Gina S. Lovasi, PhD, MPH, Dana and Davis Dornsife Dean at Drexel University of the Dornsife School of Public Health, opens up the episode talking about her moment of impact. When reflecting back on her career, she is most proud of the times when she worked in partnership with others to answer big questions that none of them could have tackled on their own. A renowned epidemiologist and the youngest dean of a school of public health in the US, probably the youngest dean at the university level in the US period, Dr. Lovasi tells us how the work of public health affects our daily lives. She shares how epidemiologists focus on “exposures” and “outcomes” and carefully examine causation versus correlation. In order to create trust with the public, when facing policy decisions with spending ramifications, Dr. Lovasi focused at the neighborhood level and the implications for the reality on the ground.

To help us understand her work in practical terms, she shares an example of a research question examining what the impact on a neighborhood food desert would be if a grocery store were added. While it sounds so simple at face value, we learn that it is actually complex. Another example of evaluating if planting trees will produce the desired benefit of reduced asthma. Again, not what you think at first glance!

We go on to learn how she keeps the integrity of the inquiry, joins with partners from other disciplines, and constituents affected in the processes she designs to keep maximum trust in the process. We discuss AI and higher ed. She makes the point that if you are not paying for AI, why is it free to you? It is because YOU are training the model. We discuss how the responsible use of AI should balance in the water and energy consumption and we as a global society should decide is it worth it for jokes and memes OR should we conserve it for the best use cases where AI can solve intractable problems. Finally, she shares what it is like to be a dean when you are trained in science, but not necessarily in management, how she balances her professional life with her family life as a spouse, mom, and other important roles, and what gives her hope for the future.

From the Dean's Desk: https://drexel.edu/dornsife/news/deans-blog/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gina-s-lovasi-ab19a064/

Katie Desmond, Client Manager at Forsman & Bodenfors (now Hecho Studio), opens up this episode by sharing her moment of impact (MOI) is to be a voice for Gen-Z and Gen Alpha in navigating this complex and challenging AI-era job market. A 2023 UNC (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) graduate with a BA in Communications and Media Studies, Katie aspired to leave her hometown and go to NYC to work in a creative field.

She shares her struggle sitting at home in Cary and filing hundreds of applications, but getting nowhere. She knew there had to be a better way, so she created a presentation for her parents to ask for them to take a chance on her and let her go to NYC for 6 months and try to land a job. They agreed she was a high ROI “investment” :). Once in NYC, Katie could begin networking in earnest, which is such a crucial part of getting clarity about what you want to do, how to pitch yourself, and how to develop relationships that could ultimately end up with being referred to HR for an interview.

Because Katie was open to contractor roles, not just permanent positions, she was able to land two attractive sequential contractor roles that helped her demonstrate her skills, her potential, and gave her a portfolio of experiences she could talk about on some major global campaigns that her current employer was interested in. Ultimately, the contractor roles enabled her to land her current FT permanent role. Katie keeps it real and lets you know that you are not alone in the struggle. She gives her best networking tips and advice.

The pod host, Katy Hansell, is a globally recognized, award-winning executive and leadership coach, who has 25 years of experience guiding individuals and organizations across three continents to make the impact they care about for the people, causes, and communities that have captured their hearts. In a smash up of the two Katie/Katy’s, we hear Katy’s 5 step system to land a job and from Katie how she implemented those steps to her current success.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiedesmond1/

Instagram: @katieedesmond

Georgina Dukes-Harris, Founder & CEO of swishvo, opens up this episode by sharing with us how her lived experience of giving birth to her first child compelled and propelled her into creating her current health-tech company called “swishvo” (swishvo.com). Her traumatic and difficult birth experience as a young woman seeded in her the idea of creating a platform for the “wrap-around” care that women need in the pregnancy experience, especially BIPOC communities where the risk of Black maternal death is 3.5x that of white women.

With a January 2026 launch of swishvo V2.0, Georgina shares her company mission: “To make sure that every baby enters the world safely and every person lives 100 quality years.” She has expanded her focus to create the state-of-the-art health-tech platform for people and providers of holistic and spiritual care services to connect and for providers to be able to document their results to health care systems/ payors and accelerate their credentialing and integration into networks.

Providers of all types of services are joining and the care is from “womb to tomb”, meaning not just maternal care, but all types of care for life’s transitional moments. Having won more venture capital and accelerator pitch contests than I can count, Georgina is an insanely talented entrepreneur and founder, has mad technology skills (Is a Google AI Fellow), and 15 years of deep experience scaling companies to soaring success. She is one of the most talented founders I have ever met and her funding trajectory proves it.

As Georgina says, swishvo is “creating an infrastructure where everyone can access Whole Health Care, especially under-served BIPOC communities, and where providers, payors, and patients can all find each other in the sacred relationship of holistic healing.” What could be better than that?! If you are a Founder or an investor, you will also want to listen or view this episode as Whole Health is the next untapped domain of value-based care. We are so honored and so grateful to Georgina that she came on the pod and brought her fantastic multi-hyphenate energy, futuristic insights, advice to anyone seeking “alternative” types of health care, advice to founders and much more! Thank you Georgina!

Swishvo: https://www.swishvo.com/

LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georginadukes/