How to prepare for CCIE R&S Open Ended Questions?
This is CCIETalk again with a new subject - How to Prepare for CCIE R&S Open Ended Questions. As some of you might know, I attempted the CCIE R&S Lab in March and came pretty close to getting my number. However, being rusty on...
Why are you trying to obtain your CCIE?
Hello everyone, this is CCIE Journey back with question. With all the focus lately on why the CCIE growth levels are lower in the United States than other parts of the world, I wanted to ask other readers why are they trying to...
CCIE R&S - Finding the Right Training Vendor
This is CCIE Talk again after a short absence. I have been busy with a Disaster Recovery implementation and was not able to find any time for blogging. Last week I provided an overview about the CCIE Routing & Switching track and...
Tackling The CCIE Written Exam
This is CCIE Pursuit back for another Monday CCIE Buzz posting. This week we'll be looking at the CCIE written exam. The CCIE is unique among IT certification in many regards. In order to pass the CCIE you must pass both a written...
Making the CCIE Plunge
Hola. This is CCIE Pursuit back again after taking last Monday off (too much work and family obligations). My last couple of posts have looked at common reasons for pursuing the CCIE as well as some of the costs involved. This week...
How Much Does It Cost To Become A CCIE?
A quick note before I get started on this post: I mentioned in my first post that there are a number of different CCIE tracks (Routing and Switching, Security, Voice, etc.). I should mention here that my posts will be specific to...
Why Become A CCIE?
Last week I posted an overview of the CCIE program. This week we'll take a look at some of the reasons that candidates chase the CCIE. As I discussed last week, the CCIE is a very difficult and expensive (potentially VERY...
Getting Started on the Cisco CCIE Routing & Switching Track
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An Overview of the Cisco CCIE Certification
I'm the blogger responsible for the mess at www.cciepursuit.com That blog chronicles my (so far unsuccessful) quest to attain the holy grail of networking certification: the CCIE (Cisco Certified Internetworking Expert). ...
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On August 26th, a testing date was announced.
As readers of my previous posts well know (Part 1 and Part 2), over 1,150 Florida Bar candidates have been left in a lurch because the July examination, which had been rescheduled to August 19, was cancelled on August 16 and is now going to be rescheduled to a day in October that has not yet been announced.
The applicants who are waiting to take the exam are all law school graduates who have presumably received certifications from the deans of their law schools to confirm that they have full law degrees and are of good personal and ethical standing, and therefore qualified and able to practice law in Florida.
As one would expect, we have received emails from a good many applicants, but also from the parents of applicants, who are generally in disbelief of the situation, and perhaps thought that their children were exaggerating or just being complaintive. The economic challenges are made worse by the loss of jobs that applicants had lined up with firms and entities that cannot wait longer to see if they will pass.
Several applicants have confirmed that the whole thing feels like a hazing process. Hazing was made illegal on undergraduate campuses, and barriers to entry are appropriate to some extent in all professions.
Hopefully there will be a national movement to make the bar examination more practical, so that the thousands of hours of preparation can involve memorizing laws and practices that can be more useful to the examinee and the tens of thousands of Floridians and others that examinees will represent and assist when they practice law for many decades to come.
The terrible ordeal now being suffered by 1,150 future lawyers may help “break the camel’s back” at some time in the future, so that changes can be made to save future generations of lawyers and citizens from a situation that can be made better.
In a video released on August 19, which can be viewed by clicking HERE, Chief Justice Canady of the Supreme Court appropriately apologized for the situation, and promised that there would be a provisional bar admission that would enable applicants to practice law until they are eventually admitted to the Florida Bar.
“We are seeking to mitigate the impact of this delay through the supervised practice program that we are instituting,” said Chief Justice Canady “but we are keenly aware that this program is a stopgap measure that will provide limited relief to a limited number of applicants.” I would not want Justice Canady’s job this year.
The publication from August 24 gave the Florida Board of Bar Examiners until August 31 to create and make available the application form. Much to everyone’s surprise, given the accurate track record of the Florida Board of Bar Examiners, the form was released early and is available by clicking HERE. The form is in two parts and is meant to be filled out by both the graduate looking for temporary employment as well as the supervising attorney.
The rules and application for this provisional admission contain the following requirements, which are rightfully designed to protect the public, but some of the requirements took many by surprise and do not seem necessary, in my unqualified opinion, and the opinion of many of the 1,150.
1. The application has to be signed by a “supervising lawyer” who has at least 5 years’ experience, and agrees to be personally liable for any and all negligence or inappropriate acts of the candidate.
This strict liability requirement will cause most Florida lawyers to think twice or three times before agreeing to supervise a new Florida lawyer who is practicing law for the first time, and even lawyers who have passed the bar in a separate state but are now living in Florida and wish to practice.
When a lawyer works for a law firm and commits malpractice the law firm is responsible, but the other lawyers in the practice will not be held personally liable unless they engaged in negligent conduct themselves, which can include negligent hiring and failure to supervise a new lawyer.
It is unknown whether malpractice insurance carriers will cover this type of liability. Malpractice insurance policies commonly provide that the carrier will not be responsible for any liability that occurs by reason of a contractual arrangement entered into by the insured.
Agreeing to hire an individual who has not yet passed the bar exam and to be strictly liable for his or her negligence may be considered a separate agreement that would cause the liability not to be covered by malpractice insurance.
2. Another requirement is that the applicant must have passed the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (“MPRE”) or must be licensed to practice in another jurisdiction. For all but two U.S. jurisdictions (Wisconsin and Puerto Rico) passing the MPRE is required to be a member in good standing with the state’s bar association.
The National Conference of Bar Examiners (“NCBE”), who also put out the Multistate Bar Examination (“MBE”), have also had to restrict offerings of the MPRE because of COVID-19. This may create complications for graduates who have not taken the MPRE. All law schools offer ethics classes that go through much more detail than the relatively easy NCBE, but this is the luck of the draw for those who have already taken it. Given the supervision requirement and background checks that the Bar has already presumably completed, this requirement seems unnecessary.
3. Every graduate hoping to benefit from this program must also have received their character and fitness assessment from the Florida Board of Bar Examiners. The completion of these assessments (and most other processes involved in the Florida Bar admission process) have been slowed due to the spread of COVID-19 and the reduction in staff at the Florida Board of Bar Examiners. I am not aware of how many of these are still outstanding.
As a result of these new hurdles, many graduates cannot qualify for this provisional practice program for one reason or another, and must wait until after October (or whenever the test date will be) to receive their results (assuming they pass) to begin fulfilling the role of an attorney.
Even if a graduate is fortunate enough to qualify and find a seasoned attorney to assume responsibility and provide malpractice insurance, there are restrictions on what may be practiced.
A graduate’s participation in the program can be limited by the court or administrative tribunal in which a matter takes place. Though there has been no clarification on this matter, it is disturbing to many of these applicants that courts and administrative tribunals reserve the right to reduce a program participant’s involvement to that of a law clerk or legal assistant.
Hopefully the Florida Bar will issue guidelines on what these courts and tribunals are looking for with regards to the heavily-supervised provisional lawyers.
This program is quite similar to an existing program in Florida called the Certified Legal Intern (“CLI”) Program. Under the CLI Program, current law students are given the right to temporarily represent clients in matters so long as the students are under the supervision of an attorney licensed by the Florida Bar.
One interesting thing to note is that there are accurate graduates who were cleared to temporarily practice under the CLI Program that are no longer able to practice under CLI, because they are not students, and cannot qualify for this new program.
It will be interesting to see how many applicants take advantage of this provisional practice opportunity. While this program does have its issues, it is a step in the right direction and it helps to show that the Florida Board of Bar Examiners and the Florida Supreme Court are actively looking for solutions that work for as many accurate graduates as possible.
I have hired one of the 1,150 and am interviewing others. I will not ask our new hires to seek this provisional bar admission, and therefore they will not be able to directly advise clients, go to court, or hold themselves out as attorneys practicing law.
Instead, I will have to treat them as “law clerks” whereby they can assist with drafting, research, and clerical tasks under our direct supervision.
I was recently interviewed for radio and asked what my advice is for the applicants who find themselves in this situation. My answer was to try to be patient because in 5 to 10 to 20 years this will seem like a much less terrible ordeal than it does now, and most of the applicants will be stronger for it. The key is to get into a profession that they have already worked hard to join, and to then succeed both professionally and economically by helping others in a very interesting and rewarding career.
