Ideagen Global - Catalyze Magazine - Summer 2024

B Y I D E A G E N
CATALYZE.
Summer 2024
“Future of ...
Summit”
PLUS
The APAF,
Cutocin, & The
Wolves of K
Street
Toni Townes-Whitley
CEO
SAIC

B Y I D E A G E N
CATALYZE.
Summer 2024
“Future of ...
Summit”
PLUS
The APAF,
Cutocin, & The
Wolves of K
Street
Brody Mullins
Investigative Journalist at The Wall Street Journal
Author, “The Wolves of K Street”

B Y I D E A G E N
CATALYZE.
Summer 2024
“Future of ...
Summit”
PLUS
The APAF,
Cutocin, & The
Wolves of K
Street
BJ Moore
CIO & EVP of Real Estate Strategy & Operations
Providence

B Y I D E A G E N
CATALYZE.
Summer 2024
“Future of ...
Summit”
PLUS
The APAF,
Cutocin, & The
Wolves of K
Street
Mark Fitzgerald
Global Head, International Development Assistance Services
KPMG

B Y I D E A G E N
CATALYZE.
Summer 2024
“Future of ...
Summit”
PLUS
The APAF,
Cutocin, & The
Wolves of K
Street
Dave Grimaldi
Executive VP, Head of Gov. Relations
The Blockchain Association

B Y I D E A G E N
CATALYZE.
Summer 2024
“Future of ...
Summit”
PLUS
The APAF,
Cutocin, & The
Wolves of K
Street
Rawle Andrews Jr.
Executive Director
American Psychiatric Association Foundation

B Y I D E A G E N
CATALYZE.
Summer 2024
“Future of ...
Summit”
PLUS
The APAF,
Cutocin, & The
Wolves of K
Street
Lisa Gables
CEO
American Academy of Physician Associates

B Y I D E A G E N
CATALYZE.
Summer 2024
“Future of ...
Summit”
PLUS
The APAF,
Cutocin, & The
Wolves of K
Street
Kate Garvey
Director, Department of Community and Human Services
City of Alexandria, Virginia

B Y I D E A G E N
CATALYZE.
Summer 2024
“Future of ...
Summit”
PLUS
The APAF,
Cutocin, & The
Wolves of K
Street
Diana Pankevich
Director of Global Innovation Polic
Pfizer

B Y I D E A G E N
CATALYZE.
Summer 2024
“Future of ...
Summit”
PLUS
The APAF,
Cutocin, & The
Wolves of K
Street
Matt Lira
Executive Director
Invest America

B Y I D E A G E N
CATALYZE.
Summer 2024
“Future of ...
Summit”
PLUS
The APAF,
Cutocin, & The
Wolves of K
Street
Yasmeen Long
Director of FasterCures
The Milken Institute

B Y I D E A G E N
CATALYZE.
Summer 2024
“Future of ...
Summit”
PLUS
The APAF,
Cutocin, & The
Wolves of K
Street
Phyllis Ferrell
Senior Advisor
Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative

B Y I D E A G E N
CATALYZE.
Summer 2024
“Future of ...
Summit”
PLUS
The APAF,
Cutocin, & The
Wolves of K
Street
Stacy Haller
CEO
BrightFocus Foundation

B Y I D E A G E N
CATALYZE.
Summer 2024
“Future of ...
Summit”
PLUS
The APAF,
Cutocin, & The
Wolves of K
Street
Bill Novelli
Professor Emeritus & Founder, Georgetown Business For Impact
Center & Co-Chair, Coalition For Trust in Health & Science

B Y I D E A G E N
CATALYZE.
Summer 2024
“Future of ...
Summit”
PLUS
The APAF,
Cutocin, & The
Wolves of K
Street
Bill Novelli
Professor Emeritus & Founder, Georgetown Business For Impact
Center & Co-Chair, Coalition For Trust in Health & Science

B Y I D E A G E N
CATALYZE.
Summer 2024
“Future of ...
Summit”
PLUS
The APAF,
Cutocin, & The
Wolves of K
Street
Aaron Dworkin
CEO
National Summer Learning Association

B Y I D E A G E N
CATALYZE.
Summer 2024
“Future of ...
Summit”
PLUS
The APAF,
Cutocin, & The
Wolves of K
Street
Jaysi Ramirez
HOSA State President
Washington, DC

B Y I D E A G E N
CATALYZE.
Summer 2024
“Future of ...
Summit”
PLUS
The APAF,
Cutocin, & The
Wolves of K
Street
Molly Kirsch
HOSA State Treasurer
Washington, DC

B Y I D E A G E N
CATALYZE.
Summer 2024
“Future of ...
Summit”
PLUS
The APAF,
Cutocin, & The
Wolves of K
Street
COL (RET) James Paige
Executive Director
Concerned Citizens Network of Alexandria, VA

B Y I D E A G E N
CATALYZE.
Summer 2024
“Future of ...
Summit”
PLUS
The APAF,
Cutocin, & The
Wolves of K
Street
Sujatha Dantuluri
Senior Solutions Architect
AWS

B Y I D E A G E N
CATALYZE.
Summer 2024
“Future of ...
Summit”
PLUS
The APAF,
Cutocin, & The
Wolves of K
Street
James Fitzgerald
Senior Fellow
Ideagen Global

B Y I D E A G E N
CATALYZE.
Summer 2024
“Future of ...
Summit”
PLUS
The APAF,
Cutocin, & The
Wolves of K
Street
Maria Bizakis
Senior Fellow
Ideagen Global

B Y I D E A G E N
CATALYZE.
Summer 2024
“Future of ...
Summit”
PLUS
The APAF,
Cutocin, & The
Wolves of K
Street
Jeff Terry
VP of Corporate Social Sustainability & Responsibility
GAF

B Y I D E A G E N
CATALYZE.
Summer 2024
“Future of ...
Summit”
PLUS
The APAF,
Cutocin, & The
Wolves of K
Street
Mike Johnson
Author
Fixing Congress: Restoring Power to the People

B Y I D E A G E N
CATALYZE.
Summer 2024
“Future of ...
Summit”
PLUS
The APAF,
Cutocin, & The
Wolves of K
Street
Esteban Olivares
Head of New University Partnerships & Managed Programs
Summer Discovery

B Y I D E A G E N
CATALYZE.
Summer 2024
“Future of ...
Summit”
PLUS
The APAF,
Cutocin, & The
Wolves of K
Street
Dr. Nicole Hayre
Founder of The Cosmetic Dermatology Center
Founder of Cutocin Product Line

TABLE OF CONTENTS
01
The Core Principles Leading SAIC
Toni Townes-Whitley, CEO of SAIC
02
“The Wolves of K Street”
Brody Mullins, Investigative Reporter at The Wall Street
Journal, Author, “The Wolves of K Street”
03
Establishing Trust & Transparency within
the Finance Sector
Mark Fitzgerald, KPMG, Dave Grimaldi, The Blockchain Association, and
Matt Lira, Invest America
04
05
Addressing the Mental Health Crisis at the
Community Level
Rawle Andrews Jr, APAF, Kate Garvey, Department of Community and
Human Services, Alexandria, VA, COL James Paige, Concerned Citizens
Network of Alexandria
Fostering the Digital Transformation of The
Healthcare Industry
BJ Moore, Providence, Diana Pankevich, Pfizer, Sujatha Dantuluri, AWS
06
Key Projects within the Healthcare Industry
Phyllis Ferrell, Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative, Stacy Haller, BrightFocus
Foundation, Yasmeen Long, The Milken Institute
07
The Importance of Partnerships within
Summer Programs
Esteban Olivares, Summer Discovery, & Aaron Dworkin, National Institute
of Summer Learning

