Speaker 1: 0:12

Welcome to the IdeaGen Future of Global Summit. Live from Washington DC. I am honored and privileged to be with three esteemed colleagues from three amazing organizations changing the world. I'd like to ask, and begin with Stacey Haller of Bright Focus Please introduce yourself.

Speaker 2: 0:31

Thank you, george, and I'm happy to be here with all of you. I'm Stacey Haller. I'm president and CEO of the Bright Focus Foundation. We fund research worldwide to end diseases of the brain and eye. We fund it in 25 countries around the globe and we are what you might think of as the first funder of novel science ideas to get it off the ground, to get research off the ground so that we can solve diseases of the brain and eye faster.

Speaker 1: 1:03

Thank you, Phyllis Farrell welcome.

Speaker 3: 1:06

Thanks, hi. My name is Phyllis Farrell and I recently retired from a 30-year career in life sciences, including with responsibility for drug and diagnostic therapeutic development for Alzheimer's disease. I'm now an independent advisor for Alzheimer's disease and brain health and I work as a senior advisor for the Dallas Alzheimer's Collaborative and as the chief impact officer for StartUp Health.

Speaker 1: 1:30

So you're not really retired, I am absolutely failing at retirement. It's like a snowball effect. No, no, no, I'm getting to do my part. You're just getting started. She's doing what she ever really wanted to do. Yeah, just getting started she's doing what she ever really wanted to do, yeah just getting started, and so, yasmine long, welcome, thank you.

Speaker 4: 1:53

Thank you. Thank you for the invitation. It's great to be here. So I'm yasmine long. I am a director at faster cures, which is part of the milken institute. The milken institute is a non-profit, non-partisan think tank. We focus on a number of issues including health, education, public health, aging, financial markets. It's quite a large group of great work. I lead our health equity and diversity and clinical trials portfolio within Faster Cures, and Faster Cures' mission is to make sure that we get treatments and therapeutics to patients much faster, is the name, particularly in drug and product development. So we're making sure that we get treatments and therapeutics to patients much faster, is the name, particularly in drug and product development. So we're making sure that health equity is achieved across the biomedical research ecosystem using a multi-stakeholder approach. And also, I do a lot of policy work, engage with policy makers, put out a lot of thought leadership, and I'll pause there.

Speaker 1: 2:42

Well, you know, it's incredible, and I always put a plug in for what we stand for at IdeaJ Global, which is we always have the virtual backdrop of the 17 global goals of the United Nations. I repeat that over and over because it also creates awareness for these 17 goals that were launched in 2015. Now, unanimously perhaps the only time in the history of the United Nations where every single member state all 193 member states came together and said, yeah, we agree on these 17 goals and you all and your work is helping to achieve those goals. Now we're six short years from 2030, which is the end time of these initial global goals and there's a lot of work to do, and yet you all are leading the way, because you know what Leaders lead. They lead and they set the tone. And so I'd like to ask you, Stacey, what has been your professional journey and how are you doing what you're doing at Bright Focus?

Speaker 2: 3:43

That's a great question the journey is that somewhere early on I figured out that I was more comfortable in a nonprofit charity environment than a corporate environment, because I was all about impact and improving lives and I really believe the philosophy that you want to leave everything a little better than you found it.

Speaker 2: 4:09

And over the years, through work at education and hospitals and other sort of types of charities for children, et cetera, what I came to understand was the research community was key to us because they're the ones that make our lives better as we age.

Speaker 2: 4:28

And so many years ago 20 years ago I decided that I needed to spend the next or the last phase of my life in the research arena because, as fantastic as 95% of the researchers are, they're not their best ambassadors to articulate the impact of what they're doing. Secondly, it is what brought me to bright focus was I went from childhood cancer to age-related diseases, because the diseases that we cover have 335 million people right now that we know of around the globe that are going to suffer. These are all aging issues. So you see the commonality, but it's the reality of a nonprofit setting and you work in a place that's lean and nimble, so you can be more horizontal than vertical. You can make rapid change and you can kick start and be a catalyst in the research environment the way other institutions can. So that's the niche in the system and that's how I got there.

Speaker 1: 5:31

What a journey stacy and I know, I know I'm keenly aware of the impact, and so is idea gen and the millions of people that are watching this and watch it of the impact you're having. Thank you you're having.