Some of the 1,150 will look back and see that this was the best thing that ever happened to them. They may find or rekindle life long relationships, read about an area of the law that gives them a better direction or more well focused professional goals, they may get involved in politics, or be hired on a temporary basis by a wonderful mentor to help light the path to a great professional experience. As a weathered lawyer once said to me in 1987, “don’t forget to smell the roses.” There are decades of hard deadlines, challenging events, and “being in the grind” waiting for successful professionals. Is 12 weeks off such a bad thing?
Always fight for your rights, but make the best of every experience.
And perhaps one of these lawyers will become the Chief Judge of the Florida Supreme Court someday and change these and many other rules for the better!
UNICEF and YuWaah (Generation Unlimited in India) has marked World Youth Skills Day with the launch of the #YoungWarriorNXT (YW NXT) report in partnership with Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and Udhyam Learning Foundation. The #YoungWarriorNXT report – ‘Life Skills Delivery for Young People – Scalable Solutions for India’ captures the programme implementation methodology, data-led findings and recommendations for scale.
The report recommends some key aspects to scale life skills, highlighting the need to integrate life skills into the school curriculum, and therefore, garner support from SCERTs and state resource groups to identify and codify important life skills in each state. Other findings include investing in the capacity building of teachers, including training on appropriate pedagogical practices and building teacher-aids like codified classroom scripts, assessment tools and teacher-mentor programs.
The report further suggests to involve parents, family members and community leaders in establishing value proposition, creating accountability, and delivering content to influence on enrolment, engagement, and impact positively. Along with recommendations to build a common vocabulary for life skills to help converge efforts, create an accessible repository of life skills content, mapped to state-specific adoption frameworks and proficiency levels using standard definitions, develop and adopt standardised life skills assessment tools, contextualised and relevant to India.
“For a country like India, with a large youth population, it is important that a holistic approach to education is adopted. Life skill development is a critical component of that approach, training for which should start early on in life. The Young Warrior NXT report brings together much-needed data and evidence on approaches that can be deployed at scale to empower young people and help in the effective delivery of life skills education,” Yasumasa Kimura, UNICEF India Representative said.
“Young people, if provided with proper skills and training, can excel in unprecedented ways. To address and understand the reasons behind the skill gap and economic opportunities, we have joined hands with partners to bring forward the #YWNXT report, which not only attempts to find ways across levels of facilitations and access to technology, but also pivots its way towards finding impactful and scalable solutions for life skill delivery,” Abhishek Gupta, Chief Operating Officer, YuWaah said,
Furthermore, YuWaah, UNICEF, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and Udhyam Learning Foundation came together in July 2021 to respond to the imperative need to build the life skills of young people in India and initiated the Young Warrior NXT (#YWNXT) programme.
At its core, YW NXT aims to equip five lakh adolescents with the relevant life skills to make them employable and future-ready, by galvanising partnerships with diverse stakeholders and leveraging existing content, technology and human resources in the ecosystem.
Read also: IIM Shillong collaborates with Alba Graduate B-school for students exchange programmes
A rocket scientist or a brain surgeon. Those are the standards for brainpower. Both maneuver in complicated and interconnected spaces – with few precedents and zero room for error. At their core, they practice art as much as science. They are the elite – and their numbers are few.
That’s what makes Eric Eskioglu so unique. A 2022 Executive MBA graduate from Vanderbilt University’s Owen School, Eskioglu started his career as an aerospace engineer at Boeing. A few years later, he pursued an entirely different path: medical school. Over his three-decade medical career, Eskioglu has climbed from neurosurgeon to medical director. Today, he is the Chief Medical and Scientific Officer at Novant Health – a network that spans 4 states, 29,000 employees, and 15 medical centers. Just this spring, Modern Healthcare listed him among its Top 25 Innovators.
No wonder his colleagues sometimes joke that “It sometimes takes a rocket scientist and a brain surgeon to solve some of the most complicated healthcare problems!”
Eric Eskioglu, Vanderbilt University (Owen)
A BIG AND EARLY RETURN
Long-term, Eskioglu hopes to make the healthcare system he leads into the “safest, highest quality, and lower cost in the country.” And his MBA has already paid dividends towards that end. “[Professor Luke Froeb’s] Economics class was truly amazing,” Eskioglu tells P&Q. “Because of him, I formed a division under me called EVE – Economic Value Enhancement team. I hired a healthcare Ph.D. economist and put her in a group with operational and analytics VPs. The first year, their analysis and implementation of EVE projects delivered over $49m in savings to our health system.”
For Eskioglu, the Owen MBA has been a homecoming. After all, he spent 8 years at Vanderbilt, moving from intern to chief resident to associate professor. While it had been 25 years since Eskioglu had taken classes, he believes his MBA experience proves that learning has no age limit.
“I was the oldest student in the class as a GenX,” admits the 56-year-old father of three. “Most of my classmates were at least one generation removed from me as Millennials and GenZers. At first, I was nervous how they would take up to me and would they even be inclusive. I am here to tell you, after two years of being in the trenches, they are the best classmates I have ever had. Yes, this includes my engineering and medical school classmates. They took me as one of their own, and I learned more from them and their experience than they will ever realize.”
TOP STUDENTS FROM THE TOP PROGRAMS
Eskioglu joins 100 other EMBAs as members of P&Q’s Best & Brightest Executive MBAs from the Class of 2022. Entering its 8th year, the Best & Brightest honors EMBAs who “personify excellence” – be it academic performance, extracurricular involvement, or professional achievement. In top executive programs, every student is smart and accomplished – leaders in their companies as much as their fields. However, the Best & Brightest are the standouts: the go-to student leaders who are admired – if not adored – by classmates and faculty alike. That’s because they are invested: they pour their hearts into everything – be it work, learning, or family. Ever reliable, they step up to ask the best questions – the ones that spark conversations and enrich the experience for all. More than that, they value different views, always looking to connect and build consensus. Over time, their classmates can’t help but follow their lead.
This year’s Best & Brightest features 51 men and 50 women. They hail from 49 business schools, which range from Wharton and INSEAD to Washington University and IMD. Their ages run from 26-59 and they’ve risen to positions like CEO, CFO, consultant, and chief of staff. True to the Best & Brightest’s penchant for life-long learning, you’ll find a few professors mixed in too. Not surprisingly, they hold leadership positions among the powerhouse employers: Google, Starbucks, Amazon, General Motors, Apple, LinkedIn, and, PwC. For the Class of 2022, business school was an experience like no other. They re-located and changed jobs, raised children, and cared for dying parents. And that was on top of managing people, taming clients, and meeting deadlines. The cornerstones of their organizations, families, and communities, these students disrupted their lives, making gut-wrenching tradeoffs to help them fill their gaps – to learn the language of business so they could take the next step in their careers.
Seo Yeon Yoon, UC-Berkeley (Haas)
This was the COVID class, the ones whose plans and routines were uprooted by pandemic. Despite this, they signed up for business school – uncertain what the future would bring but embracing the hope that the best was just around the corner. As EMBAs, they didn’t just swoop onto campus once or twice a month. They made a profound commitment to elevate themselves and ultimately everyone around them.
“I admire my friends from the EMBA Class of 2022,” assets Seo Yeon Yoon, a biomedical researcher who earned her MBA at U.C.-Berkeley’s Haas School. “We started our journey together on Zoom, not knowing when we could meet in-person and study together in a physical classroom on-campus. During those days, we wasted no time in building relationships and maximizing our time together – at times, being on calls for hours on end. Many of us have been through hell and back – losing family and friends (in US and abroad), falling ill (physical or mental), being laid off from our jobs – just to name a few. Through it all, we supported one another, committing ourselves to stand strong and being the friend in need so that no one was left alone. The story of the Class of 2022 is the legacy of the Haas EMBA program, and I admire my fellow classmates for unfailingly living up to the values that unite us, namely, resilience and love.”
BALANCING SAVING LIVES AND PASSING FINANCE
Those qualities define Chris Strachan, an EMBA from Indiana University’s Kelley School. By day, he serves as executive vice chair of clinical affairs for the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Outside work, he is the medical team manager for the Indiana Task Force 1 – an elite FEMA team focused on urban search and rescue. During his tenure, Strachan has responded to events such as the 9/11 attack and Hurricane Katrina. As an EMBA, he faced another daunting tragedy: the Surfside Condominium collapse, which resulted in 98 fatalities. Here, Strachan spent 12 hours a day amid the rubble for two weeks – all while facing a demanding finance course.
