Heinz Radio

In this episode of Heinz Radio, we sat down with Erin Dalton to talk about the intersection of equity and community health and the role that the Allegheny County Department of Human Services plays in that space. We also spoke about the impact that COVID-19 has had public health, and concluded with a touch of optimism for the future of equity in community health. Erin Dalton is the Director of the Allegheny County Department of Human Services, which provides community-based programs to families and individuals across the region. Prior to her role as director, Ms. Dalton led DHS’s analytics, planning, and information technology functions. Ms. Dalton is a 2004 alumna of Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College, earning a Master of Science in Public Policy and Management.

The arts and technology are often considered to be opposites of one another; however, they can also be merged to create immersive spaces that inspire wonder, creativity, and imagination. One such example is ARTECHOUSE, an immersive artspace that engages the audience in innovative hi-tech art both in physical locations as well as on their mobile app. In this episode, we had a chance to talk to Lena Galperina, the Visitor Experience Director at ARTECHOUSE, about her views on how the arts and tech inform each other, as well as how it applies in the context of ARTECHOUSE. Lena Galperina is passionate about bringing impactful art experiences to audiences. She believes that the arts have the power to help us understand each other and bring us closer together. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from American University in Art History and International Relations, as well as a Master’s degree from George Mason University in Arts Management. She has professional and personal experience in both visual and performing arts: she loves to paint and draw (especially using watercolors and ink), tell stories and dance with Carpathia Folk Dance Ensemble, where she is also the Assistant Director. Currently she works as the Visitor Experience Director at ARTECHOUSE, an innovative art space dedicated to showcasing artists whose primary medium is technology. Her role focuses on enhancing the visitor's experience and working with the entire team to ensure audiences' connection with the artwork on view.

In the last episode, we spoke to two distinguished professors of economics at Heinz College, doctors Lowell Taylor and Martin Gaynor, to explore the economics of how a company like Amazon could grow so quickly to control half of the US online retail market, what the consequences could be for consumers, and whether we should be worried about a complete monopoly. Today, we will explore how existing anti-trust laws could be maneuvered to deal with Amazon and other tech giants. We spoke with Attorney Michael A. Finio, and Prof. Ari Lightman from Heinz College. Ari is a Distinguished Service Professor, Digital Media and Marketing at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy. Ari is an internationally recognized expert in digital transformation and technology disruption focusing on online communities, digital collaboration, information dissemination and content analysis. He has worked with organizations across entertainment, technology, manufacturing, Consumer Packaged Goods, finance and healthcare.   Mike hails currently from Camp Hill, PA where he and his wife Amy live with their two dogs - Newfoundland Harper, and hound mix Ollie. After spending his formative years in Southwest Philadelphia and Springfield (Delco) PA, he went to the University of New Hampshire, in Durham, NH and then the (Penn State) Dickinson School of Law, in Carlisle PA. He’s been practicing law since 1983 and over his 38 years at the bar, he has from one client matter to the next over time increasingly focused on antitrust, merger review and control and other competition matters, and those things now occupy almost all of his lawyering time. He’s also an Adjunct Professor of Law at Penn State Dickinson, where he teaches Antitrust Law.  

This week’s episode is the first in a special two-part series investigating the question, “Is Amazon evil?” We take a close look at the e-commerce giant and some of the most alarming warnings that have been raised about their meteoric rise to market dominance. In Part 1, we spoke with two distinguished professors of economics at the Heinz College, Dr. Lowell Taylor and Dr. Martin Gaynor, to understand the economics of how a company like Amazon could grow so quickly to control half of the US online retail market. We also asked what the consequences could be for consumers and whether we should be worried about Amazon forming a complete monopoly. Dr. Lowell Taylor is the H. John Heinz III University Professor of Economics at the Heinz College and a Senior Fellow at NORC at the University of Chicago, where he serves as Principal Investigator of the 1997 National Longitudinal Study of Youth.  He previously served as a senior economist with President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors. Taylor’s research interests are in labor economics and economic demography. Dr. Martin Gaynor is the E.J. Barone University Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University and former Director of the Bureau of Economics at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Professor Gaynor's research focuses on competition and incentives in health care and on antitrust policy.

In the second part of our "Building Equitable Transportation Networks" series, we sat down with Allante Whitmore to talk about the autonomous vehicle landscape and how future developments in this space can take equity considerations into account. We examined the synergies between public transportation innovation and autonomous vehicles. We explored the ways in which autonomous vehicle research and development has been both bolstered and hindered by COVID-19. We concluded the interview by talking about recommendations for how policymakers can ensure that autonomous vehicle developments are properly managed and effectively regulated.    Allante Whitmore is a fourth-year PhD student pursuing a joint-PhD in Civil Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. Her PhD research focuses on how to equitably deploy autonomous vehicles, how to integrate autonomous vehicles into public transportation systems, and how to develop shared autonomous vehicle networks to improve mobility for transit-dependent populations. Allante also serves as a Mobility21 Diversity Fellow where she explores the intersection between autonomous vehicle development and public policy.

