The Think For Yourself Podcast thinkforyourself

Ali Khan is Dean of the College of Public Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and a former Assistant Surgeon General with the US Public Health Service. Dr. Khan’s career has focused on health security, global health, & emerging infectious diseases. He completed a 23-year career as a senior director at the CDC where he was one of the main architects of their national health security. He continues to actively support global outbreak responses as a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Outbreak and Response Network (GOARN). Dr. Khan is the author of The Next Pandemic: On the Front Lines Against Humankind’s Gravest Dangers.  
[RECORDING DATE: November 3, 2021]

Michael McCarthy is the co-chairman of Bridges Trust.  In addition to his role at Bridges Trust, he is also the chairman and founder of McCarthy Group, LLC, an investment holding company headquartered in Omaha since its founding in 1986. Mike serves on the boards of a number of public, private and not-for-profit entities including Union Pacific Corp., Peter Kiewit Sons’, Inc., Election Systems & Software, Creighton University, Heritage Services, and Lasting Hope Recovery Center. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from St. John’s University in Minnesota.
 
[RECORDING DATE: August 25, 2021]

Charlene is the author of You are Enough: Reclaiming Your Career and Your Life With Purpose, Passion, and Unapologetic Authenticity.  In 2020, following a four-year health crisis, Charlene retired from Corporate America as the principal vice president of global corporate affairs for Bechtel Corporation, one of the world's leading engineering and construction companies. Today, she leads her namesake firm, Charlene Wheeless LLC. She is also the senior advisor for equity and justice at APCO Worldwide, a global advocacy and communications consultancy.  An important voice in shaping the future of the communications profession, Wheeless is the chairman of the board of trustees for the Page Society, the world’s leading professional association for senior public relations and corporate communications executives.   
 
[RECORDING DATE: July 28, 2021]

Kevin Czinger is the founder, lead inventor and CEO of Divergent Technologies.  He founded Divergent to revolutionize car manufacturing by inventing and deploying an end-to-end digital production system, thereby catalyzing and leading the global manufacturing transition from analog to digital production.  Divergent 3D’s patented manufacturing platform radically reduces the materials, energy, and capital needed to build a car as well as accelerating innovation.  It was named Google’s Solve for X "Moonshot" for its disruptive impact on global transportation and awarded the Petersen Automotive Museum’s inaugural Award for Innovation and Leadership. Prior to Divergent 3D, Czinger co-founded Coda Automotive, an all-electric car company with vehicles fully safety certified for the U.S., Chinese and European markets. Czinger was also an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Benchmark Capital and an investor and operating executive in private and public technology companies.  Early in his career, he served as an Executive Director of Goldman Sachs in Asia and Europe, where he focused on technology and telecom growth investments.  Czinger is a graduate of Yale University and serves Yale as a Sterling Fellow, a Member of the President’s International Advisory Council and a Board Member of the Jackson Institute for World Affairs. 
 
[RECORDING DATE: June 23, 2021]

Diane Hessan, an award-winning entrepreneur and innovator in the market research field, is a nationally recognized expert on the American voter. A member of the Boston Globe Editorial Board, she has written extensively about the voices of the electorate and is the author of Our Common Ground: Insights from Four Years of Listening to the American Voter. She is the founder and chairman of C Space, the first company to leverage social media for consumer insights. She received her BA from Tufts University and her MBA from Harvard Business School.
 
[RECORDING DATE: June 18, 2021]

Hakim Idris is the author of Menace: China's Colonization of the Islamic World & Uyghur Genocide.  His wife Rushan Abbas is the founder and executive director of the Campaign for Uyghurs. Hakim and Rushan are among the world's most informed individuals about Chinese activities against Muslim minorities in East Turkistan.Perhaps the single most important human rights problem in the world today, the Uyghur genocide demands greater global attention.  Rushan and Hakim are not just knowledgeable about what is currently happening, they have been personally affected.  "In Search of My Sister" is a documentary film about Rushan's quest to find her sister, Dr. Gulshan Abbas, who was abducted by the Chinese regime and illegally imprisoned in 2018.  Some of Hakim's personal tragedies are discussed in "A Uyghur's Man Letter to his Lost Mother," a piece he wrote in 2020 and was published by Bitter Winter, a magazine dedicated to human rights and religious liberty.
 
[RECORDING DATE: June 2, 2021]