Southwestern Vermont Health Care's Medical Matters Weekly

Season 2 | Episode 35 | August 31, 2022

Matilde Castiel, MD, a nationally recognized leader in population health and health equity programs in Worcester, MA, is the guest on Medical Matters Weekly with Dr. Trey Dobson on August 31.  Dr. Castiel is the City of Worcester’s commissioner for Health and Human Services, where she oversees the divisions of public health, youth services, human rights and disabilities, veterans’ affairs, and elder affairs.

In 2009, Dr. Castiel founded the Latin American Health Alliance (LAHA), a nonprofit organization in Worcester dedicated to combating homelessness and substance use for Latino males. Born in Camaguey, Cuba, and raised in California, she completed her medical training at the University of California, San Francisco, after earning a bachelor’s in Cellular and Molecular Biology from California State University, Northridge. She completed her residency at UMass Memorial and has worked as a board-certified physician in Internal Medicine in the Worcester community for more than 28 years, including as an associate professor of Internal Medicine, Family Medicine and Psychiatry at UMass Medical School. 

Along with serving as medical director with LAHA, Dr. Castiel has served on the boards of many of Worcester’s nonprofit organizations. She has been honored with many awards, including the Public Citizen of the Year Award from the National Association of Social Workers, Massachusetts Chapter. In 2020 – 2021, Dr. Castiel was a major force behind the city’s Culture of Health Prize, awarded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Medical Matters Weekly features the innovative personalities who drive positive change within health care and related professions. The show addresses all aspects of creating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle for all, including food and nutrition, housing, diversity and inclusion, groundbreaking medical care, exercise, mental health, the environment, research, and government. The show is produced with cooperation from Catamount Access Television (CAT-TV). Viewers can see Medical Matters Weekly on Facebook at facebook.com/svmedicalcenter and facebook.com/CATTVBennington. The show is also available to view or download a podcast on www.svhealthcare.org/medicalmatters. Questions can be emailed to [email protected].

Underwriter: Mack Molding

Season 2 | Episode 33 | August 17, 2022

Kris Perry is a social worker, a child advocate, the director of the Institute of Digital Media and Child Development, and the next  guest on Medical Matters Weekly on Wednesday, August 17.

Perry holds a bachelor’s in sociology and psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a master’s in social work from San Francisco State University. She made her career as a child advocate within several organizations starting with the Alameda County Social Services Agency, where she worked in child protective services. She pivoted to leading systems change as executive director of First Five San Mateo and later as executive director of First Five in California and nationally in Washington, D.C. She served as president of Save the Children Action Network.

Perry returned to California to serve as senior advisor to Governor Gavin Newsom and as Deputy Secretary of California Health and Human Services Agency. There she led the development of the California Master Plan for Early Learning and Care and was instrumental in the expansion of access to high-quality early childhood programs. In her current role as director of the Institute of Digital Media and Child Development, she works to fund and disseminate scientific research focused on the impact of digital media on child development and the translation of those findings into programs and policies that promote child wellness.

Medical Matters Weekly features the innovative personalities who drive positive change within health care and related professions. The show addresses all aspects of creating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle for all, including food and nutrition, housing, diversity and inclusion, groundbreaking medical care, exercise, mental health, the environment, research, and government. The show is produced with cooperation from Catamount Access Television (CAT-TV). Viewers can see Medical Matters Weekly on Facebook at facebook.com/svmedicalcenter and facebook.com/CATTVBennington. The show is also available to view or download a podcast on www.svhealthcare.org/medicalmatters.

Underwriter: Mack Molding

Medical Matters Weekly features the innovative personalities who drive positive change within health care and related professions. The show addresses all aspects of creating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle for all, including food and nutrition, housing, diversity and inclusion, groundbreaking medical care, exercise, mental health, the environment, research, and government. The show is produced with cooperation from Catamount Access Television (CAT-TV). Viewers can see Medical Matters Weekly on Facebook at facebook.com/svmedicalcenter and facebook.com/CATTVBennington. The show is also available to view or download a podcast on www.svhealthcare.org/medicalmatters. Questions can be emailed to [email protected].

Underwriter: Mack Molding

Season 2 | Episode 32 | August 11, 2022

Sheehan Fisher, PhD, is an associate professor and clinical psychologist at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, and the next  guest on Medical Matters Weekly on Thursday, August 11.  Dr. Fisher discusses the importance of relationships and how to leverage them for better health.

