Good afternoon. My name is Levi Thompson and I have the pleasure of serving as the Dean of our College of Engineering here at the University of Delaware. I also have the pleasure of welcoming you to this inaugural event for our college in what we call the leadership series. With guidance from our hosting committee of faculty and staff, will examine unique perspectives on leadership and its impact on our communities. I'd like to thank Cecelia, our 3D nitro truck or body. Pierre Yao and Jacqueline Washington for being on the host committees. First, being the first members of the host committee. Today's program leading while black is sponsored by our College of Engineering, our University of Delaware center for Black culture and our rise program. Describing any action as occurring while black has become a way of calling attention to the way racial bias affects the everyday lives of black Americans. Today's event aims to shine light on how we can reclaim that phrase. Do the success of black leaders. Today's opening program, a fireside chat, is such an honor. It's such an honor for me to introduce our featured guest. Darrell pines is the President of the University of Maryland, where he is also the Glenn L. Martin professor of aerospace engineering. Darrell joined the faculty at the University of Maryland in 1995. Prior to becoming president, he served as dean of the a James Clark School of Engineering for 11 years. He is internationally known for his research on structural health, monitoring and biologically inspired structures for aircraft. What is particularly important here is that diversity has been a hallmark of his career. While at the University of Maryland, he has worked tirelessly to develop a culture of inclusive excellence and to improve the student experience. This has led to a significant growth of women and underrepresented minorities in engineering at the Clark School at the University of Maryland. Just the other day, I learned of details regarding how he's bringing greater diversity to our National Academy of Engineering, to which Darrow is also an elected member. In fact, diversity issues in higher education has ranked the Clark School among the top ten in conferring engineering degrees to African-American students. As further background, Darrell earned his bachelor's degree at the University of California, Berkeley and Masters and PhD, PhD degrees at MIT, all in Mechanical Engineering. Please join me in welcoming President pints to the stage. Yeah. So it's good to see you. Great. See you really saw each other yesterday or a couple of days ago. I think that's a comment with regard to the relatively low number of African-American leaders in academia. And so we happened to have been on the same Zoom call. And it turns out there are very few. And I have to give you some maybe congratulate you on the work that you're doing with the National Academy of Engineering, which is a community of scholars. And it's probably the highest honor that you can get as an engineer. And there are very few black members, elected members. And Darryl's work has certainly made a difference there. So thank you for doing it. We ought to applaud. Thank you, Dean Thompson. Thank you. So I have some questions through. Some will be a surprise for you. Okay. I'm sure you're handling them all well. Again, it's wonderful for you to be here on campus with us today. Appreciate the opportunity to talk to you about leadership and other kinds of issues. The last time that I can remember we were together was pre-pandemic and we were trying to figure out where it was. You were still Dean at the University of Maryland, had not assumed your position at as president. And in fact, you became president at a very, very difficult time. That was June of 2020, just a few months after the World Health Organization upgraded COVID to a pandemic. So my first question to you is, how did you manage your leadership transition through such an unprecedented disruption? Well, very cautiously. So I was announced as president at University of Maryland on actually Valentine's Day, February 14, 2020. So I was really happy I had cake and ice cream. And this is before, of course, COVID had hit North America, hit the United States. So I was in a euphoria state. And then of course, as we all remember, in early March, we realized that something was going on around the world and was hitting the United States. And in our county, Prince George's County of the state of Maryland. The first COVID case was listed as March 9, 2020. Now I wasn't slated to start until July 1 of 2020. But I realize that because I was coming in at the incoming president, I needed to be involved in the process for risk mitigation on our campus, even though my time didn't start until July 1st. So I went to the Chancellor of the University System of Maryland, which is a gentleman by the name of J permanent. And I said to Chancellor permanent, I need to be on the system-wide COVID task force that you just created in the third week of March. And he said, Well, yeah, but you're not president yet. I know I'm not perfect, but I'm going to be president. And I can't accept decisions that I didn't have a part to play in. So he allowed me to join the system. Presidents call as the incoming president. And these were now all by Zoom. And so I started to play a role in what the COVID task force was going to sort of make sort of safety measures and requirements for potentially reopening our campus for that fall of 2020. And that was really important for me, so that I had a seamless transition of what the whole system was doing, as well as my own entire leadership team that I was going to inherit on July 1st. Now I have to say my predecessor probably wasn't as happy about that because I was involved in all the discussions and I would every now and then interject, but very cautiously realized, and I still wasn't president until July 1st, but I wanted to make sure that we had the right safety protocols that we're going to go forward. And Dean Thompson and IBM, both from an engineering background. What engineer's kinda think about even this, something as complex as COVID and the health crisis is we look at things through a prism of what we call risk management and uncertainty. And so we're able to see things and build strategies. Maybe they're a little bit different than other potential leaders. And so I had a role to actually architect how we were going to manage the fall. And that was really helpful. Good. So as you look back, so when you started versus where you are now, do you think the university and I know the answer, but maybe you could tell us how the university is stronger today than it was when you started. Well, well, let me take everyone back to 2020 because I don't want you guys to ever forget 2020. And you should never forget 2020. It's a Seminole year in the history of humanity on the planet. So not only were we all wrestling with obviously COVID-19 and its uncertainty, remember if you just remember the early days, March and April when you were sequestered in your homes, right? Don't forget this. You hadn't even gone to the supermarket yet for the first time. You probably came fully wrapped in so much safety gear that you didn't know what PPE stood for? Personal protective equipment if you forgot already, PPE. I hope you haven't forgotten. I take you back to that because every one of us, for the first time, every human being on the planet was facing the same situation. So we're all suffering in the same way. That was number one. Number two, certain populations. People of color, suffer it again. When we saw the horrific murder of George Floyd on May 20 in the summer of 2020. Another what I call pandemic, a pandemic of racial injustice and social injustice and criminal injustice in our nation. And then the third came a little bit later that fall, which was the uncertainty in our democracy, which still exists today. But it caused us great concern. And I want you to imagine all of these three things happening at one time affecting our students, our faculty, and our staff. So it wasn't just about reopening the University de, densified in COVID. It was dealing with all of these complex other issues that were also surrounding society at the same time. So I'll take you back to the summary again of 2020, if you may recall, right after May 20th and we've heard about, I saw the horrific video of George Floyd. It reignited something called the Black Lives Matter movement. That movement garnished energy all around the world. It wasn't just in the United States because for people of color, it was a seminal moment. For the first time. The rest of the population could see how someone who had a counterfeit $20 bill, should they really lose their life through a horrific nine minute video? No. And so for the first time I ever citizens saw what was happening in deferentially in treatment to certain population groups on the planet that was negative. So that was really trying for the black community, for people of color, for our students. And they were hurting coming into that fall semester. Number to the uncertainty and democracy was also a hovering link. Any issue with so many policies that were being implemented, if you may not remember this. You remember policies related to keeping certain individuals out of the country? These were our graduate students who were trying to get into the country. And certain six or seven countries were blacklisted. And therefore we had to deal with some wrestling with some issues of international students. So all of this is affecting the higher education enterprise, not just COVID. I came in as a president to try to deal with all of these issues and I'll never forget it before I even started. A group of our students had a protest in front of the main administration steps of where my office is. And I decided that as a carrying precedent that I would actually go out there and everybody had their mass. There's only about 300 students. But they were protesting policies that the university issues that they had grievances for. Mostly of them, many of them were part of the Black Lives Matter movement. And then a thunderstorm came. And in the summertime, you know, all these thunderstorms come in and just a downpour of rain. So I decided to, I hit my car not too far away, and I decided to let the three liters get in my car and sit in my car. Or I got an earful that I didn't expect from these student leaders that went on for about an hour. But it really allowed me to establish a bond with some of the leaders of our black students who were protesting. And I really just sat in that car and I just listened, didn't even argue with them, just listen. And I think they appreciated that the President of the University of Maryland was sitting in the car with them, not arguing with them, listening to them as they told me their grievances. And then I told them afterwards that I will meet with them in my office and I will hear their grievances and I will try to act on their grievances. And I did, as I came into the office, they were hurting for COVID, hurting for George Floyd and hurting for other things. And those first meetings were really bad meetings. They were yelling and screaming at me for free. You can imagine 30 students yelling and screaming at you in your office and on Zoom. And, but after that, I built a sense of trust with them and a sense of agency. And that allowed me to define what I was going to do as a leader and new president University of Maryland. I was going to deal with diversity, equity and inclusion because it's part of our excellence as a university and I will make us a hallmark of inclusive excellence. And so I said in my opening remarks on July 1 of 2020, I said, I have simply two priorities for our university. One is we will be excellent in everything that we do. And number two, that we will create a multicultural community in which every citizen can believe that they can achieve anything possible at the University of Maryland. Those are my two priorities. Nothing more than that. And I've stayed true to that. So over the last two-and-a-half years plus years, we started a number of initiatives to help make our community more sort of inclusive. And so I want to use this quote because it comes from Winston Churchill. Which is, you probably remember, Never let a good crisis goes to waste, right? So we had three crisis in 2021 of them I wanted to focus on that was connected, DID bring our community together. And that's really how I started my presidency, which is really go into that protests, listening to those students, dealing with COVID and reopening, and then developing a strategy for how we're going to create an inclusive, excellent community in which every citizen feel that they can reach their full potential. And I'll stop there and I'll share some more accordingly. So leading while black, you're dropped into this mix of issues around social justice, health. As a black leader. What's special responsibility? Or I'll just leave it at responsibility. I just want to say something else, but what are you, what are your special responsibilities as a black leader? So I think when you are a person of color and especially a black person in the United States. You know, the whole history of the United States in it