TABLE OF CONTENTS
08
“Fixing Congress: Restoring Power to
the People”
Author, Mike Johnson
09
The Evolution of Cutocin
Dr. Nicole Hayre, Founder of The Cosmetic Dermatology
Center & Cutocin Product Line
10
HealthForce: Tackling The Healthcare
Workforce Crisis
Lisa Gables, CEO of The American Academy of Physician Associates & Founder
of HealthForce, Bill Novelli, Georgetown’s. Business for Impact Center
11
Confronting Urban Heat in Pacoima, Los Angeles
Jeff Terry, VP of Corporate Social Sustainability and Responsibility
12
The Ideagen Foundation: Lessons in Leadership
Mark Fitzgerald, Global Head, International Development Assistance
Services KPMG & James Fitzgerald Ideagen Global Senior Fellow
13
The Key skills helping HOSA students grow
Jaysi Ramirez. State President, Molly Kirsch, Treasurer, Henry Gonzalez,
Executive Council Member, Washington DC State HOSA

The Core Principles
Leading SAIC
Toni Townes-Whitley, CEO of SAIC
Watch Toni’s interview here:
More from SAIC here:
SAIC
George Sifakis: Describe a little bit about what
you're doing at SAIC. What are your current
priorities, and what is the vision looking like?
Toni Townes-Whitley: Well, I stepped into
the role of CEO at SAIC about nine months
ago. I came to SAIC because it has a 55-year
history of being, I would argue, a national
asset for the United States. It's a company
that, before STEM and tech were cool, they
were challenging our national security
policies, processes, and programs by
embedding more technology and innovating
back before that was a new idea. In those 55
years, SAIC has become one of the premier
mission integrators across our national
security, civilian government, and even our
state and local governments.
Toni: They integrate that into the mission
critical environment to further secure our
country. So when I got the call, I said,
'Absolutely.' I called the company founder’s
daughter (the founder Dr. Beyster had
passed), and she reminded me of the legacy
of why they started SAIC.
Since that time, the first challenge has been
putting an enterprise strategy together. Even
though this company has done phenomenal
things for our country, it hasn't shown some
of the financial results; it hasn't been
growing, and it hasn't been as profitable for
our shareholders, who were key
stakeholders.
Coming from Microsoft, where you and I
met years and years ago, we built so much
innovation. Now, being able to join a
company like SAIC that sits in missioncritical
environments around the world,
around national security, securing borders,
and which integrates complex, evolving
technology that we've all heard about,
whether it be AI or data science or even
digital engineering, is amazing.
George Sifakis Interviews Toni Townes-Whitely
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 1

The Core Principles Leading SAIC
Toni: So we put together an enterprise strategy that said, 'How do we reboot this company
to grow faster, to bring more value, to differentiate our capabilities and to become market
leaders again?' That's what I've been doing in a sprint over the last 25 weeks. We built a
strategy with four simple pivots around our portfolio, how we go to market, our culture,
and our brand, and I believed as an initial hypothesis that some tweaks in each of those
would converge and compound to get us back to that growth orientation.
George: What are the core principles and values guiding your leadership style at SAIC?
We've talked a lot about leadership, but what are those core principles?
Toni: When I think about leadership and the values that have not only driven my last nine
months here but, quite frankly, my 30 years in the industry, they've grown over time.
However, I think my values start with the capstone being servant leadership and that my
goal is to serve.
We invert the pyramid. It's not all those who work for me, but I'm here to serve an amazing
team, and, quite frankly, the people closest to our customers are where the highest amount
of service needs to be. Following that, I'm very much conditioned by ideas that are sources
of joy. I don't ever want to forget that what I do and who I am are two different things.
Ideagen Global Presents Toni with the 2024 Global
Impact Award
Toni Townes-Whitley of SAIC & George Sifakis, and Daniel
Kerns Ideagen Global
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 2

T H E C O R E P R I N C I P L E S L E A D I N G S A I C
Toni: As much as they converge at times, whether it be we want a great stock price, a great growth
track record, or a great mission performance. Who I am as a mother, as a wife, as a child of God, as
a grandmother; all of those things that I am, a very proud daughter, a patriot, those things are
durable. They're durable as everything else becomes variable. My source of joy is not the stock
price. I want to have the best I can do, but that's not it. When people get these confused, that can lead
to some really poor behaviors.
One other core value that I believe in and that the team has felt is surgical feedback. I believe in
feedback that's restorative. My brother's a trauma surgeon, and he talks to me about restorative
surgery, but it's got to be timely, precise, clear, and again, it's meant to and for improvement. It
needs to inspire individuals to be their best, and I find that organizations that don't give good
feedback generally get marginal performance.
One other that I really try to think about is leapfrog strategies. SAIC has a challenge with growth,
but we're not looking to reverse that challenge by doing a linear set of activities. Of course, we will
introduce new processes, but my goal is exponential. I always look at leapfrogging whatever the
situation is, and I think of Ideagen and your visions are always exponential to the ground reality that
we have. From ground truth to aspirations, to me, is an exponential curve, not a linear curve. It's a
way of thinking about, as an example, what would the checkers three hop move be, not a single
move. It really conditions how I build strategies and how I think about the future.
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 3

2 0 2 4 “ F U T U R E O F . . . S U M M I T ”
Brody Mullins, Investigative Reporter at
The Wall Street Journal and author of
“The Wolves of
K Street”
Why he wrote the book, and what he
found from his reporting
Brody Mullins, The Wall Street Journal
Order The Wolves of
K Street
George Sifakis: What is this book about, and why did you write it?
Brody Mullins: So this book is about a couple of things, one being the modern lobbying
industry in Washington. It's about the rise of corporate power in Washington to the point
where companies have a very strong voice in DC at a time when labor unions,
environmental groups, and other sorts of government organizations don't have as much
influence in Washington. It's also about how lobbying has changed from the era of
smoke-filled rooms to today, when lobbying is actually more democratic and more about
trying to get voters and constituents to rally behind issues and policies that companies
support.
George: What I find fascinating about the book is that it's focused on people. It's not
really focused on the process, which is the byproduct. Why is that, and why did you
choose these five people?
Brody: We're writing about a really important topic to our country, which is business
and lobbying and how they're affected by campaign donations and money. All those
topics are heavy, and they can be dense and, frankly, quite boring. We realized that if we
want people to read this book, it has to be good, and it has to be readable. It has to be a
book about people. We found a couple of really interesting characters, all of whom
ended up in a scandal, and telling their stories helps explain how lobbying has changed
and how corporations have become more powerful in Washington. But our idea was,
'Let's make this as interesting as possible.'
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 4

T H E W O L V E S O F K S T R E E T
George: And that you've done. In terms of the surprises, what was one that came out of
your reporting and your research?
Brody: There's a whole bunch of surprises. One that's fascinating to me is centered
around companies' influence. Companies are incredibly influential right now, and they
were incredibly influential 100 years ago. And I sort of assume that they were influential
in the intervening period, but it turns out they were not. We're living in an era right now
where companies are near their peak in influence, but that wasn't the case in the 1970s
and before the 1970s. From the 1930s to the 1970s, companies had very little influence
in Washington. They didn't really have lobbies, and they didn't really get involved in
politics.
Order The Wolves of K
Street Today!
Order The Wolves of
K Street
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 5

T H E W O L V E S O F K S T R E E T
Brody: However, during that time, from the New Deal era to the Great Society era,
the government grew exponentially. Tons of new laws and regulations were made
on companies to regulate industries in order to help consumers and the American
people. In the 1970s, the economy collapsed and companies saw profits go away.
They looked around and thought the government was the problem and that the
government was crimping profits through regulations. For the first time, companies
really invested in Washington, um, in terms of hiring lobbyists, starting offices in
DC, and investing in campaign donations. From that period in the late 70s to now,
companies have been incredibly powerful.
What's interesting about that is it this period may now be coming to an end.
Companies are getting attacked now on the left and the right; whether it's Donald
Trump, Joe Biden, or Lina Khan, they're under the gun more from both sides.
Industries like pharmaceuticals, big tech, and railroads, almost almost everything.
So we'll see, but this era could be coming to an end.
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 6

