In this edition of The Academic Boardroom, hosts Dr. Eli Joseph and Dr. Janice Gassam Asare speak with orator, instructor, and author Minda Harts about issues surrounding workplace dynamics. As Andrea and Harts discuss in much greater detail than the typical compliance issues like race and gender identity, they also discover the importance of developing a connection to the fundamental aspect of being human. Minda Harts discusses her book's journey and how, as she discusses, our ability to use everyday conversations directly affects the overall health of an organization.

Traditional diversity initiatives often rely heavily on traditional storytelling to spark systemic change. However, the common occurrence of “empathy fatigue” often diminishes the impact of these stories, particularly with executives. To explore ways to overcome this corporate paralytic state, we had an opportunity to speak with Dr. Courtney Cogburn, Associate Professor of Social Work at Columbia University, about her innovative method for assisting corporations through this stagnancy. 

Dr. Cogburn discussed the journey into her groundbreaking virtual reality intervention called “1,000 Cut Journey,” which enables participants to witness structural racism through the lens of a Black person. Unlike traditional academic charts, this experiential form of technology expresses a technological form of mirroring, allowing corporate leaders to literally "walk in the data" and experience a visceral reality through the entirety of an individual's life course. 

In addition, the discussion included the limitations of unconscious bias training, an exploration of the role of radical imagination in marginalized communities, and how AI will continue to support health equity as it pertains to developing new ways to bridge the divide between identifying disparities and creating corporate solutions. Through this process, Dr. Cogburn provides guidance for developing sustainable environments that can endure executive scrutiny and create real institutional transformation. 

In this groundbreaking episode, Dr. Eli Joseph and Dr. Janice Gassam Asare welcome nurse-scientist Dr. Paule Valery Joseph, who shares her knowledge about the hidden vital sensory signs. 

Dr. Joseph discusses the uniqueness of the neurobiology of the olfactory system, which bypasses the thalamus and sends its information directly to the emotional and memory regions of the human brain. This unique wiring explains why scent has the potential to be an extremely powerful connector to positive memories or traumatic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) reactions.

In addition to exploring the uniqueness of the olfactory system, Dr. Joseph also describes innovative studies that demonstrate loss of smell can occur up to 15 to 20 years prior to the onset of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease symptoms, therefore providing an opportunity for effective intervention.

In the course of this conversation, Dr. Joseph describes the importance of the "sensory soul" in medicine, with respect to using clinical data but also paying attention to cultural flavor profiles and prenatal learning, as Dr. Julie Mennella did in her groundbreaking research demonstrating that mothers' diets impact infants' flavor preferences.

Lastly, Dr. Joseph provides a perspective on the "politics around scent" and the use of "Sniffin' Sticks" in bedside assessments and advocates for "biological literacy" as we work toward ensuring healthcare continues to be a safe, fair, and humane experience as we move toward the future and the building of the "bio-record."

Higher education is facing a crisis in its value system, as it relies on a “safety net” of bachelor's degree awards, but cannot keep pace with the growing number of awards it will need to offer to future graduates due to widening automation in the labor market as we approach 2026. In this episode, we discuss this value crisis with Provost Anand Marri from Ball State University and his desire to move from focusing on “completion of a degree” to an emphasis on “integrating the degree with the market.” 

Dr. Marri and Dr. Joseph discuss the latency crisis, which represents a gap in time between curricula that are developing slowly and technology that is advancing quickly, and how he is attempting to bridge the gap through the development of a new readiness framework called “Facility-Based Readiness.” This process will provide market integration by creating a way to provide “frame-syncing” for graduates with regard to their perceived value by potential employers. The conversation continues with the provost’s shift from an academic setting at Columbia University’s Teachers College to a more applied setting at a regional flagship university, where he believes a graduate’s degree represents a “Growth Portfolio” rather than simply a static piece of paper. 

Finally, we discuss the “hard calls” that leaders must make to be successful in the future—decommissioning “sacred cow” legacy entities. For universities to continue to thrive after 2027, they must abandon their “sacred cows” to fund AI-enhanced education and human-centric skills development, such as contextual intelligence. This is not just an academic conversation; this is a high-stakes briefing on the new Academic ROI with specific directives for redefining universities from places of preservation to engines of evolution.