and it always is in the back of your mind. It doesn't mean that you don't think about the same thing that everyone thinks about in terms of excellent, in terms of being great. But you also want to improve the situation for others. It's just a natural response because you have had experiences that are different than many others as you came up. And so again, with that 2020 as a Seminole year in the history of humanity. I focused on those two priorities that I alluded to before. So then the question becomes, how do you execute and create a more inclusive community? And so what I decided to do as an African-American president and leader is that first of all, I was lucky. I'm from the University of Maryland. I had been there 25 years to that point and now 28 years till today. Everybody knows me. That's good. It's good to know every body. Number one so I can talk to people in a totally different way than if I was a new president and coming from the outside. I had colleagues and friends that I had worked with across a multitude of committees across campus. So writing those very sensitive days of COVID, insensitive days of racial injustice, I started having Zoom calls with senior leaders of the campus, the deans, the chairs, the assistant deans, senior faculty are most distinguished professors, are emeritus professors. And I would have these conversations about how do we make our community better? What are your thoughts? What are you going to do? And I can have those kinds of questions, those sensitive conversations with people that people would be frank with me because we were all in that same mode of being sensitive to COVID, sensitive to racial injustice, sensitive to the uncertain in our democracy. It was a crisis moment, but a moment of opportunity for the university to have reflection and to change and to pivot, to bake a better place. So after taking in all this information, I came out and said, Okay, One of the problems that all universities have is everyone gets hired or they come in as a student into a departmentalized unit. You come into the arts and humanities or you come into history of the arts and humanities. But you don't know the rest of the university. You don't even know the history of the university. You're not. Our problem has been over these years is that we don't properly onboard citizens, students, employees, faculty to the university and give them a common framework. So I decided that I would do that, that I would use this moment to level set everyone about the culture of the university, history, the good and bad history of the University of Maryland. I would level set on, Here's my expectations, Here's what we're gonna do in diversity, equity and inclusion. And then what are the expectations for every citizen? Expectations for every sentence on how you interact with one another. And so I started this program, it's called Terrapin Strong. It even came with a beautiful mask. Sit terrapins wrong, I should have word today. But it was a way of showing a sense during COVID, it was kinda cool. I had this mass. We've made about 70,000 of them. It was a way of showing, first of all, that we're all in this together. Number one, a sense of agency, but it was bigger than just the mask. It was a cultural shift that we were all going to come together with common values, common history and knowledge of history and traditions, and a common expectations on how we are going to interact with one another. So to do that, I made it a requirement for every student, every new employee, and every old employee, existing employee to have to go through a set of online modules that I created. So the first one was on what is the terrapins strong program? What is it all about? The second one was on what is our traditions and culture and values. And the third one was on diversity, equity and inclusion. And the fourth one is what are our expectations for you going forward? So every human being had to take this and the way we did it for students. So some of the students that are in the room, you guys would hate this because if you didn't take it, you wouldn't be allowed to register. So you couldn't register undergraduates and graduate students. So everyone got 100% of compliance with staff, new employees, 90% in compliance. Of course, what you faculty, 80% compliance, about bad 75, 80% compliance. But you know, there's always the old guard. It's about, I'm not gonna do that. But the point I'm making is it started a process of level setting and changing culture. For the first time the whole university, new things they'd never knew before about their university of the places that they've been working at all these years. And then it brought communities together in the sense of agency, individual colleges started doing adaptations to the Terrapin Strong four modules that they could do in their own communities. And this brought the whole community together towards a common goal, a common set of mission that the University we envision the university was headed it. And I've held true to that till this day. Right? So now I'm curious. The thought crosses my mind. You can lead a horse to water, can make them drink. How do you hold people accountable given wonderful onboarding programs, some of the values that you've established for University of Maryland, What mechanisms do you use to hold people accountable? So mostly the bully pulpit and the voice of the university. But I'm also a lead. I have Vice-Presidents that report to me, there are accountable to me. So those vice presidents are accountable to everything that I say. So they have to execute that and they're not gonna be in their positions. And then as it relates to all the other divisions and units that are underneath them, they then hold those leaders accountable as well because I'm holding them accountable for the same information, the same connectivity. So it starts from the leadership, it starts always from the leadership. The leadership doesn't constantly say things over and over and do things over and over again with messaging, then no one else is going to follow. And that's even true for faculty. So it also goes down to the department chairs and it goes down to the senior faculty. So I'm fortunate again, I'm from the University of Maryland. I knew senior faculty across the entire university. So I can have them be advocates for where the university was moving. And they were in fact advocates for where the university is moving and it's headed towards. So in that sense, I've been lucky. Okay, good. I have to ask you how someone that's new to the university might, might help it adapt. So University of Maryland, new, relatively new member of the Big ten? Yep. In fact, it's the only Big Ten school with a black president, black athletics director, and a black football coach. Who's your basketball coach? We have to check on that. Kevin will there. Okay. Well, we'll leave it at the 329. Great. Hire. Just saying I want to just be Perdue, just be northwestern. Just saying I'm a Michigan, make good to see. You, hope to see you in the tournament. So what I said, excellence, It's excellence in academics, the arts, and athletics. Excellent. Um, so just so I know a little bit about the Big Ten. Just a little very interesting. So I went to Michigan because those who are not aware, what's it like being a black president at a Big Ten university? It's been an amazing experience for myself or athletic director, Damon Evans, our head football coach, Mike locks, l0. By the, by the way, just as a point of information, we also had an interim black head coach, which was Danny Manning. Yeah, last year marked urgent step-down. In December of 2021, We hired on establish Danny man and we made them interim head basketball coach at one time we had four. And we realize that this is a pretty unique moment in time and space that we represent to our students and to our alumni. Novel fact that all these leaders can actually be in place in all earn their rights to be in the seats that they're in. And that we represent excellence in the way that we got there and that we must embrace excellence from all of our constituents that we are working for. And that we should also make sure that we challenge all of our stakeholder groups to be diverse and inclusive and excellent in what they do. So we realize the position that we're in. But we think it's healthy for our student athletes because they get to see leaders and they could aspire to be us, which we think is very unique because they see us. You know, it's funny I went into so after we beat Perdue and just for you guys, you don't know about basketball. Purdue was at the time ranked number three. And we'd been about a week and a week and some change ago. And it was a wonderful thing because we were not expect to be that good in men's basketball. So anyway, I went into the locker room as the President just to kinda think the coaches and thank the players. And I didn't think the players even knew who I was. And then one of the basket players that prison implies, thanks for coming in. I'm like, how do you even know me? I've never seen you before other than as a fan. And he said I remembered, I remembered who you were and I'm really proud that you are a precedent that really felt special to me. I was like, wow, I didn't even know this kid knew me. And it was one of the starters. And so it doesn't go show you that it makes a difference. It really inspires the next-generation to want to step into these positions down the road. So I was really proud that that's how they thought about me and our athletic director and of course our coaches. Good, good. So I remember seeing Obama and President Obama shooting a three-pointer. You told me you play. But yeah, it wasn't as good. A few people. Just curious. Actually a serious question, being part of the Big Ten, has that helped with your DEI initiatives? Is there it has some benefit there. So as Dean Thompson nodes, since he was at University of Michigan for many, many years, there's a sense of collaboration among Big ten institutions that's unique. And we collaborate a lot on lots of things. So there's often DEI initiatives that girl cost the Big Ten academic institutions, even across athletic parts as well. And so it's been great to be in the Big Ten and to work with the other presidents and chancellors on some of these initiatives. Okay? So in the corporate world, aspiring to be a leader is very often embraced. In fact, I talked to my children and they want to be the president immediately. But in academia it's very different and you probably have heard this and maybe even felt this way at some point in your career. Some would say that moving to an administrative position is like going over to the dark side. It's very commonly see some people who are allowance to screen. Yeah. Yeah. But having spent a little bit of time in the administration, can you help us understand? Well we can do to encourage faculty in particular to think about taking one leadership positions. Yeah, I mean, I think it's I think it's a way of giving back in terms of service. So I never wanted to be president, I never wanted to be dean. I never wanted to be a department chair. I was always that person in the department, always helping other people. And so for some reason people say you should be department chair. Similarly in the College of Engineering always was helping and doing these strategic big projects. So I saw it as a way not to be really the stroke my own ego or anything like that, but as an opportunity to give back the service to the campus and it's been so good to me all these years. That's what I feel I'm doing and I feel like that's what other faculty can do. Now fortunately, I'm, I've been always a people person. I've always been what person who likes all kinds of people loves to talk about complex issues. And that's just the way I'm wired. But at the same time, I still teach a course. I still have two graduate students and two post-docs. So I'm still in the enterprise because I never want to be ever disengaged from why I came to the University of Maryland, which was do research and to teach and to do service. So how do you encourage cooperation and collaboration among faculty and staff? Because one of the unique opportunities you have as an administrator is to, to create incentives or do something to help help with collaboration, what would exempt? So when you have money, it's pretty easy to get faculty to do what you want them to do. Very easy. We just launched the $30,000,000 initiatives across the entire campus led by Provost Jennifer King Rice. We just did a strategic plan, we call it the fearlessly forward strategic plan has four pillars. The first pillar is we will work on humanity's grand challenges. Number two, we will re-imagine learning and teaching. Number three, we were a partner to advance the public good. The fourth area I've already forgotten, we will advance diversity, equity and inclusion. And the first one, we just did a $30,000,000 initiative and gave out 50 awards across campus that involved over 400 faculty members. And every, all 12 colleges across our campus. So money changes people's behavior. And all of those projects require multiple college collaboration. And so that's how you do it. We were fortunate that we had some resources to do it