Dr. Fisher’s research career focuses on the effects of parental mental health on infant/child health outcomes, with a specialization in the emerging field of father mental health. Dr. Fisher’s research dovetails with his perinatal clinical practice, including being an individual and couples therapist for perinatal families and the clinical director of the Fathers’ Mental Health Specialty Clinic. He aims for his research to optimize the health and effectiveness of the parental team and to positively influence the child health trajectory starting from infancy.  
Medical Matters Weekly features the innovative personalities who drive positive change within health care and related professions. The show addresses all aspects of creating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle for all, including food and nutrition, housing, diversity and inclusion, groundbreaking medical care, exercise, mental health, the environment, research, and government. The show is produced with cooperation from Catamount Access Television (CAT-TV). Viewers can see Medical Matters Weekly on Facebook at facebook.com/svmedicalcenter and facebook.com/CATTVBennington. The show is also available to view or download a podcast on www.svhealthcare.org/medicalmatters.

Underwriter: Mack Molding

Medical Matters Weekly features the innovative personalities who drive positive change within health care and related professions. The show addresses all aspects of creating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle for all, including food and nutrition, housing, diversity and inclusion, groundbreaking medical care, exercise, mental health, the environment, research, and government. The show is produced with cooperation from Catamount Access Television (CAT-TV). Viewers can see Medical Matters Weekly on Facebook at facebook.com/svmedicalcenter and facebook.com/CATTVBennington. The show is also available to view or download a podcast on www.svhealthcare.org/medicalmatters. Questions can be emailed to [email protected].

Underwriter: Mack Molding

Season 2 | Episode 31 | August 3, 2022

Jennifer Davis, MD, a critical care pediatrician, and a lifestyle medicine physician, is the guest on Medical Matters Weekly on Wednesday, August 3. 

Known as Dr. Jenn, Davis completed her undergraduate studies at Wellesley College where she majored in Philosophy. She earned her medical doctorate at New York Medical College and completed one year of General Surgery at Indiana University Medical Center before discovering a love of pediatrics. She completed a Pediatric Residency at Westchester Medical Center and fellowship training in Pediatric Critical Care at Montefiore Medical Center, both in New York.

In addition, Davis earned a Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate at the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies and became board certified in Lifestyle Medicine. She enjoys cooking and running long-distance races.

Medical Matters Weekly features the innovative personalities who drive positive change within health care and related professions. The show addresses all aspects of creating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle for all, including food and nutrition, housing, diversity and inclusion, groundbreaking medical care, exercise, mental health, the environment, research, and government. The show is produced with cooperation from Catamount Access Television (CAT-TV). Viewers can see Medical Matters Weekly on Facebook at facebook.com/svmedicalcenter and facebook.com/CATTVBennington. The show is also available to view or download a podcast on www.svhealthcare.org/medicalmatters.

Underwriter: Mack Molding

Medical Matters Weekly features the innovative personalities who drive positive change within health care and related professions. The show addresses all aspects of creating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle for all, including food and nutrition, housing, diversity and inclusion, groundbreaking medical care, exercise, mental health, the environment, research, and government. The show is produced with cooperation from Catamount Access Television (CAT-TV). Viewers can see Medical Matters Weekly on Facebook at facebook.com/svmedicalcenter and facebook.com/CATTVBennington. The show is also available to view or download a podcast on www.svhealthcare.org/medicalmatters. Questions can be emailed to [email protected].

Underwriter: Mack Molding

Season 2 | Episode 30 | July 27, 2022

Tess Wiskel, MD, a Climate and Human Health fellow with the Harvard Center for Climate, Health and Global Environment , the Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, and a board-certified emergency physician with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, is the guest on Medical Matters Weekly on Wednesday, July 27. She will discuss her research on studying the climate and its affect on human health.

Tess is an emergency physician and a graduate of the Brown University Emergency Medicine Residency Program and the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. She has centered her career on improving care for at risk populations, both locally and globally. During medical school and residency, she conducted research, education and advocacy focusing on global and women’s health, including developing an accident and emergency HIV testing program in Belize and an educational elective in reproductive health in emergency care.

Treating the environmental impacts of health on her patients has motivated Wiskel’s current efforts to address the effects of climate change on health, continuing to focus on at-risk populations. She is a member of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health and a board member for Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania.

Medical Matters Weekly features the innovative personalities who drive positive change within health care and related professions. The show addresses all aspects of creating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle for all, including food and nutrition, housing, diversity and inclusion, groundbreaking medical care, exercise, mental health, the environment, research, and government. The show is produced with cooperation from Catamount Access Television (CAT-TV). Viewers can see Medical Matters Weekly on Facebook at facebook.com/svmedicalcenter and facebook.com/CATTVBennington. The show is also available to view or download a podcast on www.svhealthcare.org/medicalmatters.

Underwriter: Mack Molding

Medical Matters Weekly features the innovative personalities who drive positive change within health care and related professions. The show addresses all aspects of creating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle for all, including food and nutrition, housing, diversity and inclusion, groundbreaking medical care, exercise, mental health, the environment, research, and government. The show is produced with cooperation from Catamount Access Television (CAT-TV). Viewers can see Medical Matters Weekly on Facebook at facebook.com/svmedicalcenter and facebook.com/CATTVBennington. The show is also available to view or download a podcast on www.svhealthcare.org/medicalmatters. Questions can be emailed to [email protected].

Underwriter: Mack Molding

Season 2 | Episode 29 | July 20, 2022

Esther Sternberg, MD, an expert in neuroimmunology and how our physical surroundings affect our health is our guest on Medical Matters Weekly on Wednesday, July 20. Listeners will learn about how they can improve their wellbeing through changes to their environment.

Dr. Sternberg is internationally recognized for her discoveries in the science of the mind-body interaction in illness and healing and the role of place in wellbeing. She is a pioneer and major force in collaborative initiatives on mind-body-stress-wellness and environment interrelationships.

She currently holds the Inaugural Andrew Weil Chair for Research in Integrative Medicine and is Research Director for the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona (UA) at Tucson. She is the founding director of the UA Institute on Place, Wellbeing & Performance, and holds joint appointments at UA as professor of Medicine and Psychology.

Prior to joining UA, Dr. Sternberg served for 26 years in leadership roles with the National Institutes of Health. In addition, she has lectured and keynoted at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.; the Nobel Forum at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm; and the Royal Society of Medicine in London. She has advised the World Health Organization, the U.S. Institute of Medicine, and the Vatican, where she had an audience with Pope Benedict XVI. She moderated a panel with the Dalai Lama in 2005 and has briefed high level U.S. federal officials, including the Office of the Surgeon General, leadership of the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, and the United States Congress.

Dr. Sternberg is the author of two popular books including: Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well-Being and The Balance Within: The Science Connecting Health and Emotions. Both address the need for more understanding surrounding stress, place, healing, and wellness.

Medical Matters Weekly features the innovative personalities who drive positive change within health care and related professions. The show addresses all aspects of creating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle for all, including food and nutrition, housing, diversity and inclusion, groundbreaking medical care, exercise, mental health, the environment, research, and government. The show is produced with cooperation from Catamount Access Television (CAT-TV). Viewers can see Medical Matters Weekly on Facebook at facebook.com/svmedicalcenter and facebook.com/CATTVBennington. The show is also available to view or download a podcast on www.svhealthcare.org/medicalmatters.

Underwriter: Mack Molding

Medical Matters Weekly features the innovative personalities who drive positive change within health care and related professions. The show addresses all aspects of creating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle for all, including food and nutrition, housing, diversity and inclusion, groundbreaking medical care, exercise, mental health, the environment, research, and government. The show is produced with cooperation from Catamount Access Television (CAT-TV). Viewers can see Medical Matters Weekly on Facebook at facebook.com/svmedicalcenter and facebook.com/CATTVBennington. The show is also available to view or download a podcast on www.svhealthcare.org/medicalmatters. Questions can be emailed to [email protected].

Underwriter: Mack Molding

Season 2 | Episode 28 | July 13, 2022

Nathan McKeen, director of Vermont’s State Parks, is the next guest on Medical Matters Weekly on Wednesday, July 13. He will discuss all of the wellness and other fun opportunities available through the parks system.

McKeen studied forestry at the University of Maine and has worked for State Parks systems in Connecticut and Vermont. He served for 2.5 years in Senegal, West Africa, with the Peace Corps. He began his career with Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation as a park manager at Little River State Park in Waterbury. Since then, he has held various leadership positions in both the Parks Division and the Forestry Division. In addition, he has served multiple years on his local school board and conservation commission. 

Medical Matters Weekly features the innovative personalities who drive positive change within health care and related professions. The show addresses all aspects of creating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle for all, including food and nutrition, housing, diversity and inclusion, groundbreaking medical care, exercise, mental health, the environment, research, and government. The show is produced with cooperation from Catamount Access Television (CAT-TV). Viewers can see Medical Matters Weekly on Facebook at facebook.com/svmedicalcenter and facebook.com/CATTVBennington. The show is also available to view or download a podcast on www.svhealthcare.org/medicalmatters.

Underwriter: Mack Molding

Medical Matters Weekly features the innovative personalities who drive positive change within health care and related professions. The show addresses all aspects of creating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle for all, including food and nutrition, housing, diversity and inclusion, groundbreaking medical care, exercise, mental health, the environment, research, and government. The show is produced with cooperation from Catamount Access Television (CAT-TV). Viewers can see Medical Matters Weekly on Facebook at facebook.com/svmedicalcenter and facebook.com/CATTVBennington. The show is also available to view or download a podcast on www.svhealthcare.org/medicalmatters. Questions can be emailed to [email protected].

Underwriter: Mack Molding

Season 2 | Episode 27 | July 6, 2022

Shaun McNiff, PhD—artist, art therapist, professor, and author—is the guest on Medical Matters Weekly on Wednesday, July 6. The show will address the power of art as a component of health and wellbeing in addition to the mental and physical healing processes.

Shaun McNiff is author of Imagination in Action: Secrets for Unleashing Creative Expression; Trust the Process: An Artist's Guide to Letting Go; Art Heals; Art as Medicine; Integrating the Arts in Therapy; Art-Based Research; Art as Research and other books. An exhibiting painter who has had a seminal influence on the areas of creativity enhancement, arts and healing, and art-based research, he has lectured and taught throughout the world. McNiff has received various honors and awards including the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Journal of Applied Arts and Health and the Honorary Life Member Award of the American Art Therapy Association. He established the first integrated arts in therapy and education graduate training program at Lesley University from which the field of expressive arts therapy emerged.

Medical Matters Weekly features the innovative personalities who drive positive change within health care and related professions. The show addresses all aspects of creating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle for all, including food and nutrition, housing, diversity and inclusion, groundbreaking medical care, exercise, mental health, the environment, research, and government. The show is produced with cooperation from Catamount Access Television (CAT-TV). Viewers can see Medical Matters Weekly on Facebook at facebook.com/svmedicalcenter and facebook.com/CATTVBennington. The show is also available to view or download a podcast on www.svhealthcare.org/medicalmatters.

Underwriter: Mack Molding

Medical Matters Weekly features the innovative personalities who drive positive change within health care and related professions. The show addresses all aspects of creating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle for all, including food and nutrition, housing, diversity and inclusion, groundbreaking medical care, exercise, mental health, the environment, research, and government. The show is produced with cooperation from Catamount Access Television (CAT-TV). Viewers can see Medical Matters Weekly on Facebook at facebook.com/svmedicalcenter and facebook.com/CATTVBennington. The show is also available to view or download a podcast on www.svhealthcare.org/medicalmatters. Questions can be emailed to [email protected].

Underwriter: Mack Molding

Season 2 | Episode 26 | June 29, 2022

Michael Roizen, MD, chief wellness officer emeritus at the Cleveland Clinic and leading health and wellness communicator, is the guest on Medical Matters Weekly on Wednesday, June 29. The show will address the power of everyday choices in preventing disease and prolonging productive and enjoyable lives.

Dr. Roizen began his career with a tour of duty in the Public Health Service. After nine years on the faculty at the University of California, San Francisco, he chaired the top-10-rated Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care at the University of Chicago. He then became dean of the School of Medicine and vice president for Biomedical Sciences at SUNY Upstate. After serving as CEO of the Biotechnology Research Corporation of Central New York, he accepted a position as chair of the Anesthesiology Institute at Cleveland Clinic, responsible for over 180 operatories, 124 critical care beds, and 28 pain therapy-intervention units. In 2007, Dr. Roizen was named chief wellness officer at Cleveland Clinic, the first such position in a major healthcare institution in the United States. Dr. Roizen also served as founding chair of the Wellness Institute at Cleveland Clinic from 2007 to 2017.