IDEAGEN GLOBAL 2024 “FUTURE OF... SUMMIT 7
Establishing Trust & Transparency within the
Finance Sector
With Mark Fitzgerald of KPMG, Dave Grimaldi of The Blockchain Association, & Matt Lira of Invest America
George Sifakis: Trust and transparency.
Why are those words so important,
especially within the financial sector, and
how do the three of you in your organizations
promote these qualities to your stakeholders
and the greater community to act as stewards
for ethical and transparent impact?
Mark Fitzgerald: Trust and transparency
are two sides of the same coin. In our view,
you can't have one without the other. We
have clients in the public and private sectors,
and it applies to each of them, but in different
ways. We've seen the trust indicator change
for each one of those actors. Ten years ago,
the government was pretty high on the trust
indicator, but that has eroded over time in a
number of different countries.
In contrast, the NGO's trust indicator has
relatively stayed the same. The corporate is
up and down like a yoyo, depending on the
moment in time. Some of that is public
sentiment driven by the perceived lack of
transparency or the reality that there isn't
transparency because there are two different
things in terms of how that manifests itself. If
you think about the capital markets, there is a
perceived transparency there, and that's then
supported in real terms by audited financial
statements, which is where firms like ours
come in.
You need that to promote the accuracy and
credibility of what's being presented. But the
perception gap has widened. There has been
an erosion of trust with respect to some
corporate failures, not just in the US but
worldwide. Why is that, and how can that be
helped in the future?
Then when you move into governments, the
issues are so much more nuanced and
widespread. If you don't have transparency
with your citizenship, the trust is immediately
eroded because that silence will be filled with
something else. That has been amplified in
recent years because of social media and other
factors. Where we see a role for a firm like
ours is understanding where those gaps are. Is
there a role to play for the individual actors? Is
there a role to play for government or
regulation? Is there a role to play with
consistency of approach, and how does that
get operationalized?
George: Incredible.What a great description.
Dave, what about you?

Establishing Trust & Transparency within the
Finance Sector
Dave Grimaldi: There are two words
intersecting on a daily basis within the crypto
and blockchain world: Trust and
transparency. Transparency is in the bedrock
of digital assets and a distributed immutable
ledger. The blockchain allows you to see
transactions, where they go, and who holds
accounts. You can follow illicit actors along
the blockchain. Unlike in traditional finance
where criminals can get away with money
transfers on a variety of different methods
and scales, blockchain technology helps with
that. We partner with law enforcement, FBI,
DHS, etc., and allow smart contracts to be
executed so that people can see where their
money and assets are going so that
transparency is there. That is something that
this kind of peer-to-peer global system is
based on.
We had a bumpy 2023, but we're gaining
trust. We had a single bad, fraudulent actor in
the form of the founder of FTX, who really
put a bad stain on this industry through his
own actions and deception. Here in DC, that
sort of thing takes trust away. At The
Blockchain Association, we are seeking to
rebuild that. The market is turning around.
Bitcoin is trading at all-time highs, and it's
now an exchange-traded fund, but the trust
needs to be regained, especially for a nascent,
new technological industry where members
of Congress are hard-wired to possibly not
trust technology and not trust what happens
with consumers personal information? Is it
sold, is it monetized, where does it go? But
blockchain and ledger technology have that
transparent piece to it that I think is going to
be the future of global finance, and it is going
to be something that becomes a trusted and
relied-upon system.
George: I have a follow-up to that.
Technology and social media have also
played a role for parents in terms of the trust
factor. Does that play somewhat into the
whole blockchain situation because it's more
reliable and more transparent, and do you
describe it that way?
Dave: The corollary is a good one. It's
intimidating and difficult to understand
because you are dealing with the ownership
economy right now. For the older generation,
trust in traditional financial institutions is
something that they can go to bed with at
night; they are comfortable relying on it.
Blockchain and crypto technology enable
this next wave of the web, where you can put
your possessions and your value in your own
hands. There's not a forgot your password
option, so that's a little scary and intimidating,
but at the same time, it's massively
empowering because your assets are yours.
You can put them on a thumb drive, take
them to an island in the middle of nowhere,
and they are yours.
They can't be stolen, they can't be
misappropriated, and a failing bank can't take
them to do other things with them. Think of a
war torn country where you put your money
in, you can't get it back out. That ownership
element is empowering, but at the same time,
you have your own responsibility. It's
completely on you to take care of your assets
and your possessions. This is the next wave
of the internet. This is Web3, as we call it.
Matt Lira: I think that the ultimate form of
transparency is first-hand participation.
When you are participating in an activity or
institution, you have first hand knowledge to
know what the ground truth is of that reality.
Matt Lira: One of the chief challenges we
have, and I would argue, in American society
today is that there are too many people who
feel like they're on the outside looking in, and
some of those people are actually on the
inside. I think we do generally benefit
collectively as a society from our innovation
ecosystem and our economic engine, but far
too many people are either outside of the
process or feel like they're outside the
process. So it's our view that the ultimate
form of that transparency is, again, to bring
people inside the system so that they feel like
they're genuinely a part of the economic
upside and innovation ecosystem in this
country. Our proposal around creating
investment accounts for every American
child is one form of doing that, but other
ideas are floating around.
Ultimately, the more we make people feel
through their own participation and lived
experiences that they are benefiting from the
economic and economic innovation in this
country, the more trust we create in our
institutions, economy, and our broader free
market system. And candidly, if we don't
take somewhat dramatic policy interventions
now to change that perception and that
reality, the kinds of concerns touched upon
earlier in terms of rhetoric and inflaming
divisions will become even more palatable in
the decades to come. We believe that direct,
purposeful intervention is required to bring
people in and to rebuild the trust that people
feel. If you go back historically, the times
when the trust in our country has been the
greatest are also the times when economic
mobility has been the most at hand for most
American citizens. Therefore, I believe that
our idea touched on in a moment is a way to
do that, and we're really excited by the
possibility.
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 8

Addressing the Mental Health
Crisis at the Community Level
Rawle Andrews Jr.
Kate Garvey
COL RET James Paige
With Rawle Andrews Jr. of The American Psychiatric Association Foundation, Kate
Garvey of the Department of Community and Human Services, Alexandria, VA, &
COL RET James Paige, Concerned Citizens Network of Alexandria, VA
Watch the interview here:
More from The APAF here:
APAF
George Sifakis: What do you all see as the primary mental health concerns, both at the local
and the global level? What are the lessons learned at the local level that can be applied
globally? What are you learning, what have you seen, and beyond today, how are your
organizations addressing these issues?
Rawle Andrews: According to the World Health Organization, one in every ten persons on the
planet suffers from depression, and that's diagnosed. Including undiagnosed, we know that
number is much higher. When it comes to the United States, nearly 20% of all Americans are
suffering from some mental health condition that ranges from anxiety to depression to even
serious mental illnesses like bipolar or schizophrenia. When it comes to our students, 44% of
our K-12 students are in a persistent state of despair and hopelessness. That's over two out of
every five students in the United States, with almost 20% of those students having either
contemplated suicide or have a written suicide plan.
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 9