and to truly incentivize a change to work on humanity's grand challenges so it can be done. Good, good. So as we close this out, one last question. And then I'll give you an opportunity to make a comment if you would like your experiences, what would you say is harder being a chair of a department. So we have some chairs in our audience. We have a couple of deans in the audience, and we have another president and the audit. And I think Dennis might still be here. Dennis dishonest president and University of Delaware. So what would you say is harder? And explain why. I think most chairs would say as being a chair. And the reason why is because you're still a faculty member and you're still close to the enterprise as the closest level. But at the same instance, if you're far away from the decision-makers of the university. So you get yelled at from the top and Yoda it from the bottom. And it never goes away. And you can't please everybody because you don't have it as a chair, you don't have enough resources. Even as a dean, you don't have enough resources, but you do have resources more than a chair. So I think that's tends to always be the toughest because you're trying to balance so many stakeholders in your department. And you want the Department of do while you're also trying to do your own research, trying to write your own proposals and you have limited staff to do it. So I think most folks will say it's a chair. I will tell you it's also a president. Having gone through COVID and 2020 And so many crises that go on that chairs and deans and faculty have no idea what Administration does. But we tried to keep that quiet so that you guys can do the good work that you do. So in other words, the hardest position as the one you're in, it's always in the one you're in. Good, good. Well, thank you so much Daryl, for sharing your insights and we're gonna get ready to transition over to our panel. I did want to thank those of you who are online for joining us. And I want to thank the audience for their participation. So we're going to head off, skate off stage and let the crew come and set up for the panel. So thank you-all very much. So this is a little commercial. I wanted to take a few moments and share with you the rise program resources to inspire successful engineers is an academic enrichment and support program for any undergraduate student in the college. While all students are welcome to participate in the rise program. The rise program was created 50 years ago to meet the needs of students traditionally underrepresented in College of Engineering majors. Rise program participants are community of scholars who benefit from close interaction with each other during professional development workshops and small group interactions. Rise community of scholars also benefit from one-on-one academic, professional, and personal mentoring. We will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the rise programs service to our students and the campus community with a special celebration in May, bringing together students and their families, alumni, faculty, and staff, all who over the years have contributed to the success of the rise program. We are excited to be a co-sponsor of leading, while black hasn't been a great discussion so far. Let's give them a hand. My name is Michael von and I'm Vice Provost for Equity here at the University of Delaware. And I will moderate today's panel discussion. Please join me in welcoming our panelists to the stage. Dr. Joan coca. Our first panelists, turned down an invitation to the White House to be part of our program. So especially on and having him here with us today. Thank you. Joe. Dr. Cooker is head and neck surgeon with ENT and allergy of Delaware. And she also serves on the Board of Trustees early in the COVID-19 pandemic job gun involved with student testing programs at Delaware State University and several other HBCUs, along with her colleagues at ENT and allergy of Delaware, they perform nearly 13,000 vaccinations and assisted in getting nearly 4,000 inmates vaccinated in the Delaware prison system. Joan is a proud graduate of Tuskegee University and a member of Kappa Alpha Kappa Alpha Society Incorporated. She completed her medical school training in Ohio and she completed her surgical internship at how? University Hospital in her residency at King Drew medical center of Los Angeles, she went on to a surgical sleep fellowship at Stanford University. She is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the Congressional Black Caucus Phoenix Phoenix Award honoree Joan cooker, Dr. John Cocoa. Cedric Johnson. Our next guest is Cedric Johnson, co-founder and president of airport Design Consultants Incorporated. Affectionately known as a DCI. Said is a licensed professional engineer and 21 states and has been involved in field design and construction for some of America's busiest airports, including BWI, LAX, JFK, Philadelphia, and Washington Dulles to name just a few. His leadership has enabled ADC eyes growth from just five employees in 2006, nearly 70 employees today, with an established reputation as one of the top aviation design firms in the industry. Said has served on both the University's College of Engineering Advisory Council and the civil and environmental engineering CE Advisory Council for several years. He also serves on the board of directors of the Greater Baltimore Urban League, BWI partnership. The Meals on Wheels Central, Maryland. Also set as a proud alumnus. Having earned his bachelor's degree in civil engineering in 1995, Mr. Cedric Johnson, Dr. Kara Walker, third panelists, Dr. Kara Walker, Executive Vice President and Chief Population Health Officer at numerous children health. In this role, Karen leads advocacy and public policy as well as all aspects of population health strategy, research, innovation, and implementation for the Moore's. Kara previously served as secretary of the Delaware Department of health and social services under Governor John Connie. As a member of the governor's cabinet, she launched the first in the nation period, health care cost and quality benchmarks carries a certified and practicing family physician, a fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians and elected member of the National Academy of Medicine. Dr. Oldham. Dr. Walker holds a medical degree from the Thomas Jefferson University, a master's of science and health services research from UCLA, and a Master of Public Health from John Hopkins University. She is a proud blue hand with a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware, Dr. Cara. Let's get started. Rid of me. I'm sorry about that. It's great problem. You can't get rid of me. Dr. pardon. Sorry about that. No worries. Thanks for joining us again on the panel. So our first question is going to be for Mr. Johnson. In a recent study found that hiring black, a black CEO can boost the company's stock price. And that's an interesting metric to have here. While announcing that a White Executive joined the company actually result in a slight dip. And that's an interesting demographic as well. Despite this underrepresented, a black corporate leaders persists. In fact, there are still only six black CEOs across all Fortune 500 companies. So the question we have for you today and love to hear your, your insights on this. How have you navigated this, this landscape to find success as a black entrepreneurs, especially in the entrepreneurial space. The question, well, first of all, you don't see a lot of civil engineers who specialized in aviation that looked like yours truly these days. And fortunately, I embrace the experience when I started with one of the larger firms that focused on airport design. And I was one of the only few who look like me. Actually, I think there was 200, 200 that looked like me. And my first two weeks in this internship, I was in front of the one copier machine making copies and I remember going home because this was during winter session. I remember going home to my parents and wanted to do today. Well, I'm I'm I'm learning I was in a suit tie, all that. I've learned. Tuesday comes what do you do today unlearning by Wednesday, I'm making copies. My dad said, Well, if that's what they have you doing right now, everything you do, you do it to the best of your ability. So you'd be the best coffee maker that they have right now and see if you get other opportunities. As I got on opportunities, I embraced that adversity. And then I focused on being the best engineer. And as I grew over 12 years in the organization to a management position, I decided to become the entrepreneur and leader from the ground up by starting my own company. And I'm proud of the fact that many of my leadership in the company today, where people who were either supervising them, a peer of mine, who worked with me when I was making copies and they remind me of that story. But the navigation piece was the focus on being the best engineer I could be, earning the respect of others. And I think that metric on leadership while being black is because you've got to understand the diversity of your workforce and you intuitively have to do that when you're in a position that you've got to earn everyone's respect. And you've got to break through barriers that are always seen. Other don't have to deal with. So you have an intuition around that and understand that process. So I've always taken the difficulties and the adversities that I've faced and turn them into positives. And I've now embrace it because it makes me stronger in the hope that answers your question. Thank you for that. Next question is for Dr. Walker. A growing body of research reveals that black Americans experience higher rates of chronic disease and premature death than their white counterparts. The Center for Disease Control has called the COVID-19 pandemic a stark example. These enduring health disparities. How has the fight for health equity being part of your path to leadership? Yeah, I think the first part is recognizing that we can measure these inequities and that they have existed and persisted for generations. So these are not new issues, but we certainly know the data right now shows that they persist. Yet we have technology, we have approaches, we have an understanding that's much greater than we ever did. One example that is present day that we are working on at numbers is around how we measure and understand maternal mortality and infant mortality. And I just have to start with this example to lead into how it's impacted my career. African-americans in this day and age are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related condition. And African-American infants are 2.5 times more likely to die from sids. Yet we have tremendous technology. I went into engineering to solve problems and to understand how to map out an issue and promote better technology through biomedical engineering. And I found that it was challenging to do that from that lens. And so went to medical school and learned about the public health paradigm. How do you understand the issue? How do you bring in community stakeholders? So every day my role is a bit of science and how do we promote better evidence, but it's also how do I put it in the hands of decision-makers, policy makers, advocates to actually make change because we know that to overcome health inequities, we actually have to do more than just great medical care. We have to think about housing, education, all the things that matter more than what happens in the one-on-one individual medical interaction. We know that only about 10% of what we do in medical care promotes better health. 