Speaker 3: 5:50

Thank you. How did I get here? So you know, I was an economist as an undergrad and then got an MBA, so I have a business background, and I'm so glad you mentioned the sustainable goals from the United Nations, because this is the decade of healthy aging and we're halfway through it and we got a lot more work to do. But one of the things that we realized, and one of the reasons that we created the Davos Alzheimer's Collaborative, commissioned by the World Economic Forum, is that we have a global aging population and as this marches across the globe, this global aging population shifts everything, not just your health ministry, but your social systems, your financial systems. You know we don't have a world anymore where you retire at 65 and, you know, have only 10 years left. You can retire at 65 and have 20 and 30 years left, and so this is having a major change on health and wealth. And so the third thing I did and this is my pandemic project was I got a PhD in public health, because I realized that public health needed to include brain health.

Speaker 3: 6:58

You know we go to the doctor and we get our cholesterol checked and our blood pressure checked, and you know we check for diabetes, fasting blood glucose. But this is the most important organ in our body and nobody stops and says, hmm, how's your brain health, how's your mental health? And so I'm thrilled to be up here with these two ladies, because obviously Bright Focus does a ton of work in the early phase discovery research all the way through clinical trials. In the early phase discovery research all the way through clinical trials, faster cures gets that drug through the regulatory step as fast as possible. But that last mile to get it from regulatory approval, to make sure it actually gets to a patient's bedside, is really, really hard. And that's where I like to focus now is how do we make sure all these great innovations that are happening in Alzheimer's and aging make it to that next step?

Speaker 1: 7:46

Incredible, incredible. Yasmeen, I know you have the last word on the journey. My gosh, how do I keep up with you all? Dr Phyllis Farrell.

Speaker 4: 7:56

Well, let's see, I'm going to take it back way further. I've always wanted to be in the healthcare field since I was a child, and now my family wanted me to go to medical school, which I did not do. But I ended up going into undergrad as a physical therapy major actually, and then, within the mid part of my undergraduate program, I switched my degree to health sciences and management, and that's been very successful for me. I've been in the public health science policy field for over 25 years. So that's I always say, this is what I do, right.

Speaker 4: 8:35

But I'll say one thing that when I was graduating undergrad, I had a strategy, right. I was like, where do I want to work where? Where would be one of the best places where I can hone in the skills I've learned in my degree program? Right, and a, a bird came and sat on my head not really, but um, said johns hopkins, um, and so um, what I ended up doing was of working my way. It's a very large institution, so I ended up networking and I think I started temping there, and then, next thing, you know, I'm there 11 years. So that was the start of my career, working on academic clinical research in a variety of disease areas chronic diseases, infectious diseases, including HIV prevention. I worked in global health and tobacco control policy health disparity, so that's kind of quite a bit of what I've done in that 11-year period.

Speaker 4: 9:31

My career has been primarily in non-profit, so I've worked at other academics and institutions such as the National Academies. I've worked at Harvard Mass General, working with some biomedical physicists at that time which, interesting, was not my expertise. But you never know where you're going to land. You plan a strategy and you plan what you want to do. You give it a try. If it doesn't work, then you go on to the next thing. So that's sort of how my career has had several twists and turns, but all under the realm of health care policy and global health. And I forgot women's health degree in that as well. So I'll pause there. But I enjoy the work that I do. I'm very passionate. Over time I've become a subject matter expert, which I'm very proud of.

Speaker 1: 10:17

Well, you know I'm remiss in not asking the question correctly.

Speaker 3: 10:27

I should have said what have you not done? Engineering, there's still time, thank you. For me, there's still time.

Speaker 1: 10:32

I've got to sign up for that, you know, graduate class. My master's got to get my PhD. Now I don't have something. I call it the school of hard knocks. Yes, it is.

Speaker 2: 10:40

Understood, George. You talk about collaboration.

Speaker 1: 10:44

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:44

And impact and partnership is part of the goals. That's how this all started.

Speaker 1: 10:49

Okay.

Speaker 2: 10:49

So Faster Cures was one of the first initiatives to bring the standards and the emphasis on science to translation right, Right. And then you had Phyllis and her team at Lilly trying to discover the genes. Right, I mean the drugs. Forgive me, that's aging.

Speaker 3: 11:09

And genes, and genes.

