The Brain Surgeon's Take

Dr. Grunch was born and raised in Gainesville, Georgia, and graduated from West Hall High School. For undergraduate school, she went to the University of Georgia where she completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology. Dr. Grunch then attended medical school at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, Georgia, and subsequently matched in neurological surgery at Duke University where she completed her internship in 2008. She trained in neurological surgery at Duke University and graduated in 2013. At Duke, she earned the Synthes Spine Fellowship from 2010-2011. Dr. Grunch’s main interests are minimally invasive spine techniques and advancing the field of neurotrauma.

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Erika De La Vega is known in the entertainment industry as a talented presenter, announcer, comedian, producer, and actress. The Venezuelan beauty with a charismatic personality and irreverent humor began her career in radio, where she spent 18 years on significant radio platforms. Thanks to her highly recognized voice, she secured a role in the Spanish version of Toy Story 3 as “Dolly the doll.” After making it into Hollywood, she ventured into the world of television, both in Venezuela and in Latin America. Erika hosted “Fama, sudor y Lagrimas,” “Diente por diente,” and “Latin American Idol.”

Erika’s influences have also impacted other industries, such as Food and Beauty. She has been the image of recognized brands, including Pantene, Pepsi, Movistar, Pampers, and Directv, among others. In addition to her podcast En Defensa Propia by Erika De La Vega, she is also one of the co-hosts of E!’s Ojos de Mujer. De La Vega, alongside a group of extraordinary women, gives their honest opinion about a different trending topic in its second season. The fun talk show includes Chiky Bombón, Elizabeth Gutiérrez, and Carla Medina.

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Prof. MacDuffie’s global research on the determinants of high-performance manufacturing is featured centrally in the books The Machine That Changed the World and After Lean Production: Evolving Employment Practices in the World Auto Industry. His publications can be found in top academic journals across a wide range of domains, including Global Strategy Journal, Human Relations, Industrial and Corporate Change, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Operations Management, Management Science, Organization Studies, Production and Operations Management, and Strategic Management Journal, and also in practitioner-oriented journals such as California Management Review and Harvard Business Review.

Prof. MacDuffie’s commentaries on the global automotive industry and trends in employment systems are featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Bloomberg Business Week, Fortune, and on National Public Radio and Knowledge@Wharton. He is a founding board member and current President of the Industry Studies Association, co-curator of the Automotive Transformation Map of the World Economic Forum, and a former member of the Automotive Experts Group at the Federal Reserve Bank.

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Lee Kaplan, M.D., is the Director of the University of Miami Sports Medicine Institute and a Board-Certified Orthopaedic Surgeon. He is also the Petra and Stephen Levin Endowed Chair in Sports Medicine, and a Professor of Orthopaedics, Biomedical Engineering, and Kinesiology and Sports Sciences at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Dr. Kaplan is a renowned specialist in sports-related knee, shoulder, and elbow injuries, and arthroscopic surgery. He earned his undergraduate degree from John Hopkins University, fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh and completed his residency at University of Miami Hospital. Dr. Kaplan received his medical degree from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Dr. Kaplan is the Medical Director of the University of Miami Department of Intercollegiate Athletics and Medical Director and Team Physician for the Miami Marlins and USA Olympic Team.

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Azizi Seixas, Ph.D., is Inaugural Chair of the Department of Informatics and Health Data Science at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He is also Founding Director of The Media and Innovation Lab (The MIL), Associate Director of the Center for Translational Sleep and Circadian Sciences (TSCS) and Director of Population Health Informatics in the Institute for Data Science and Computing. He was recently awarded one of Miami’s Most Influential and Powerful Black Business Leaders, an Education Champion Awardee by Amazon Web Services for his innovative work using cloud computing technology and his advocacy for improving education and has been recognized by Cell Press as one of the top 100 most inspiring Black scientists in America. His work has been widely supported by National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF) and several industry and foundation partners.

Dr. Seixas has over 175 high impact peer-reviewed publications, book chapters and conference presentations and his work appears in several media-outlets such as CBS, CNN, NBC, Associated Press, The Guardian, Huffington Post, and is the sleep expert for NBC Health News.

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Adul Samon was one of 12 boys who, along with their soccer coach, were trapped in a flooded underground cave in Thailand in 2018. Their dramatic rescue was recently made into the film Thirteen Lives, directed by Ron Howard. Adul was instrumental in the rescue effort because, as the only English speaker in the group, he was able to effectively communicate with divers and relay vital information to his teammates, which helped them survive the almost two-week ordeal. He has since immigrated to the United States and is an undergraduate student at Middlebury College.

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Kasie Hunt is a CNN anchor and chief national affairs analyst. She hosts Early Start with Kasie Hunt weekdays from 5-6am ET on CNN and State of the Race with Kasie Hunt weekdays from 11am-12pm ET on CNN International, also available on CNN Max. She appears on and reports for CNN US, covering national and breaking news. Hunt joined CNN in 2021 after more than eight years at NBC News where she most recently anchored Way Too Early and served as a regular contributor to Morning Joe after anchoring KasieDC on Sunday nights. Hunt also served as NBC News Capitol Hill Correspondent and played a lead role in 2020 election night coverage for the network. She joined NBC News as an off-air reporter and producer covering Congress and politics and started appearing regularly on MSNBC as a political reporter and later a political correspondent before becoming an anchor. At NBC News, Hunt covered insurgent and establishment candidates on both sides of the aisle in 2016 and 2020. She sat down with Donald Trump in Iowa back in 2013 — and was the first correspondent to interview him after he announced his presidential bid in 2015, where she pressed him in his Trump Tower office about his incendiary claims about Mexican immigrants bringing drugs and crime across the border. In 2020, she interviewed now-President Joe Biden live on the air from South Carolina at a critical moment in his bid to regain momentum and come back from behind to win the 2020 nomination.

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Well-respected functional medicine practitioner, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, is the founder of the Institute for Muscle-Centric Medicine®. Dr. Lyon is a nationally recognized speaker and media contributor specializing in brain and thyroid health, lean body mass support, and longevity.  Dr. Gabrielle Lyon is board certified in Family Medicine and completed a combined research and clinical fellowship in Geriatrics and Nutritional Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. She completed her undergraduate training in Nutritional Sciences: Vitamin & Mineral Metabolism at the University of Illinois. Dr. Lyon is a subject matter expert and educator in the practical application of protein, types, and levels to health, performance, aging, and disease prevention. She has continued to receive mentorship from Dr. Donald Layman, Ph.D. over the course of two decades to help bring protein metabolism and nutrition from the bench to the bedside.  Her clinical practice services the leaders, innovators, mavericks, and executives in their prospective fields. Dr. Lyon works closely with the Special Operations Military and has a private practice that services patients worldwide.

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Alexander is an experienced executive who has worked for many Fortune 250 companies managing departments such as M&A, Business Strategy, Information Technology, Risk Management and Cyber Security. He has served on many corporate and industry boards (Tipping Point Technologies, CISO Governing Board). In 2005, he co-founded Nicholas K Clothing, a high-end retail fashion line. He was a former United States Navy SEAL.

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Eben’s career includes decades as a physician and professor at Harvard Medical School. He was once staunchly committed to the materialist world view -- the belief that the physical world is all that exists. His scientific belief system was altered by his 2008 transcendental near-death experience (NDE), an odyssey into another realm during a week-long coma. Despite a bleak medical prognosis, Dr. Alexander awoke to make an inexplicable return to full health. His medical case and recovery were validated in the peer-reviewed Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. Since his NDE, Dr. Alexander has been reconciling his rich spiritual experience with quantum physics, cosmology and the philosophy of mind. Dr. Alexander speaks around the world to educate about the role that consciousness plays in wellness, healing and recovery.

A pioneering scientist and modern thought leader, Dr. Alexander has been featured in more than 400 media interviews including for ABC-TV’s Good Morning America and 20/20, The Dr. Oz Show, Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday, Larry King Now, Fox and Friends, Discovery Channel, Biography Channel and numerous international radio, digital and podcasts.

His books are available in more than 40 countries: Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife, The Map of Heaven: How Science, Religion, and Ordinary People Are Proving the Afterlife, and Living in a Mindful Universe: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Heart of Consciousness, co-authored with Sacred Acoustics co-founder Karen Newell. http://ebenalexander.com/

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