The World We Want

In this episode of the "World We Want" podcast, Márcia Balisciano interviews Judy Kuriansky, an award-wining journalist, clinical psychologist, lecturer, and United Nations NGO representative. They discuss sustainable development and global goals for education, health, peace, and gender equality.

About Judy Kuriansky 

Dr. Judy Kuriansky is an academic, a world-renowned clinical psychologist, a Professor of Psychology and Education at Columbia University Teachers College, a certified sex therapist, and a popular speaker. She is also the founder of radio call-in advice, a former television reporter, and a newspaper columnist. Dr. Judy, a humanitarian and philanthropist, is a first responder who has provided psychosocial support worldwide in the aftermath of major disasters such as the attacks on the US World Trade Center, school shootings, the tsunami in Japan, floods in St. Martin, and earthquakes in Iran and Haiti. She is the Policy Advisor to Sierra Leone's Mission at the United Nations and has been representing NGOs for over 20 years, advocating for mental health and well-being. She is a strong supporter of women's and girls' rights, having founded a Girls Empowerment Camp in Lesotho, edited a book called "Women Around the World," and backed the Sierra Leone First Lady's "Hands Off Our Girls" initiative.

In this episode of the "World We Want" podcast, Márcia Balisciano interviews Nicholas Murdock, Sustainability Program Manager, NASA. They discuss how his experience in engineering, construction, and operations contribute to the multifaceted sustainability efforts at NASA.

About Nicholas Murdock 

Nicholas Murdock is NASA's Sustainability Program Manager, in charge of developing and implementing the agency's sustainability initiatives across all centres. He earned a bachelor’s degree in civil/environmental engineering and a master’s degree in engineering management from the University of Central Florida. At NASA, Nicholas recognizes the importance of pursuing and achieving the current administration's goals. He is passionate about problem solving, building strong teams, and creating a safe, collaborative, and inclusive environment. Prior to his current position, he worked in a variety of roles supporting environmental functions, engineering, construction, and operations and maintenance 

In this episode of the "World We Want" podcast, Márcia Balisciano interviews Filip Neele, Lead Scientist at TNO in Utrecht, the Netherlands. They discuss carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology as a “key” in energy transition and its role in supporting global sustainability.

About Filip Neele

Filip Neele is the TNO's subsurface team's lead scientist on carbon dioxide (CO2) transport and storage. He holds a doctorate degree in Seismology and has been researching CCS technologies since 2006. His research focuses on the creation and management of CCS networks, as well as regional screening studies for CO2 storage capacity and detailed storage feasibility assessments. He is especially interested in the evolution of CCS networks, ship transport, and multi-asset storage networks. Dr. Philip is currently working on methods for monitoring operational CO2 projects that are both efficient and effective 

In this episode of the "World We Want" podcast, Márcia Balisciano speaks to Gaythri Raman, Managing Director of Southeast Asia, LexisNexis. They talk about Ms. Raman’s efforts in leveraging AI-powered legal innovations in transforming the legal business and advancing the rule of law across Southeast Asia, with the goal to address statelessness and enabling access to justice through key projects with world leaders committed to social justice even in remote jungles across Borneo.

About Gaythri Raman  

Gaythri Raman is the Managing Director of LexisNexis Southeast Asia, responsible for the adoption of online solutions for litigation across government and corporate segments throughout Southeast Asia. She is a strong advocate for the transformation of the legal business by leveraging legal innovations, and her vision has led the way for the legal industry in Southeast Asia. As a changemaker, Gaythri has led the print-to-digital transformation of a 90-year-old business in the last five years. Under her leadership, her team have successfully created and launched multiple award-winning AI-powered solutions for legal professionals in Malaysia and Singapore, enabling the use of cutting-edge Large Language Model on premier local legal content.  