20% is genetics, the rest is everything else around us. Whether we went to school, whether we speak English, whether we have access to health and nutrition around us. And so I believe some of the most powerful levers to overcome those health inequities. Or how we work with policymakers, how we think about those social needs and environmental factors. And so I tried to embrace that in my career and the choices I've made, but it certainly is going to be a long path forward. We make some headway in that regard and closing the gap in certain in what ways are we doing? Well, Dr. cooker and I talk about this sometimes I think in some ways we are bringing greater awareness. Even the issue of more terminal mortality isn't issue where now we understand the true extent to which we have a problem. But even if we look at socioeconomic status, income level, education level, we still have an issue of structural racism in our walls in health care. That has to be a different kind of conversation, a different kind of orientation, different kind of attitude. I believe it also comes from accountability. So one of the things that we're doing it in tumours is creating dashboards, looking at health outcomes data and showing physicians and teams where we have those gaps, where we can do better to improve access to vaccination or bring kids in who may be more vulnerable and at risk for lead screening. That's just one example. I think we're getting there. I think we can do better. We need better data. We need partnership across areas of expertise to actually look at this information in a visualized way, especially when we know that zip code is a greater predictor of health than anything else we do. We need to look at maps that I'm not trained how to do that in medical school. But we need to put that in the hands of those who can really overcome some of these barriers. We're making progress, but we have a lot more to do. And we got some unique partnerships into developing too. Because as you said, I mean, we gotta be teams of people solving these complex problems. That's great. Thank you so much. Dr. co-occur. It's been 20 years since the Institute of Medicine call for an increase in minority health care workers to address a long standing health disparities. Despite this, only five per cent of positions in America are black. And even a smaller number of this percentage of black women. How has been being the first, sometimes the only or one of the few black women in the room shaped your experience as a medical professional? I think the one thing is that how do I say this politely? Medical training and residency, it gets you ready for the job. But I think what's important about life, no matter what your goals and aspirations and business is. What's your assignment? Just heard the sermon from a good friend of mine. So the question is when you think about what your assignment is, is, what I do is ear, nose, and throat, head and neck surgery. But what's the assignment? The assignment is to listen, to be a voice, for the voiceless, to advocate, to reach back, to teach, to model. And that's how you make the difference. Because if they see you, they see themselves. So the more of us they see, then it's possible. I mean, right now in medical school was what, $8,600,000 a year. Who's doing that? Who can do that? Who, Who are these people? I don't care what color you are. That's a tough nut to crack. And so the question is, how do we all get there and stay there? But what we found out with this pandemic is if you don't have the trust of your patient, you are not going to, they're not going to hear you. Long story, short. They not going to believe you. So when you take the time to have those kinds of relationships, then you can make some headway. That's how you win. What you gotta do more listening than talking. That's, that's what's critical to meet. But you gotta know when life, What's your assignment? Yeah, that's what I do. But what's the assignment? And for me, the assignment comes from God. So you take the time to do that and listening, have that introspection. And then you'll win. Man. Speaking of that. Okay. So finding why you're there. Yeah. Right. And being that person in the room, What have you had an opportunity to kind of in part within discussions will give me one example of where you being in the room made a difference for you and those who in the room with you? I was just here at UD at the Biden Institute for the Black History Month. And it was dinner and it was all kinds of students and staff. And what to represent is hope. And that can go so far. So even at the end of the night, you've got a bunch of students gathered around us and we're all talking and, and what can you do and what can we do? And none of them knew one another. And they're all amazing. It's just like, Why don't you know him and why don't you know her. But if you just keep walking past one another and you act like you don't see each other, then how can you get there? So something as simple as you go in it might not be the best English, but it's a question that says, I see you, I hear you, I feel you. Just as simple as that, if you walk past somebody and you can see that they're right there with cheerfulness. Maybe you should take a little time, turn around and say, Yeah, okay, you want me to walk with you because you don t know and everybody's anxious about everything, right? Because the whole world has been turned upside down. So every little thing is, I'm anxious about home, and I mentioned is about being away and I'm anxious about this class and what about this, and what about that? So what's critical is that at all times you just represent hope. And the way that you do that. Again, I'll say it one more time. More listening than talking. It's interesting. We're talking about health disparities at a time when Wellness, just wellness as a general concept is so prevalent in our society. We talked about it almost in all kinds of venues. But the reality is being well is really about health at its core. But it's also about, Are you okay? Yes. Right. And people asking you that and really caring about the answer. Very good. We're gonna go to Dr. Pines again. And we're going to go way back in your training. So we know that during your time as a graduate student, you were a fellow of the National gem consortium and organization committed to increase in diversity in stem at the graduate level. Now, what we want to hear from you, maybe some reflections on how has the black student experience changed over the years. And you were dean of course and now President. And what is the value of programs like Jim for underrepresented ethnic students? So first of all, for everyone to know, Jim is gem is a graduate engineering minority consortium that offers graduate fellowships so that African-Americans, Latinx, and Native American students can go to graduate school. And often, that's one of the barriers for obviously your successes and financially you can afford to go to graduate school. So I was very fortunate that when I was an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, I was a went to a gym, reception. Mostly they get the cookies. And so it is a true story as I'm sitting in the back, I was a junior in Mechanical Engineering and I'm minding my own business eating the cookies. There's about 30 students in the room. I'm literally in the last row. And dr. Howard atoms, you may remember that name. He was a founder of Jim. Tells me. It takes me out in the back and says, young man, stand up. You stand up. I'm like, Okay, your standard, what are you going to do after you get your degree? Get a job. And he says, No, you're not gonna get a job. You're gonna go to graduate school. I said, Okay, I don't know what graduate school is often found. And it was actually the first time that someone said to me that there's something else, you're not done. And honestly, that was a pivotal moment for my career because I was just going to get a job. In fact, I just interviewed several places and I had a job offers at knew nothing about graduate school. And I didn't know how it's going to afford. And he said, You can get a GEM Fellowship. So that was to enable minority students to go to the next level, get a master's degree, and to go on and get a doctorate degree. I had no aspirations at that time to get a graduate degree. And here I am the president of the University of Maryland. Because of that interaction, I'm just go in here to get a cookie. And so how is this situation changed? You know, Dr. Co-occurs points are very well taken. So it's much better today, but still, there's a gap in the pipeline versus a gap in stem education and the pipeline from first K through 12 to college to grad school. But it is better. There are more resources available for minority graduate students. And when I was a dean or a plenty of fellowships beyond the GEM program. And we had a lot of graduate students, but still much lower than what it should be going forward. But to Dr. co-occurs point, what was really important is the care for those graduate students is to stop and say How you doing. Do you need my help and me being the Dean of Engineering, I did that often. Because graduate life, as we all know, it, is very isolating. Undergraduate lives a little bit different. It's a different kind of struggle, but gradually there is a difference struggle. It's an isolating experience. You have a group and you all know this. And you have to adapt to that group, your advisor. And you have to make progress on your topic. And often is, can be one of the most isolated and experiences if you're not accepted. So we have to take care of our minority graduate students. We have to talk to him. We have to bring a sense of community for them so that they can share their experiences with others. So they think they can make it as well and get a master's or PhD as everyone on this platform has. And so it's important to connect as Dr. Coco said and say, you good, I'm using your term now. I love it. And it may not be the proper English, but they know what you're getting there. And it's just showing some sense of caring. And obviously that's even you talked about Dr. von wellness and all of you know, this is going on today. So it's even more important today than ever before of what we've all gone through and what our students are going through on University of Delaware, its campus, undergraduate and graduate. It is a revolution in wellness, mental health, physical health, spiritual health. I have spent probably more resources, millions of dollars on wellness as a precedent across my entire campus for every constituency, students, staff, and faculty, like I've never, never before. And so this term of health wellness, and equity is even just as important on our own university campuses as it is and the greater society. Absolutely. And I'm intrigued by your first thoughts about graduate education and how it Adams, dr. Howard Adams, kind of imploring you to think about that for yourself. And a lot of times, for unrepresented scholars, it's someone believing in them before they believe in themselves, that makes the difference. I wonder if any of you would like to maybe comment on your own trajectory. And when you started thinking about the things you might accomplish, the things you might contribute to. And who was the person. If you don't want to give a name, you can give kinda deposition. But who was that person who sparked that in you? Who gave you a license to dream and think about a different pathway for yourself. Okay. I guess we're all looking at your subject. A great. No, I guess I'll start I think I'll allude to start with my parents. Always start my parents. Okay. And I wasn't telling Dr. Cockroaches they were they were federal government workers, but they, they, they came from humble beginnings. But they wanted to see their kids get educated and be able to take it to the next level. Another one of mine, frankly, with John Thompson. John Thompson was the coach at Georgetown basketball. I spent ten years there at his camp and I was, he was a person who preached the flat basketball one day. The basketball is not there and education is your avenue to true success. Okay, Then other one, frankly, I'm an engineer so I have equations. Success is equal to palette plus desire plus support. I believe every individual has some level of talent that they're going to bring, that they can bring to the table, the desire they have to bring to the table, but to support everyone has different mechanisms of support. And for me here at University of Delaware, rise was one of the mechanisms for forming support. So if you aren't familiar with that rides as resources to ensure successful engineers. And to answer your question, my trajectory was was was different because I was in greenbelt, Maryland. I was going to a high school that they're all know as well about that's primarily black, 70% black Now's probably 95% black. But they had a Science and Technology program where there were two black kids in the class. And so the classes were primarily white in the Science and Technology program, but the school was primarily black. The rise program at my time had a Summer Transition. Some semester where you come in during the summer and you take a couple of classes. I took Calc two and I took English, but it was actually the first time that I'd been in science and technology academic classes would you know very well about where everyone was? Primarily black. Ok. So I went from a school that's primarily black, classes are primarily white to now of classes that are primarily black. And then school started. And frankly, there was only two of us in our class who was black because we transition back out into matriculation, University of Delaware. Meeting obviously meeting you and being around the folks in the rise organization were critical for me to think about what I was going to do over my career and go to the next level and then continue to admit that I had confidence, but to continue to garner that confidence. So that support level was in a place that I can say I'm good. Okay. I can go and take this to the next level. Yeah. I would I would like to just chime in and say that there were so many steps along the way. And I can definitely say my parents taught me to support and lean into education. But without those supportive environments and those conversations from one trusted person, I would not have been able to dream big and I would say, rise provost on your mentorship along the way when I thought, should I go to medical school or should I just go to grad school? Those conversations we had about which school to choose which one had the supportive environment works so critical. But then I transitioned into a totally different space. So rise was no longer there. And medical school is a new place. And I went to Jefferson up the road that had a very small minority population. Yet we created one among the students to