Dr. Roizen has published 165 peer-reviewed publications and 100 medical textbook chapters and holds 14 US patents. He started six companies, served on Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committees for 16 years, and chaired an FDA advisory committee. He also co-invented a drug, methylnaltrexone (MTNX, trade name Relistor), which received FDA approval for marketing in the United States in 2008. He is most famous for having developed the “RealAge” concept and for authoring and co-authoring five number one New York Times best sellers. He has appeared on leading television and news programs, including The Oprah Winfrey Show, Today, 20/20, and many others and has been featured in many top publications.

Dr. Roizen is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and an Alpha Omega Alpha graduate of the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine. He performed his residency in internal medicine at Harvard's Beth Israel Hospital and completed Public Health Service at the National Institutes of Health in the laboratory of Irv Kopin and Nobel Prize winner Julius Axelrod. He is certified by both the American Boards of Internal Medicine and of Anesthesiology.

Medical Matters Weekly features the innovative personalities who drive positive change within health care and related professions. The show addresses all aspects of creating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle for all, including food and nutrition, housing, diversity and inclusion, groundbreaking medical care, exercise, mental health, the environment, research, and government. The show is produced with cooperation from Catamount Access Television (CAT-TV). Viewers can see Medical Matters Weekly on Facebook at facebook.

Medical Matters Weekly features the innovative personalities who drive positive change within health care and related professions. The show addresses all aspects of creating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle for all, including food and nutrition, housing, diversity and inclusion, groundbreaking medical care, exercise, mental health, the environment, research, and government. The show is produced with cooperation from Catamount Access Television (CAT-TV). Viewers can see Medical Matters Weekly on Facebook at facebook.com/svmedicalcenter and facebook.com/CATTVBennington. The show is also available to view or download a podcast on www.svhealthcare.org/medicalmatters. Questions can be emailed to [email protected].

Underwriter: Mack Molding

Season 2 | Episode 25 | June 22, 2022

Ada D. Stewart, MD, FAAFP, is the board chair of the American Academy of Family Physicians and the guest on Medical Matters Weekly on June 22, 2022.

Since 2012, Dr. Stewart has served as a family physician with Cooperative Health in Columbia, South Carolina, as lead provider and HIV specialist. From 2003 to 2012, Stewart served as chief medical officer and HIV specialist at the Richland Community Health Care Association in Eastover and Columbia, South Carolina. In the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, Stewart enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves, where she continues to serve and has achieved the rank of Colonel.

In addition to her national role with AAFP, Stewart has served in many state and local leadership positions, including for the South Carolina Academy of Family Physicians. Among many honors, she was named to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS in 2019 and still serves on that council.

Stewart earned her bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from Ohio Northern University in Ada, Ohio, and her medical degree at the Medical College of Ohio. She completed her family medicine residency training at Palmetto Richland Memorial Hospital in Columbia, South Carolina. Stewart has also earned additional certification in HIV care from the American Academy of HIV Medicine and is certified as a hospice medical director by the Hospice Medical Director Certification Board.

The AAFP represents 127,600 physicians and medical students nationwide and advocates on behalf of family physicians and patients to inspire positive change in the U.S. health care system.

Medical Matters Weekly features the innovative personalities who drive positive change within health care and related professions. The show addresses all aspects of creating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle for all, including food and nutrition, housing, diversity and inclusion, groundbreaking medical care, exercise, mental health, the environment, research, and government. The show is produced with cooperation from Catamount Access Television (CAT-TV). Viewers can see Medical Matters Weekly on Facebook at facebook.com/svmedicalcenter and facebook.com/CATTVBennington. The show is also available to view or download a podcast on www.svhealthcare.org/medicalmatters.

Underwriter: Mack Molding

Medical Matters Weekly features the innovative personalities who drive positive change within health care and related professions. The show addresses all aspects of creating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle for all, including food and nutrition, housing, diversity and inclusion, groundbreaking medical care, exercise, mental health, the environment, research, and government. The show is produced with cooperation from Catamount Access Television (CAT-TV). Viewers can see Medical Matters Weekly on Facebook at facebook.com/svmedicalcenter and facebook.com/CATTVBennington. The show is also available to view or download a podcast on www.svhealthcare.org/medicalmatters. Questions can be emailed to [email protected].

Underwriter: Mack Molding