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Teresa Bonner is the Executive Director of the E.A. Michelson Philanthropy (https://eamichelsonphilanthropy.org/), an organization with a mission of championing programs that break barriers, build community and spark creativity, through funding and advocacy. E.A. Michelson Philanthropy has made grants totaling more than US$47 Million since 2006, actively supporting nonprofit organizations across the United States through direct financial support, advocacy, partnerships, informal alliances, convenings, trainings and more. A cornerstone of the E.A. Michelson Philanthropy initiatives is their Vitality Arts programs, which through partnerships with arts and cultural institutions, offer older adults the chance to learn new art forms while developing new friendships, exploring creativity and new accomplishments, connecting with others, building community, and demonstrating relevance, all while addressing equity, diversity, inclusion and access. Teresa has her BA in Journalism from University of North Dakota and a JD from University of Minnesota Law School and has been involved in the foundation, family foundation and charitable giving space for the last couple of decades.

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Olivia Zetter is Head of Government Affairs and AI Strategy at National Resilience, Inc. (https://resilience.com/) a first-of-its-kind manufacturing and technology company dedicated to broadening access to complex medicines and protecting bio-pharmaceutical supply chains against disruption. Founded in 2020, National Resilience, Inc. is building a sustainable network of high-tech, end-to-end manufacturing solutions to ensure the medicines of today, and tomorrow, can be made quickly, safely, and at scale. Olivia brings extensive experience in national security spanning diplomacy, defense, and development, along with emerging technology issues. Olivia has held multiple positions in government, most recently as a Director of Research and Analysis at the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, an independent federal commission established by Congress to examine the impact of artificial intelligence on national security and defense. Olivia previously served at the Department of State as a Foreign Affairs Officer in the Office of the Coordinator for Cyber Issues, where her work spanned a diverse range of cyber policy areas. She also served as the Special Advisor on Trans-Regional Issues to the Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS, where she coordinated efforts to counter the terrorist organization’s financing, foreign terrorist fighter flows, and external operations. At the Pentagon, Olivia served as a Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as part of the Chairman’s Action Group. Prior to her time in government, she worked in Washington and on-site abroad to manage stabilization and conflict management programs in the Middle East and South Asia with a U.S. government implementing partner. Olivia entered government as a Presidential Management Fellow and is the recipient of the Department of State’s Superior Honor Award. She is a Truman National Security Project Fellow. Olivia holds a Master of Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, where she was a Belfer Student Fellow, and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from American University.

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Dr. Andrew Adams, Ph.D. is Vice President of Neurodegeneration Research at Eli Lilly (https://www.lilly.com/) and Co-Director of their new Lilly Institute for Genetic Medicine, a $700 million initiative to establish an institute for researching and developing genetic medicines, specifically acting at the nucleic acid level, to advance an entirely new drug class that target the root cause of diseases, an approach that is fundamentally different than medicines available today. In this role, Dr. Adams will be responsible for leading the discovery of various new types of therapies, via both internal research, and robust collaborations with external partners. These novel approaches will also allow Lilly access to previously "undruggable" targets across the breath of therapeutic areas at Lilly, as well as potentially opening up novel avenues of clinical investigation. In addition to these major roles, Dr. Adams over the recent years also took on scientific leadership of Lilly’s COVID-19 neutralizing antibody projects, as well as serving as Vice President for Lilly Genetic Medicine, and during his time at Lilly has served in roles across early discovery, external innovation, and as a leader of Lilly’s early trailblazer teams, championing new ways to bring Lilly science to patients with speed. Dr Adams holds a degree in biology and a doctorate in zoology from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. Prior to joining Lilly in 2011, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School studying the neurobiology of anorexia nervosa.

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Dr. Peter J. Hotez, M.D., Ph.D. (https://peterhotez.org/), is Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology and Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine where he is also Chief of the Section of Pediatric Tropical Medicine and the Texas Children’s Hospital Endowed Chair of Tropical Pediatrics . Dr. Hotez is also Rice University’s Baker Institute fellow in disease and poverty and Co-Director of Parasites Without Borders (https://parasiteswithoutborders.com/), a global nonprofit organization with a focus on those suffering from parasitic diseases in subtropical environments. Dr. Hotez is an internationally recognized physician-scientist with expertise in neglected tropical diseases and vaccine development. He leads the only product development partnership for developing new vaccines for hookworm, schistosomiasis and Chagas disease, and is just coming off a major win for emergency use approval of his team’s Corbevax protein sub-unit COVID-19 vaccine, of which he, and previous guest to the show, Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi, were recently nominated for a Nobel Prize. Dr. Hotez is the author of more than 400 original papers, as well as the books Forgotten People, Forgotten Diseases - The Neglected Tropical Diseases and Their Impact on Global Health and Development, Blue Marble Health - An Innovative Plan to Fight Diseases of the Poor amid Wealth, Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel's Autism: My Journey as a Vaccine Scientist, Pediatrician, and Autism Dad, and Preventing the Next Pandemic: Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti-science. Dr. Hotez previously served as president of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, the Sabin Vaccine Institute and as founding editor-in-chief of PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. He is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2011, he was awarded the Abraham Horwitz Award for Excellence in Leadership in Inter-American Health by the Pan American Health Organization of the World Health Organization. In 2015, the White House and U.S. State Department selected Dr. Hotez as a United States science envoy. Dr. Hotez obtained his undergraduate degree in molecular biophysics from Yale University (Phi Beta Kappa), followed by a Ph.D. in biochemical parasitology from Rockefeller University, and an M.D. from Weill Cornell Medical College.