Speaker 2: 11:12

And then you had a place like Bright Focus, and each one of us organizations found each other and realized the part of the system where we connected and there wasn't necessarily overlap in the direct space, but the coming together has been a much more effective force, so that the networks that have come over the last I would say, eight years, particularly in the Alzheimer's space, were really birthed out of Faster Cures, in a way of getting the research and the nonprofits together along with the pharma industry and then to bring us where we are now. So collaborations are great, but now you're seeing something that's really helping to facilitate the field not only locally, globally, and that started a while ago, and I think that that's really helping to facilitate the field not only locally, globally, and that started a while ago, and I think that that's important. But you also said something earlier about people, and the reason this works is the likability and the flexibility and the trust that people bring, so that you can pick up the phone, have a conversation and figure out how to go. So when you have the people that want to solve problems and change things, they go out of their normal duties and find a way to work together, and that's part of what you're seeing here, so I just want to echo back that what IdeaGen is doing in bringing different groups together to collaborate and partner is really important, because we just found each other sort of accidentally, organically yeah, and now we don't let go

Speaker 1: 12:45

I love it I love it.

Speaker 2: 12:46

Yeah, so you're going to say something else? Yeah, and I was going to say that I expect in the next five years, as a result of these relationships and partnerships and collaborations that have been built, that will start to really show some major steps forward in the disease areas we care about. And then I know we'll get into women's health and and health equity begins in the lab. But I think it's really important that once those relationships are there, the pace.

Speaker 1: 13:12

It spells absolutely yeah, well, it is about people. I mean, I think that the lesson for future global leaders especially is that people and the process in that order, the people and the process are critical to making things happen. And while we look at these giant institutions, from the White House that we can see to the Congress and everything in between, people are behind this. There's the organizational structure, but guess what? If there's no people, nothing is happening. And so the likability, the understanding, the collaboration, all these things are critical. You're speaking my language, stacey. Thank you for doing that. What are some maybe a key project that you're so proud of right now? Besides this partnership, of course, what is something that inspires you when you wake up and you go, wow, that's going to be incredible.

Speaker 2: 14:07

That wow over the next few years is going to be about bringing together communities of scientists for us that have not been brought together, of scientists for us that have not been brought together, like biomedical engineers with physicists and with other fields, to create more collaborations, because the problem is there's an engineering dimension to disease fixing, if you will. There's lifestyle, there's all these different pieces, but it's that initiative to look at bringing those groups together that I think will be extraordinary and you'll be hearing more about that in the next coming years. The second thing is that it fosters cross-disease learnings, and one of the big changes that has to happen as Phyllis was talking about aging and we're talking about faster cures is that we have to break the silos of research because people care about their disease. We have to break the silos of research because people care about their disease, but, from a research standpoint, when we can create cross-disease understandings and a sharing of learning, you accelerate discovery.

Speaker 1: 15:04

That's right.

Speaker 2: 15:04

So I think that those bright focuses role in bringing people together, around cross-disease learnings and around bringing other fields of scientists and researchers that are not normally brought together I think those are going to be two amazing initiatives that we're going to kick off.

Speaker 1: 15:21

Stacey, you're a silo buster. There we go.

Speaker 2: 15:26

We started 10 years ago with helping people understand that the eye was the gateway to the brain and that it could be used for diagnostics. When everybody thought almost laughed it's amazing so you've got, you know, you just got to keep, keep it going right, thank you.

Speaker 1: 15:42

Thank you for your leadership same question special project um.

Speaker 3: 15:47

So I think one of the things that I'm really excited about is that, you know, I mentioned a career at. Lily Stacey talked about the fact that I was leading some drug discovery and development efforts and that was an emotional rollercoaster. I had lost my own father in the process of these research trials to Alzheimer's disease and I really felt like I had failed him because we just didn't get something successful out the door fast enough. And he looked at me when I had to call him and tell him that one of the molecules had not met its phase three endpoint and it was about a year before he passed away and he said don't give up and we're not going to. And so that was this emotional roller coaster. Right, we thought we had one.

Speaker 3: 16:34

This thing is, you know, this disease. Alzheimer's is like this little jekyll and Hyde, like you just think you got it and it just jumps over here and so. But what's really really exciting is, while it looks to the field, that those were a lot of studies that were failures. Not a single one of them was a failure, because we've learned from every single one of them, which is what you realize in research is these negative studies are not failures, because they actually help direct you, and so in that period of time, the amount of progress we've made in the underlying biology and understanding the disease has gotten us to where we are today, where we have a couple of the first therapies now coming over this regulatory hurdle, so we have now got therapies that can slow this disease. Are they perfect?

Speaker 1: 17:20

No, are they in the?

Speaker 3: 17:22

end of the research journey. Hell, no, sorry. Well, I love to say that.

Speaker 2: 17:26

So no, they're definitely not.