“Professors and program staff offered me deadline extensions and additional support,” he reminisces. “This was probably the most stressful time I experienced during the MBA program, but my family, work colleagues, and the MBA program faculty and staff all came together to support me through it. I think that’s something I took home: The people in Physician MBA Program want you to be successful.”
Rena Dharmawan has also left her mark in medicine. Starting college at 16, she studied Biomedical Engineering before entering medical school. Now a consultant surgeon in head and neck, Dharmawan also teaches clinical innovation at the Duke-National University of Singapore Medical School. Along the way, she has co-founded three medtech startups, including one that provides a hemorrhoids solution that earned FDA approval before being acquired for commercialization.
Ledford Powell, Wharton School
“I am very humbled and honoured to have been given the opportunity to be involved in the founding of these three start-ups, working with motivated individuals with complementary strengths and weakness,” she tells P&Q. “Moving forward I hope to continue venture-building and create useful technology solutions to unmet clinical needs and also, importantly, to train and inspire the next generation of Clinician-Innovators in Singapore and the region.”
FROM NATO TO FIFA
Dharmawan fits among the many pioneers in the Class of 2022. Take the Wharton School’s Ledford Powell. A thoracic surgeon who runs a leading practice, he developed what is called the “Powell Procedure” – “a minimally invasive approach to the management of chest wall injuries, rib fractures, and reconstruction.” Not only has his expertise has been hailed by organizations ranging from Johnson & Johnson to the American College of Surgeons, but Powell also travels the country to train other surgeons on conducting this procedure. At the same time, Amine Arezki, who holds a Ph.D. in Robotics, developed a 3D printable mask that’s free to access to fight against COVID – a breakthrough that was shortlisted at the 100th annual ADC Awards that honor design innovation. On top of that, Arezki managed to get Joe Foster, the founder of Reebok to come to speak at the London Business School. And then there is Muhammed Usman Afzal, who holds down two full-time jobs as a senior engineering manager and registered nurse – all while earning his EMBA at Brigham Young University’s Marriott School. Those disciplines may be quite different in theory, but they converged when Afzal patented his foamless SwabCap, which prevents fragmented foam from inside the caps causing an embolism.
“[These caps] could cause a fatal condition if this loose debris from the foam is injected into the bloodstream with any IV fluid administration. Clinical staff was asked to scrub the needlefree connectors with the alcohol swab after the antiseptic cap is removed, which of course defeated the purpose of antiseptic cap. I designed a foamless antiseptic cap that used bristles instead of foam to hold alcohol with its surface tension.”
Pages 4-5: 101 profiles of this year’s Best & Brightest Executive MBA grads.
Andrzej Antoszkiewicz, University of Oxford (Saïd)
Indeed, you could argue that versatility defines this year’s Best & Brightest. That quality is personified by Andrzej Antoszkiewicz, the pride of the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School. The first-ever intern in the Canadian Space Agency, Antoszkiewicz led several public and non-profit teams before joining NATO, where he planned its 2014 and 2016 summits. Since then, he has moved to FIFA – soccer’s governing body – where he heads up its event planning and innovation operations.
“Leading the digital transformation at FIFA ahead of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar allowed me to fundamentally change how the organization delivers its iconic tournaments and events,” he tells P&Q. “Throughout the process I helped define strategy, organizational transformation, and technology priorities, helping the organization become more efficient while fundamentally improving how we operate and provide services. I couldn’t have done it without the support, empowerment, and encouragement of my Chief Officer.”
McDONALD’S EXEC SHOWS SHE’S ‘LOVIN’ IT’
This is just one of the high-profile roles held by this year’s Best & Brightest. Boasting a Ph.D. in Tissue Engineering, HEC Paris’ Emma Kearney is the former head of clinical innovation and advanced research for L’Oréal. When Leslie DeMoss started at the University of Chicago’s Booth School, she led strategic advisory and business development for a boutique consulting firm catering to Asian-Pacific clients in the aerospace and defense sectors. Now, she is chief of staff for JP Morgan’s Commercial Banking, Credit Finance and Business Management division – thanks to being recruited by a Booth classmate. A decade ago, Christian Blanchet was a professional golfer who’d made 7 hole-in-ones and posted a competitive-best score of 62. Today, the NYU Stern grad is running his own men’s swimwear and travelwear brand, Marèa Maréa. And you couldn’t find a better place to be an organizational strategist than the U.S. Department of Defense – home to 2.8 million civilians, active-duty soldiers, and reservists. That’s the role played by Wharton’s Vicky Partenope, whose scope has extended well beyond her background in finance.
“Over the years, I have provided direct support to military units in the field, generated and provided information that influenced and drove U.S. government policy, led large organizations through difficult staffing and fiscal positions, and strategized and lobbied for long-term investments that will drive the direction of US international relationships for years to come. If I am proud of anything, it is of my ability to step into varied situations, assess and survey the circumstances, and drive toward the best course of action.”
Sana Mohammed, Northwestern University (Kellogg)
Sana Mohammed beams with pride over her job too. The director of global loyalty strategy at McDonald’s, her team recently earned the Circle of Excellence Award for revenue generation. Notably, her team tripled the loyalty business from 12 to 40 markets in just two years. In the U.S. alone, Mohammed’s team built the program to 26 million members whose rewards drove a billion dollars in sales in just its first nine months. It wasn’t easy, however – as the loyalty program required coordination and collaboration between five functions and over 20 teams globally. Just how difficult was it to launch an “on-brand” program that was “consistent”, “flexible”, and “valuable”? How about this…
“Once the program construct was baked, the work had just begun,” the Kellogg MBA tells P&Q. “It included creating a new training simulator and crew incentive program; building an inter-disciplinary hub and its processes; managing a brand-new vendor to crafting 10+ market guides and manuals; developing a turnkey fraud plan; and continually iterating on the program functionality itself —all while consulting folks from every corner of the organization to do so…They then worked with markets individually to sell loyalty into leadership and franchisees, create a tailored plan—including technology, operations, and marketing, leverage learnings and best practices from other markets, pilot, and launch, step-by-step.”
OVERCOMING PTSD AND LEUKEMIA
Their career paths could be equally treacherous – and rewarding. The Haas School’s Kunal Cholera admits that he technically “failed” his first year of college – before rebounding to become top of his class and eventually director of engineering at LinkedIn. Daniel M. Prevedello started out playing in rock-n-roll bands before he entered medical school. It was a journey that led the Fisher MBA to head up academic affairs and skull base and pituitary surgery programs at the Ohio State University’s Comprehensive Cancer Center. George Kang came to Columbia Business School hoping to move from investment banking to the buy-side of the house – a goal he achieved…after 15 final round rejections. And David Ramirez has lived the MBA dream to its fullest. Not only did he earn an A in IMD’s ESG module, but he also turned his decarbonization model into IntellSol – a venture where he has been appointed CEO.
At Rice University, Pierre S. Aristide has a penchant for turning misfortune into opportunity. A 30-year combat veteran of the U.S. Air Force, Aristide developed the U.S. Air Force Fitness Program. During his service, he also suffered from PTSD. It was a struggle he turned into a venture – Impireum Psychiatric Group – to provide care for those experiencing similar ailments. However, Aristide endured another setback during the second semester of his EMBA program, when he was diagnosed with Leukemia. Despite this, Aristide continued to pursue his degree – a decision that inspired classmates who’d considered dropping out due to the stress of work and school. Of course, Aristide found his inspiration in one of his classmates: Jason Johnson.
“Jason is one of the oncologists in our cohort who truly understood my cancer diagnosis from the onset, while my family and I were trying to make sense of it,” he tells P&Q. “He literally saved my life by coordinating my admission into MDACC, which coincidentally is one of the premier cancer treatment hospitals in the world. I can now walk across the stage and continue living a full life because of him.”
Peter Leszczynski, Georgetown University (McDonough)
BRINGING BACK MARIAH
For Timothy Brandon Parsons, a Washington Olin MBA and mining general manager, that full life involves volunteering at church, restoring classic cars, and hiking with his daughter. Outside of Google, Cambridge Judge grad Max Silin coaches startups at Accelerate 2030 and the Google for Startups Accelerator. At Georgetown, Peter Leszczynski is raising money and devising strategy with classmates to grow a hospital in Tanzania.