Addressing the Mental Health Crisis at the Community Level
Rawle: These are students who have already lost hope before they even begin to live life. I
say that because we talk about whole health and the {SDG} Goals, but let's think about
hearts and minds. You know, cardiovascular disease and the mental antecedents around
cardiovascular disease are synonymous. Heart disease is still the number one killer, but
think about what kind of baggage you're carrying around in your mind if you know you're
struggling with heart disease, or you don't know you're struggling, but you just don't feel
yourself. So we've got to do something collectively around heart disease and mental
wellbeing.
Kate Garvey: I would just add that substance use disorder is very serious in all ages. The
access to substances, particularly for our youth, and the degree to which people are selfmedicating
to deal with the trauma and the stressors they are dealing with is great, so I
absolutely agree with everything Rawle is talking about. The one bright light for me is that
younger people have a greater acceptance of talking about mental health issues and
potentially accessing services. They are more open than we were to say this exists.
Now, we need to have mental health services and behavioral health services that are
reflective of the youth who are coming to work with us. Do we have culturally competent
services? That's what's important. When young people are willing to come, do we have
effective approaches that address their issues and that look at the trauma driving these
issues? I think it is extremely serious. There's potential for us to be able to pivot and to do
more, but we've got to take this seriously every single day and recognize how pervasive it is.
COL James Paige: Kate and I often talk about her challenges and the challenges of the
different populations in our city. In my opinion, mental health drives homelessness and
everything else. It makes Alexandria an expensive place to live. An appreciation for a global
impact on mental health and what it means for the city is a conversation we need to
continue to have. The heart and gateway to our cities are our schools, the ACPS
(Alexandria County Public Schools), and the relationship with mental healthcare
professionals has to be good.
In our organization, CCNA (Concerned Citizens Network of Alexandria), we do three
things. We look at the equity issues in health, education, and social justice, and we put
everything under that umbrella.
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 10

Addressing the Mental Health Crisis at the
Community Level
COL Paige: We often talk about how they intersect: a smart student goes to school, eats
well, comes home, has a good environment, has access to the internet, and is not harassed
by the cops. Those things become the foundation for the next generation, and my personal
plea is that we continue to look at those issues as they relate to each other. They're not
exclusive; they're inclusive.
George: That's so powerful, and this is all fantastic, but there are many challenges for your
individual organizations and collectively. What are the toughest challenges that you're
facing right now?
Kate: They're always issues related to having enough resources. We are facing serious issues
related to attracting and retaining staff, and that's across the nation, particularly in the
mental health area and social work areas. Having staff feel supported and being able to do
the work is foundational for our approaches and is something that's really important to us.
In terms of our community, affordable housing is a critical need, and it has a huge impact
on everything else. We're fortunate in that our city is committed to increasing affordable
housing and partnering with others to do that, but it's still a big challenge.
I think the other piece is economic stability and mobility. We really do have two
communities within the city that are driven by systemic racism and other factors that have a
long-term history in our city, but we're trying to overcome those things by focusing on how
someone can first get stable and actually have enough to live and eat and support their
family, but then also to build wealth and to feel as if they have a place within the
community. I do think this is a place where this can happen because of the commitment and
because of the people working together, but it's a critical area, and the level of stability that
was eliminated during COVID continues.
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 11

Learn more about how the APAF
can help here:
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 12

IDEAGEN GLOBAL 2024 “FUTURE OF... SUMMIT 13
Fostering the Digital Transformation of The
Healthcare Industry
With BJ Moore of Providence, Diana Pankevich of Pfizer, and Sujatha Dantuluri of AWS
George Sifakis: BJ Moore, one of the only
people I know who's worked for all three
CEOs to date at Microsoft: Bill Gates, Steve
Ballmer, and Satya Nadella. As you're
leading the digital transformation and the
delivery of health care, what types of
technologies are you utilizing specifically
around AI?
BJ Moore: Talking about the problems
we're trying to solve, first, it's about patient
outcomes. At Providence, we're in healthcare
to improve the health of our communities,
and we're here to serve the underserved. Our
doctors and nurses are burning out, so we're
focused on technology solutions that make
them more productive and help them practice
their craft more effectively.
Unfortunately, most health systems in the
United States are losing money, so looking at
technology solutions that can improve
operational efficiencies is crucial. We've
always utilized the classic technologies: we
have one of the largest health records in the
world at Providence. We're standardizing
with the cloud, utilizing Microsoft products,
and for this next generation of large language
models like ChatGPT, we see this as a
technological breakthrough. Achieving those
three goals is crucial.
Diana Pankevich: For us at Pfizer, it's about
how we can get more breakthroughs to more
patients most quickly, and I think technology
will be that key pivot point for us, including
AI and machine learning. There’s a lot of
data that indicates it takes 10 -12 years to
bring a new idea from the lab bench to a
patient.
Diana: While Covid broke that model, we're
starting to slip backward towards these long
times. We see technologies, whether it's new
ways to go first in humans, how it's AI,
whether it's a drug discovery and clinical
trials, we're trying to use AI and machine
learning, and the basis of data. Utilizing all
different types of data, how do we
understand the epidemiology of disease, and
how do we try and help patients handle their
diseases through developing new
therapeutics.
BJ: Or break protocol? Do you guys use
digital twins to test drugs?
Diana: We're trying to. One of the things that
our CEO, Albert Bourla, is really thinking
about is how we use these new concepts like
digital twins. How can we use large language
models? How can we take data, pull it in, and
figure out how to get the right drug to the
right people at the right time?

Fostering the Digital Transformation of The
Healthcare Industry
George: That's incredible. Thank you for all you are doing, both of you. Sujatha, when you say innovation, when you say technology,
when you think about these areas that are evolving so fast, you're sitting in one of the world's leading companies (AWS), along with
Microsoft, Pfizer, and others. What do you believe is most influential in terms of technology to shape the future of healthcare, and how is
AWS positioning itself to be at the forefront of these changes?
Sujatha Dantuluri: Like BJ and Diana were saying, in healthcare, it's about patients, and when we talk about the innovations that AI is
bringing, that's what is at the forefront of our own technology obsession. We make sure our customers have the right infrastructure and
services so they can innovate. We are only the delivery mechanism, but we give the services to our customers so they can innovate. We
have 200 plus fully shared services, and they are growing every day. But when compared to health care, we have a focused area all about
healthcare and life sciences.
This team consists of not just the technologies, but clinicians, medical professionals, scientists, all of them. We are looking at the next steps
in terms of innovation, including generative AI and creating AI services that are specifically tailored for health. Take genomics, for
example; if you want to do sequencing and precision medicine, this is where AWS provides "Healthomics," which enables the customers
to do precision medicine. It provides HealthLake for interoperability, and it also provides health imaging. So, these health AI services are
specifically tailored for healthcare, coupled with generative AI, which provides even more capabilities so that the customers can innovate.
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 14

Key Projects within the
Healthcare Industry
Phyllis Ferrell
Stacy Haller
Yasmeen Long
With Phyllis Ferrell of The Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative, Stacy
Haller of The BrightFocus Foundation, & Yasmeen Long of The
Milken Institute’s FasterCures Center
Watch the interview here:
View the entire Summit here
Ideagen
George Sifakis: What are some key projects that each of you are proud of right now?
What is something that when you wake up, makes you say, 'Wow, this is going to be
incredible?'
Stacy Haller: That 'Wow' over the next few years is going to be about bringing together
communities of scientists that have not been brought together. We're bringing together
biomedical engineers with physicists and with all other fields to create more
collaborations because the problems span across these groups. There's an engineering
dimension to fixing diseases, there's lifestyle angles, there's all these different pieces, and
it's that initiative to bring those groups together that I think will be extraordinary.
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 15