Speaker 3: 17:27

We need more research, right, but they're the start right. We actually got a hit in a game we're on base're on base in a game that we no one's ever really even gotten a hit yet. And so now what I'm excited about is that last mile, because what we know is we know this disease impacts people of color two and two times more likely in the African American population, one and a half times more likely in the Latinx population. There's a social determinants of health aspect to this disease. Right now, the people who get the best care in this country, in every country around the world, is someone who knows someone. They pick up the phone and they call, and so they're affluent, they're educated, they're connected, they're often not working multiple jobs, and that's the way our system is working today, as opposed to just a systematic way of doing early detection and accurate diagnosis. So that's what I'm really excited about.

Speaker 3: 18:24

The Davos Alzheimer's Collaborative has recently completed 19 programs in 12 countries looking at early detection. That is now going to be launched coming soon funding opportunity and RFI for health systems here in the US to apply, to be fellows and help take those learnings and apply them to health systems so that we go not just from the zero to one, but the one to many, and that's what I'm really excited about. Bright Focus is a partner on that journey. The Milken Institute is a partner on that journey. So we've talked about collaboration, because it's not just the doctors that need to do something different, it's not just the regulatory folks that need to do something, it's not just the researchers. We've all got to work together so that the system, all those barriers in the system, break down.

Speaker 1: 19:10

Another silo buster.

Speaker 3: 19:12

Yeah, I phone my friends, but I phone my friends to get the work done.

Speaker 1: 19:18

That's right To help more people, that's me. Yeah.

Speaker 4: 19:22

So you know, one of the things I'm most proud of is the work we've achieved over the past almost four years. So this work kicked off the health equity kicked off during the pandemic, when a lot of organizations were shifting towards social justice, and the equity movement, I would say, has grown significantly and since then we've put out some significant thought leadership, including when I mentioned the work focuses on a multi-stakeholder approach across the ecosystem. What I meant is exactly what Stacey and Phyllis are saying. Is that not just silo busting, but also the role that meaningful engagement has patient and community engagement outside of the science, outside of the research, outside of the policy I always say this when I speak is, you know, we have to put the humanity back into research, or maybe we need to focus on the humanity and research right, because it's more than just, you know, making sure you have your data for your peer review journal. It's more than just making sure you have funding or getting to your endpoints and things like that. There are human beings involved in this and those human beings are us. So I always make sure that that is being paid attention to in the work and with that multi-stakeholder approach, that means what role does uh, do federal agencies have? What role do academic institutions have? Patient advocacy organizations, community-based organizations, uh, biopharma, clinical research organizations, those are the folks who are.

Speaker 4: 20:55

Those are the organizations or entities that are part of the ecosystem and that have the mechanisms and the expertise to drive change. But what are the action steps? What are the recommendations that are there? So that's a lot of the work that we produce and we can be a catalyst, we can be, we're disease agnostic, so we can say here's what the research is, here's what our stakeholders have said, here's what, here's what we already know, what's taken place in history and historically when it comes to research. So how do we bring those entities together that normally are not together? And stacy referenced that as well. So that's what I'm proud of. Most of the work is putting out those types of recommendations and also working with policymakers to ensure that equity and there's some accountability around equity, not just it's the right thing to do, not just oh, this is the buzzword.

Speaker 4: 21:46

No, this is life or death for people, right, and that's what I mean by putting the humanity and so we've put out a number of pieces, thought leadership pieces, focusing specifically on where do you pinpoint health equity in a clinical trial journey, for example?

Speaker 4: 22:00

What are the missing links in terms of who needs to be brought together? Development of public-private partnerships that was evidenced quite a bit during the COVID-19 pandemic. That should continue to be applied and continue that momentum. So that's sort of where we sit on that work, so very proud of that. And the last thing I'll say is that, as a culmination of that work, faster Cures, the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative, the Multi-Regional Clinical Trials Center at Harvard, at Brigham, and the National Academies all came together to coordinate an effort of determining what are the collective actions, based on stakeholder groups, that each of us need to take to really drive change, to really implement, because there's a lot of talk but there isn't a lot of doing and implementation. So we're really focusing on that piece as well and bringing all the stakeholders at play who have the power to do so to be engaged in that effort. Bringing all the stakeholders at play who have the power to do so to be engaged in that effort.