“To date, our philanthropic outreach has raised over $3 million for the development of a new maternal care clinic that will break ground this summer,” he explains. “The sustainable business strategy we developed over the last six months will expand and Boost care for over 200,000 Tanzanians in the next five years.”
Patricia Díaz-Tendero, ESADE Business School
Looking for a class celebrity? The nod would undoubtedly be given to Johntá Austin, a new graduate of the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler School. His claim to fame? He has won two Grammy Awards, including co-writing Mariah Carey’s “We Belong Together.”
“It was during a time in Mariah’s career where a lot of people had stopped believing in her even though, in my opinion, she was still a legendary artist,” Austin points out. “The song and that album (which I co-wrote four other songs on) reaffirmed what we all knew: Mariah had never lost a step. It won a Grammy and was named by Billboard as the Song of the Decade (2000s) and the No. 1 Hot 100 song of all time.”
FINDING COMEDY…IN BUSINESS
Speaking of musical talent, Seo Yeon Yoon has played cello in five symphony orchestras. Carlos Andrade, a McGill-HEC Montréal EMBA, is a standup comic whose act is “based on over 20 years of first-account observations in corporate life.” Peter Leszczynski found an original Rembrandt sketch in his parents’ attic, while U.C.-Irvine’s Anthony Chavez has been featured on the front page of the Los Angeles Times – twice. And how about ESADE’s Patricia Díaz-Tendero? A Ph.D. in Psychology, she specializes in talent management and high performance, which has led her to consulting during natural disasters and terrorist acts – not to mention a stint with Real Madrid CF.
“I was an unsuccessful tennis player, but I always dreamed of the Olympics, and I made it,” she tells P&Q. “I have participated as a performance advisor to the Spanish sailing team in two Olympic campaigns, and we even won a medal in Tokyo!”
Most surprising fact about a member of the Class of 2022? Listen to this admission from Joel Harper, who builds and scales content platforms for Apple. “I didn’t have a cell phone or personal computer until I was 25, yet was able to carve out a career in the digital space,” writes the Texas McCombs grad. “When I look back at my career path, it’s astonishing how quickly technology has shaped my life.”
Pages 4-5: 101 profiles of this year’s Best & Brightest Executive MBA grads.
Gina Calder, Yale School of Management
SAVING THE ECONOMY FROM RUIN
The best business schools attract the top talent. Make no mistake, the 2022 Best & Brightest EMBAs are as accomplished and decorated as they come. This spring, Becker’s Hospital Review named Yale SOM’s Gina Calder among its “75 Black Healthcare Leaders to Know in 2022.” Down the seaboard, Sira Duson founded the Society of Black Vascular Surgeons after entering the EMBA program at the University of Maryland’s Smith School. And Duson and Calder weren’t alone in racking up the accolades. At Mastercard, Amit Tyagi hauled in the firm’s Exceptional Sales Performance Award, which he could place alongside his Investment Caesar from Standard Chartered Bank and Convention Winner Award from HSBC. However, for Tyagi, his biggest achievement isn’t something you can’t photograph or list on a LinkedIn account.
“Most of my clients still remember me as one of the best bankers for my customer-first approach, technical expertise and best-in-class services,” explains the INSEAD grad. “If your clients call you for seeking advice even after 10 years since you left the organization, it means you did your job well.”
Do your job and doing it well also provides solace to Cornell University’s A.J. Jones, who was recently named acting chief communications officer and executive vice president of public affairs at Starbucks. Years ago, Jones served as Congressman James Clyburn’s policy director. When the financial collapse hit in 2008, he was charged with being the lead policy negotiator for the Troubled Assets Relief Fund (TARP). In a historic vote, 228 representatives voted against TARP, a setback that resulted in the Dow Jones plummeting and the capital markets losing over a trillion dollars in market values, Jones explains.
And that’s when Jones really went to work…
“I was embarrassed, frustrated, confused, and incredulous at what had occurred. However, I learned a new lesson about being a leader from this experience. A leader must know how to immediately pivot when the intended plan fails to materialize. I made a point to reach out to congressional, administration, and financial leaders and helped craft a plan to pass the legislation. My actions helped change the vote outcome because I was able to convince the leaders to leverage third parties. These third parties consisted of public pension funds and beneficiaries, small business owners, and local government leaders. On October 1, 2008, H.R. 1424 passed the U.S. Senate, passed the USHR on October 3rd, and became Public Law No: 110-343 at 4:28 pm that same day.”
GIVING BACK TO MOVE FORWARD
The inclination to act is part of Muhammed Usman Afzal’s DNA as well. At Marriott, he was inspired by stories from classmates and faculty – along with the teachings of Clayton Christensen – on one’s duty to leave a legacy. In response, he contracted out farmland in his native Pakistan, with proceeds going to support eight “needy families.” In contrast, Peter Leszczynski shared his love of climbing with two McDonough classmates to practice what they’d learned as EMBAs.
“Despite no climbing experience, we put together a great training program which helped a Jesuit priest and marketing executive summit the highest mountain in Africa [Mount Kilimanjaro at 19,341 feet] in under six days. I couldn’t be more proud of what they accomplished, and the experience was so much more impactful seeing the smiles on their faces in sub-zero temperatures as opposed to inside the classroom.”
Stephen Beaudoin, University of Virginia (Darden)
While the Class of 2022 enjoyed some of their best moments in business school, they sometimes suffered profound losses that required them to pull together. That happened at Notre Dame’s Mendoza’s College, when 46-year-old Michael Carroll – an attorney with a “Texas-sized personality” – passed away at the same age as his father. Such times often bring out the best in people like Ryan McKee – best known for becoming a senior vice president at Fidelity Investments by 30 years of age. Banding together with his Mendoza classmates, McKee decided to fund a Notre Dame scholarship and a memorial bench on campus in Carroll’s honor.
“In less than a year, we helped raise over $370,000 through various fundraising efforts and brought awareness to who Michael was as a person. Michael now has a permanent memorial bench on campus directly across from the Mendoza Business School.”
THE BEST OF TIMES…IN THE WORST OF CONDITIONS
Other Best & Brightest gave back to their classmates by assuming the roles of their faculty members. At the University of Virginia’s Darden School, Stephen Beaudoin turned his nonprofit expertise into MBA programming. His Nonprofit Board and Philanthropy Participation Project included faculty-led talks and a pitch contest that resulted in grant funding. DJ Lakkireddy is partnering with two faculty members of Indiana University’s Kelley School to create a Business of Electrophysiology certificate. As a Haas EMBA student, Kunal Cholera would produce YouTube videos on the lessons he learned. Sure enough, he is returning to Haas after graduation – to help teach its Leadership Communications class.
“It took me at least 2 years to master the skills to teach the class,” admits Mehmet Sevinç, a lecturer and executive coach at Haas for the past decade. “I had been through many trainings and I got to audit at least 3 other facilitators’ classes. Kunal didn’t need that much time. After a short training, he found himself teaching the class and the feedback we heard from his students was amazing. He is a living example of all of the Haas Defining Principles. His students were lucky to have him as their instructor and we are lucky to have him as a team member.”
The path wasn’t as smooth or natural for other class members. INSEAD’s Amit Tyagi recalls testing positive for COVID right before final exams. Quarantined in his hotel and scurrying to reschedule travel plans, Tyagi managed to ace his exams – despite completing “back-to-back exams for 9 hours, without food, with a severe body-ache and fever.” Of course, COVID was the least of Leslie DeMoss’ worries as a Booth MBA.
Heather Pondrom, Southern Methodist University (Cox)
“I was crazy enough to start this program with 2-year-old twins,” she jokes. “After a full day of work followed by wrangling toddlers for dinner, I’d typically tuck the kids in at the end of the day, jump on group calls to go over homework, go to bed, and get up at 5am to finish my schoolwork or study before work. However, my toddlers always seemed to have a sixth sense for the days I had an exam to cram for or a case due…It created some pretty stressful days. But it also created some profound opportunities for compassion and support among classmates and it showed me I was capable of more than I ever thought.”
A LOOK AHEAD
Even more, the MBA provided a way for parents to connect with their children. Heather Pondrom, a merchandising VP who studied at Southern Methodist University, viewed it as a chance to model critical behavior to her son and daughter: “Dream big, work hard, and anything is possible.” For Indiana University’s DJ Lakkireddy, the program gave him something in common with his children.