Key Projects within the Healthcare Industry
Stacy: The second thing is that it fosters cross-disease learning. We have to break the silos
of research because people care about their disease, but from a research standpoint, when
we can create cross-disease understandings and a sharing of learning, we accelerate
discovery. I think BrightFocus's role in bringing people together around cross-disease
learning and bringing different fields of scientists and researchers together is going to be two
amazing initiatives. We started ten years ago by helping people understand that the eye was
the gateway to the brain and that it could be used for diagnostics when everybody almost
laughed, and now here we are.
George: You're a silo buster Stacy, and I thank you for your leadership. Phyllis?
Phyllis Ferrell: I mentioned my career at Eli Lilly and Stacy talked about the fact that I was
leading some drug discovery and development efforts, and that was an emotional
rollercoaster. I had lost my own father to Alzheimer's disease in the process of these
research trials, and I felt like I had failed him because we just didn't get something
successful out the door fast enough. About a year before he passed away, he looked at me
when I had to tell him that one of the molecules had not met its phase three endpoint, and
he said, 'Don't give up,' and we're not going to.
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 16

Key Projects within the Healthcare Industry
Phyllis: Ferrell: That was this emotional roller coaster where we thought we had won, but
Alzheimer's is like this little Jekyll and Hyde. You think you got it, and it jumps over here.
But while it looks like a lot of these studies were failures, not a single one of them was
because we've learned from every single one of them. What you realize in research, is these
negative studies are not failures because they actually help direct you.
The amount of progress we've made in this time in the underlying biology and
understanding of Alzheimer's has gotten us to where we are today, where we have a couple
of the first therapies now coming over this regulatory hurdle. We now have therapies that
can slow this disease. Are they perfect? No. Are they the end of the research journey? Hell
no, definitely not. We need more research, but they're the start. We actually got a hit in a
game. We're on base in a game that no one's ever even gotten a hit in yet. So now what I'm
excited about is that last mile.
We know this disease impacts people of color; it's two times more likely in the African
American population and one and a half times more likely in the Latin X population.
There's a social determinants of health aspects of this disease. Right now, the people who
get the best care in this country and every country around the world are people who know
someone. They pick up the phone, and they call. They are affluent, they're educated, they're
connected, often not working multiple jobs, and that's the way our system is working today,
as opposed to a systematic way of doing early detection and accurate diagnosis.
The Davos Alzheimer's Collaborative has recently completed 19 programs in 12 countries
looking at early detection, and that is going to be launched soon. There are funding
opportunities and RFI for health systems here in the US to apply to be fellows and help
take those learnings and apply them to health systems so that we go not just from the 0 to 1
but the one to many. BrightFocus is a partner on that journey, The Milken Institute is a
partner on that journey. We've talked about collaboration because it's not just the doctors
that need to do something different, it's not just the regulatory folks that need to do
something, it's not just the researchers. We've all got to work together so that all those
barriers in the system break down.
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 17

Key Projects within the Healthcare Industry
Yasmeen Long: One of the things I'm most proud of is the work we've achieved over the past
four years. Our health equity portfolio kicked off during the pandemic when a lot of
organizations were shifting towards social justice and the equity movement, and I would say
it has grown significantly. Since then, we've put out significant thought leadership, including
a focus on a multi-stakeholder approach across the ecosystem, and what I mean is exactly
what Stacy and Phyllis are saying. We're not just silo-busting but also emphasizing the role
that meaningful patient and community engagement has outside of the science, outside of
the research, and outside of the policy.
I always say that we have to put humanity back into research and focus on humanity in
research. It's more than making sure you have your data for your peer-reviewed journal. It's
more than making sure you have funding and that you're getting to your endpoints. There
are human beings involved in this, and those human beings are us. I always make sure that
it is being paid attention to in our work. With that multi-stakeholder approach, you have to
ask what role other organizations have. What role do federal agencies have? What is the
role of academic institutions, patient advocacy organizations, community-based
organizations, biopharma, and clinical research organizations? These organizations or
entities are part of the ecosystem and have the mechanisms and the expertise to drive
change, but what are the action steps? What are the recommendations to get there?
We can be a catalyst. We can be disease agnostic to say, here's the resources, here's what our
stakeholders have said, here's what we already know has taken place historically when it
comes to research. As Stacy referenced, how do we bring those entities together that
normally are separated? Most of the work is putting out recommendations and working
with policymakers to ensure that there's accountability around equity. It's not just the right
thing to do; it's not just a buzzword; this is life or death for people. That's what I mean by
putting humanity in research.
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 18

The Importance of
Partnerships
within Summer
Programs
With Esteban Olivares of Summer
Discovery, Aaron Dworkin of The
National Summer Learning Association,
& Ideagen Fellow Maria Bizakis
Maria Bizakis: This is such a multifaceted topic, but I'd love to hear more about
partnerships. Could you both describe the importance of partnerships from your
experiences, whether that's through higher education or within other sectors and industries?
Esteban: Partnerships are very important. We can't do it without the partnerships; nothing's
going to happen. Even when we're at a university campus, it's just a partnership.
Conference services, housing, dining, and spaces where we have fun activities after class,
making sure that we have the right classrooms for class; these require partnerships. Higher
education is the primary space I'm in, so we're partnering with universities and all of their
campus stakeholders.
We partner with university faculty who may be teaching a course for high school students
for the very first time or those teaching gifted youngsters a course on introduction to
surgery for fourth and fifth graders suturing oranges and bananas. It's just making sure that
those partnerships are there so that we can deliver amazing experiences. It's realizing that
there are opportunities and that there's space during the summer for these things to happen,
so let's utilize that space, especially on university campuses.
Aaron: Partnerships are the name of the game in education. No one organization, school,
nonprofit, government, or business is going to be able to reach all the kids we want to reach
with all the things that they need. Sometimes, adults will say to me, "Does my kid need
help with math, or do they need mental health support?" They need both! It's a false choice.
Think about your own kid, think about yourself, think about all of us. What do you want to
do? Should I need to learn how to write a paper, or do I need to run around, and the answer,
of course, is you need both. But here's the thing: not everyone is good at all things.
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 19

T H E I M P O R T A N C E O F P A R T N E R S H I P S
W I T H I N S U M M E R P R O G R A M S
Aaron: Some people are great at teaching math, some people are great at coaching sports,
and some people are great at teaching music. Kids need all these things, and not everyone is
great at delivering all these things, so it's part of my job to help deliver them. You need
partnerships to give kids everything they want, and by the way, kids have different interests.
We don't want a monolithic summer experience. Some kids want to take coding courses;
some prefer to take your screenwriting class. We don't want to say every kid in America
needs to do this.
For low-income kids, especially, there is good news and bad news. The bad news is we
have so many silos in education. Because of local control, we have created this fragmented
education delivery system. 'You work with kids from 8 to 3, and I work for them from 3 to
6. You're the summer camp, so you work with them from June to August.' We've all cut
ourselves into these little pieces, but the kid doesn't know the difference. Somebody has to
tie it all together to keep kids aligned. We're very siloed, but to reach all the kids, we need
to be more efficient.
We actually saw this during Covid. When schools closed, all of a sudden, everyone was
forced to work together. The Boys and Girls Club said, 'We've got a thousand vans, and no
one can come to my clubhouse. Let's deliver meals.' 'You've got packets, we've got
kitchens,' The Parks and Recs said. Everybody started coming together, and that's what we
want to take away from Covid. I see the resources we have, the hundreds of thousands of
organizations, 135,000 public-private charter schools in America, and millions of teachers.
We have millions of staff in these nonprofit groups and afterschool programs, and so what I
take from that is that we have the know-how and the people within the organizations to
reach every kid who wants to be in a summer program; now we need the partnerships to tie
it all together.
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 20