Speaker 1: 22:57

Well, I love that you mentioned health equity, because health equity is embedded in IdeaGen From the very first day IdeaGen was created. Former Congressman Louis Stokes, the late, great giant, we all stand on the shoulders of giants, yes, and IdeaGen is standing on the shoulders of a giant right now, right here. And that is the late again great, former Congressman Louis Stokes. And Congressman Stokes taught us about the importance of humanity, about the importance of civility, about the importance as we look out I mean, it's hard not to look out Right, and you see the Congress sitting there behind the washington monument and all these organizations, including k street, which we'll talk about later today and you think about.

Speaker 1: 23:46

It's about people, right, it's as I, as I think about it more and more and more conversations. We've had thousands of interviews on idea gen. It's all about the people and setting the tone. Health, equity. We have AI disrupting the planet in a positive way, in many ways, but is the world ready for what's about to happen?

Speaker 1: 24:08

that not even one of us may understand, it's happening right now, at this moment chat, gpt. Do you see how fast things are moving? It's conversational now, guys, and that's going to hit the healthcare profession. You're going to be able to do things that we probably can't even imagine right here, right now. And it goes back to equity, it goes back to all the things we're talking about, and so it's exciting for me to see and hear from you all that you're connected, because you can't do it alone, and when an organization thinks they can do it alone, it becomes a little bit. You know, it's a setback.

Speaker 3: 24:49

Well, and it's your working horizontally.

Speaker 3: 24:51

But what I love about when you talk about the people, so you know we're talking about national initiatives here.

Speaker 3: 24:56

Global initiatives, right, but this morning I had breakfast at the West Wing and I was talking to the special assistant president and we were talking about his mom who has Alzheimer's disease, and so you can have this national program, but you can never lose sight that for every single work, your piece of work you're doing, there is someone there who's a grandparent or, in my case, you know, a parent there's. You know, my boys didn't have their grandfathers at their baseball and basketball games because of this disease. So when you get tired, because you are going to get tired, yes, we like each other, but there is a lot of bureaucracy, there is a lot of arm wrestling, you hit a lot of walls and you are going to get tired. And when you get tired and you say, can I do this again today, you look in the mirror and you say someone is looking in the mirror today and thinking I'm worried about my own cognitive health, I'm worried about my own memory, or I have to get up and be a caregiver today.

Speaker 3: 25:57

And they can't quit, so neither can we. And so every single time you think about it, what's that? One person. And here I was breakfast at the West. Wing and we were talking about that one person. And you know, here it was breakfast at the west wing and we were talking about this one person, and how do you make a difference in that one person's life? So it's it's both horizontal, but it's also it's also vertical. You got to go from the global, regional, national to the individual and it has to be intentional.

Speaker 1: 26:22

Absolutely well, you just described as intentional. I mean you have, and that goes back to leadership, right? I agree, that's what we're talking about here. If you're looking at equity or you're looking at anything, any of the issues facing this country, communities, the planet, it starts with you all, one person. And, by the way, I do believe that one person can change the world. You really can, and so guess me. We've talked a lot about health equity. When identifying and executing solutions with faster cures. What's the first step? How do you begin?

Speaker 4: 26:58

that? Well, I would say one, determining what are the gaps, what are the gaps that need to be closed, what are the barriers to achieving those gap closures. And then what's the mind investment? That's the first time I've said that word, by mind investment.

Speaker 2: 27:21

I mean thought leadership.

Speaker 4: 27:24

And I mean there's a couple of ways of looking at investment. Of course, there's financial investments, investments, and those are very important, particularly when it comes to um, supporting workforce, you know, and and making sure that we have equitable workforce as well, and education and those kind of things leading into those fields. But then there's also the investment in human capital, right, um, and and that's not necessarily just your job, but it's also what you bring to the table your leadership, your experiences- no matter what age you are.

Speaker 1: 27:53

I mean you can.

Speaker 4: 27:54

There's education you received in your schooling and degrees, but there's also education you receive in life right, and I think applying those principles as well as what you learn in school is something that isn't really. There isn't a method for that, or at least I haven't seen a written method for it, but it's something that you know must be applied. So I think you know making sure that we're focusing on specific areas where there can be key integration, as I mentioned, community engagement. So what does that mean? That means building relationships, not just, for example, in a research study, not just coming into the community and saying, oh, there's a term called bleed and flee.

Speaker 4: 28:37

Well, we're going to collect your blood and you know you're going to complete the study survey and you know and you know, and yeah, and you know, but there needs to be a return on investment to that community.