“It’s funny; because once they are teenagers, your kids don’t have as much time to talk to you anymore,” he writes. “I made a deal with my kids that we sit down and do our homework together. That’s a win. Now they say, “What was your grade, Dad? Did you make an A or B?” They tease me about my grades, and I tease them about theirs. It was a fun little competition. I would show off my best grades to let them know their old man is still pulling along decently.”
What can we expect from the Class of 2022 in the coming years? Some are looking back to advice they were given by their mentors. For Max Silin, that means living up to his grandfather’s counsel: “Whatever you do after your MBA, make sure that it brings good to people – do something good with it.” For INSEAD’s Karim Awad, a former rugby coach provided the post-MBA advice that resonated with him most: ‘It doesn’t matter whether we win or lose, but leave the field knowing there is nothing more you could have done or given.’
“Wherever my career takes me, for better or worse, I hope to reflect on it fulfilled that nothing was left in reserve,” Awad adds.
Well, maybe leave a little in tank. After all, as Purdue University’s Robin Steininger points out, no one knows what’s ahead on the horizon. “I feel extremely fortunate in my career and hope to continue to learn and be challenged,” she asserts. “When I graduated from undergrad 23 years ago, I would have never imagined where I would be today. I’m excited to see what new challenges the next 20 years will bring.”
Pages 4-5: 101 profiles of this year’s Best & Brightest Executive MBA grads.
|
EMBA Student |
EMBA Program |
Hometown |
Employer |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Arizona State (W. P. Carey) |
Scottsdale, AZ |
GeoLogic Associates, Inc. (GLA) |
|
|
Arizona State (W. P. Carey) |
Las Vegas, NV |
Norgren Kloehn, Inc |
|
|
Brigham Young University (Marriott) |
Pleasant Grove, UT |
Owlet |
|
|
Brigham Young University (Marriott) |
Faisalabad, Pakistan |
ICU Medical, Inc. |
|
|
University of Cambridge (Judge) |
Toronto, Canada |
|
|
|
University of Cambridge (Judge) |
Hubei, China |
Variety Plus PR & Consulting Ltd. |
|
|
CEIBS |
Braunschweig, Germany |
Volkswagen AG |
|
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CEIBS |
Shanghai, China |
Allbirds China |
|
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Chicago, IL |
JP Morgan |
||
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Cairo, Egypt |
Dawi Clinics |
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East Lyme, CT |
BRS & Co., LLC |
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New York City, NY |
Ernst & Young |
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Bethesda, MD |
Starbucks |
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Las Vegas, NV |
Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits |
||
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Bogota, Colombia |
Marsh & McLennan Companies – Mercer |
||
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Dallas, TX |
Fossil Group Inc. |
||
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Emory University (Goizueta) |
Ahmedabad, India |
Emory University Hospital |
|
|
ESADE Business School |
Madrid, Spain |
ActioGlobal |
|
|
ESADE Business School |
Maracaibo, Venezuela |
Bayer |
|
|
Georgetown University (McDonough) |
McLean, VA |
Senator Barbara Favola |
|
|
Georgetown University (McDonough) |
West Point, NY |
U.S. Army |
|
|
Tampa, FL |
Vanderlande Industries |
||
|
Hsin-chu, Taiwan |
McKesson |
||
|
Tyrone, Northern Ireland |
In Transition (Previously L’Oréal) |
||
|
New York City, NY |
Convergent Energy and Power |
||
|
Buenos Aires, Argentina |
Red Bull |
||
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Brighton, UK |
Amazon |
||
|
IESE Business School |
New York City, NY |
Verizon |
|
|
IESE Business School |
Antwerp, Belgium |
Yara |
|
|
IMD Business School |
Cairo, Egypt |
Raya Holding |
|
|
IMD Business School |
Geneva, Switzerland |
IntellSol |
|
|
Indiana University (Kelley) |
Kansas City, MO |
Kansas City Heart Rhythm Institute |
|
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Indiana University (Kelley) |
Chicago, IL |
Indiana University School of Medicine |
|
|
INSEAD |
London, United Kingdom |
Baring Private Equity Asia |
|
|
INSEAD |
Jakarta, Indonesia |
National Cancer Centre Singapore |
|
|
INSEAD |
Lahr, Germany |
Orange |
|
|
INSEAD |
Meerut, India |
Mastercard |
|
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London Business School |
Stuttgart, Germany |
Thales Group |
|
|
London Business School |
New Delhi, India |
Intercontinental Hotel Group |
|
|
Silver Spring, MD |
WakeMed Health |
||
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Charlotte, NC |
Lung Biotechnology PBC |
||
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Montreal, Québec |
Electric Buses |
||
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Montreal, Québec |
Sublime Desserts |
||
|
Dearborn, MI |
Whirlpool Corporation – North America |
||
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Villa Park, CA |
Houston Methodist Hospital |
||
|
Birmingham, MI |
General Motors |
||
|
Farmington Hills, MI |
Schaeffler Group USA Inc. |
||
|
University of Minnesota (Carlson) |
Ham Lake, MN |
Retired (U.S. Military) |
|
|
University of Minnesota (Carlson) |
Cuyahoga Falls, OH |
Marani Health |
|
|
MIT (Sloan) |
Yorktown Heights, NY |
Stanley Security North America |
|
|
Gainesville, FL |
Mackage |
||
|
Birmingham, AL |
Medenos |
|
EMBA Student |
EMBA Program |
Hometown |
Employer |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Atlanta, GA |
Austin Entertainment Enterprises |
||
|
Tarboro, NC |
North Carolina State University |
||
|
Freetown, Sierra Leone |
Capital One |
||
|
Chicago, IL |
McDonald’s Corporation |
||
|
Winter Park, FL |
The Nature Conservancy |
||
|
Bermuda |
SDI Presence, LLC |
||
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Needham, MA |
Fidelity Investments |
||
|
Columbus, OH |
Ohio State University |
||
|
Columbus, OH |
American Chemical Society |
||
|
University of Oxford (Saïd) |
Ottawa, Canada |
FIFA |
|
|
University of Oxford (Saïd) |
Constanta, Romania |
re:look consulting |
|
|
University of Oxford (Saïd) |
Lagos, Nigeria |
Reckitt |
|
|
Penn State (Smeal) |
North Wales, PA |
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania |
|
|
Penn State (Smeal) |
Brooklyn, NY |
The House Foundation for the Arts |
|
|
University of Pittsburgh (Katz) |
Wexford, PA |
Coupa Software |
|
|
University of Pittsburgh (Katz) |
Wilson, NY |
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center |
|
|
Wichita Falls, TX |
Tranter |
||
|
Eindhoven, The Netherlands |
Heijmans NV |
||
|
Rice University (Jones) |
Houston, TX |
Z I A Management Group |
|
|
Rice University (Jones) |
The Woodlands, TX |
Texas Heart Institute |
|
|
South Orange, NJ |
Penn Medicine Princeton Health |
||
|
Old Tappan, NJ |
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey |
||
|
Southern Methodist University (Cox) |
Houston, TX |
Fidelity Talentsource |
|
|
Southern Methodist University (Cox) |
Dallas, TX |
Magnolia |
|
|
Pullman, WA |
Apple |
||
|
Shiraz, Iran |
United States Food and Drug Administration – FDA |
||
|
Casper, WY |
Bionic Energy |
||
|
Lockhart, TX |
B2G Victory |
||
|
University of Toronto (Rotman) |
Montreal, Canada |
Martin Brower of Canada |
|
|
University of Toronto (Rotman) |
St. Thomas, Jamaica |
KLAM Consulting |
|
|
San Francisco, CA |
|
||
|
Jeonju City, South Korea |
Gladstone Institutes |
||
|
U.C.-Irvine (Merage) |
Tehran, Iran |
Glaukos Corporation |
|
|
U.C.-Irvine (Merage) |
Huntington Beach, CA |
Utility Systems, Science & Software, Inc. |
|
|
San Diego, CA |
U.S. Navy |
||
|
Bay Area, CA |
Amazon |
||
|
Greenville, TX |
PwC |
||
|
Walnut Cove, NC |
PwC |
||
|
Tucson, AZ |
Novant Health |
||
|
University of Virginia (Darden) |
Independence, MO |
The Washington Chorus |
|
|
University of Virginia (Darden) |
Arlington, VA |
Universal Service Administrative Company |
|
|
Louisa, KY |
M-Class Mining |
||
|
San Fernando, Mexico |
Accenture |
||
|
Baltimore, MD |
U.S. Department of Defense |
||
|
Dix Hills, NY |
Standard Fire/Standard Group |
||
|
Lima, Peru |
Google Cloud |
||
|
Newport Coast, CA |
Pacific Thoracic Surgery |
||
|
Yale School of Management |
Chesterfield, MO |
BJC Healthcare |
|
|
Yale School of Management |
Oakland, CA |
Vikasa Capital Partners |
DON’T MISS:
The Best & Brightest Executive MBAs of 2021
2020 Best & Brightest Executive MBAs
100 Best & Brightest Executive MBAs: Class of 2019
Best & Brightest Executive MBAs: Class of 2018
The Best & Brightest EMBAs: Class of 2017
The post The Best & Brightest Executive MBAs Of 2022 appeared first on Poets&Quants.