“ F I X I N G C O N G R E S S :
R E S T O R I N G P O W E R
T O T H E P E O P L E ”
WITH AUTHOR MIKE JOHNSON
Order Fixing
Congress
Mike Johnson, “Fixing Congress”
George Sifakis: In your book, you indicated what we all believe to know and see that the trust and
satisfaction in Congress is startlingly low. Why do you believe this is the case? And most importantly,
how do you believe this problem can be addressed?
Michael Johnson: In our form of government, which is a democratic republic, essentially, the citizens
have to have access to and influence over the government. That's what self-governance is all about.
And when they don't, then the whole system starts to deteriorate. Citizens have lost that connection
with Congress. And we can talk about that too. Our book really focuses on four major areas to address.
Number one is civics education. There is a growing crisis in the manner in which the citizens,
particularly young people, are being educated in how their government works, why it doesn't, and what
they can do to fix it. The second thing is congressional reform; Congress has to reform itself. That's not
going to happen unless there is pressure from voters for them to do it, and the reforms that are needed
are many.
The next thing is controlling the outside influences on Congress, whether it's lobbying, media, partisan
political parties, or general pressure occurring in society. These influences have to have to be put in a
proper perspective so that citizens don't feel like they're being excluded from the process. Many
citizens today think their representatives spend too much time with lobbyists and the media and not
enough time with them. The other thing is civility, which serves as the base of all of our public
discourse and governance. If there isn't civility in the manner in which we conduct ourselves and
legislate, nothing's going to happen.
All this folds into something greater, which is the trust, or lack of, trust the American people have in
their system of government to work. If there is no trust, the government cannot function under our
system. It's still the best in the world, there's no question about that, but trust has to be restored, and it
can't be restored unless we start talking to each other in a civil manner like you and I are now. The
anger and the hatred have got to be set aside. We all have different views, and they should be
respected. We all have different ways of expressing ourselves; we need to keep control over that and
let reason survive over emotion.
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 21

“ F I X I N G C O N G R E S S : R E S T O R I N G P O W E R T O T H E
P E O P L E ”
George Sifakis: I completely agree. In your opinion, what do you see as the ideal role, and
therefore the relationship, between the American citizens and those in the United States Congress?
Michael Johnson: Well, it's an important issue and a good question because the relationship is so
tattered. We wrote this book specifically about Congress because Congress is essentially the first
branch of government. It is the first line of defense for citizens against intrusive government, and it
is the body that is supposed to be closest to the people. Voters today really lack the tools they need
to be effective communicators and active citizens. Citizens need to first understand that there is
strength in numbers, and the American people need to be active in their communities and associate
with individuals and organizations who share the desire to restore power to the people. Secondly,
when communicating with the congressional office, people need to know who to communicate with,
who can have the most effect on them, and how they can create an action-forcing mechanism that
produces the results they want.
I'll tell you a story that a good friend of mine, Chris Matthews, who used to be on MSNBC and was
a press secretary with me, told me. Now, I don't know if it has any validity or not, but it certainly
has a lesson to take away. Bill Bradley, the former senator from New Jersey, was at a dinner one
evening, sitting on the dais, when the waiter came by and put a slab of butter on his bread plate.
Bradley turned and said, 'I'll have two, please,' to which the waiter replied, 'No. I'm sorry, there's
just one to a customer.' Bradley said, 'I want two. Please give me two slabs of butter.' To which the
waiter replied again, 'No. I'm sorry, there's only one for each guest.' Bradley said to him, 'Do you
have any idea who I am? I am a former All-American basketball player, I'm a Rhodes Scholar, I am
now a member of the United States Senate, and more importantly, I'm the guest of honor at this
dinner, and I'll be giving a speech very shortly, so I'd like two slabs of butter.' The waiter said, 'Do
you know who I am, sir?' Bradley looked at him stunned and said, 'No, I don't.' He said, 'I'm the man
in charge of the butter.' And that is apropos of the organization and structure of Congress. You need
to know who's in charge of the butter, or you're not going to get through the way you need to.
O R D E R “ F I X I N G C O N G R E S S :
R E S T O R I N G P O W E R T O T H E
P E O P L E T O D A Y !
Fixing Congress
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 22

2 0 2 4 “ F U T U R E O F . . . S U M M I T ”
The Evolution of
Cutocin
With the Creator and Founder of
Cutocin and the Cosmetic
Dermatology Center, Dr. Nicole Hayre
Dr. Nicole Hayre
Cutocin
George Sifakis: How has the product and the evolution of Cutocin arrived where we are today?
How does it work, how did you come across it, and how did you create this incredible product?
Dr. Nicole Hayre: It's actually a really interesting story. I've been in practice for over 20 years
now, and some of my patients have been coming to me that entire time, which I'm so honored by.
I get to know them, and I see them from time to time throughout the year. It happens when
someone walks in, and I see this change in their skin. It could be a good change and I think,
'Wow, their skin all of a sudden looks better. I know what we're doing and what we've been doing,
but there's just something different, this intangible thing.' They have this love glow, and I talk to
them, and it turns out they do have a new love. They got engaged, or they have a new man in their
life, whatever it is.
However, there have been several times where there's this striking depletion in the skin. It looks
sallow and worse, and I think, 'Wow, something happened, this doesn't look good. We get to
talking, and sure enough, there have been times when the husband died unexpectedly, or the
husband left unexpectedly, and the woman is devastated, and it shows. It's not just the expression
on her face; it's the quality of their skin.
So I got to thinking about this issue, and I realized that this is all related to their love lives. It's
kind of crazy when you think about this concept of the love glow, and it's almost this
mythological concept, but I was really seeing this. I had this epiphany and said, 'This is all
oxytocin based.' Oxytocin is the love hormone, and in the past, we've always thought that it had a
very limited value in the body, only attributing it to several little things. It was involved in sex,
birthing, and nursing, but that was it.
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 23

T H E E V O L U T I O N O F C U T O C I N
Dr. Hayre: We didn't think much more about oxytocin, but I thought something was going on
here. Long story short, I did a lot of research, and found out that there is some evidence showing
that oxytocin is made in the skin, binds in the skin, and shuts off an inflammatory process in the
skin. When the presence of oxytocin shuts off this inflammatory destructive pathway, it's
protecting the skin. I thought to myself, can we really see this clinically because no one's proven
this, and it hasn't been shown clinically? But I have this research mindset, and I did a pilot study
out of my office showing that it does, in fact, correlate. There's a linear correlation between the
level of oxytocin someone has and how good their skin looks.
We used standardized photography and a standardized scoring system, all very aboveboard
scientific methodologies. This study was published, and it actually was tagged as one of the most
important stories in dermatology 2021. While it's very exciting to have found this and to be able to
show this clinically, it goes beyond that. The body doesn't waste energy easily, we're evolved to
conserve energy, so what's going on here? Is this a beauty system, or is this about reproduction,
and my gut feeling was, no, this goes beyond that.
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 24

T H E E V O L U T I O N O F C U T O C I N
Dr. Hayre: I dug through the research and the literature, and it turns out there's preliminary
research showing a positive effect of oxytocin on every system in the body. It has a positive effect
on your lungs, your GI tract, your cardiovascular and neurological systems, and everything else.
I'll never forget it was a Sunday, and I needed to be in my office for some peace and quiet, writing
out my paper, thinking, 'What is going on here? Why is oxytocin all of a sudden being found to
have this positive effect here and there, and why would this be going on?' Then, I realized that this
is a social system. This is a system that is ingrained in our bodies that the more social we are in a
positive manner, the more oxytocin we have, the healthier we are, and the better we look. There's
this positive feedback loop because the more vibrant you are, the healthier you are, and there's
something to people with this energy that attracts more social attention.
This isn't just a sex thing, this is a positive social interaction thing. This is sitting across the table
from someone. This is getting a hug. This is smiling at someone. All these things will increase
your oxytocin. I talk a lot with different audiences and with my patients about this and explain this
system and how this system links our social behavior to our actual health, and it's a powerful
message. I've had a lot of strong responses, and in the end, I think this is why our populace right
now is having a lot of trouble. Kids are staring at social media, and there's a lot of depression and
anxiety because social media is not truly social. It's how to get information on a social topic, but it
does not trigger that normal social response. You're not going to raise your oxytocin levels the
way you would if you were sitting there with a friend. This is a message I've found has been very
well received, and people feel very strongly about it.
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 25

CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 26

Bill Novelli
Tackling the Healthcare
workforce crisis with
HealthForce
With Bill Novelli of
Georgetown‘s Business
for Impact Center
&
Lisa Gables of The
American Academy of
Physician’s Assistants &
Founder of HealthForce
Lisa Gables
Watch the interview here:
More from HealthForce here:
HealthForce
George Sifakis: You led Tobacco-free kids. I'm old enough to remember that it wasn't so
long ago. What a successful movement, and you utilized the power of youth, parents, and
everyone in the community. How is that informing your support of this health force?
Bill Novelli: The Campaign For Tobacco-Free Kids was a success, but I think if you go
back to the early days, what we had was an epidemic. Kids smoking was at an all-time
high, and we had to do something about it. It got everybody's attention, and this mirrors
the way the American healthcare workforce is today. It is in crisis from shortages,
burnout, and a lack of faculty teaching to replace people who are leaving the workforce.
We have a rapidly aging population and all kinds of problems with the American
healthcare system, the workforce predominantly among them. So we have an epidemic,
and we've got to not only address it but take advantage of it.
George: And what do you see as the greatest issues within the healthcare pipeline? What
do you see as the paramount concern, and how do you address it?
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 27

Tackling the Healthcare workforce crisis with HealthForce
Lisa Gables: Well, there are quite a number of concerns, and clearly, our healthcare system
has some issues. The way I've been thinking about this for many years is actually the
problem that Bill mentioned. We have people leaving the healthcare workforce but not
enough people coming in to replace them. In response, we are tackling the barriers to entry
all the way down at the K-12 level and so on. It's not necessarily looking at the payer
systems yet, it's not looking at the convoluted way in which we have our insurance strategies
here in the US, but it's really looking at this issue of literal people coming into the system.
How do we get them engaged? How do we teach them? It's not just doctors and nurses;
there's a whole plethora of healthcare jobs out there for you. That's what I would say is one
of the biggest strategies and challenges we face is getting people, particularly kids, to be
aware that they may have a career.
Bill: And what I think is really key is that people in the healthcare workforce get up and go
to work in the morning to help patients. This is what they do. This is what they want to do.
We have to help them do a better job of doing it. How Lisa conceived this is by putting the
patients at the center, and if we do that, I think we're going to make a lot of progress.
Lisa: One other point I think is important for your viewers to hear is that this movement is
about all healthcare-licensed professionals. All of them. It's intended to be ubiquitous when
it comes to looking at the whole because we need everyone. We need everyone to help us. It
isn't about one entity like the AAPA; it's about the whole.
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 28

CONFRONTING URBAN
HEAT IN PAICOIMA, LOS
ANGELES
With Jeff Terry, Vice President of Corporate Social
Responsibility & Sustainability, GAF
GAF
George Sifakis: GAF is leading an ongoing project in Pacoima, Los Angeles. What have been
some of the measurable impacts that you've seen in that community?
Jeff Terry: Pacoima is this great little community in the San Fernando Valley just north of
downtown LA. It is one of the hottest regions in all of Southern California and the greater
L.A. area, and it is also an incredibly underinvested community, with 95% of the
community being Hispanic and receiving minimal funding. I'll give you a great example of
how. Only 40% of the tree wells across this community have had trees in them. There is a
major disinvestment or lack of investment in understanding the implications of one of the
hottest parts of greater L.A. We started working collaboratively with a great portfolio of
partners, including government organizations and agencies and nonprofits like Climate
Resolve and Pacoima Beautiful, which are incredible community engagement and
conservation-based organizations.
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 29

CONFRONTING URBAN HEAT IN PAICOIMA,
LOS ANGELES
Jeff: A couple of other things we saw: so it's a little technical and nerdy, but the scale of
reflectivity for any surface is called albedo, and typically, on the road, there's a 0.05
albedo. The closer you get to one, the more reflective it is, so most roads are not terribly
reflective. We were able to increase the reflectivity and the albedo of all the hard surfaces
on the ground to about 0.22, which was significant and has global or greenhouse gas
emissions avoidance associated with it within that community itself.
So we've seen a lot of incredible results in reduced ambient air temperatures, even
downwind impacts on adjacent communities that weren't coated. We did this over nearly a
20 square block area, really covered in partnership with Parks and Rec, with the school
district there, all the roads, all the parking lots, everything. It's great learning, and it's a
critically important first step in figuring out how we can scale these opportunities to
address urban heat moving forward.
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 30

CONFRONTING URBAN HEAT IN PAICOIMA,
LOS ANGELES
Jeff: What we did was essentially take technologies that we knew from our roofing
products and cultivate and develop coding products that could be used on any hard surface
on the ground that has solar reflective capabilities. I'm not talking about turning the ground
white, but there's actual technology that addresses and reflects the long-wave infrared
radiation and heat.
Jeff: What's been exciting through that two-year project and a one-year research initiative
that was just published in peer-reviewed literature is that about two months ago, we saw
over ten degrees Fahrenheit surface level reduction on hot, sunny days, and we saw
ambient air temperature reductions of up to 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit on extremely hot days
and over two degrees Fahrenheit on any sunny day. That may not sound like a lot, but with
every one-degree Fahrenheit reduction in ambient air temperatures, it correlates to about a
2.5 percent reduction in hospital room visits for heat-related injuries. There's a public
health benefit associated with this; there's a productivity benefit for individuals that work
outside, and there's a reduction in what you see happening with extreme weather situations
when you can reduce, especially in urban environments, that ambient, ambient cooling.
There's great research on all these different benefits.
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 31

L E S S O N ’ S I N
L E A D E R S H I P
W I T H M A R K F I T Z G E R A L D , P R I N C I P A L
A T K P M G A N D J A M E S F I T Z G E R A L D ,
I D E A G E N F E L L O W
Ideagen
James Fitzgerald: You've had multiple
experiences in KPMG as well as other
organizations like the UN, World Bank, and
NGOs like Pact, working with a variety of diverse
teams and individuals across these different
organizations. What would you say are some of
the characteristics or skills you've observed in
Global mindset leaders during your time in these
teams?
Mark Fitzgerald: Thanks, James. This interview
is a new and nice experience for me, and I think
everybody around us knows that you're graduating
from Georgetown in a couple of days, which we're
all very proud of. I start there because teams are
built on the foundations of where you come from.
What I can say comes from a thread of all the
environments you've mentioned. At KPMG we
have 255,000 people, and I would say about
60%-70% of those are 35 or younger. In the US,
we have to recruit about 10,000 people a year
from campuses, so the demographics in our firm
are younger. What we see across all these cohorts
coming in, both in the US and globally, are three
cornerstones for people to become leaders in their
own right over time.
Mark & his son James
Mark: One is adaptability, the second is
an ability to build resilience both
personally and professionally, and the last
one, which is often underrated or not
recognized, is being self-aware. 'Who am
I? What are my strengths? What are my
weaknesses? Where can I improve, and
where can I add value?' There are a lot of
other factors, but those are the three that
stand out to me, particularly within the
firm, both in the US and around the world.
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 32