Gaythri is passionate about advancing the rule of law. She believes technology can be a powerful enabler in providing access to justice, improving She and her team have worked on multiple rule of law projects, notably with Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Laureate and State Counsellor of Myanmar in the nation’s democratisation process prior to the coup in 2021, working with the United Nations Global Compact to launch the Business for the Rule of Law Framework and key projects across Asia to provide transparency in laws. She and her team have been supporting the Mobile Court of Sabah and efforts to address statelessness and enabling access to justice in the jungles of Borneo since 2018.  

Gaythri is a purposeful leader and believes in leveraging the skills and passion of her followers to make a positive impact in society. She welcomes all opportunities to collaborate to change the world for the better and sees herself as a lifelong student with the world as her inspiration.  

In this episode of the "World We Want" podcast, Márcia Balisciano and David Emmett, from the Biodiversity Partnerships team at the Hempel Foundation, engage in a deep conversation. They discuss the importance of biodiversity conservation, and how our efforts toward preserving wildlife species should not ignore the human communities that surround and rely on them.

David Emmett

For the past two years, David has been a driving force at the Hempel Foundation, where he has helped champion the protection of some of the world's most precious ecosystems. David is also involved in management of a pipeline of Impact Investment Fund opportunities. Prior to his move to Europe, David held the role of Senior Vice President for Conservation International, Asia-Pacific, from 2011 to 2019. From teaching biology and tropical agriculture in rural Malawi to conducting biodiversity surveys in Tanzania, Madagascar and Cambodia, he has explored many places to learn about and safeguard their complex ecosystems. As a public speaker, published author, and esteemed advisor, David Emmett embodies the ideals of conservation and sustainability.

In this episode of “The World We Want” podcast, Robert Skinner, Deputy Director and Chief of Partnerships and Global Engagement at the Outreach Division of the United Nations Department of Global Communications, reminds us that it is not too late to take action against climate change. In a lively conversation with Márcia Balisciano, he touches upon the importance of spreading awareness about the SDGs and making sure that global policymakers and stakeholders understand how imperative it is to act, and act now.

Robert Skinner

Robert Skinner is the Deputy Director and Chief of Partnerships and Global Engagement in the Outreach Division of United Nations Department of Global Communications. Prior to this, Robert was the Director of the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) in Washington, DC. He has also held the posts of Senior Special Advisor in the UN’s Department of Global Communications, focusing on the UN’s COVID-19 Communications Response Initiative, and Executive Director of the United Nations Office for Partnerships.

Prior to joining the UN, Robert was the Executive Director in the New York Office of the United Nations Foundation. Before joining the Foundation in 2006, Robert held several positions in the United States Department of State. Before starting his diplomatic career, Robert was an attorney in the Office of the Cook County Public Defender, Chicago, Illinois.

"We're no acme or pinnacle of anything, we're just simply evolutionary steps," says this week's "World We Want" podcast guest, Dr. Gabriel Filippelli, of the human hubris surrounding climate change. In a long conversation, Márcia Balisciano and Dr. Filippeli, author of Climate Change and Life, touch upon the history of the world, both in terms of climate change and in the patterns of evolution and extinction, as well as what the presently changing climate means for human beings. Balancing pragmatism and optimism, this episode serves as a stark look at the reality of climate change and the will—political, environmental, and personal—needed to adapt.

Gabriel Filippelli

Dr. Gabriel Filippelli is a Chancellor’s Professor of Earth Sciences and Executive Director of the Indiana University Environmental Resilience Institute. Filippelli is a biogeochemist with broad training in climate change, exposure science, and environmental health. Filippelli has published broadly, including publications in Science, Nature and Geology as well as in specialty journals and in popular press. He is the Editor-in-Chief for the journal GeoHealth,. a Fellow of the International Association of Geochemistry, a 2022 Fulbright Distinguished Chair, and former National Academy of Sciences Jefferson Science Fellow, where he served as a Senior Science Advisor for the U.S. Department of State.

In this episode of the "World We Want" podcast, Márcia Balisciano speaks to Dr. Christian Leitz, Managing Director, Secretary of Corporate Culture and Responsibility Committee, and Group Historian and Lead for Long-Term Archives at UBS. During the course of their conversation they cover the challenges to achieving sustainability from all aspects—from historical lessons to providing financial impetus to invest in sustainability.

Christian Leitz

Dr. Christian Leitz is Managing Director, Secretary of Corporate Culture and Responsibility Committee, and Group Historian and Lead for Long-Term Archives at UBS. He is the firm's first corporate historian. He coordinates UBS's sustainability reporting and regularly gives workshops and presentations on the topic of sustainability, both at UBS and the broader world. He also serves as a center of competence for questions relating to historical concerns at the firm. Before joining UBS in 2003, Christian taught history at universities in the UK and New Zealand. He has written and edited a large number of articles and essays, as well as six books. 

On the occasion of World Hepatitis Day 2023, this "World We Want" podcast episode focuses on the public health threat of hepatitis and the urgent need to address it to achieve SDG3: Good Health and Well-Being. Here, Márcia Balisciano speaks to Rob Brierly, Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology to understand the ongoing challenges to achieving this goal, including medical, infrastructural, financial, and other roadblocks.

Rob Brierley

Rob Brierley is Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology. Rob studied molecular and cellular biochemistry and clinical pharmacology at the University of Oxford, and clinical oncology at the University of Birmingham. Rob has worked in the publishing industry since graduation, first as a technical editor for the Journal of Molecular Biology, before working on a series of viral hepatitis textbooks for a book publisher. Rob joined The Lancet Group in 2004, first at The Lancet Infectious Diseases and The Lancet, before joining The Lancet Oncology as Senior Editor in 2008 and then Deputy Editor in 2012. The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology launched in 2016. Rob’s interests include gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary cancers, viral hepatitis, and inflammatory bowel diseases.

In this episode of the "World We Want" podcast series, Márcia Balisciano speaks to Professor Lora Fleming, Professor Lota Creencia, Professor Helena Solo-Gabriele, and Jake Keast who advocate the need for a world where protecting the seas, the coasts, and the oceans is essential for human health and wellbeing.  

Lora Fleming 

Professor Lora Fleming is the founder of the European Centre for Environment and Human health and Chair of Oceans, Epidemiology and Human Health, University of Exeter Medical School. Professor Fleming  is an occupational and environmental health physician and epidemiologist with more than 30 years of experience and expertise in environment and occupational exposures and human health research and training. She is the recipient of the 2013 Edouard Delcroix Prize and the 2015 Bruun Medal of the International Oceanographic Commission (IOC), and an ASPIRE principle fellow of the Higher Education Academy. 

Lota Creencia 

Professor Lota Creencia is the organization lead for Western Philippines University, Philippines. holds a PhD in Fisheries Science and MS in Fisheries Science from Kagoshima University, Japan and MS from Siliman University, Philippines. Western Philippines University. Her experience spans various programs and projects in line with fisheries management and aquaculture. She has served as a principal investigator/project leader/coordinator with funding from USAID-STRIDE, Malampaya Foundation Inc., Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCIEERD), Commission on Higher Education (CHED-DARETO & NAFES), Department of Agriculture- Bureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR) and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (DA-BFAR). She specializes in abalone biology and culture, marine biology, mangrove ecology and management, integrated seaweed farming and community-based fisheries management and aquaculture.

Helena Solo-Gabriele 

Helena Solo-Gabriele is a Professor and Associate Dean for Research at the University of Miami. She is an environmental engineer who evaluates problems that relate to the domains of public health and environment. She focuses on environmental measures and actively engages with epidemiologists and other public health professionals to get to know the possible links between environmental exposures and illness. 

Jake Keast 

Jake is a medical student at the University of Exeter, United Kingdom. In addition to being a medical student, Jake is also an elite athlete and an oceans and human health researcher who spends time over performance improvements and exercise physiology. He has recently co-authored a textbook on Oceans and Human Health, and is working with local projects to bring young people and vulnerable adults to the sea for sports and education.