Speaker 4: 28:50

Particularly if you're studying a particular disease that this community has the highest burden of, it needs to be not only included in that research but, excuse me, enrolled or participate in that research, but also be part of the design and the conduct, and that's something that's shifting quite a bit now. That has been out of the systematic norm when it comes to research and development. And so now, as I mentioned, there's other types of expertise, not just what you learn in school, but also life expertise and lived experience, and that should be valued just as well as educational experience and degree programs. So those are the kinds of things thinking about, thinking not outside the box, but being conscious of the life connections to the work that we're trying to do and ultimately saving lives or improving population health.

Speaker 1: 29:41

Such an important description. I mean what you just laid out, you know, is just profound, and I'd like to close by asking you all for the future global leaders. The IdeaGen Foundation was launched in Miami earlier this year. And you all are the personification of leadership, as I've said you look in the dictionary leadership, your pictures pop up. So if I'm looking at a leader and I want I hope.

Speaker 1: 30:06

I look thin and I'm looking at a leader and I want. I hope I look thin and I'm a future global leader. I'm into leadership. I want to change the world. Or I'm just a student who just doesn't even know that? I want to be a leader but I can't lead. What is your advice, stacey?

Speaker 2: 30:21

Be in it to win it, be in it to end it and just be it to win it be in it and just be, be active.

Speaker 1: 30:36

Use b to every part wow b sounds like the title of the book I guess I'm the only one that hasn't been writing one, phyllis um, find the place where your find the place where your passion and your purpose and your skill set all connect.

Speaker 3: 30:50

It's at that intersection where you will be your happiest, and when you're your happiest you will perform the best and the rewards will come. And so I love listening to the HOSA group because they're right at this point where they can find it. But if you find that place where your skill set and your passion and your purpose are all connected, there won't be a day in your life that you're not ready to go conquer the world.

Speaker 4: 31:21

Love it. And you know, just to sort of piggyback on what Phyllis said, you know, not just I mean in addition to focusing on what your passion is, but be patient with yourself. You know. Sometimes, you know, you might say this is what I want. This has happened to me several times in my career. I'm going to go for this and I'll try it and either it'll work out or it doesn't. But let's say it does work out and I was like, oh, disappointed that I wanted this degree program or I wanted to do this, and it didn't work out. Then something else came along that was much better than what I thought I wanted to do.

Speaker 4: 31:56

So I say, be patient with yourself. You know, recognize the ebb and flow. You know, as you grow in your skill set, in your career. You know, as you grow in your skill set and your career, it's okay to make changes. Change is inevitable. But you know, a wise man once told me to always follow my heart. So always follow your heart. And when you think about what that means, sit and think about what that means for you.

Speaker 2: 32:20

We have to add. So we have to go around again, go around again. I think the piece that is most undersaid but so often a barrier is that we assume the way someone is reacting and we get in our own headspace. And so I think if you take a pause and try to realize it's probably more about them than what you're talking about and what they're going through in life, you're going to have a lot more smiles on your face and you're going to be more productive. So everything we said is true, but that's probably the tip Stop and give yourself a break. Yeah, yeah, All right, Because it's probably something on the other side and the more you work, the more you get it. But to our friends at HOSA something on the other side and the more you work, the more you get it. But to our friends at HOSA get it early.

Speaker 2: 33:08

Or the older you get, the more you get it. So anyway, something to think about. Don't be reactive.

Speaker 4: 33:15

And just to put a bow on that. You know it's not easy, so just accept it. Okay, it's not easy, but if you follow your heart, if you plan accordingly, if you listen to what you want to do, if you take opportunities that that might help you gain and more, learn more on your skill set. So I'll just use a quick example, saying we're coming up to time, but I always say there's no better education than international travel, no better education than international travel, because you know there are things that you may learn about a certain country or certain customs, but when you get there, throw that all out the window particularly when and I mean for work, not, you know, vacation, Vacation is a little bit different, but if you're working in an international and global setting or in global health, you know you

Speaker 2: 34:01

can learn as much as you can, but when you go into that country.

Speaker 4: 34:05

It's, it's, it's, it's another ballgame in terms of how businesses are run, how you talk to folks, how you engage with them. So there's no better education than that. I call it baptism by fire. But you know, but always follow your heart again and be patient with yourself. And also, it's not going to, it's not easy, it's just not, you know sometimes it is sometimes it isn't, and recognize that when you get frustrated.

Speaker 1: 34:29

Well, that's perfect. I guess I'll top it all off by saying if it were easy, it wouldn't be worth it, right, absolutely. If it were easy to change the world, guess what Someone would have done it a long time ago, Indeed so thank you very much.

Speaker 4: 34:45

Thank you Changing the world. Thanks for having us. Thank you, George. Thank you.