Remember September 11, 2001, famously known as 911—the day when the world seemed to unravel, and the unthinkable became reality. The shockwaves from the attacks on the World Trade Center reverberated globally, leaving us questioning everything we once knew. Amidst the chaos, our leaders urged calm, but it was easier said than done.

Beyond the headlines, each of us faces our own 9/11 moments—those times when our personal world crumbles. These crises may go unnoticed by others, but they shake us to our core. We search for a voice to reassure us, to guide us through the hysteria. Sometimes, that voice emerges from within—a quiet strength that helps us gather our bearings and make sense of the chaos.

In this episode, we delve into these intimate 9/11 experiences. Our guest, Erika Cheung, shares her remarkable journey, offering practical insights for navigating personal crises. This Part 1 of a 2-part episode. Together, we explore resilience—the inner force that sustains us when external voices fall silent.

Erika Cheung, Executive Director at Ethics in Entrepreneurship

Currently, the executive director of Ethics in Entrepreneurship, a non-profit whose mission is to foster ethical questioning, culture, and systems in startups and startup ecosystems. We provide programs catered to workers, investors, and founders. 

Erika is an advisor to several family offices, venture capital firms, and governmental investment programs focused on healthcare, biosciences, and biotechnology companies. She invests a portion of her time building cross-border networks between the US and the Asia Pacific region to facilitate the growth of companies operating in emerging markets. 

Her first job out of college was working for Theranos, where she subsequently was one of the critical whistleblowers reporting the fraud case to regulators preventing the company from providing false lab results to patients. The Theranos scandal has been extensively covered in the media. She's working towards obtaining her ACFE-certified fraud examiner's license to educate others on fraud prevention strategies and develop programs to protect business stakeholders from high-risk ventures. She is also an advisor to several whistleblower advocacy organizations to support individuals who may be retaliated against while reporting misconduct. 

She is passionate about innovation ecosystem building, development, economic mobility, affordable healthcare, and public-interest technology projects. She is an avid mixed martial artist in her free time and hopes to support efforts that leverage martial arts to empower trauma survivors.

To learn more, visit:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/denleymcintosh/

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