keep us safe, supported and some structure. There was a very similar program to rise that we grew up and help recruit more students into. I would say that the National Society of Black Engineers, when I was a student, was really essential to creating those leadership opportunities and learning how to be a leader nationally. But then in medical school, it was the student National Medical Association that transition where I ended up being a spokesperson in a national leader. And really understood what it meant to create that not just for myself but for others, because we needed to make sure we were looking at the pipeline, how we created a greater diversity among the physician workforce for the long term. And we still have a lot of work to do, but I think finding ways to make sure we have both the opportunity and both those one-on-one mentoring relationships which are critical and don't necessarily have to reflect what we're seeing in the mirror, but needs to support, sponsor and create allyship wherever we are in our careers. Wonderful, wonderful. And a lot of times we talk about where we start with these kinds of programs and these kinds of relationships. Dr. Cooke, I'm gonna I'm gonna push you a little bit here because I know you had some environments like this as well. Plus sorority connections. Talk a little bit about what it means to build a network, a community of scholars, and then leverage that throughout your life, right? Whether it be sorority life, whether it be some academic program, whether your medical training, what's it mean to build that community and then stay connected and leverage them? Yeah, I think that's absolutely critical. And my road is a little different than most because I went to a historically black college and university, Tuskegee. And then I went on to Howard and saw some of the premier African-American surgeons to me in this country, dr. Wayne Frederick was my medical students and now he's the president of Howard University. So it was interesting and then I went on to the King Drew Medical Center out in Los Angeles. So my network of physicians that look like me is huge, but we're there for one another. Because once you get out of the bubble, you realize this isn't everybody. This was just the party. And you realize how few of us there are. So it is absolutely critical. And in my opinion, the Divine Nine is that platform. And when I say the Divine Nine, I'm talking about the AKs. The deltas is zetas, the cap as the omega's, the alphas. I'm talking about all of us together coming together as a community of influence, really moving legislation in order that things are a right and not just a dream, right? Because if we don't get the legislation behind what we're talking about, we're all just talking. We're all just talking. So it is absolutely critical that you have that network that you can go to about any thing, be it a good day or bad day. You've got folks that you can talk to about your day that get it. Understand exactly where you are. I was just selling Cedric. I mean, every room I walk in no matter how much conversation I have with the patient the nurse until proven otherwise to the person in the other bed. That's right. White coat, stethoscope. Dress up, dress down. It doesn't matter. Nurse, can you find it just depends on what kind of day I'm having as to whether I'm going to take that tray or escort you to the bathroom. But otherwise there's just, these are the micro aggressions of being a woman in medicine and a woman of color. You walk into a restaurant. I'm just trying to have dinner. Hi, where are you a nurse? Why don't have to be the nurse? If I was a guy, would I be the nurse? So it's just in nobody's trying to be offensive. But when you put in the work He is, you know what I mean? It is it is you gotta know that if they didn't make you, they can't break you. So it's as simple as that. But you get tired of going back to the well for strength that just pushed through another day because of something that seems so small. But when you put in this kind of time that this kind of energy, it wears you out some days. Where did you go? Yeah, I remember my time in front of the copier for three weeks and it was I think it was day three and I was good. But individual that work for your organization came up to me and was like, Hey, I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Harry Hackman and I'm very proud to meet a colored engineer. And this wasn't 1965. I said Mr. Heckman, that's probably not the best term. Oh, I'm sorry. That bother you. I didn't know better. I walked away and I had in my head, I was very polite. But in my head also, it was like, one day you're going to work for me. And you know what? I was starting a company in five years. And he called me and said, Hey, said I'd like to change jobs. You mind if I come work for you? And I said absolutely. But your point is, this is about overcoming adversity. No, Is it fair? It's not fair, but it's about embracing that process, making it make you stronger in the end. And then I always tell my kids, anything you do great in life, like U3 have done. You're not gonna do it without some sort of adversity and some sort of difficulties that come along with it. That's just part of the process. So embrace it and intent and enjoy the great accomplishments you've made. It. Thanks for that comment separately, you can get a group a hand, please. These are, these are, these are insights that people don't share all the time. So take notes and really see what these lives have been like. Before we leave this topic, I wanna give Dr. Pines a chance just to kind of close this out on this. And as I think about you now, leading Maryland, I think about Gary May, colleague down at UC Davis. There are a lot of folks who went that gem pathway who are now in supreme leadership roles. And I say Supreme with the utmost respect. What kind of network do you have with colleagues like that? Because now you're leading organizations. And so how do you stay connected? How do you begin to help each other as shopper and I and even more. So, I'm very fortunate, um, when I was at UC Berkeley, Gary May was a graduate student. I was a senior, rigid or Rush, who's the president at Rice University? Gary Mason, chancellor at UC Davis. A rigid eros was a freshmen civil engineering major. We were all the most important things with Dr. Walker said, we're all in a National Society of Black Engineers. At the same time, at the same institution. We had no idea that some 30 plus years later, literally within a matter of a couple of years, that we all be precedents are chancellors at the same time, but we maintain the network throughout the entire time. We're essentially I've written letters for Chancellor may. I've written letters for Reggie. They have written letters for me. As Dr. Coco just said, the network is expansive and it's leveraged. And we know that our goal is not just help one another, but the pay it forward and help others. So what we've, what we've done now is that we have a sort of workshop now at the National Society of Black Engineers, where we do leadership training for the Higher Education Academy at the level of a chair, the level of a dean and the level of president, chancellor now. And we've been doing that now for about three or four years, even in COVID. And it's how we want to pay it forward is bringing the next-generation buying us because we'll be eventually gotten. And we know that we want to see others come right behind us. But we've been very fortunate. We've been friends all this years and we've kinda come up the food chain the same way. All engineers and all three of us, fortunately, are in the National Academy of Engineering as well. Let's have a hand for that. So let's shift gears a little bit. And so we've been talking kind of under the broad periphery. Let's kinda get down to some tactical things, okay? So I think Dean Thompson said earlier that, you know, young folks sometimes want to be president. You know, immediately they want to walk in and lead. But the reality is you need some skills to lead, right? And so what I'm going to talk a little bit about now is what skills do you use most often in your leadership role? And how have you grown in those skills over time? So give me some skills and And maybe then some, some, some growth that you've had in your own career and how you got that group. So whoever would like to start as fine. I'd say that in my career, I've definitely leveraged problem-solving, teamwork and communication skills. And I would say I learned teamwork, playing basketball, volleyball, and really learning how to rely on other people for their skills and strengths and talents. And not everyone is great at that. Really leaning in on how to work in a team. How to bring people along, how to not just put your ideas forward but listen is really critical. I also think I was an engineer, so I didn't do a lot of English classes or writing classes. And that's probably the two things I do the most of now. It's just a public speaking, how to convey a point and how to convey it to decision-makers. Whether that's my senior leadership team, or whether it's policymakers externally. And I think those are really critically important. I also think the problem-solving should not be undervalued how to approach a problem, articulate it, understand it, and convey that to others so you can get them on board to understand the vision and the strategy are critical. So those executional skills, I think we learned as engineers, they're really critical as doctors, and they're also critical as public health practitioners. When I was Secretary of Health, we absolutely had to understand where the data was, where we can visualize it, and where we can deploy resources. And certainly during COVID response, we had to do it quickly. And I would say there were days that I thought Why me? And there were other days I thought of course me, because a physician trained in data and problem-solving was absolutely essential during our COVID response. And we had to listen to community stakeholders and really understand how you bring together different voices. In my head, theme of lifelong learning in there to write these, these are skills you get but you gotta develop them over time is as well. Yeah, we can't undervalue the experiences and the benefit that they have there are nonacademic. Okay, So your point playing three sports is ultimately where I learned in understanding your audience. And just along with communication, like you said, that's the top of the list. Communication that matter what direction? Understanding your audience is critical. It's understanding your audience for people who are working with you, working for you, and then your clients that you're communicating to. So we're consultants. So in four weeks, we're competing in presentations for $100 million of the contracts at BWI Airport. And I've gotta put a team of seven people to gather me included, to present and sell our services to them. And the differentiator course, internally we think is our abilities as consultants, engineers. But to their minds, every engineered can, you got to licensure of P In 20 stage? You can do it. So they can do it. The difference is, can we understand their problems? Whether you're an executive, whether you own finance, whether your maintenance, whether your operations, whether your engineering. Can we understand their problem and address their priorities that happens in academia, that happens in health. That's what it is. So the skill set of communicating and understanding the audience doesn't just come from class and I echo your sentiments in the board for college here, know that I'm a big proponent of public speaking Paul, soft skills component because we come out and that's not what we're used to doing. So then we're competing for $100 million and you add that to it. And now we've got a problem. So the ability to embrace the experiences in life, which also gave you value and what soft skills to match with your technical skills. I think it's critical. I agree. And I think being authentic is necessary. There was a time when you couldn't be yourself. You had to try to be something else and maybe that'll sell the product, but be yourself. But you also have to be agile. And when I say Agile, this pandemic cause everybody to pivot in a different direction. I mean, I got three-year-olds, they can't catch their breath. I've got 19-year-olds that have no memory. So it's very different practicing medicine right now, you've got to really listen and meet people where they are. So if you're stuck on no, no, no, We just do it this way. You're not going to make it. Even HR had to pivot or people can they stay home with their parents? Can they stay home with the kids? Are they that whole structure turned upside down inside out. So you've got to be agile enough to say, this is different. But I see a vision in this direction. You can't just stay stuck on. That's the way we've always done it. Of course, that works. Yeah. It worked for a number of years and may even have been financially beneficial, but that ship has sailed. But the other thing is, get a crew together that you trust. And we can call it the kitchen cabinet crew. That is the crew that once you've said something, go back for the feedback