Leadership Series VI: The Real Treasures are Within Us!
MUSC College of Pharmacy Graduation 2022 Good afternoon! Dear Faculty, families, loved ones, and GRADUATES. Thank you for inviting me to join you on this very important milestone in your life. You did it and I am proud of YOU! Congratulations. Dean Hall asked me to share with you my pharmacy journey. Instead, I would […]
Leadership Series V: Be the Man in the Arena
As I reflect on my career path, the constructive feedback received from my peers, learners, mentors and loved ones, and the personal and professional challenges I had to overcome, nothing summarizes my leadership style better than the famous quote by Theodore Roosevelt, known as the “Man in the Arena.” “It is not the critic who […]
Leadership Series IV: Organizational Culture
An organization is only as good as its culture—and building that culture is not only a role for the human resources (HR) department, but it is also every leader’s responsibility. As a leader of an organization, you can help make your organization a more supportive and engaging place to work by understanding the psychological processes […]
Leadership Series III: Narcissism & Spiritual Bankruptcy
You deliver more than anyone in the team, but it’s your well-connected colleague who wins over your difficult boss and gets the promotion. You work hard and are the brains behind a successful new innovation, but you find out your boss has taken credit for your work and feel defeated. You try to be a […]
Toxic Shame: The Silent Epidemic
Bekhal, a Kurdish woman in her early twenties went missing from Zakho. Kurdi was a mentally disabled woman who lived on her own. She became pregnant after she was raped and that was when she went missing. Rumors circulated that her father had committed an honor killing to stop the shame she brought upon […]
The Myth of Life Balance
The COVID19 pandemic has amplified work-life challenges for many work-from-home employees as boundaries between work and home life become blurred. In these difficult times, the reality is that we need to make a living, but also need to make sure that we are still “living” to avoid becoming burned out. To address these new […]
The Curse and Blessing of a Co-Dependent Personality
The term “co-dependency” was initially coined by Alcoholics Anonymous in 1950 to describe those individuals whose unhealthy choices enable and encourage their partner with addiction. While this is still true, co-dependency more recently has a much broader definition. Although it is not recognized as a clinical diagnosis or a personality disorder in the Diagnostic and […]
Leadership Series I: How to Promote a Culture of Belonging
“It’s only when diverse perspectives are included, respected, and valued that we can start to get a full picture of the world, who we serve, what they need, and how to successfully meet people where they are.” ~ Brene Brown The reckoning of racial justice protesters from the turbulent summer of 2020 has made many […]
Unearthed Trauma and Double Standards Regarding the DC Insurrection
Smoke covering Baghdad, Iraq on April 2nd, 2003. This past Wednesday (January 6th) was a day that many Americans will never forget. It was one of those defining moments in time, where years later you recall where you were and how you felt as you watched the events unfolding. However, in my case those events […]
What Has Traveling Solo Meant for me?
“You must be brave!” These are some of the words I am told regularly followed by an awed look. My addiction to traveling began with my first adventure, where I quickly learned to love the world. It all started when I made travel plans with a group of classmates in graduate school for a month […]
