Episodes

As part of our continuing series of conversations with leaders in the cancer space, hosts Michael Holtz and Matthew Underwood sit down with Rachel Matlock, manager of the comprehensive cancer control program at the Tennessee Department of Health. She also manages the Tennessee Cancer Coalition, which brings together stakeholders from across the state to reduce the cancer burden in the state. Her focus is primarily on cancer prevention and early detection. In this conversation, we discuss how Rac...

Reinier Janssen is a staff scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Host Michael Holtz had the opportunity to talk to Janssen toward the end of his NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellowship, where he worked on novel instrumentation based on superconducting detectors. During this conversation, Holtz and Janssen discuss how he developed his interest in science, what the NASA NPP Fellowship has meant to his career, what drives him, and what happens next. To learn more about the NASA NPP, visit h...

Host Michael Holtz and Brenda Blunt, ORAU senior director of health policy, had the opportunity to participate in the StoryCorps Project while attending the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Health Equity Conference in Washington, D.C. earlier this year. Listeners may be familiar with StoryCorps from interviews that air on National Public Radio. During this interview, Holtz and Blunt talk about health equity through their experiences in and around the healthcare system and as patients w...

Further Together host Michael Holtz gets the tables turned on him and becomes the interviewee in this episode. Holtz received a Thought Leadership Research Award through the ORAU Research and University Partnerships Office to write a white paper that makes recommendations for research projects based on ORAU's capabilities and the federal government's cancer research priorities. Matthew Underwood, communications and marketing specialist, and Brenda Blunt, senior health policy director, talk with ...

Laura Fackrell is a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow who is looking ahead to the potential to humans living on the moon. Her research focuses on the role of nitrogen in lunar habitats, particularly how nitrogen is affected by plants and microbes in the soil or growth medium. Nitrogen is a key element in plant growth, so her research will also have an impact on creating better and more sustainable agriculture here on earth. In this conversation with host Michael Holtz, Fackrell talks about her ca...

The United States is falling behind in STEM proficiency. Our country faces a great challenge in improving the capability and capacity of the U.S. STEM workforce in a globally competitive environment. ORAU has created the STEM Accelerator to face this challenge head on. In this episode, Michael Holtz talk to Liv Blackmon, director of the ORAU STEM Accelerator, about the mission, vision and goals of this critical initiative, why focusing on the nuclear energy industry is the first priority for the...

Daniel Watters, a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, is a global storm chaser. Fortunately, he can chase storms from the comfort of being behind a computer screen. Watters studies global precipitation using satellites, specifically focused on comparing data between satellites and RADAR systems. Daniel, who is from England, talks to host Michael Holtz about cultural adjustments to life in Huntsville, how he cultivated his interest in science, ...

Conner Ballew is a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His research area is in Meta Optics, which develops new technologies to aid future agency missions. The end goal of his research is to miniaturize optical elements, which reduces size and power requirements for space applications. Ballew is a native of Everett, Washington, discusses how he became interested in science, how his career and scientific interests have developed and what comes next for his career. To learn...

ORAU's annual giving campaign is underway. Host Michael Holtz's yearly conversation with Naomi Asher, executive director of United Way of Anderson County, which serves Anderson, Campbell, Morgan and Scott Counties. Naomi invited two partner organizations, Katie Burnette from the YWCA of Knoxville and the Tennessee Valley. and David Allred from Oak Ridge Periodic Tables, to discuss the ways they serve the community together. We discuss how UWAC and its partner agencies fill in the gaps in big and...

We continue our focus on some of the community organizations and events ORAU supports with this conversation about the Thompson Cancer Survival Center Race Against Cancer. The Race, now in its 29th year, races funds for the patients and their families treated at Thompson Cancer Survivor Center. Since it's inception, the race has raised more than $7.4 million for cancer education and support in East Tennessee. Host Michael Holtz, who was treated at Thompson and served as race chair twice, talks t...

As a company, ORAU loves to support the communities in which we do business. We regularly support community events like the Secret City Half Marathon and 5K, an annual event in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, In this episode, host Michael Holtz talks to Bryan Campbell, a colleague and fellow cancer survivor, who is passionate about events like the Secret City Half and others. We talk about the race, Bryan's love for running, his cancer journey and so much more. To register for the Secret City Half Maratho...

Claudia Alvarez Carreno is a third-year NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow who is a medical doctor by training and then discovered that she really enjoys basic science. She finished medical school then pursued a doctoral degree in biological sciences. Her research at NASA focuses on the origins of life. She says you can tell a lot about the history of humanity by studying the molecules of humans. Alvarez Carreno studies proteins -- in particular she studies patterns of ribosomal proteins across al...