In this episode of the “World We Want” podcast series, Dr. Eric Altschular and Simone Emmons talk to Márcia Balisciano about the their book Animal Assisted Therapy and the importance of service animals in treating a large array of mental health disorders. 

Eric Altschuler, MD, PhD is Associate Chief and Director of Clinical Research in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Metropolitan Hospital and Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at New York Medical College. Dr. Altschuler is also an Associate Editor of the American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.

Simone Emmons is a Veteran, PTSD/SA/MST/DV/Addiction Survivor, blessed Mom of three children and one service dog. She has gone from surviving to thriving as a mental health advocate, author, innovator and Co-founder of Service Dog Strong. SDS is one of the first non-profits in America to pair rescued Service dogs with SA and MST Survivors diagnosed with PTSD from their assault.

Eric Altschuler is the editor of the book Animal Assisted Therapy, and Simone Emmons is the author of Chapter 8.

In this episode of "The World We Want" podcast series, Samy Ahmar—who is Head of Global Health at Save the Children UK, where he and his team oversee a wide portfolio of maternal, newborn, and child health projects across 20 countries in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa—speaks with Márcia Balisciano about providing quality and inclusive healthcare to people across the world.

Samy Ahmar is Head of Global Health at Save the Children UK. Samy has over 15 years of experience in international development, global health, and evidence-based programming. At Save the Children UK, Samy and his team support programs in maternal, newborn, and child health programming in over 20 countries. He is passionate about providing access to inclusive, quality healthcare to every individual, including those from the poorest communities. His recent work includes diarrhea control in India and Nigeria, adaptive MNCH programming in rural Democratic Republic of Congo, evidence-based strategies for pneumonia control in nine countries, and global health partnerships with private sector organizations. Samy is also Co-chair of the ORS–Zinc Co-Pack Alliance, which advocates for the co-packaging of ORS and Zinc as the "go-to" treatment for childhood diarrhea.

Kume is an astute leader with global experience across four continents with over fifteen years of experience and significant achievements in Corporate IT transformation and social impact entrepreneurship initiatives. Kume is CEO & founder of Afrovalley, the blockchain agro, cross-border commodity trading and logistics platform and ecosystem that will serve as the peer-to-peer marketplace connecting farmers with wholesalers and retailers, assuring quality and quantity to the buyer while opening direct financing, market opportunities, and greater return for farmers. Previously, Kume has successfully founded & exited more than 3 start-ups in different countries in areas ranging from waste management digital platforms to supply chain & vendor management to technology consultancy services. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Dalhousie University in Canada and a Master’s degree in the Executive MBA program from Imperial College London, UK.  Kume is also an alumna of Oxford and MIT universities where she completed Oxford Blockchain Innovation & Strategy programs. 

Shiv Gaglani is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Osmosis.org, a leading health education platform with an audience of millions of current & future clinicians as well as their patients and family members. Shiv’s primary passion is developing innovative and scalable solutions in the fields of healthcare and education. To this end he curated the Smartphone Physical, which debuted at TEDMED, and the Patient Promise, a movement to improve clinician-patient relationship through partnership in pursuing healthy lifestyle behaviors. Shiv is also an avid writer who has written two educational books, Success with Science and Standing out on the SAT & ACT. He is a regular contributor to Forbes, which named him to their 30 Under 30 List in 2018. After graduating magna cum laude from Harvard College in 2010 with degrees in engineering and health policy, Shiv began his MD degree at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and earned his MBA from Harvard Business School in 2016.

Christopher Grant Kirwan is a multidisciplinary professional and educator with more than 30 years’ experience spanning the fields of urban planning, architecture, new media, and branding. Living and working in international hubs of innovation—Milan, New York, Dubai, Beijing, Bangkok, Rio de Janeiro, and London—he has been involved in all phases of project implementation including the research, planning, design, and business of technology integration, urban development, and smart cities. He is currently a Visiting Professor at Henley Business School Informatics Research Centre, University of Reading, United Kingdom, and has previously taught at Parsons School of Design, Harvard GSD, and Tsinghua University where he co-founded the Design Beijing Lab with Dr. Zhiyong Fu.