Happy new years! In this episode, we sat down with Haley Townsend to discuss the use of artificial intelligence in the transportation space. How can artificial intelligence be used to ensure that transportation systems are equitable across socioeconomic and accessibility lines? In what ways has the COVID-19 pandemic complicated and enhanced attempts to use artificial intelligence in the transportation industry? We explored these questions and concluded by discussing how policymakers can ensure that artificial intelligence developments in the transportation industry are properly managed and effectively regulated. Haley Townsend is a transportation data scientist at Noblis. Noblis is a science, technology, engineering, and strategy company based out of Washington D.C. Haley attended Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University and obtained a masters degree in Public Policy, Management, and Data Analytics in 2019. She has worked at the intersection of data science and transportation for 2 years and focuses specifically on intelligent transportation systems.

In our final part of the Arts & Entertainment in the time of COVID-19 series, we had the opportunity to chat with Christine Barnes, a theme park creative and video game enthusiast. We discussed the effects of the pandemic on the theme park industry, what ways theme parks are integrating aspects from video games, how theme parks are changing and ways it will continue to evolve. Christine M. Barnes is an Alumni  of Carnegie Mellon University has been bringing magic to the stage since she was a little girl and has a lifelong passion with storytelling. She has enthusiastically shared this love through her work in theatre and theme parks enabling others to experience characters, stories, and worlds only dreamed of through their imaginations.  She currently conducts workshops focused on the creative process and the importance of teamwork. 

In the second part of our series on arts & entertainment in the time of COVID-19, we spoke with Whitney Jefferson about the state of live entertainment. Whitney is a second-year Master of Entertainment Industry Management Student here at Heinz College, and she spent the summer doing research on how live entertainment venues are handling the pandemic with the AMT lab. Whitney’s passion for the entertainment industry began when she was a teenager. She decided to attend Albright College to get a bachelor degree in music industry studies. This degree equipped Whitney with the understanding of the industry she wanted to work in, but she wanted to know how the music industry worked with film and television.   During her graduate studies, Whitney has had the opportunity to intern with Calliope, a non-profit concert promoter, the Arts Management and Technology Lab, and Trend: PR, Branding, & Social Media. Whitney is interested in music licensing and live entertainment. She’s excited to see how the reliance on virtual and augmented reality for concerts during Covid-19 will impact physical concerts and licensing in the future. The Arts Management & Technology (AMT) Laboratory, a research center of Carnegie Mellon University’s Master of Arts Management Program, serves as an exchange, a catalyst for innovative ideas, and a conduit for knowledge circulating at the intersection of arts, management, and technology.

We had the chance to sit down with Lisa Alexander, in the first episode of our series on arts & entertainment in the time of COVID-19. Lisa Alexander is currently the PR Marketing Manager for Calliope: The Pittsburgh Folk Music Society, where she has worked for nine years and taken on a variety of roles. Also a writer, she holds an MFA in poetry from Drew University and has published her poems widely. She lives in Pittsburgh.

Most of us have heard about precision medicine, but do we know how this patient-centered care actually works? This week, we’re sharing our interview with Dr. Philip Empey, Associate Director for Pharmacogenomics of the Pitt/UPMC Institute of Precision Medicine. Dr. Empey helps us understand precision medicine and pharmacogenomics, discussing its potential for improving healthcare and the preparation necessary for its success.    Dr. Philip Empey is the Associate Director for Pharmacogenomics of the Pitt/UPMC Institute of Precision Medicine and leads the PreCISE-Rx and Test2Learn teams to implement pharmacogenomics clinical, research, and educational initiatives. He also directs the University of Pittsburgh - Thermo Fisher Scientific Pharamcogenomics Center of Excellence which is deploying population scale preemptive pharmagenomics testing (to >150,000 patients) in western Pennsylvania. As a clinician-scientist in the Department of Pharmacy and Therapeutics, Dr. Empey conducts NIH-funded clinical and translational research aimed at understanding the mechanisms of the variability in drug response to improve medication-related outcomes in critically-ill patients.   Dr. Empey’s research interests include understanding the role/impact of xenobiotic transporters following neurological injury, transporter pharmacogenomics, pharmacogenomics clinical implementation, collection of medication-related phenotype information, and genotype-phenotype discovery. Dr. Empey teaches at the graduate level in pharmacokinetics, pharmacogenomics, and drug transporters in the Schools of Pharmacy, Medicine, and Nursing. He also has a research interest in innovative educational models to transform education.

We're living in a time when so many companies have access to so much information about us that it is easier and easier to both predict and shape our behavior. How can we trust that our data is being used fairly and respectfully? This episode looks at the complex issues behind defining and enforcing corporate ethical behavior in the burgeoning field of data science. Host Sormeh Yazdi conducts a remote interview with Dr. Laura Norén, whose work focuses on employee data rights, capable data guardianship, and privacy compliance. Dr. Norén is a data science ethicist, speaker, and researcher currently serving as the Vice President of Privacy and Trust at Obsidian Security. She is a Visiting Scholar at NYU’s Center for Data Science and UC-Berkeley’s Division of Data Science and Information, has earned undergraduate degrees at MIT, and a PhD at NYU where she completed a Moore-Sloan Postdoc. Her work on data ethics been covered in The New York Times, the Toronto Globe and Mail, and American Public Media's Marketplace. On Thursdays, she publishes the Data Science Community Newsletter.  If you are interested in more on this topic, check out "Scoping the OECD AI principles" as an example of a broad framework leaving details to the domains. 