so you can really see how that land is everybody okay with what I said. I mean, yeah, there was anybody offended. Some people are going to be offended. But if you're coming from a place of service and real hope and vision, sometimes folks go and get their feelings hurt, but they can pick it up because they know you mean, well, right? You have their best interests at heart. So what you got to be agile, but, but learn to be yourself. You're, you're fine just the way you are because you're the best. You can be, nobody else can be. You want to stay on that theme of hurting people's feelings shifted Dr. Pines because this is because as a president, right? You're trying to, you're trying to steer a very complex organization. And you've got leaders who have the intellect, sometimes the experience, sometimes a track record to think that what they're doing is just fine. How do you begin to message that and lead through that in waves, and what skills do you need to do that? So I just want to add to the skills so poorly. So Dr. Cocoa talked about authenticity. Cedric talked about soft skills and communications. Dr. Walker talked about problem-solving skills that you got. That's an engineer. We all got his engineers. I also want us to know that part of leadership is reflecting what you are in integrity. Yeah, you have to have that high integrity as a leader. You have to all the things that they just said, but also add into integrity. And demonstrating that by example. Because people are constantly watching leaders and seeing how they're behaving. And if you can exhibit those skills, you're going to lose everybody. That's number one. Number two, I know they would agree with me, hard work is very important as an attribute that says, goes without saying, right? So in the academy, What is always important is to listen. Faculty have opinions. The University Senate has opinions. Border regions have opinions. Delegates and senators have opinions. The governor's office as opinions. Everyone has an opinion on what university of Maryland College Park should be doing. And so it's important to be very balanced and to listen to that because they all care about it. They may have a different perspective than you. But so I think one of the things about a leader's is being very engaging and with all the stakeholder groups, but having really good listening skills. And then still being able to articulate, why are you going to pivot in a different direction? But you took in their input. That includes faculty. But you always have to be able to listen to faculty and the university senate and work with the shared governance of the institution. And it's not always easy because they want to think that they're running the university. And at some level they are, but they're not running the university because you're entrusted to run the university. They are actually providing advice to the directions of where the university should go, and that's very important. So we work very closely with our shared governance arm, which is the University Senate. And we listened to all external and internal stakeholder groups. And it's, again, it's not easy, but it's very important so that people can understand and rationalize why you made a certain decision. And so our liters of universities, our entrusted to manage the operation, ensure that the mission of the university moves forward and to maintain health and safety of every citizen on campus. And so that is what we are in test. That's what I'm tasked to do and that's what tested leadership team to do. And it's always at odds with where sometimes the faculty might want the university to be moving. But it's important to listen and to explain and rationalize with them so you can move in a given direction and move in the positive direction of this large inertia, which is University of Delaware or university of Maryland College Park. Very good. Thank you so much. So we're gonna we're gonna move actually to our final question. But you can be a little expensive on this if you'd like to be in anybody like to answer, but I'd like to hear a little bit from each of you if you can. So what is the one piece of advice that you would give aspiring leaders as they continue on that journey. Or maybe I'll phrase it this way. What is something that you wish someone had told you during your career journey? So that one piece of advice. And it can be a phrase, it can be a word, it can be a little bit longer, but what's that one piece of advice? That can be expansive. I cut you off because it's too expensive. So mine is adversity is not to be feared. It makes you stronger. And I was just telling Dr. Poker my story which, you know very well, which I've walked down, graduated and was ready to go get my masters. Frankly, and my father told me three days after I graduated that he had terminal cancer that metastasizes to his liver. And with treatment, he's going to make it 56 months without some omega-3. I had an internship in the airports group with Greiner engineering, which was frankly started by fighting blue hint, long, long time ago. And they'd already offered me a job that I turned down because I was gonna go, you know, go to school for another year. And of course, when your father stick in your family sick, what do you do? You're going to go back and you're going to take the job and you're going to be called a colored engineer at the copy machine. Okay. But then in to never get that time back, as you know, he didn't make it. But he told me, give me your best. I expect you to give me your best. And I've tried to do that on the adversity sign. I just told Dr. cooker this to quit my job after 13 years. So I'm gonna do this on my own. This is gonna be great. Found out I was having my second daughter the next day. And I was in the challenge. I'd like to say I knew there was gonna be a subprime mortgage crisis. Didn't know that either. Grew the company 5-10. I'd like to say I knew there was gonna be a pandemic. I didn't know that he grew the company 45-72 going on 85. Adversity happens in life. There is absolutely nothing we can do to protect our children or ourselves from experiencing adversity. It's your response to adversity that matters in the end, someone may ask you, are you my nurse? Someone may miss treat you and Ms. Treat you your responses. What matters? That's right, Then you get it and I probably set it incorrectly if I want. But when I say embrace it, everything that happens to me, that's a challenge. I embrace it because it's going to make me stronger in the end, I'm going to be stronger and I'm gonna know that mentally when I'm dealing to have gone through these things. But that's okay because I'm going to respond. And that's what I tried to tell my kids the same thing, persevere, realize your potential and respond when it happens. You always have a chance. I didn't hope I wouldn't do Unwin was perfect. That was perfect. Thank you so much. Anybody else want to chime in on that piece of advice? I should say. When I was just about to turn 16, my grandfather stood up in the pulpit to preach and had a massive heart attack and died right there in the church and was buried on my 16th birthday. I remember when we were heading to the hospital, my mom looked over at me and said, at least he died doing what he did best. And so that is what propelled me to go into medicine because that feeling of helplessness that day for the person who made every basketball game I played. And he would come and get me when I was sick at school and because my dad was working at upper Marion moms working in Philly. So you had a grandfather that not only prayed for you, taught you to pray, but was always there for us. He was even a crossing guard at the school for awhile. So I say all that to say fast-forward to the pandemic. And I remember being in the parking lot in March of that year. And it was my first on-call day at the height of the pandemic. And I remember knowing we don't have oh, excuse me, all the gear and all the equipment that we need. How am I going to make it? So I sat in the car and I said a prayer. But what I remembered was that if I die doing this, this is what I was put here to do in the first place. So you take that same story that has propelled into medicine that has sustained you through it. And then here's another day at one of the very worst moments. But you have that inspiration to get you through yet again, yet again. So I say all that to say what else is important is your mental health. If you need a day, take a day. If you need a week, take a week. Because if you don't take care of your mental health, you're not going be any good for your family, for yourself, for your coworkers, anyone, you've got to understand exactly what's going on inside. And if you need a minute, you got to take a minute and may mean just a walk around the campus, whatever that is that gets you back to. Okay, Go ahead. I'm listening. Then that's what you do. But mental health is absolutely critical right now. I'd like to reflect on a mentors advice to me when I was working in South Los Angeles around hospital that close, Martin Luther King Hospital closed when I started my my fellowship and I had a community mentor who told me, I'm here to help you and I know you don't know LA or from Delaware. This is a very different place and I agreed totally different place. She also gave me a blank key and she said I want you to hold this key with you. It doesn't have the carve-outs for each individual door, but it will work indoors because I want you to remember that you have the privilege to go into places and rooms that other people don't. When you talk, you can reflect the experiences and perspectives of so many that you represent. And we are so proud of you. And I remember her giving me that key. I still carry it with me because I do think that often when we are the only one in a room, we the only one representing a group of people, or we are telling a student, just persevere and continue forward. You don't know where you're going, but dream big that sometimes we just have to also remember that it is a privilege and we can represent that dream of others, that dream of being secretary or being chief population health officers, CEO or president, and in some ways bring others behind us. One last thing, let me give you the last word, but I know you have to leave. Assume you've got a car waiting outside for you. Take it to your next appointment. Give us your last word on this advice and anything else you'd like to share before you leave us. First of all, thank you for having me all of you. And just to echo what Dr. Walker said, I'll say it slightly in a different way. The business that you guys are all in, the business that I'm in is education is still the great equalizer in the United States. It's the opportunists been afforded to all of us for getting a world-class education at the University of Delaware, University of Maryland, College Park. Don't ever forget that you are potentially impacting another human being by the work that you're doing in terms of educating them, offering them research. And maybe one of those University of Delaware fighting blue hands will be the next medical Dr. there are two doctors on this podium. The next CEO and innovator. The next President of the University of Delaware. Because education today still in the United States is the great equalizer. It gives everyone and affords them the greatest opportunity for success. So don't ever forget the mission of the University of Delaware. I don't forget it when I'm at the University of Maryland. And I'm grateful for the opportunity that I can help any potential student who comes from nothing, from nothing and turn their lives into something. So thank you. Thank you for joining us. Now. We're not done yet. We're going to actually open the floor up to questions from the audience to Dr. Pines. Safe travels up the floor up now to questions. If you have a question, we'd like you to approach the mic on either side of the stage. I'll call on you from the podium and please feel free to ask you a question. So I know you've listened intently today to the conversation and I know you may have some questions if you own that was spurred by some of the conversations or things you came here with that you want an answer to. So please approach the microphone either side. We'd love to hear your questions at this time. Someone be bold, be the first. Recover. What about students? A student, I'm wonderful. Wonderful. Please. Would you like me to introduce myself? We're just going to induce yourself and your affiliation, please. Sure. So my name is Jonathan Clark. I'm a student at the University of Delaware. I'm a Senior Computer Engineering major. My question for the panel is, how do you deal with impostor syndrome and feeling like you're the only person in the room. Everyone hear the question. I didn't hear it. How do you deal with impostor syndrome? And that's the feeling that you're in a place where you don't feel like you're quite belong in any minute now someone's going to find you out and understand that you're not qualified to be there and you should not be there. And that's often something that students of color field, sometimes women feel that and others. How do you deal with that if you've had that experience? I have certainly. So