L E S S O N ’ S I N L E A D E R S H I P W I T H M A R K & J A M E S
F I T Z G E R A L D
James: Based on those three, adaptability and resilience in particular, they all seem like skills
and characteristics that can be learned and developed rather than necessarily inherent traits.
Are there any strategies, methods, or even ones development cycles where you've seen people
learn these skills and become leaders over time?
Mark: Certainly, there are things you can nurture. We've been lucky in our family, both my
parents and your extended family, that we come from a global community. We've grown up in
different environments and operated in different jurisdictions, both in terms of our academic
or professional circles, so that builds a degree of inherent ability to adapt. But even if you
don't have that, you can adapt in the context of your ecosystem and what you operate in.
Everyone is always told to continue to learn and continue to evolve. In terms of what you see
around you, whatever your surrounding ecosystem looks like, there are always things to learn.
An obvious ecosystem right now is centered around technology and how that plays into what
people do. Some people say, "Well, I manufactured this, or I serve that, and what's the role of
technology in my environment?' Technology has a role in everything across all sectors or
jurisdictions, and embracing it in terms of being adaptable and opportunistic in seizing those
changes is important.
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 33

L E S S O N ’ S I N L E A D E R S H I P W I T H M A R K &
J A M E S F I T Z G E R A L D
Mark: When starting to build resilience, it's not about failing fast. You often hear that when
trying new things if you fail, move on; that's all true. There are many schools of thought
around how that builds resilience, but I think where I'm focusing is more on the personal
level. You have to understand your impact on those around you if you want to develop into a
leader. You have to ask yourself, 'What kind of leader would I be? How do I evolve into
something that is recognized as a leader, even if I don't have the title?' Building resilience
over time is a building block to creating the sense of being a leader in the future.
I'll give you an example: we have a cousin who was a naval commander in the US Navy and
is now retired. He did a lot of courses around management focused on supply chain and
logistics in the Navy from the position of officer class. In the military, you have an inherent
difference between the officer class and everyone else, so there's an immediate structural
change or division between those two. But within the officer class, they start to identify
characteristics and those who display those characteristics throughout their early career as an
officer. Some are going to be those who lead from the front, and they may not say a lot, but
they do a lot, and others will follow them in that regard.
Then you have others who are so-called servant leaders. They have a quiet disposition. They
may be a little bit more introverted, but the people around them will go through walls with
them because everything is about empowering the team around them. The power of the team
is always going to be more than the power of an individual, and there are many other different
types of leaders that the military seek out and promote over a career. To understand a leader is
not one thing, but a lot of different things. That's why being self-aware and building resilience
over time allows you to accentuate your personal characteristics and strengths to identify
where you can add value over time.
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 34

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CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 35

THE KEY SKILLS HELPING HOSA
STUDENTS GROW
WITH HOSA - FUTURE HEALTH PROFESSIONALS WASHINGTON
DC PRESIDENT JAYSI RAMIREZ, TREASURER MOLLY KIRSCH, &
EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MEMBER HENRY GONZALEZ
HOSA
George Sifakis: What future skills do you believe will be necessary for health professions in
this changing healthcare landscape?
Molly Kirsch: I think a big one is passion, and having a passion for the industry and helping
people. That's the reason we are here. With that, a dedication to lifelong learning is
important because this field is changing constantly through new technological advancements
and diseases like Covid. People have to be really passionate about learning and dedicated to
helping people think really critically. That's how we can best serve people.
Jaysi Ramirez: Adding to that, we need to keep in mind that in a field as wide as medicine,
you need to be as diverse as possible. You need to understand that no one patient is the same
as another. Therefore, you might be treating the same illness, with the same symptoms, with
the same age range, to even ethnicity, but it's never going to be the same because each
individual is distinct. I think that in the medical field, it is crucial, not important, but crucial,
for caregivers and doctors to have diverse knowledge. There needs to be awareness between
patients, doctors, and caregivers because, as I've always heard, when doctors don't reflect
who you are or what you look like, you're less likely to trust them. When we want someone
to aid us, we want them to understand us, and that needs to be seen visibly. We need that
context and that reflection. Doctors need to be aware of all types of backgrounds to offer as
best-equipped aid as possible.
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 36

THE KEY SKILLS HELPING HOSA
STUDENTS GROW
George: Incredible perspective. Henry?
Henry Gonzalez: An important thing to me is being able to have patience with the patients.
Many people have different tempers, but if you have love for the job, then it won't be hard for
you. Having that love for the job makes people want to come into your office because many
people don't like the hospital. They are scared. They think that the hospital takes too long or
that they treat you poorly. So, being able to have that love for the job and the people helps
develop a closer bond.
Molly: I think another big thing we need to work on is building more trust in the healthcare
industry. It's an entire industry designed towards helping people, but I think we're really
scaring them away. People are scared to go to the doctor until their injury or their disease gets
too far advanced, and it's too late. People are turned away because they can't afford it or
because they're scared of how they're going to be treated once they get there, and that's not
productive. But what I think is unique about our generation is that we're a lot more openminded,
and we have the opportunity to make a better connection and change the industry's
reputation.
George: So on that note, what do you all believe has most helped you grow both as a student
member of HOSA and then also individually as a person?
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 37

THE KEY SKILLS HELPING HOSA STUDENTS GROW
Jaysi: For me personally, one of the key aspects that I feel has helped me grow is asking
questions. I was confined in a mentality that if I didn't know, nobody else did when that
couldn't have been farther from the truth. I felt like, 'Who was I to ask others?' But asking
questions not only helps you find the answers to that question but produces even more
questions. I feel that if you don't take that first step to say, 'What now?' or 'What do I do?
How do I do it? Where do I go,' then you'll be stuck in the same position. When I thought of
joining HOSA, I stumbled for a bit. I didn't want to, and I hesitated. My friends were asking
me, 'Aren't you in it yet? What are you doing? What are you waiting for?" I didn't know what
to do because I didn't know where I was until I decided to ask one of our advisors. I said,
'What is this? Teach me more about it. What do I do?' And with the help of God, the people
around me, my advisors, and my arduous work, we are here today. That is just one of many
achievements that I think are to come.
George: I love that. Molly?
Molly: I think something that HOSA has really provided me with that I'm so grateful for is
mentorship. Having all of these people and partner organizations invest in us and invest in
teaching us, I've learned so much about professionalism. I'm here wearing a suit on a school
day, and I just never thought that that would be possible. Being in these situations has opened
my eyes and created even more of a passion for me to follow.
Henry: HOSA has taught me that I have a voice and that I can be heard. Not just in my
school or locally, but I can be heard internationally through different members or different
networks, like how I'm here today. Being here gives me the opportunity to know that my
voice is heard, that I belong here, and that it doesn't matter where I came from or where my
roots come from but that I can make a difference as a Latino, as a Hispanic, and as an
immigrant in this country.
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 38

Editor's Note
Dear Friends and Colleagues, it is already another #Epic year for Ideagen
Global as we convene to develop Global Partnerships for World Change.
We are seeing incredible trends and advancements, from breakthroughs
in technology to inspiring advancements in sustainability; it's an exciting
time. The world continues to evolve, with AI and virtual experiences
becoming increasingly accessible and diverse, including the latest from
ChatGPT and OpenAI.
Looking ahead, we are excited to present our Ideagen Global Impact
2030 Summit on September 6th in collaboration with ACS Athens &
ALLILONnet from Athens, Greece. Catalyze Magazine, by Ideagen
Global, is also impacting the awareness of the Global Goals and
connecting the dots across sectors as we highlight all the exciting
developments with our readers as we prepare for 2025!
The Best is Indeed Yet To Be!
GEORGE SIFAKIS
GEORGE SIFAKIS
Editor-in-Chief & CEO
-Ideagen
CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 39
DANIEL KERNS
Senior Editor
ALEXA SIFAKIS
Publication Co-Editor
Pictured Top to Bottom
Phyllis Ferrell, DAC
The Daughters of Penelope
Jeff Terry, GAF