Taylor Lorenz is a tech reporter for the New York Times covering internet culture, from memes to social media influencers to emerging online trends. In this episode, Taylor shares her views on “Ok Boomer,” the “flattening” of politics by social media and the internet, and the causes of the United States’ internet regulation vacuum. Follow @TaylorLorenz on Twitter, Instagram, and in the New York Times Style Section - or risk losing touch with the youths.

David Riemer is an attorney and policy expert whose career in public service spans over four decades. In this week's episode of Heinz Radio, host Collin T Hayes spoke with Riemer about his new book, "Putting Government in Its Place: The Case for a New Deal 3.0." The book provides an expansive and comprehensive history of how America's government and political economy have transformed in the nearly 90 years since Franklin Roosevelt was first elected President. Riemer also argues that a "complete change in concept" in policymaking is necessary to tackle the issues of 21st Century society.    If you like today's episode, you can order Riemer's book on Amazon or at henschelhausbooks.com. You can view more of his research and writing at govinitsplace.org.

Welcome back to Heinz Radio and welcome to year 2020! We hope you had a great holiday break and, for those of you listeners that are current students, we’re hoping you are feeling at least somewhat ready to restart classes again! The sustainable development goals, developed by people and representatives from 193 nations, encompass 17 goals, from ending poverty, to protecting life on land and underwater, to reducing inequality, to eliminating hunger, all by 2030. How exactly is CMU going to help meet these goals by 2030? Listen in to find out how the relatively new Sustainability Initiative project is revving it's engines and getting ready to help students, staff and faculty tackle these immense goals.

Sara Cortez is a 2017 graduate of the Heinz College’s Master of Science in Public Policy and Management program. Since August 2017, she has worked as a Fiscal and Policy Analyst at the California Legislative Analyst’s Office, in the program areas of Early Education, Child Care, and Child Nutrition.  The California Legislative Analyst's Office, or LAO, serves as the "eyes and ears" of the California Legislature, providing fiscal and policy advice and nonpartisan budget analysis to ensure that legislative policy is implemented in a cost efficient and effective manner by California’s executive branch.

In this week's episode, Justin speaks with Mario Khreiche, a postdoctoral associate at the University of Pittsburgh's History Department. Mario's background in Political & Cultural Thought informs his current research on digital labor and the politics of automation. Justin and Mario discuss some of the new developments in work and the economy resulting from advances in technology. They touch on the gig economy, the gamification of labor, the inequitable distribution of automation’s benefits, and more!

Thorough data analysis is crucial to human rights investigations – but collecting and understanding these data can provide an incredible challenge. In this week’s episode, Patrick Ball, Director of Research at Human Rights Data Analysis Group, joins us to discuss his experience with these challenges and the importance of applying rigorous science to human rights investigations. Patrick Ball, PhD, has spent the last 25 years conducting quantitative analysis for truth commissions, non-governmental organizations, international criminal tribunals, and United Nations missions in El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti, South Africa, Chad, Sri Lanka, East Timor, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Kosovo, Liberia, Perú, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Syria. Patrick has provided expert testimony in several trials, including those of Slobodan Milošević, the former President of Serbia; José Efraín Ríos Montt, former de-facto president of Guatemala; and Hissène Habré, the former President of Chad.

How can we help lift people out of poverty for good? Heinz alum Lauren Renaud ('17), now Director of Analytics for the Family Independence Initiative, says we should start by assuming that people who have experienced poverty know more about their unique needs than any government official, philanthropist, or policy professional. The Family Independence Initiative (FII) is a nonprofit that promotes unrestricted cash transfers as a way to alleviate poverty. They also host online forums where assistance recipients can give each other advice and feedback. In this week's episode, Lauren and host Chinmayee discuss FII's initiatives and their results, the philosophical shift Lauren hopes to see in the fight against poverty, and more.

This week Heinz Radio is co-releasing an episode from another Podcast on CMU's Campus. We hope you enjoy! Are the robots coming for your job? The answer isn’t quite that simple. We look at what’s real and what’s hype in the narrative of industry disruption, how we might be able to better predict future technological change and how artificial intelligence will change our understanding of the nature of intelligence itself.

Each spring at Heinz College, the U.S. Army War College drops by for a weekend to run the International Strategic Crisis Negotiation Exercise (ISCNE). In this week's special two-part episode, we're finding out what the ISCNE is all about and what kind of lessons the students take away from it. In the first half of the episode, Vanessa speaks with ISCNE mentor and U.S. Army Colonel Chris Cox about leadership and cooperation in large organizations. Col Cox is a former Army War College fellow at Heinz College and U.S. Military Academy faculty member, and has held a variety of leadership positions during his three deployments and more than twenty years of service. In the second part of the episode, Corina takes us into the last day of the ISCNE to speak with the exercise facilitator, Colonel Ken Gillian, and to hear from students about the experience.