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Dr. David Su, Ph.D. (https://atmosic.com/company/leadership/) is CEO and Co-Founder of Atmosic, a fascinating company that is “re-architecting” wireless connectivity solutions from the ground up to radically reduce Internet of Things (IoT) device dependence on batteries, aiming to make batteries last forever and the Internet of Things battery free – thus breaking the power barrier to widespread IoT adoption. Dr. Su brings to Atmosic over 30 years of engineering expertise with an extensive wireless background, as his past teams’ radio designs have brought billions of successful devices to market. He was on the early engineering team at Atheros, as VP Analog/RF Engineering, and VP Engineering with Qualcomm following the 2011 acquisition of Atheros. He was also at HP for several years. Dr. Su earned a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) and Master of Engineering (MEng) in Electrical Engineering, from University of Tennessee, a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, and has been a Consulting Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford. He is an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Fellow.

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The Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X - https://carb-x.org/) is a global non-profit partnership accelerating antibacterial products to address drug-resistant bacteria, a leading cause of death around the world. 1.27 million deaths worldwide were attributed to resistant bacterial infections in 2019. The CARB-X portfolio is the world’s most scientifically diverse, early development pipeline of new antibiotics, vaccines, rapid diagnostics and other products and represents the only global partnership that integrates solutions for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of life-threatening bacterial infections, translating innovation from basic research to first-in-human clinical trials. Dr. Erin Duffy, PhD., is Chief of Research & Development at CARB-X and she has two decades of drug-discovery and problem-solving experience in the antibiotic arena. She was previously with Rib-X Pharmaceuticals (now Melinta Therapeutics) where in increasing roles she helped to build and sustain a team of researchers that translated the company’s scientific platform into next-generation and novel antibiotics that target the ribosome. Her team’s most recent achievements include the de novo design and optimization of a completely new class of antibiotics, the pyrrolocytosines, which were supported in part by CARB-X. Prior to Rib-X, Erin was the Associate Director of Innovative Discovery Technologies at Achillion Pharmaceuticals, responsible for building the structure and computational teams and platform for their antiviral efforts. She began her industrial career at Pfizer Central Research, in Groton, Connecticut, where she joined a team of computational and structural drug designers in multiple therapeutic areas. Erin was trained formally at Yale University, where she became a physical-organic chemist focused on defining computationally how small molecules interact and react in the group of Professor William L. Jorgensen. She expanded her experience to large molecules under the mentorship of Professor Axel Brunger, whose group at Yale was transitioning to a mix of computational and laboratory structural biology. Kevin Outterson, ESQ., is Executive Director of CARB-X and is a global thought leader on business models for antibiotic development and use. He is Professor of Law and N. Neil Pike Scholar of Health and Disability Law at Boston University School of Law, where he leads multi-disciplinary teams to solve global health issues. Professor Outterson is the Executive Director and Principal Investigator of CARB-X and a partner in DRIVE-AB (aka Driving Reinvestment In Research And Development And Responsible Antibiotic Use) a project composed of 15 public and 7 private partners from 12 countries that is funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) joint undertaking between the European Union and the European Pharmaceutical Industry Association (EFPIA). He also leads the Social Innovation on Drug Resistance program at Boston University.

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Longer term correctional facilities, of which we have around 2,000 in the U.S., are not geared to accommodate the needs of a growing aging population. Within this aging population, we see the natural slowdown of physical mobility and cognitive processes, aging prisoners are prone to predation and humiliation, and major CNS degenerative disorders, such as early onset dementia, including Alzheimer’s Disease, is difficult to detect in this population, which is often accompanied with other mental illnesses and maladaptive social behaviors. The Gold Coat program (https://thegoldcoats.com/), based at the California Men’s Colony State Prison in San Luis Obispo, consists of healthy inmates specially trained to care for those with dementia and other cognitive impairments, and the experiences of these Gold Coat workers (designated for the gold smocks they wear) reveal not just a fascinating model of care and working rehabilitative program, but also a true model of reform that can provide skills for meaningful employment while caring for those who cannot help themselves. Aileen Hongo is a geriatric social worker and received her masters degrees in Gerontology and Social Work from the University of Southern California. She came across the Gold Coats program through her studies. Aileen continues to research the plight of the escalating aging prison population in correctional facilities unsuitable to accommodate the natural decline of physical mobility and cognitive processes of older adults. She currently works as a life skills instructor in the county jails. Barry Hughes is originally from Los Angeles, CA. Barry served as a Gold Coat for 5 years and hospice caregiver from 2004 to until released from prison in 2012. He is currently working as a Peer Specialist in Grief Support for the Department of Mental Health at the Veterans Administration. Aileen and Barry are both authors of a book: The Gold Coats - An Exceptional Standard of Care: A Collaborative Guide to Caring for the Cognitively Impaired Behind Bars (https://www.amazon.com/Gold-Coats-Exceptional-Collaborative-Cognitively/dp/1530609011).

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Ms. Victoria Laskina-Ustimenko (https://www.instagram.com/laskinavika_2/?hl=en) is a multi-industry entrepreneur with specialization in biotechnology, cryptocurrency, fashion and capital markets, where she collaborates with a wide variety of companies across the world, providing public relations & business development services. As a distinguished young thinker from Ukraine, she graduated from Donetsk State University in Marketing, where she studied public relations. In addition to her own PR business (https://www.instagram.com/pretobusiness/?hl=en) Victoria currently serves as Chief Business Development Officer at the think tank Transdisciplinary Agora for Future Discussions (https://gen4ir.org/). She has also served as Chief Public Relations Officer and Managing Partner at USP Capital Ltd., at the Waves Platform and AdHive.TV as a PR specialist, at CryptoMatic ATM as the Global Business Development Manager, and also currently operates a fashion agency in Moscow, Russia. Victoria's futurist and multidisciplinary vision of a better world has led to her focus as a progressive-thinker for exponential organizations in Russia & Ukraine, representing a technologically diverse clientele, ranging from autonomous VTOL vehicles, to novel IT, to bio-remediation firms, several who have joined us previously on the show over the past years. Victoria is passionate about generating close relationship with some of the most impressive scientists, philosophers, artists, and entrepreneurs worldwide.

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Colonel (ret) Dr. Samantha "Combo" Weeks, Ph.D. is the Science & Research Director, of the Polaris Dawn Program (https://polarisprogram.com/dawn/), a planned private human spaceflight mission, operated by SpaceX on behalf of Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman, planned to launch using the Crew Dragon capsule. Polaris Dawn is the first of three planned missions in the Polaris Program (https://polarisprogram.com/), which endeavors to rapidly advance human spaceflight capabilities by demonstrating new technologies and conducting extensive scientific research to expand our knowledge of humans adapting, living and working in space. Much of this research also has purpose and applicability to improve life here on Earth. Colonel Dr. Weeks, is a retired United States Air Force Colonel, with over 2,200 hours flying the F-15C, F-16, and T-38, including 105 combat hours. She commanded at the squadron, group, and wing level in the Air Force, and today also serves a corporate Vice President at the Shift4 Payments company, focusing on transformation and change management. Her position as Science & Research Director with Polaris comes after two and a half decades of focus on human performance in aviation. Colonel Dr. Weeks has a BS in Biology from the United States Air Force Academy, a Masters in Human Relations from University of Oklahoma, and a Ph.D. in Military Strategy / Leadership from the United States Air Force, Air University.

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Dr. Philip Nitschke, MD, Ph.D. is a medical doctor, humanist and founder and director of the pro-euthanasia group Exit International (https://www.exitinternational.net/), a leading end-of-life rights advocacy and information non-profit. Dr. Nitschke has written extensively in the area of voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide, including three books, including: Killing Me Softly: Voluntary Euthanasia and the Road to the Peaceful Pill, The Peaceful Pill eHandbook, and Damned if I Do. Dr. Nitschke holds a Ph.D. in applied physics from Flinders University and is a graduate of Sydney Medical School. He is a seven-time nominee for Australian of the Year and is the recipient of many awards including the Rainer Humanitarian Award and Australian Humanist of the Year. Dr. Nitschke successfully campaigned to have a legal euthanasia law passed in Australia's Northern Territory and assisted four people in ending their lives before the law (Rights of the Terminally Ill Act) was overturned by the federal government. He was the first doctor in the world to administer a legal, voluntary, lethal injection. Dr. Nitschke remains a strong advocate of dying with dignity, spending time lecturing on the topic, and developing innovative technology concepts, including several end-of-life machines, including the Deliverance Machine, CoGen and Destiny devices, and his most recent, the SARCO capsule (https://www.exitinternational.net/sarco/).

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