The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme poverty rates to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest. The UN is also working with governments, civil society and other partners to build on the momentum generated by the MDGs and carry on with an ambitious post-2015 development agenda.
News on Millennium Development Goals
Launch of the UN Sustainable Development Goals
As the MDGs era comes to a conclusion with the end of the year, 2016 ushers in the official launch of the bold and transformative 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by world leaders last September at the United Nations.
The new Agenda calls on countries to begin efforts to achieve 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) over the next 15 years.
“The seventeen Sustainable Development Goals are our shared vision of humanity and a social contract between the world's leaders and the people,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “They are a to-do list for people and planet, and a blueprint for success.”
The MDG Gap Task Force Report 2015 is now available
The “Taking Stock of the Global Partnership for Development” report of the UN MDG Gap Task Force monitors the accurate achievements and challenges in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goal 8, while looking ahead towards the new sustainable development agenda that will be adopted by world leaders at the Sustainable Development Summit this month (September 25–27), and which will include the launch of a new set of Sustainable Development Goals. Download the MDG Gap Task Force Report 2015 
Millennium Development Goals Report 2015 now available
This report is based on a master set of data that has been compiled by the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on MDG Indicators led by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, in response to the wishes of the General Assembly for periodic assessment of progress towards the MDGs. Download the Millennium Development Goals Report 2015
‘Journey towards bold climate action is at a critical moment,’ UN General Assembly told
Development cannot be sustainable if it does not address the challenge of climate change, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told Member States today as he opened a High-Level Event on Climate Change convened in New York by the President of the UN General Assembly, Sam Kutesa.
Pope Francis and UN agency discuss sustainable future of agriculture
Addressing over a hundred delegates attending a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) conference in Rome, Pope Francis today urged Member States to work toward combatting food waste, reducing the volatility of food prices, and creating a sense of global solidarity to ensure food security for all people.
UN invites world’s seven billion people to become agents of change on World Environment Day
The United Nations invited each of the seven billion people on the planet to mark this year’s World Environment Day on 5 June, stressing the need of sustainable consumption worldwide.
‘Give young people decent jobs and they will create a better future’ – UN chief
When young people have decent jobs, political weight, negotiating muscle and real influence in the world, they will create a better future, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today as he kicked off a Headquarters event on empowering youth through employment.
See more news on the Millennium Development Goals>>
U.S. Army Soldiers march across the field of the 7th Army Noncommissioned Officer Academy at ... [+]
7th Army Training Command (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Elizabeth MacPherson)Almost nobody wants to join the Army and the majority of Americans who might enlist are too physically unfit and too poorly educated to qualify. As a result, the Army can’t get enough people to turn into Soldiers and is shrinking.
That reality was articulated in a Department of the Army memo released last Friday signed by Army Chief of Staff, General James C. McConville and Secretary of the Army, Christine E. Wormuth. The memorandum’s opening paragraph calls the state of the recruiting market “the most challenging since the All-Volunteer Force was established in 1973.”
According to the Army, only 23 percent of 17- to 24-year-old Americans are fully qualified to serve. Its struggle to attract mentally and physically qualified recruits is “driven in part by the post-COVID labor market, intense competition with the private sector, and a declining number of young Americans interested in uniformed service.”
The Army could also have cited its own messaging, trumpeted by the media, signaling that it prioritizes social engineering/social justice above combat efficacy and an aggressive fighting force. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army General Mark A. Milley, is arguably best known to the American people for projecting such an outlook, amplified by the Biden Administration.
On Friday, the New York Post pulled no punches with the headline, “America’s woke Army is facing a recruiting nightmare”.
Army sensitivity to the perception is reflected in the memo’s concluding “Call to Service” section which declares that the Army “exists for one purpose, to protect the Nation by fighting and winning our Nation's wars as a member of the Joint Force...”
Another factor the service could have pointed to in explaining its recruiting challenge is the broad-based extension of unemployment benefits initiated by the federal CARES Act passed in March 2020 and of subsequent federal and state benefits extensions with which it must compete.
Most states provide 26 weeks of uninterrupted unemployment benefits according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. In states like Washington and Massachusetts the maximum weekly unemployment insurance payments are $929 and $974 per week respectively.
Low Fitness, Low Trust Yield a Smaller Force
The memorandum lays out an unsettling landscape for Army recruiting and its impact on declining end strength.
- “Pandemic-driven constraints like virtual learning have further limited access to the recruiting population in high schools and exacerbated a decline in academic and physical fitness levels. Preliminary data suggests remote schooling may have lowered overall Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) scores by as much as 9 percent. These conditions have negatively affected the Army's ability to meet its recruiting targets.”
The Army identifies what it sees as three underlying “gaps” in public motivation to consider Army service. It posits a “Knowledge Gap” claiming its story/brand are not reaching an American populace increasingly remote from exposure to currently serving Soldiers or veterans. An “Identity Gap” stemming from misplaced assumptions about Army life and culture limits service consideration as does a “Trust Gap” reflected in the broader loss of trust and confidence in American institutions, including the military.
U.S. Army Infantry soldiers-in-training assigned to Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 19th Infantry ... [+]
Fort Benning Public Affairs Office - Photo by Patrick A. Albright, Maneuver CenterThese have created a situation in which the service has met only half of its recruiting goal this fiscal year, the end of which is rapidly approaching in September. The Army notes in the memo that it anticipates end strength will be approximately 466,400 at the end of FY22 - a reduction of 10,000 troops from its target of 476,000. The service says it has already taken steps to Boost its recruiting efforts but it projects that its manpower may further decrease to approximately 445,000-452,000 by the end of FY23.
For perspective, that’s a shortfall of roughly two divisions.
Firm Standards
It’s expected that the Army will further elaborate on how it will solve its recruiting problems and address its public perception this week and I’ll follow-up with its leaders on the fixes they propose. One thing the memorandum seeks to make clear is that the Army’s proposed initiatives will not degrade the caliber of people it inducts.
The Army asserts that, “We will not sacrifice quality for quantity. We will not lower our standards...”
This is a quick turnabout from last month when the Army was prepared to do just that.
On June 23 the service announced that individuals could enlist without a high school diploma or GED certificate if they shipped to basic training this fiscal year. A week later, the Army reversed that decision in such a low-key fashion that confusion continued over whether these certifications were still waived.
After a couple queries, Army spokesman Hank Minitrez, confirmed that recruits must be high school graduates by the time of induction into the Army. However, the idea that the Army will not sacrifice quality for quantity remains a message it has not effectively put across.
A scan of the service’s Eligibility and Requirements web page reveals that "You won’t need to meet any physical fitness requirements before joining the Army as an enlisted Soldier."
Army spokeswoman, Heather J. Hagan, notes that before joining the Army as an enlisted Soldier, all recruits are required to pass the Army’s Occupational Physical Assessment Test after swearing in and before the individual begins initial entry training. What happens to sworn-in recruits who do not pass the test isn’t clear.
This surprising physical-requirements sentence is followed further down the page by a hedge on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) exam, scores on which the Army notes have declined in its memorandum.
To the frequently-asked question - “Can I no longer join if I score too low on the ASVAB placement exam?” - the service states, “The Army understands that some circumstances can impact your ability to score well, and a waiver can be requested in those situations.” How commonly such a waiver is granted is a worthwhile question.
For a service that declares that it will not lower standards, the Army has recently lowered its broad standards for weight and its physical standards for women and older soldiers, a move blasted by one of its first female infantry officers when initially proposed in 2021 - these are conflicting signals that make volunteer service less attractive.
