Civic Conversations

Serial entrepreneur Warren Cross shares stories and a valuable perspective gleaned from his uniquely diverse career. As a businessman, real estate investor, fitness enthusiast, and family man, Warren balances a lot. And his enthusiasm shows that he’s far from slowing down.

Gloryanne Aidoo-Micah shares insights into her exciting research improving therapies for liver cancer. She discusses race-related health inequalities in prostate cancer, and her work to lessen those disparities.

John is the founder of Civic Capital, a hedge fund focused on socially responsible investing. He began his career working in the portfolio management department of John Hancock, which later spun out to a more entrepreneurial firm called Independence. He was an early visionary in the ESG (environmental, social, and governance) conscious investing space. For over 30 years, John has also been the author of his Annual Trivia Book, with commentary spanning from diaper production in Japan, to the history of pathogens, to the most popular children's names.

Chris Dee is a resident physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where he is training to become a radiation oncologist. Originally from the Philippines, Chris has a unique perspective on global cancer and biomedical research. He is also a mentor for Filipino students, and for undergraduate and medical students conducting cancer research.

The global effort to eradicate polio is the largest international public health initiative in history. Ellyn Ogden has been leading the initiative for USAID for over two decades. Our conversation with her ranges from negotiating days of tranquility between warring factions in the Congo to surmounting cultural and religious barriers to vaccinate the world's children.

Paul Parisi is an entrepreneur who has spent his career, in the motto of his firm, “preserving the printed word.” He started working in a book-binding shop as a kid until he bought out his former employer and expanded the business to perform high end binding nationally for the country’s major universities, including Harvard, his alma mater. His work with books has meant education has always been part of his journey, from serving on boards, to travelling across the world to read, learn, and teach.

Evan A. Schnidman, Ph.D. is the founder and Managing Partner of Scientifico, a venture studio designed to introduce scientific rigor into the art of building and scaling companies. Prior to Scientifico, Evan was the founder and CEO of Prattle, and after Prattle was acquired by Liquidnet, Evan was the Head of Data Innovation at Liquidnet. Evan started his career as an academic, earning his PhD from Harvard University with research focused on modeling small group decision-making.

Dr. Luis Blasco has spent his life healing those around him. He grew up in Spain before travelling to Belgian Congo to specialize in tropical disease. From there, he travelled to the United States, and spent most of his professional career as a reproductive endocrinologist first at the University of Pennsylvania, and then at Drexel University Medical School in Philadelphia. Today, he uses his fluency in four languages and extensive medical knowledge to help fight the spread of Covid 19.

Adebola Yakubu-Owolewa is the former chairwoman of the University Club Scholarship Fund, which provides scholarships to high school seniors based on academic excellence, civic engagement, and financial need. She herself received the scholarship as a high school senior, propelling her to Harvard College and then Harvard Medical School. She works now as a pathologist and as a mentor to others who seek to follow in her footsteps.