I can I can respond if you can. What if you had I resonate with that often and I think coming out of fellowship training, I took a role in a startup organization that was going to spend $2 billion on research. But I also had no office and no phone and thought, what am I doing here? I don't know what my job title. I'm just here for this idea behind patient-centered outcomes research. And very quickly, I just got to work and I just did whatever was asked. However I did it, it had a medical degree, I had a bunch of masters, but I didn't know what my job was. And my mentor at the time said, You know what I want you to do, Cara, This is what I tell myself. Just fake it till you make it. Just keep going, just act competently, keep moving forward and you know what, no one else has done this job before. So whatever you decide, that's the right thing to do, I will say I had the same moment when I was interviewing with Governor Carney for Cabinet Secretary of the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services. I thought I have no business to do this. I'm not even 40 years old. Why does he want to interview me? And I turned on beyond say, and I sing and I called a friend. I said, What am I going to do? And just sang loud and also said, no one else has done this job. And why can't I do it? Why can't I be the one to help steer health policy for the state, a state that I loved dearly and had been trained for. But there were still moments and I still go back on the idea that you need a support system. You need mentors. You need those songs that lift you up and you need that quiet space to just sit in the moment and the problem-solving that you're currently facing. Thank you so much. Anybody else want to tackle that? Well, mine is probably when I was writing my business plan and then I went in and did a presentation to turn out to be three banks. Started with Bank of America, got rejected pretty quickly. And then there was a local bank, Sandy Spring, that I was asking for a line of credit. So there's a 32-year-old coming in here who has 12 years experience out in aviation, is now saying that build an aviation firm that serves BWI, Philly, JFK. And of course, they were bankers. They were an engineer. So they're looking at me like, How is this guy really going to come in here and tell us that he's going to start his own aviation company because people who work in aviation civil engineering don't necessarily look like me and their inexperience. And basically I'd spent two years writing a business plan. But regardless of that, I walked in. I don't think maybe I shouldn't be here doing this. And keep in mind, I mentioned I just found out that I was having a second daughter, so maybe it's time for me to just go back home and get my job back. But I mentioned that word about adversity because I'd already started the process with other older mentors, mentor and me saying this is going to happen to you. And you have to stay your course if you truly believe in yourself. And regardless of if someone else thinks you're an impostor, you believe in yourself and the bottom. And that's kinda what I used music to. But that's kinda what I use to be able to go in there and still make the pitch. Alright, very good. Anybody else? All right. I don't see anybody. Oh, here's someone already got the Higginson. Alright, go ahead. Working. If not, you can use this. Hi, I'm Dr. Higginson. I'm a professor in mechanical and biomedical engineering. Thanks so much for sharing your remarks today. It's been really enlightening and inspirational. I wanted to ask how do you find time in your daily lives to pay it forward in the ways that you've described. Is this something that you're doing all of the time as part of your professional role. Do you look for opportunities through your social networks? How do you have the opportunity to touch the lives of the next-generation garb. So about a year and a half ago, I got hired in some ways of feeling like I was the only one going through what I was going through entrepreneurship piece. So what I did is just gotten a general group of, I've had mentors and mentees, right? But these are all entreprenuers. Oldest is 86 years old, youngest is 24 years old to start his business. And I decided that without a networking component, it's purely just for leave it for fellowship. And they get together. We get together once a month for about three 4 h. Only thing I do. I'm talking I talk a lot normally, but I don't in this scenario, I just bring the subject matter and I watch the young, I'm kind of in the middle. So I watched for entrepreneurs who are younger than me. And then for who are older than me, just sit at a dinner table and we just talk about issues, communication, financial challenges, sales and marketing, et cetera. And the way I see it, it's not just paying forward to the younger entrepreneurs. The older ones are also getting feedback from where the younger ones, how they think and what motivates them as they go. And I'm in the middle feeding off of both. So I take great pride in that group. There's a rhyme or reason. It's really just to get together and just kinda feed off each other if that makes sense. I think the other thing is you have to be intentional. You know, I, I I see my patients, but as soon as I see someone that's young, we start talking about school. What year is this for you? Oh, where are you going to go? And I met a potential blew him this morning and he had just toward the star campus yesterday. So it was amazing. But once you engage the child, then you engage the parents. Because then they said You see my child. So it's it's it's really an intentionality. And for me, community service is necessary and it must be intentional. I am exhausted. I will tell you this. But, but what the pandemic has done, it has been more inspirational than the whole I'm depleted. I can't go on who? I'm burnt out. No, no, no, no, no, no. You can't be burnt out when the house is on fire. That makes no sense to me. Right? So if you see that the house is on fire, then you got to find a way to fix it. You still got water in your hose. So keep working, right? The house is on fire. If you don't know that. Trust me, it is in so many ways. But if you just keep chipping away, doing what you can do in your wheelhouse, and everybody else does what they can do in their wheelhouse. And we tried to do it collectively. We will when we will win, you know, what, you got to be intentional about it and you can't grow weary in well doing. Yeah, I agree. And I think some of the most rewarding opportunities to pay it forward are those individual interactions. I often have students or others come to me and say, Oh, how did you get to where you are in your career? I never say no to those conversations because it's those conversations that allowed me to dream bigger. And especially when you have a nontraditional career, people are often asking, How did you navigate, How did you do this? And so sometimes it's more formal conversations are attending a conference for medical students are giving a lecture and spending time afterwards. But I also think it's so important to be intentional about our service outside of those who are finding us and those who were having those one-on-one mentor conversations. So I'm lucky that no. Morris has a very robust community engagement portfolio. I get to do this as my day job. But what we know is that the evidence around gratitude and service actually elevates organizations performance, our productivity, our own mood. So I do think it's a time when we're talking so much about wellness to make it easy for others to engage in how we pay it forward. And that can be in big ways or small ways. It could be in setting up a fair or being at a small service location. There are so many ways and we put out maybe 30 opportunities to do service virtually or in person for our organization. And I'm always amazed with what our staff, our associates come up with in terms of giving to a diaper, drive or helping donate formula or doing something larger like a full day of that. I think that giving those opportunities as part of our obligation as leaders and also make it easy for those different kinds of organized interactions. Absolutely. I'm going to shine a little light on Dr. Coco. She she's so modest, but she's talked to us about some broad things here about being intentional and being authentic. And she, she, she ran a very successful business, still has that practice now with our partners. But the reality is you've done some work in the community establishing actual treatment centers and other kinds of things. Can you talk just a little bit about that? Because there's ways of so giving back by being involved in boards and other kinds of things which is important work. But she's establishing actual entities within a community that people can trust in and actually go to and actually had their health needs met. Can you talk a little bit about that? So we started a practice called the Delaware Health Equity Coalition. And that's primary care physicians. Because if one more person had come in and said, I just need a primary care doctors go and listen. I don't want them looking at their computer. I don't want them just going through my little checklist. You need this refilled, the need that you need this, you need that. And you just kinda click boxes in. Okay, Great, great visit. And you don't even remember if they touched you or not. So hearing that, that's not something you can teach, it's either in you or it's not. And it's that simple is that do I care to be better? Do you matter to me? And some institutions because of the amount of money lost in this pandemic, because we had stopped operating. No more cases that were voluntary, and it was all just emergency so that we could preserve our PPE. So we have lost a ton of money in the state. I get it. But at the same time, you got young people sicker than ever. So you can't say, Listen, you've got to see 17 and an hour. We're going to need to let you go. But sometimes that's what you got to say to keep the lights on, to keep the folks there and keep this and keep that. But if we do it differently with a different pay model, because when we told harm, Hi Mark, we're going to work to stop folks from going to urgent care and using the ER docs as their primary care. Because we're going to listen and we're going to establish protocols and we're going to follow up and we're going to make sure that you just didn't get your diabetes medicine because you needed to keep the lights on or you got a kid in their last semester, you had to pay that bill. So I didn't get my medication. If you just said that and listen, then maybe you could have helped them get what they need it to get the medication so they don't have to come see you after hours. So that's what we're doing and that's a different health care model all together. Hi Mark was so overwhelmed. They were like, not only are we going to give you patients, but we're gonna give you funding for that because we are spending a ton of money just trying to help folks that can only see urgent care because that's the only thing that's open. When I get off my second job and I gotta get to my other job. And this kid has had a nosebleed all day, blah, blah, blah. Everybody in here knows exactly what I'm saying. So we're gonna do it differently. But more importantly, we want to be a training grounds so that you get the cultural sensitivity that you need to hear these patients. And when I say cultural sensitivity, I'm not just talking about patients of color. I'm talking about seeing people for who they are because I've got just as many white patients as patients of color saying I just need a primary care, Dr. just going listen, you know, and that's no sleight to what we have out there. But sometimes when you're part of a larger machine, you don't have control over your day. So we're trying to bring some of that control back and that's what we're going. Do. You see the problem and you create a solution? Don't just keep talking about it. Don't just keep kicking the can down the road. If you know. Better, do better. And that's what we're going do. Thanks, Dr. Coco. Next question here. Thank you. Michael Michael changes. I am a faculty member in civil and environmental engineering, honored to have had said in a long time ago. And also Dean of our Honors College. And I first I wanted to say, I've been to many panels. Michael, you did a fantastic job moderating this and you all. Yeah, let's get back with him. Phenomenon. And I've really enjoyed this has been just a wonderful, wonderful, I'm so impressed by all of you and proud and thank you for sharing with you. What I wanted to ask was you had a Darrel pines up here and he was talking about what it's like to be president. And you shared some skills and things. I want to put you in that role. You're all now President of University of Delaware for a day. And he talked about education, education being the great equalizer. And the University of Delaware striving for Inclusive Excellence and end to graduate the best people we can. Is there one thing you would each may be due to give us advice as to how we can do that better. Because I don't think we're quite there yet. So how do we do that better if you can make one change