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A few hours after arriving in Paris, reenergized by the espresso I had upon my arrival, my husband and I set out on our walk, stumbling across the cobblestone streets of the Left Bank in search of the perfect café. Then, it started to pour ferociously.

Since we had no umbrella, we ran to a little café only meters away, joining a gathering of locals who were busy celebrating another workweek ending. Cigarette smoke billowed around them as they laughed and chatted. The waiter must have detected our Canadian French accent as we were seated away from the others, under a covered terrace next to a couple in their late sixties. I guessed they were Americans from the south with their wide smiles and matching jean jackets. In fact, within seconds they told us that they lived in Houston, Texas.

We replied politely to the usual meet and greet questions, and thankfully, glasses filled with champagne arrived soon after alongside an enormous platter of mind-blowing cheese. I was hoping for a romantic start to our holiday, but our friendly Texans had more important matters to discuss.

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The Bioinspirationalist: Dr. Jeffrey Karp looks to nature to solve big medical issues.

When Bioengineer, Jeff Karp, was a kid growing up in the countryside near Peterborough, Ontario, he knew very little about engineering. He lived with his family in a house designed by famed Canadian architect Frank Gehry surrounded by farms and forests.  The property included a creek where Karp would watch snapping turtles lay their eggs, not realizing these early encounters with nature would play a part in his success in the medical field.

Of course, Karp had no idea what his future held for him. “ I thought an engineer was the guy with the blue striped cap who drove the little train around the local zoo,” Karp laughs from his lab at Brigham and Women’s Hospital(BWH) in Boston, Massachusetts.

The Karp lab is where it all happens. Karp and his multidisciplinary team are at the forefront of regenerative medicine, focusing on stem cell therapeutics, drug delivery systems, and tissue adhesives- many of these approaches are inspired by nature. Known as a bioinspirationalist, Karp sees nature as a tool to help solve medical problems. “I look at nature with a purpose,” he says. “A lot of technologies we’ve developed have been influenced by nature.”

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Long Before Trump

Long before my daughters told me they were gay, I remember watching V for Vendetta, a haunting dystopian film set in London in the late 2020’s. The world is in turmoil- the United States is falling apart as the result of an ongoing civil war, and there’s a pandemic virus raging throughout Europe. V, a masked vigilante, commits violent yet heroic acts against the fascist British government, hoping to save humanity from the evil forces at play. In one particular scene V captures Evey, played by Natalie Portman, saving her from the secret police and brings her back to his safe house. To test Evey’s loyalty to V’s cause, she is locked up in a pseudo prison cell. Under the crack of the cell door, Evey is passed notes from Valerie, a fellow female prisoner, before she dies. The story unfolds like a home video, a heartfelt account of Valerie, from childhood to adulthood- her joys and sorrows of coming out at a time when it is forbidden to be gay.

I wept watching the scene from the coziness of my oversized sofa in mid-town Toronto. I felt safe in my city, which was then, and is still now, one of the most multi-cultural, diverse and openhearted places in the world. There was nothing to worry about- it was 2006, shortly after same-sex marriage had became legal in Canada. My daughters, just teenagers then, were only beginning to discover who they really were. They were engaged and dynamic young people with an active social conscience. Although I suspected at times, that they perhaps were gay, I naively thought they would have nothing to worry about- surely only love and acceptance would come their way. I felt comforted thinking that it was way easier to be gay in the 2000’s, compared to the 70’s when I was in my teens. I didn’t really know any lesbians back then, but my male friends who only came out years later, hid behind their gorgeous girlfriends that they twirled around during prom night, cloaked in their preppy button down polo shirts.

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The Importance of Being Supportive

If one of Michael Milken’s initiatives is “to foster lifelong leaders for a better world” by establishing the Milken Scholars Program and creating a web of support, then he surely achieved this with Joelle Simpson, Milken Scholar ‘95.

At 38, Dr. Joelle Simpson is the Medical Director for Emergency Preparedness and an assistant professor of pediatric emergency medicine at Children’s National Health System in Washington DC, as well as an emergency medicine specialist. She credits her journey – becoming a prestigious Milken Scholar and Harvard Graduate, as well as earning an M.P.H. and an M.D. in pediatric emergency medicine-to the many people in her life- family, friends, teachers, and colleagues who helped motivate and inspire her to reach her potential.

“People had a much bigger vision for myself than I did and I’m glad that I was able to realize that.”

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