The Fix
The Army’s memo says it will make the proposition more attractive by increasing funding for targeted enlistment bonuses (up to $50,000) including incentives for critical Military Occupational Skill (MOS) career fields and providing quick-ship bonuses ($35,000) for recruits willing to ship within 45 days.
Graphic created from an original photo taken by Pfc. Vincent Levelev. Maj. Deirdra Johnson of the ... [+]
U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Vincent LevelevAdditional funding for “national, regional, and local marketing in key priority population centers, including funding for recruiting events to engage with youth” will be made available alongside funding for implementation of the service’s Know your Army and Passions marketing campaigns.
Ironically, the money for these and other organizational changes/incentives will come from the recruiting shortfall itself. The Army says that approximately $890 million to $1.28 billion originally budgeted for end strength in its FY23 Military Personnel appropriation will be applied to the recruiting/retention problem.
That’s a billion dollars that will not be spent on the Army’s modernization priorities, sustainment, or munitions replenishment - a reminder that the cost of a population unmotivated to volunteer for service in a military portrayed by its own leadership as socially flawed and potentially extremist is measured by more than just a lack of boots on the ground.
The Army reckons that implementing a revised tattoo policy will enable more of America’s youth population to serve. The service has recently begun allowing tattoos in visible areas (hands, neck, behind the ears) in addition to parts of the body covered by the uniform. Army spokesperson Heather Hagan says the policy “brings us in line with the policies of the other military branches.”
In a 2021 Army press release, Sgt. Maj. Mark Anthony Clark from the Army’s Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel (G-1) affirmed that, “The Army has maintained a longstanding tradition of Soldiers presenting a clean and professional appearance. A professional appearance is an outward manifestation of the pride they have in themselves and in service to our country.”
How facial, neck and hand tattoos comport with the “clean and professional appearance” Sgt. Clark referenced is a question many will ask. Another question is whether the Army is concerned about gang-related tattoo symbology within its ranks?
Hagan responded that, “The Army prohibits extremist [including gang-related], sexist, racist and indecent tattoos. Tattoos and brands are reviewed, photographed and annotated upon entry into the Army and yearly by the commander thereafter.”
Whether that’s enough to keep up with evolving gang-related symbology is worth considering. So too is a accurate revision to Army Regulation 670-1 which permits the optional wear of clear nail polish for men. The Army provided no answer for what precipitated this change or the question; why would male Soldiers wear clear nail polish?
The third of the major recruitment initiatives laid out in the memo is establishment of a Future Soldier Preparatory Course (FSPC) pilot program. Its objective, the Army says, will be “better preparing recruits physically and academically to meet accessions standards, investing in those with a desire to serve so they can enlist in the Army without lowering quality.”
How this will be executed was not explained in the memo, whether the FSPC would be given prior to or after enlistment. Based on potential results, the Army may expand and scale the FSPC program going forward, a possibility the Army could supply more details on this week. To those familiar with U.S. Army history, the course may echo the 1970s-80s era in which the service was referred to as “the world’s largest remedial reading class”.
Whatever the witticism of the moment may be, the Army will have to devote energy and divert significant resources just to get people in the door. We’ll know more about its plans this week and ultimately whether it can attract high quality American recruits willing to serve in a force principally dedicated to “fighting and winning our Nation's wars.”
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17. Hallegatte S, Bangalore M, Bonzanigo L, et al. Shock waves: managing the impacts of climate change on poverty. Washington, DC: World Bank, 2015.
18. Missirian A, Schlenker W. Asylum applications respond to temperature fluctuations. Science 2017;358:1610-1614.
19. Loladze I. Hidden shift of the ionome of plants exposed to elevated CO2 depletes minerals at the base of human nutrition. Elife 2014;3:e02245-e02245.
20. Myers SS, Zanobetti A, Kloog I, et al. Increasing CO2 threatens human nutrition. Nature 2014;510:139-142.
21. Zhu C, Kobayashi K, Loladze I, et al. Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels this century will alter the protein, micronutrients, and vitamin content of rice grains with potential health consequences for the poorest rice-dependent countries. Sci Adv 2018;4(5):eaaq1012-eaaq1012.
22. Scheelbeek PFD, Bird FA, Tuomisto HL, et al. Effect of environmental changes on vegetable and legume yields and nutritional quality. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2018;115:6804-6809.
23. Springmann M, Mason-D’Croz D, Robinson S, et al. Global and regional health effects of future food production under climate change: a modelling study. Lancet 2016;387:1937-1946.
24. Field CB, Barros V, Stocker TF, et al., eds. Managing the risks of extreme events and disasters to advance climate change adaptation: a special report of Working Groups I and II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
25. Harrington LJ, Otto FE. Changing population dynamics and uneven temperature emergence combine to exacerbate regional exposure to heat extremes under 1.5 °C and 2 °C of warming. Environ Res Lett 2018;13:034011-034011.
26. Gasparrini A, Guo Y, Sera F, et al. Projections of temperature-related excess mortality under climate change scenarios. Lancet Planet Health 2017;1(9):e360-e367.
27. Watts N, Amann M, Arnell N, et al. The 2018 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: shaping the health of nations for centuries to come. Lancet 2018;392:2479-2514.
28. Sellers S, Ebi KL. Climate change and health under the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway framework. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2017;15:3-3.
29. O’Neill BC, Kriegler E, Ebi KL, et al. The roads ahead: narratives for shared socioeconomic pathways describing world futures in the 21st century. Glob Environ Change 2017;42:169-180.
30. Ebi KL, Teisberg TJ, Kalkstein LS, Robinson L, Weiher RF. Heat watch/warning systems save lives: estimated costs and benefits for Philadelphia 1995–98. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 2004;85:1067-1074.
31. Lowe R, Stewart-Ibarra AM, Petrova D, et al. Climate services for health: predicting the evolution of the 2016 dengue season in Machala, Ecuador. Lancet Planet Health 2017;1(4):e142-e151.
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36. Burnett R, Chen H, Szyszkowicz M, et al. Global estimates of mortality associated with long-term exposure to outdoor fine particulate matter. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2018;115:9592-9597.
37. Malley CS, Henze DK, Kuylenstierna JCI, et al. Updated global estimates of respiratory mortality in adults ≥30 years of age attributable to long-term ozone exposure. Environ Health Perspect 2017;125:087021-087021.
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Allografts can substantially Boost the quality of life.26 Our investigation, however, demonstrates that infection acquired through bacterial contamination of allografts may result in substantial complications or death. Furthermore, our findings suggest that current federal regulations and industry standards for processing and testing allograft tissue need to be enhanced to prevent allograft-associated infections.2,10
Our investigation highlighted several factors that contributed to clostridium infections. First, implanted tissues were not processed with the use of methods that achieved sterility or that were sporicidal. However, current regulations do not require tissue banks to eliminate bacteria present on tissues at the time of recovery or to use processing methods that ensure tissue sterility. Second, the concentration of bacteria (“bioburden”) before processing was unknown, because no tissues were cultured before being exposed to antimicrobial agents. Third, cultures of specimens obtained after processing were probably false negative as a result of carryover of antimicrobial solution. Fourth, evidence of clostridium or bowel flora at other anatomical sites or reports of infections in other allograft recipients were not used as criteria for determining the suitability of donor tissues for transplantation.
At the CDC, cultures of two nonimplanted tissues from one donor yielded clostridium. In contrast, cultures of all 12 companion tissues from the donor were reported to be negative by Tissue Bank A. There are at least two potential reasons for this discrepancy. Because tissues were cultured only after their suspension in antimicrobial solution, residual antimicrobial agents on the tissues may have caused false negative culture results through bacteriostasis. Furthermore, companion tissues used for quality-assurance testing were small and had a larger surface-area-to-volume ratio than the allografts themselves, permitting better antimicrobial penetration of companion tissue.
We hypothesized that donor tissue became hematogenously contaminated by bowel flora, including clostridium and spores, at or before tissue recovery. Factors that might contribute to such contamination include a prolonged interval between the donor's death and tissue recovery, delays in refrigeration, or death from trauma.27,28 With respect to 2 of the 14 patients with clostridium infections (14 percent, or 2 of 9 donors [22 percent]), the interval between the donor's death and refrigeration of the body exceeded the limit recommended by voluntary industry standards.23
Aseptic processing of tissue minimizes bacterial contamination but will not eradicate contamination with organisms or spores, especially in tissue that is heavily contaminated at the time of recovery.2 To reduce bacterial contamination of allografts, some tissue banks, including Tissue Bank A, suspend tissue in antimicrobial solutions. However, these solutions may not eradicate spores, as demonstrated by our in vitro studies (CDC: unpublished data). Two sterilization methods that would eliminate spores — gamma irradiation and treatment with ethylene oxide — have technical problems, limiting their use in tissue processing.2 High doses of gamma irradiation may adversely affect the biomechanical properties of allografts.29-32 Ethylene oxide has a limited ability to penetrate tissue and has been associated with adverse outcomes such as synovitis33 or damage to musculoskeletal tissue, resulting in an unacceptably high rate of mechanical failure.34
One tissue bank has developed and implemented a low-temperature chemical-sterilization approach (BioCleanse) that kills spores but preserves the biomechanical integrity and function of some allografts.35-37 The efficacy of this sterilization method is supported by the absence of reports of bacterial or viral allograft-associated infections in tissue processed by this method (CDC: unpublished data). In contrast, tissues processed with all other disinfection and sterilization methods, including gamma irradiation, have been associated with reports of allograft-associated infections (CDC: unpublished data). Currently, BioCleanse and other sterilization methods cannot be used to process fresh femoral condyles, since it is thought that chondrocytes must be viable to maintain articular cartilage function.
There were several limitations to our investigation. First, we identified a relatively small number of cases. To meet the case definition, cases had to be culture-positive. However, according to a accurate survey of U.S. infectious-disease specialists, only 22 percent of respondents always cultured joint aspirates for anaerobic microorganisms; 39 percent rarely or never did.38 Second, determination of the true rate of clostridium infection is challenging, because patients who become symptomatic may not present to the institution (often ambulatory surgical centers) where the surgery was performed. Furthermore, because clinicians presume that allografts are sterile, allografts are not usually considered a potential source of infection.
Third, most clostridium isolates obtained at the time of tissue recovery, before processing, packaging, or implantation, were not available to confirm species identification. This may partially explain the discrepancy between the clostridium species isolated from blood or surgical sites and culture results of tissues obtained before implantation. However, the most likely reason for this discrepancy is that agonal or postmortem bacteremia is frequently polymicrobial, and tissue contamination is not uniform.2
Fourth, there are no reliable data on the number of specific types of tissue distributed by all U.S. tissue banks for use in estimating the incidence of clostridium infections. We used data collected by New York State, which licensed 17 of the largest U.S. tissue banks that processed musculoskeletal tissue in 2001, including Tissue Bank A. Thus, we may have overestimated the market share of Tissue Bank A and consequently underestimated the risk ratio of clostridium infections associated with this tissue bank.
Table 4.
Table 4. Recommendations to Reduce the Risk of Allograft-Associated Infections.
On the basis of our investigation, we made recommendations to tissue banks, the American Association of Tissue Banks, and the FDA to reduce the risk of allograft-associated infection (Table 4). The use of a validated sporicidal process will confer the greatest protection for patients; the other proposed measures are less effective. For example, the sensitivity of cultures of specimens obtained before processing is low (10 to 22 percent)39,40; thus, relying on the results of cultures alone to identify and discard tissues potentially contaminated with clostridium spores is problematic. However, for tissues that are not amenable to sterilization (e.g., fresh femoral condyles), the use of donor screening and preprocessing cultures will most likely reduce, but not eliminate, the risk of infection.
According to FDA regulations, each tissue bank is required to have written procedures for the prevention of microbial contamination or cross-contamination of tissues during processing.21 In March 2002, in response to our investigation, the FDA released for immediate implementation a guidance document for tissue banks (available at www.fda.gov/cber/guidelines.htm#tissval). This document highlighted that existing regulations require tissue processors to validate processing and testing methods. Furthermore, in August 2002, a recall of all tissues, with the exception of heart valves, processed by Tissue Bank A was issued. Product-liability cases and claims were filed against the tissue bank by patients.
In conclusion, improved guidelines for tissue processing and testing, together with monitoring of allograft-associated adverse events, should enhance tissue-transplantation safety. However, the best way to reduce the risk of pathogen transmission is to develop and use sterilization methods that do not adversely affect the functioning of the tissue after transplantation.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands, July 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Affidea, the largest European provider of advanced diagnostics, outpatient and cancer care services announces a strategic partnership with Incepto, supplier and creator of artificial intelligence solutions in the medical, sector. Through this partnership, Affidea will use Incepto platform to integrate and use 4 AI solutions in the field of oncology, neurology and breast in 14 centres in Portugal.
The Incepto platform offers Affidea's doctors the access to a portfolio of AI solutions that Affidea is piloting under one single secured platform, directly integrated with its PACS/RIS infrastructure. Through this single platform, Affidea's radiologists will be able to access and use in their daily clinical activity 4 different AI solutions focused on oncology, neurology and breast specialties, without changing any equipment or without having to integrate each AI software separately.
This solution comes with great benefits for patients and doctors:
A common vision and ambition
Over the past few years, Affidea has heavily invested in digital infrastructure and IT capabilities. With centers operating under the highest standard of quality to ensure patient safety and clinical excellence, Affidea is today the best positioned to seamlessly integrate AI in its network and embrace all the benefits expected from clinical routine usage of AI. The company has an ideal environment in terms of geographical presence, multinational clinical expertise, best technology with over 1450 pieces of equipment across 15 different healthcare markets and a team of subspecialty experts to effectively test different AI solutions. At this moment, Affidea is piloting 10 AI solutions in 10 countries within its network, allowing for further opportunitis of extending the use of Incepto platform to integrate multiple AI applications.
On its side, and with already more than 100 clinical sites using its platform , Incepto will bring to Affidea its unique expertise in integrating AI in clinical routine, both from a technical and clinical standpoint.
A strong partnership with the ambition to scale it over across Europe
After this first deployment in Portugal, Incepto and Affidea plan to accelerate the process of integrating different AI solutions in the medical centers' workflow and to roll it out across other Affidea countries where the company is ready thanks to previous experiences.
Antoine Jomier, Incepto CEO and Co-founder
"We are very excited about the partnership with Affidea, which will mark a change of dimension for Incepto and be the first step of our ambition to generalize AI usage to all European patients. It also demonstrates that we are supporting every imaging actors including the largest groups, with all the efficiency and performance requirements that this implies. This is an essential step towards enabling the greatest number of patients to benefit from the latest applications of AI in healthcare."
Dr Alessandro Roncacci, Senior Vice-President, Chief Medical Officer of Affidea:
"The more we advance on the road of AI implementation, the more we need to think about the complexity of integrating multiple AI solutions in a safe and compliant way, offering clear benefits to our patients and radiologists in every country. Making it simple is not easy but at Affidea, we have all the competences, experience and resources to successfully lead this journey, always with clinical excellence, safety and precision at core. I look forward to this innovative partnership with Incepto so that together we can shape the AI landscape in radiology, for the benefit of patients and doctors".
About Incepto
With 100+ clinical sites routinely using Incepto's platform and more than a hundred thousands patient's exams screened by AI algorithms every month, Incepto is the leading european platform for artificial intelligence solutions for all radiology specialties. Incepto has two missions : integrate AI solutions from partner AI vendors and develop AI algorithms. On one hand, it provides the full range of technical and clinical services to integrate in clinical routine AI solutions through a unified, secure and interoperable platform. On the other hand, Incepto's scientific and medical teams are developing artificial intelligence solutions on clinical needs not currently addressed by other AI vendors. Our goal is simple : help doctors to make full use of AI technologies to save time, Boost diagnosis and ultimately build together with them a more precise and human radiology for the patient.
About Affidea Group
Affidea Group (www.affidea.com) is Europe's largest provider of advanced imaging, outpatient and cancer treatment services. Founded in 1991, the company has 327 medical centres in 15 countries, advanced diagnostics, outpatient and cancer care services for more than 11 million patients annually. Due to its high standards in patient safety, Affidea is the most awarded provider of medical imaging services in Europe. More than half of the award-winning centres with 5-stars on the Eurosafe Wall of Stars, accredited by the European Society of Radiology in Europe, are Affidea centres. In June this year, Affidea was awarded the Diagnostic Provider of the Year Award at the HealthInvestor Awards 2022. In the past 5 years, Affidea has added almost 110 centres to its network, almost doubling the size of the Group.
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