fisher Scientific Pharamcogenomics Center of Excellence which is deploying population scale preemptive pharmagenomics testing (to >150,000 patients) in western Pennsylvania. As a clinician-scientist in the Department of Pharmacy and Therapeutics, Dr. Empey conducts NIH-funded clinical and translational research aimed at understanding the mechanisms of the variability in drug response to improve medication-related outcomes in critically-ill patients.

Dr. Empey’s research interests include understanding the role/impact of xenobiotic transporters following neurological injury, transporter pharmacogenomics, pharmacogenomics clinical implementation, collection of medication-related phenotype information, and genotype-phenotype discovery. Dr. Empey teaches at the graduate level in pharmacokinetics, pharmacogenomics, and drug transporters in the Schools of Pharmacy, Medicine, and Nursing. He also has a research interest in innovative educational models to transform education.