Helen McGeough is Senior Analyst for Plastics Recycling at Independent Commodity Intelligence Services (ICIS). Helen leads market analysis and consulting for global recycled PET markets, working with contacts across the supply chain from collection, reclamation through to end users.  She has 20+ years’ experience in consultancy, having worked initially in the Digital Technology industry and for the past 15 years in recycled PET within ICIS and Wood Mackenzie (previously PCI).

Prior to joining ICIS Helen has developed supply demand database for recycled PET markets, including forecasts for collection, reclamation, and end use of recycled PET products. Helen has been responsible for monthly coverage of recycled PET market including price discovery, analysis of market developments and regulatory developments.  Helen has generated price forecasts for recycled PET flake and food grade pellets by key regions.  Helen has delivered multiple custom studies in the recycling area, assisting investment and strategy development for parties within the recycled PET supply.

In this episode of the “World We Want” podcast series, Joslyn Chaiprasert-Paguio, Senior Acquisitions Editor at Elsevier, talks to Alan Berkowitz and Lindsay Orchowski about the causes for violence against women and the potential solutions for society.

Alan Berkowitz is an independent consultant with expertise in culture change, gender issues, behavioral health, ending men’s violence, and fostering social justice. He has received five national awards for his scholarship and innovative programs on substance abuse and sexual assault prevention, men’s role in ending violence against women, gender issues, sexual harassment prevention, bystander intervention theory and skills, and social justice issues. 

Lindsay Orchowski, Ph.D. is a Staff Psychologist in the Adult Outpatient Division in the Department of Psychiatry within Lifespan Physicians Group and Associate Professor (Research) at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

In this episode of the “World We Want” podcast series, RELX’s Global Head of Corporate Responsibility, Dr. Márcia Balisciano, talks to Corey Peterson, ahead of COP 27 which is being held in Egypt in November 2022, an opportunity for stakeholders to tackle effectively the global challenge of climate change.

Corey Peterson is Chief Sustainability Officer at the University of Tasmania, Australia. He specializes in holistic institutional sustainability initiatives, which has resulted in University of Tasmania recently ranking number one globally in Sustainable Development Goal 13 - Climate Action in the Times Higher Education Impact rankings and number 25 overall. The university also recently won the 2022 RELX Customer SDG Impact Awards competition.

In this episode of the “World We Want” podcast series, RELX’s Global Head of Corporate Responsibility, Dr. Márcia Balisciano, talks to Dr Rickey Yada for World Food Day 2022.

Professor Rickey Yada has been Dean of the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia since 2014. Prior to UBC, Dr. Yada was at the University of Guelph where he held numerous leadership roles, including Chair, Department of Food Science, Assistant Vice President Research, Canada Research Chair in Food Protein Structure, and Scientific Director of the Advanced Foods and Materials Network (Networks of Centres of Excellence).

He is currently one of the co-editors of Trends in Food Science and Technology, and serves on the editorial board of several journals. Dr. Yada is an advisor to many research and industry organizations, serving on the Board of the Canadian Food Innovation Network; Board of Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network; and, the Board of Bioenterprise Inc., to name a few. Other position include External Advisory Committee Member – Arrell Food Institute; Member of the Scientific Advisory Panels – Riddet Institute (New Zealand) and AgResearch (New Zealand); Global Innovation and Partnership Advisor, Institute of Food and Biotechnology Innovation, Singapore.

Dr. Yada is the Past President of the Deans Council of the Faculties of Agriculture, Food and Veterinary Medicine in Canada; Past President and Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology, and the International Academy of the International Union of Food Science and Technology; as well as a Fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists. Dr. Yada has an honorary DSc from the University of Guelph.