As National Preparedness Month comes to a close, we offer a second episode of Further Together to focus on our expertise in the preparedness space. This conversation focuses on preparedness through various lenses, including mental health and psychological first aid, and diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility. Michael Holtz and Amber Davis talk to Matthew Schnupp, project manager and health education specialist on ORAU's public health and healthcare team. To learn more about ORAU's prepar...

he American Cancer Society and its advocacy affiliate, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, are committed to ending cancer as we know it, for everyone. ORAU has supported the work of both organizations by sponsoring Relay For Life and Lights of Hope events for many years. Further Together host Michael Holtz is a member of ACS CAN's National Ambassador Team and a long-time volunteer for the organization. In this episode, he and co-host Matthew Underwood talk to Lisa Lacasse, preside...

Given our history of working in the cancer space, it makes perfect sense that ORAU supports several organizations that provide support and advocate for people with cancer. One of those organizations is the Cancer Support Community of East Tennessee, which provides an array of support and educational programs for cancer patients, survivors and family members. In this episode of Further Together, Michael Holtz and Matthew Underwood talk to Beth Hamil, executive director of CSCET, about the organiz...

ORAU has decades of experience helping the healthcare and public health systems prepare for, respond to and recover from events like pandemics, natural disasters, terrorism and other unforeseen disruptive events. September is National Preparedness Month. In this conversation, Michael Holtz and Amber Davis talk to Jennifer Burnette and Will Artley from ORAU's Public Health and Healthcare Team, about preparedness for older individuals, rural communities, urban areas, etc. They also discuss the rip...

s an employer based in East Tennessee, ORAU is a humble company with a great story to tell. In this episode, Andy Page, president and CEO; Keri Cagle, senior director of all things peer review; and Lauren Schaffer from our employee relations team, discuss the strength of our company. With host Michael Holtz and co-host Bryan Campbell the team discusses what it means to be One ORAU, how our corporate culture has been strengthened over the years by the pandemic and the flexibility of our workforce...

Use of complementary and alternative medicine, like acupuncture, chiropractic and more, is on the rise. As with most health care services, women tend to be the decision-makers when it comes to using CAM. Brenda Blunt, senior director of health policy, and Davyda Hammond, safety culture program manager, are investigating the experiences of women who use CAM, as well as how providers market to clients and how they see their role in healthcare. Their project is funded through the ORAU-Directed Rese...

Our nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Educational Institutions are often untapped resources abounding in talent, ingenuity and expertise but often lacking in the material resources necessary for scientific research. Tapping into HBCU talent resources is why ORAU and the Ecological Society of America officially began a working relationship with the signing of a memorandum of understanding during the ESA’s 108th annual meeting in Portland, Oregon, on Monday...

ORAU's Research and University Partnerships Office offers Innovation Partnership Grants to bring together University Consortium members and ORAU subject matter experts for meaningful collaborations. One of those collaborations involved Vanderbilt University and the funding of a Tennessee University-Business Showcase focused on building a biomedical/biotech economic engine in Middle Tennessee and beyond. In this episode, host Michael Holtz talks to Brenda Blunt, ORAU senior director of health pol...

For the first time ever, the ORAU Research and University Partnerships Office funded four interns to work in various capacities across the organization. Each represents a member of the ORAU University Consortium. This conversation is led by guest host Adam Delahoussaye, a RUPO intern working in Communications and Marketing, and co-hosted by Michael Holtz. Adam, along with Kayla Lacey, Kelsey O'Brien and Tony Zybinski, discuss their varied internship experiences, what may be in store for their fu...

Public health has been in the spotlight over the last few years. In this episode, host Michael Holtz talked to two public health luminaries: Julie Crumly, Ph.D., senior researcher at ORAU, and Paul Erwin, M.D., DrPH, professor and dean of the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health. Crumly received the UAB School of Public Health's Alumni Award for Practice earlier this year. Erwin has roots in East Tennessee. During this conversation, we discussed Crumly's award, how she and...

Dr. Aaron Yung is a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. He's a theorist working on what he calls the "mission of the century," the James Webb Space Telescope team. He has been making predictions via galaxy models for the JWST team since he was a graduate student five years ago. During this conversation, host Michael Holtz and Yung discuss the science behind predictive modeling and what it means to be a scientist telling the story of the universe. Interested in t...

On every episode of the Further Together podcast we talk about the work that ORAU does across our various capabilities, but we don't often step back and take stock of our impact on a national and global scale. ORAU is a humble organization focused on the public good, not on bragging about the work we've done over the last 76 years. All of that changes in this episode. CEO Andy Page and Senior Vice President Jeff Miller put some of ORAU's impact in perspective. That impact has been tremendous in ...