at the University of Delaware. Other than everyone takes Professor changes, this class said, Well, takers on that one, right? That's a great question. This guy is my Wow, that's why I'm Professor. Yes, that's a great. You got one day. One day, right? My policy I would embrace a policy around diversity equity inclusion from day one. Because I think if you are specific directive, you can actually change the culture of the student body. And that will carry forward because as you start with one class of freshmen, then they will be your voice and they can actually change how others interact. We know that greater diversity promotes higher productivity, it promotes higher revenues, it boosts morale. It actually can create a wave of change and I would definitely embraced that. I think in some ways our climate today has created a lot of competition in this space. Maybe it's not the right orientation around how we talk about these issues. Maybe people are not as able to figure out where to get started because it feels so big. I would say start anywhere, but that's where I would get started. Next personally answers, kinda answering it in a phrase, maybe the thing you'd change and maybe briefly why? I want to get to these last two questions. We get just a few minutes left, so I'll go ahead. Alright. I'll I'll be quick. No, no. I'm just a bill. But I do think obviously the I would be there, but it's the goal versus execution. A lot of times what we're doing is at the highest levels, were promoting and saying this is our goal. We want the I mean, it's all around the country, but then does it bleed down to execution? At lunch, we were talking about Dr. Pines was talking about how he's trying to implement a consistent culture lever by making everyone signed onto the page and going through all levels of the organization. Not just at the top, not just on the side and a department that's measuring it, but everyone who's incorporated in it. And if we can work on, if I was using my one phrase in one word it would be, Hey, look, execution of DEI because we have the gold and people in the room have the goal. We're all saying it doesn't work its way down. In my world. There's lofty goals from executive directors all across airports, across the country saying we want new companies and we want diverse companies, we want minority companies, but they're solicitations in their procurement. All still say, you gotta have 15 years in business. So the goal is there, the execution is not there. So that's what I've changed. Yes, that's great. That's great. One thing I would change is I would go to the education department and talk to those teachers about what it means to teach cultural competence. Because one of the reasons why you don't have more minority students is because they aren't. Qualified to get there? When you've got 12th graders reading on a fourth-grade level, how are we going to get there? So you've got to go all the way back and go to your School of Education and say, listen, we've been doing things this way for a while, but we're not winning in the public school system. And so in order to feed this pipeline of hope that we have, we got to start with K to 12 to get them ready to be there. So I would, I would go back to the School of Education. Yet, these teachers equipped for that child who's been up all night because their parents have been fighting all night. They didn't have breakfast, they're exhausted. They don't mean to be rude, but they're rude because they're exhausted and they're hungry. That's a different kid. But you don't even expect that because that's not your world. So we got to go and get all of that as part of the education process. Thank you. Okay. Folks asked him questions. I got a special favor for you. So we have Dr. Cooker, Mr. Johnson, and Dr. Walker. Please direct your question to one of them. You've heard that story. If you can do that, if you need some time to do that, we'll go over here if you're reading because we got it, we got a time crunch. So can you directly that one of them in particular should be honest it working. Is this mike working? That's my mic. Was working for. Hello. My name is Joshua artists. I'm a junior Computer Science major and also the treasurer for an SP here. I had a quick question for Mr. Johnson. So along your journey, I've heard their stories and incredible, inspiring story. I always find myself deliberating whether this opportunity is for me or not. I hear you guys talking a lot about going to graduate school, going pursuing your doctorate. How did you, how did you know that opportunity was for you in your journey? That's a good question. Some of it was circumstance, I mean, to be upfront with you from the standpoint of the internship gave me exposure to the workforce and working in the airports group. Obviously, Dr. Jesus was giving me exposure to academia and engineering and moving forward, but my circumstances dictated that I'm kinda make the turn into the practicality and application of engineering into the workforce. I would say this, that your life plan is a living document. You can set your goals and then you can adjust your goals based on to the circumstances and still be in a place to achieve your ultimate success. Because as you get more experience and exposure, you're going to potentially want to adjust your goals. Okay. So to answer your question, Mine was a circumstance base scenario that was I've experienced with adversity. But in the end, I adjusted my goal so to to reach where I wanted to go. Thank you for that. Yes, please. And indirectly that one of our panelists, please. Dr. Kruger, my question is addressed to you. My name is Andrew Barrett. I'm a PhD candidate in electrical engineering. Um, I wanted to ask you, how have you dealt? Because I know you've dealt with this, with the subtleties of, let's say, certain prejudices in your field of leadership today. How have you dealt with that in your journey, and how is that propelled you for it? I am grateful for my mom. She's a huge civil rights activists. And so I know my history. I know my whole history, right? I don't just know the highlights of it. And so I know the shoulders on which I stand. And so understanding that source and tapping into that for the strength that I need is what sustains me. I'm, I'm a big proponent of gospel music. So I love Beyonce though, don't, Don't get it twisted. But I start my day with a little gospel music because it just settles my spirit. It gives me hope and inspiration. But I have to say, I have a mother that was chained to the Board of Education and we couldn't even come home from Florida because there were so many threats on our home because she was vehemently against desegregation. Not because she believed that white folks should be here and black folks should be here. But because she understood that the reason why you want us to come to school out there is so that we don't move out there to go to school. So do me a favor, just give us the resources here and we can keep our neighborhoods together. And these kids will continue to love one another, honor one another and see one another. But that's how they can walk past one another on this campus because that's what they've been doing. But when the whole neighborhood went to the same school together and not here there, everywhere, there was a sense of community. That was then disrupted. So mom Biden all the little heroes back in the day, they weren't against desegregation because they didn't think we needed to be in class together. But her whole thing was if you can fund the programs, they're telling me why you can't do it here. So I don't have to get them up at 05:00 A.M. to get on a bus at 06:15 to get to school bus 730 when they can just walk across the street to Harlan Burnett PS. Why why are we doing this? You know what I mean? So when you get that kind of every day pouring in and an understanding of my mom was a third-generation. She's 87 now she's a third-generation college graduate and our family, her great grandfather graduated from harp from Howard with a law degree. My grandmother went to the University of Pittsburgh. She died at 102. So it is, we, we've all known about education a long time ago. And that it is in fact the great equalizer. But what will sustain you in this life with these micro aggressions and folks just trying to quietly pick you apart is understanding exactly who you are and what your contributions have been in this country. And this is the crossroads where we are and we couch it behind words like CRT and woke culture. But really what it is, if you understand the whole history, bring it all in, bring a sense of inclusion. I understand that you can't get the light bulb right unless you put a filament in it. And Latimer is the one who helped him with the filaments so that the bulb could stay lit. That's two folks, a white guy in a black guy working together to make it happen. And that's okay. That's not that's not taking away one from the other. That's just understanding we've built this nation together. And not just because we were part of the slave construction crew, but because we bought some real talent to the table, you're not going to take that from me. I don't care what you say or what you cut or what you did. We just got to learn to teach it a different way, call it something else so we can stop running on this whole woke nation and race theory in no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Black history is American history. That part. All right. Well, we've had a great discussion here today. Is anything else our panelists would like to say anything at all? Alright. So hearing that, that's gonna be our last word from Dr. coca, please. Thank all the panelists today. At this time, the panelists will exit and then we'll bring Dean Thompson back to the stage. I wanted to give them another round of applause before they left. As we were thinking about what this program might look like, I couldn't have imagined it would be this good. That we would have. Not only the great inspirational advice and insights, but also the encouragement and the challenge to try and do better. So before we adjourn for our meet and greet reception in the lobby, I wanted to make sure I think not only the panelists who have now left the stage, but also those who are involved in planning this set of events and events that will emerge from this as well as the organizers. So I'd like to have I don't know if we can bring the house lights up because I'd like you all to see these people. We bring the lights up. Words that I know in stadiums is kinda difficult. You know what? I'll have them come forward even better. So I'm going to recognize our hosting committee, Cecilia REG. If you could come forward. You probably have to come up onto the stage. So you're in the light Chitra track of already. I think she's out due to an illness. But let's give her a round of applause. And even with the house lights up, I'd still like you to come up. Jackie Washington, who I think is right on the front row. And then Kofi Pierre ya'll, who I saw in the back row. So once cope. So when I met with this group early in the process, we talked about what would be a moving and perhaps engaging event and converged on this idea that we would do a short fireside chat and then have a panel discussion. I don't know about you, but I learned a lot from both. And I think they ought to be congratulated on doing a wonderful job in organizing and planning this. So thank you. You can actually sit here and we'll have another panel. I also want to thank the sort of logistics team that was behind a lot of the really difficult work that sometimes you don't think about. But they made sure that everything worked and we're even mostly on time. I want to have Stephanie maybe, and I think they're in the back. I know they can hear me. Stephanie, could you come out and then an Luan Tao ski come out, come out wherever you are. I literally just saw them in the back. I see Stephanie. Yeah, there you go. Come into the light. Some of the notes that you that we use, the questions Stephanie and put together and just made sure that everything was as good as it could possibly be, including helping to assemble the tech team. So thank you so much. Then finally, I want to thank the technical team who also contributed to making this an outstanding event. I want to recognize I see Steve at a lot of events, but Steve litter and you won't be able to see him, but I just saw him give a thumbs up in the back and the booth, Bob d0 Oreo, and the entire Mitchell Hall staff and crew. And with that, I want to thank you all for your attention. I couldn't have imagined spending the last few hours with a better group of people. Listening to some wonderful speakers, getting some tremendous advice, in particular around leading mall black. And I very much, I'm looking forward to our next event which will focus on leading while Hispanic, so you can keep an eye out for that. I think we're planning that for the fall. So thank you so much and we have refreshments for those who can stay. And if you can't stay, grab something on your way out because we already paid for it. So thank you so much and have a good afternoon. Oh, and I meant to thank Michael. If he's yeah. Michael for doing a wonderful job. Thank you so much.