Brain Chatter

Nisha Patel explores what it takes to populate an organization with problem solvers and how to be one. Problems at work are most often negatively associated with stress. Repeatedly, however, problems prove to be gates of opportunities for career catapults, entrepreneurial ventures, and other rewards for those who can leverage creativity, calculated risk, and resilience to solve them. And yet, that only happens in an organization that knows how to find, hire, develop, and empower proactive problem solvers. This podcast episode delves into the how-to of this desired strategy and outcome.
Nisha is the Director of Wellness and Administration at UAB Heersink Medical School. Previously, one of her roles was as Chief of Staff for the Medical School Dean and CEO of the UAB Health System. UAB is one of Alabama’s two largest employers. She has an undergraduate degree from Middle Tennessee State University, an MBA from UAB and a Masters in Healthcare Administration from UAB. She has also gone through Lean Six Sigma Green Belt for Healthcare certification, as well as being a part of UAB’s Innovation Academy.
EPISODE RESOURCES:
> Nisha Patel on LinkedIn
>UAB Heersink School of Medicine, Office of Wellness
>Wall Street Journal, As We Work Podcast: The Value of Being Invaluable at Work
>Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense
>Brené Brown

Brain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability.

Many company leaders are asked to serve on boards of directors, whether with nonprofits or for-profits of various sizes. There are many questions and issues to consider before saying yes and after saying yes. It is always an honor to be elected to boards, and it allows someone to have far-reaching positive impact beyond their normal job or company. Board service comes with fiduciary responsibilities and can include personal liabilities and reputation risk.
In this episode, Laura Gregory, an experienced attorney and now a management consultant associate with KC&A, explores the spectrum of questions we should ask and issues we should evaluate related to board service.
Our leadership is important to nonprofits all around us- industry associations, local youth sports leagues, homeowner associations, school booster organizations, chambers of commerce, hunting clubs, civic clubs, etc. And our leadership can also have far-reaching positive impact on job-creation and economic opportunities with for-profit boards of small, medium, or large companies, whether closely held or publicly traded.
Laura provides a series of questions and concerns to consider before saying yes, as well as a series of responsibilities and methods to maximize your impact and usefulness on a board after saying yes, including when to stop serving. She also offers a list of strategies to measure your success in board service, as well as specific, critical, and costly mistakes to avoid.
EPISODE RESOURCES:
> Laura Gregory on LinkedIn
>Laura Gregory Bio
>US Bar Associations' Directories
>West Alabama Community Foundation
>Eagles Wings
>Weekly Leadership Quotes on LinkedIn

Brain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability.

How are current high school students being prepared for the US workforce at a time when employers are desperate for qualified workers? What are the students' pathways and options? Are schools getting the input from local industry about what those companies need most in foundational skills as well as developed skillsets? Do schools want involvement from local employers?
This episode takes an in-depth look at current high school education and workforce preparation with someone on the front lines. Grayson Lawrence is principal of Winterboro High School in rural Talladega County, Alabama. Grayson explains what College and Career Readiness means on a practical, measurable level and what it looks like for the students, educators, and future employers.
Winterboro High has been a recipient of of the "National School Change Award", presented to six or fewer schools nationwide annually as a joint program of the National Principals Leadership Institute and The School Superintendents Association. It recognizes schools that have significantly improved, such as Winterboro, which has raised graduation rates from around 60% to close to 100%, among numerous other gains. And, 100% of Winterboro graduates leave school with a personalized career plan mapping out what steps to take to achieve their personal goals.
EPISODE RESOURCES:
> Winterboro High School website
>Grayson Lawrence on Twitter
>Winterboro High on Twitter

Brain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability.

What does it take to last 100 years? Nancy Meadows, CEO of BridgeWays, shares her insights on how and why her organization has lasted almost a century. She discusses necessary organizational pivots of mission, programs, branding, and more that BridgeWays has made over the decades. So, how do you know what or which pivots to make (or not make)? What's the appropriate timeline for successful pivots? Should the process be fast or slow? What types of data and analysis is useful when it comes to decisions about large and small changes? How do you select the right people to surround yourself with in order to accomplish successful pivots?
Nancy also discusses their organizational role in bridging "where youth are" and "where they can be" as it relates to life and career preparation. She explains BridgeWays focus on Social and Emotional Learning, including interpersonal skills building, goal setting skills, exposure to healthy teamwork, conflict resolution skills, and other skillsets sometimes illogically termed 'soft skills' that, in reality, are often deemed as "critical skills" by employers.
This episode also includes discussions about “Hindsight Bias,” alternately called “Knew-It-All-Along Phenomenon,” as it relates to the perception that successful pivots in the past were much more obvious than they actually were in real time.
RESOURCES:
>BridgeWays website
>Nancy Meadows' Bio
>BridgeWays Facebook Page
>Pauline Fletcher's Story
>Camp Fletcher

Brain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability.

Dr. Isabel Scarinci, Vice Chair for Global and Rural Health in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UAB, psychologist, and polio survivor, discusses The Power of Thankfulness. How powerful is a genuine sense of thankfulness in our daily lives with co-workers, friends, and family? How does expressing thankfulness change our relationships with others? How can we make authentic thankfulness habitual? What is the science behind gratitude? And how does daily meditation on thankfulness impact our sleep?

This episode is a conversation with Dr. Isabel Scarinci who survived polio as a child in Brazil. That experience led her into a life of service to others. As a child, between surgeries she went door-to-door with her mother encouraging complete strangers to vaccinate their children against polio. Her efforts prevented untold other children from suffering. Now she works as an administrator and psychologist in cancer prevention with one of the world's leading cancer centers and medical schools. She is a leader in three major efforts to eradicate cervical cancer:
1- Operation Wipeout, an effort to eradicate cervical cancer in an entire US State (Alabama).
2- An effort between the Rotary Club of Birmingham, O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center, Rotary International, Rotary Clubs in Guatemala, and the national government of Guatemala to eradicate any type of cancer (in this case cervical cancer) from an entire country for the first time in human history.
3- She has been appointed by the US White House to lead a workgroup to determine how to create a nationwide cervical cancer prevention strategy across the entire United States.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Isabel and her work in Rotary International Magazine (Nov 2024)
• Isabel's Appointment by US White House
• Isabel's Bio
• Connect with Isabel on LinkedIn
• Rotary International's END POLIO NOW Campaign
• Sri Lanka Cervical Cancer Eradication Effort
• Maya Angelou Quote referenced by Isabel (Forbes article)
• Honorary Consul of Brazil for Alabama article
• "How to Cultivate Gratitude, Compassion, and Pride on Your Team" Harvard Business Review article
• O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center

We'd love to hear your feedback on the podcast, as well as topics you'd like us to explore in a future episode. Email [email protected]

Brain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability.