The High Alert Institute, Inc. envisions a world where all people, families, communities, businesses and organizations are disaster ready. Join Allison A. Sakara and Dr. Maurice A Ramirez as they share their story in part one of this three-part series.
Guests
Allison A. Sakara, Executive Director, High Alert Institute [@High-Alert-Inst]
On ITSPmagazine | http://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/allison-a-sakara
Dr. Maurice A Ramirez, Founder and President, High Alert Institute [@High-Alert-Inst]
On ITSPmagazine | http://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/dr-maurice-a-ramirez
Sean Martin, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine [@ITSPmagazine] and Host of Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast [@RedefiningCyber]
On ITSPmagazine | https://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/sean-martin
Host: Marco Ciappelli, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine [@ITSPmagazine] and Host of Redefining Society Podcast
On ITSPmagazine | https://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/marco-ciappelli
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Episode Introduction
About The High Alert Institute
The High Alert Institute, Inc. envisions a world where all people, families, communities, businesses and organizations are disaster ready. The High Alert Institute helps those not served by municipal, local, county, state, regional or federal programs/agencies to be Disaster Ready.
The High Alert Institute promises to support, promote and when possible, provide:
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Resources
High Alert Institute: highalertinstitute.org
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TRANSCRIPT NOTE
Please note that this transcript was created using AI technology and may contain inaccuracies or deviations from the original audio file. The transcript is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a substitute for the original recording as errors may exist. At this time we provide it “as it is” and we hope it can be useful for our audience.
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SPEAKERS
Marco Ciappelli, Allison Sakara, Sean Martin , Maurice Ramirez
Marco Ciappelli00:00
And, Sean, here we go. Thank you for joining me.
Sean Martin 00:05
I'm thrilled to be part of redefining society today, Marco. Yes. I'm on high alert, actually.
Marco Ciappelli00:15
It's always, it's always nice. So for those that, for the first time, listen to Sean and I, while we have our own individual shows, we also have, we like to invite each other on the same show, and we never know where we're going with this, right? We never know where Shawn is going to start. And we don't know where he's gonna end.
Sean Martin 00:38
That's right. Neither do I. That's the fun part.
Marco Ciappelli00:43
I know. But you know, there's one thing we never we never get bored of having conversation. And one thing is that we never get bored. The reason? The main reason is because we're so lucky to get in touch and have conversation with so many incredible people that are somehow changing our society. And I don't know if they're changing it. But certainly they're trying their best to make it a better place. And today, we're going to talk about an institute and I feel like this is the 10th episode, to be honest, because we talked so much already about our ideas, our plan, how itsp Magazine and the high alert Institute can collaborate that finally we got to the first recording, and we're going to learn, Sean, about this. So you are in high alert. I am in high alert. What does it mean?
Sean Martin 01:43
Exactly? I have no idea. That's our guest, who's on with us today, Marco.
Marco Ciappelli01:48
Well, today we have Maurice and Alison and in particular, Dr. Maurice Ramirez and Alison Sakara, I hope I didn't chop the last name. And if I did, I apologize. And they are the founders of an organization, a nonprofit called the High Alert Institute. And I want to welcome you both. Welcome to the show. Thank you.
Allison Sakara02:14
Thank you, Marco. Thank you.
Marco Ciappelli02:16
Such a pleasure. And I want people to know that this is the first one of many conversation because I don't even know where to start with all the things that you do. So that will be my second question. My first one will be Who are you Marie's analysis, a little introduction about yourself so that our audience become familiar with you, whomever wants to start?
Allison Sakara02:42
Certainly Marco. I'm Allison. Sakara, I am a co founder of the high alert Institute. I currently serve as their executive director and have done so since we established in our as a 501 C three back in 2011. My background is as a pediatric and as a family nurse practitioner. And I have decades of experience working in hematology oncology and disaster response primarily. I've been also a clinical and Regulatory Affairs consultant to the biotech industry since the 1990s. I'm not a personal side. I've done a lot of volunteering with animal rescue organizations over the years and I enjoy chaining rescues as therapy dogs, and we are joined here in the office by our current pack of five rescue dogs on a daily basis.
Maurice Ramirez03:43
Hello Sean and Marco, I'm Maurice Ramirez. As Allison said, I'm also a co founder of high alert Institute, and I serve as the chairperson for the institute's Board of Directors. I'm a disaster medicine and emergency medicine physician. I'm a little unique in the physician world, I hold 10 board certifications in medicine and research, including disaster medicine, emergency medicine, and artificial intelligence medicine. Allison and I are both founding Homeland Security medical officers. And I've been in disaster response since 1982. In addition, I'm the founding chairperson of the American Board of disaster medicine, that's the national and now international certifying board for disaster medicine specialists. And I'm the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award in disaster medicine. I've earned a medical degree, two PhDs, but I'm equally proud of being a clown college graduate.
Marco Ciappelli04:44
See, and this is exactly why I didn't want to do the introduction. The both of you is ready already overwhelming and incredible. Very, very much incredible. Sean, I think we're in for some treats today in learning a lot.
Sean Martin 04:58
I know. I know. And, yeah, I don't know where to start with all the all the things you've done. I know we want to go directly to Eilert Institute. And and I feel like we'll we'll kind of pull on some of the strings of the other things you're involved with along the way. Because I feel that, that your history in your past probably led you to, to where you are now with the institute's. So let's start there. And we'll see where things go. What what is the high alert Institute? Why was it founded? What's its objective? How has how has it progressed over time?
Maurice Ramirez05:39
Well, the high alert Institute is a not for profit, charity, charity, educating people, families, communities, businesses and organizations to be disaster ready, in what we call an all hazards one framework paradigm. We were founded in 2002, in the wake of the 911 attacks of 2001, and became officially a not for profit charity in 2011. For the last 20 years, we fulfilled our mission primarily through disaster research and in person disaster training. We've in fact trained all of the hospitals in Colorado, half of those in Georgia, Florida, and all of the hospitals in both North and South Carolina, in addition to hospitals in almost all of the continental United States. We've also trained almost all of the counties, both Florida, Georgia, and Colorado. And we trained primarily frontline health care workers and first responders, law enforcement and fire rescue. In 2022, as the entire planet is beginning to make its post pandemic plans, we pivoted the institute to expand our vision and our mission, including a number of programs that are so numerous, we'll be recounting them with you and review and looking at them and exploring their bases over the next several episodes.
Marco Ciappelli07:02
Yeah, that's absolutely the intention. And I, the first time that you share with me, kind of like a memo of all the things that you do, I said, this is 10 episodes. So we have to, we have to split it. So we already have a lot of question, but we want it it's full of things I want to know. I mean, first of all, I'm interested into the the vision that it's all connected. I think that's what inspired me the most when when we talk for the first time, and we were introduced by our common friend, Sean, the other the other shot. And so what's this vision, like this idea that that made you and maybe Allison, you wanna you want to start with it, that put all of these together like this vision of one, one organization, it should touch on all of these topics.
Allison Sakara07:59
We refer to the paradigm that we live, work and play in as an all hazards, one framework approach. And what I mean by that is, many people, families, businesses, organizations, really don't have a set plan for what to do about a disaster before crisis strikes. Oftentimes, the plans are hurriedly put together in the midst of a crisis. Or maybe folks only have an inkling of what they might do if they have to. The most common reasons that disaster plans and business continuity planning are not prioritized, can be either and then reason behind that can be either dollars or resources or just playing time. But we see planning as as a priority. But when planning is seen as a priority, even when folks tried to do that the approach may be viewed as an overwhelming task. All too often folks are trying to establish a different plan for every single possible thing that could go wrong. Everything single situation has its own steps to run through the equivalent of Albi old school hear the equivalent of a three ring binder on the shelf, you got one for tomatoes, one for hurricanes, one for earthquakes, one for floods, but seemingly none of them are integrated into everyday life and everyday world and everyday plans. So when that disasters actually do occur, knowing which binder to grab off the shelf, let alone what's inside of it and what you might need to have on hand before you even start that list can be a mystery. And this just adds to the confusion. By adopting that mindset of all hazards, one framework, the basic actions and needs are all the same. You Whether we're looking having a having a discussion about health care whether we're having a discussion about climate change, whether we're having a discussion about a wildfire, it seems to all come together then, for all disasters, you can have one basic plan to learn and to follow. Successful Disaster Preparedness and Response tends to be less than knowing exactly every single step and fiddling having a separate set of list of things to do, or ways to act. What ends up being important is what do you have on hand? Do you have what you need to have on hand? And how can you move forward? So whether you're facing snow, rain, fire, earthquakes, landslides, volcanoes, or disease outbreaks? The questions really do remain the same? Do you have a plan to take care of yourself? Do you have a plan to take care of your family? Do you have a plan to take care of your pets, you have a plan to take care of your business, you have a plan to take care of your property if any disaster comes along. And the basic needs across any one of these particular scenarios are fairly constant needs for food, water, clothing, housing, fuel, identification, medications, safe place to be. And you have more than one way of maintaining these needs over a set period of time, not just an hour, but days to weeks. Personally, I've had that same complement of items in my backpacks for decades, like my go bags, if you will, that really hasn't mattered if I was being the one sent out as a disaster responder, or if I was sheltering at home, just because there was a blizzard, or a hurricane. So having this kind of a mindset in looking at so many of the problems. One health issues, one nature issues, you may have heard some of those terms over time and climate change issues. It all comes down to that. Do we have a plan that we can use that can address many things all at once? Simple education, simple awareness, simple planning, and coordination with other groups and entities.
Maurice Ramirez12:33
And what's amazing shot and Marco is that when you have that one, approach that one plan and you are prepared, it gives you the ability then to take a step back, pull the plane up to that 20,000 foot view and look at okay, what can we do as individuals and even as a society to mitigate or even prevent some of these disasters? Now you can't prevent a hurricane. But what can we do about climate change? What can we do about global warming? What can we do about pollution? What can we do to prevent some of the most preventable disasters, or at least keep the unpreventable disasters from becoming complex disasters? Where one cascades into the next into the next and into the next?
Sean Martin 13:28
Yeah, and I want to I want to dig into this a little bit if I can, because, yeah, actually come from, from a space where wildfires are our thing. And the community that they lived in actually did a pretty decent job. You mentioned the word binder. And that's what triggered it for me do a decent job of putting together materials to help us understand what a what a plan might look like, what our go bag might be, what our exit plan might be, what the return plan might look like, where do we shelter where there is a lot of horses in this area? In particular? Where did the horses go? Where did the dogs and other animals go? And it like I said, I think they did a pretty good job. But it was very focused on fire. And it's this place also in being in California has earthquakes as well. So a lot of it could overlap into that. So I'm interested to know and my probably my bigger, broader question and taking a step back from that is what does ions to Highland Institute do? Do you actually provide the framework for communities like that? Or are you because I heard you talking about helping individuals but then also training first responders and even counties and things? So how and where do you fit into the big picture of of all of this?
Maurice Ramirez14:58
Well, we have a number of programs in the high alert Institute. And among those programs, we maintain a curated library of reviewed disaster readiness, education resources, as well as disaster and business continuity planning resources that are free or nearly free, and are provided by highly reputable sources. Some are from FEMA themselves, the EMI Institute, some are from from major universities like TEKS, in Texas, over 4000 links on our website to that exactly the type of education you're talking about, Shawn, some is very specific. You mentioned specifically earthquake and wildfires. And there are certain specific things for safety during an event, what we call the response phase that you need to do. Some are risk assessment. You lived in an area where the highest where some of the highest risks were wildfire, an earthquake. I live in Florida, I happen to live inside of a state forest. So wildfire is one of my risks. But it's a very wet forest compared to what would be in California. So my wildfire risk is relatively low, except for a few months out of the year. Having the tools to assess that risk allows me to have a very different go back. And a very different overall plan single plan than you have. But it still accounts for my needs in the event that there is a fire here, just as yours did when in California in the event, the more likely event of a wildfire.
Sean Martin 16:33
And how about the alert piece being notified? Because in particular, and I'm just going on my own experience, and maybe this helps people or I don't know if it does happen. In my in the particular I was located, there was no cell service, someone had to have a landline. But of course the lines are on power poles that are made of wood and there's a fire those burned down. And so you can get the phone call, and you can get the alert. So do you help with understanding the risk involved with getting people the information that they are in danger and not enough? How that changes? Looking at tornadoes or hurricanes or, or other events that come along?
Maurice Ramirez17:16
Well, Sean, it's an excellent question. That is part of that risk assessment. The first part part of any planning, whether it's business, general business planning, or whether it's disaster planning is to take a look at where you are and what are your what are the risks as well as the opportunities effectively it's a SWOT or a gap analysis. We call them a written disaster and emergency management, we call them risk assessments. So, you know wildfire, one of the risks is loss of communication, you have not just the loss of the of the of the power poles and the telephone lines. But even buried lines can be disrupted, both by the fire itself as well as by the earthmoving equipment that's used to make fire breaks, the cell towers can be lost, or they can be so far apart, that there are gaps or or dead areas. We're all familiar with having dead zones and in cellular coverage. And the last is even satellite phones can be blocked by the smoke from the wildfires. So that communication that alert system means that you have to be able to define in your locality what is specific to you all disasters are local. What is specific to you at that risk assessment phase before you even write the plan? What other forms of communication do you need to monitor during wildfire season? Do you need a weather or other alert radio? Do you need in addition to your cell phone? Do you need to be watching the news regularly? Do you need to develop a habit of listening to Radio not satellite, not the fun satellite radio, but regular broadcast FM and even am to monitor and be aware of during hurricanes or excuse me during wildfire season for me it's hurricane season, what's happening because your main means of communication may go down and you may not even know it. A very good example here at the at the institute's facility. We have triple redundant communication and yet yesterday for reasons that our local phone service still hasn't explained to us. The phone the hard line phone system to the entire state forest went down. And the only reason we knew it is that we that we have a we have an alert on the phone that's a visual alert and if the phone line goes dead it loses that 24 volt AC current that it usually runs this this signal goes on so that we know that that means of communication is out and the reason we did it is that the phone system in the state forest is 56 years old. And so we had to be able to monitor it because it has it has a downtime of about 12% out of the year.
Marco Ciappelli20:00
Wow. And this comes from people like you two that are very knowledgeable and really think ahead of everything. But yet, there are certain things that you just can't do anything about it. But so that makes me think about the regular people that has to face that and how much they, you know, it's the human psychology. Well, we'll worry about that when that happened. And thank God, there are people like you and other organizations that help us to think ahead. Apart from the disaster readiness in general, which of course, as you say, is an Allison said is a frame that applies to everything I'm really interested in, in some other programs with the project for good, like the animal wellness and environmental section. Allison, can you tell us tell us a little bit more about that.
Allison Sakara20:57
The animal care and welfare and environmental section is one of the three sections that we've divided the institute into, based on the types of projects that we're involved in. We have a disaster readiness section as well. And then we have a third section that is a combination it sounds like an odd marriage, but a combination of space healthcare and artificial intelligence informatics. Now when we do our podcast on that particular section that will become clear as to why those two things are generally the way they are. But our animal wellness and environmental section one of the projects that we have in there is our is our on site animal shelter that we have specifically for non native aquatics. Why do we have non native aquatics it simply was an outcropping of our personal koi meditation pond that we had here at the Institute. And as we were looking to, pardon me, expand some things here. In as far as what our scope was going to be and the different things we were getting involved in, we were looking into ways that we could contribute to specifically from this particular site to environmental needs. And one of the needs that we ended up finding out about was the lack of non native aquatic shelters across the United States. We are one of I know there's two in flux that I so there's 22, I believe currently, we are one of 22 across the entire nation, specifically for non native aquatics. And these are freshwater aquatics not dolphins or manatees or anything. Those often have their own facilities that may or may not be associated directly with a rescue and re homing program or a zoo or aquarium. The non native aquatics seem to be kind of like the orphan child. And so many of these poor animals end up getting just dumped into the streams, rivers ponds crossed the United States. And it's not just the United States, this is a problem. There are big programs in Canada and in Australia, that that also are concentrated on trying to work with these animals that have been released into the into the wild. It is not a solution to reboot to redo to release your koi pond that you don't want anymore. For instance, into the local pond or stream. These are non native these are considered in invasive species to the local habitat, they will out out resource the native aquatics they're there. They weren't born to eat the same foods, for instance. So they have a higher level of voices coming from what they're ingesting which changes the environment, they will outfit they will out eat and out produce the other native species that are there. And this is definitely a problem for recreational Fisher people for preservation of species and habitats in other areas, and is and these animals live for a very long time. People don't realize that koi can live 100 or more years. These are animals that have to be if you own them, or are caring for them, plants have to be made for them. If you are no longer able to take care of them or in the event of one's death, these are animals that you actually people actually will to each other or will to a charitable organization mission so that they don't have to be destroyed. So it would just kind of by happenstance that we came into that particular shelter community. And I've worked for years in rescue operations of different different other species, dogs, cats, rabbits, horses, working with a number of those different organizations over time. But this was not something that would be easy to do to run the Institute and to do all of those activities simultaneously, as we evolved in so many other things, so that that became our little our little pet project. No, no pun intended. Here.
Sean Martin 25:42
It's I'm trying to I was racking my brain trying to get where I just saw that literally, within the last day or two, I saw something I don't know if it's an ad or, or some PSA about willing Koi, to folks, because they do live long. So interesting. You bring that up. And one of your last points was, this was a pet project, because you have so much going on. And and I mean, we haven't even scratched the surface on all the things that both know you're doing, but how do you determine what to what to focus on? Do you have like a huge list of things you know, need to have attention and you prioritize and work your way down, seek help for others, you can reach out how do you how do you kind of organized all of that?
Maurice Ramirez26:33
It's an excellent question. One we are asked quite often, Sean, we have a number of programs. One is what we call projects for good. And to become a project for good has you have to have one of all three of the following characteristics. First is that it has to yield a significant impact. And the first question we always get is, well, how does a call us shelter and rescue have a significant impact. The US Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that released koi and their progeny cost commercial fishing just in the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basin, and the Florida wetlands and estrich estuaries $70 billion in losses a year. Now part of that is catching animals that then contaminate the other animals because nobody eats ornamental carp. Some of that is the destruction of habitats that results in decreased commercial fishing and sport fishing populations. Some of that is the fact that these animals are so large that they outgrow the size of the local predators and force alterations and migration patterns in those fish. And some of them is they just destroy fishery equipment. So we have
Sean Martin 27:56
also learned that they so I'm worried because I also, I might be incorrect here. But I think they Is it true that they also change the makeup of the water, they use oxygen and in things in a different way?
Maurice Ramirez28:11
Absolutely. Because as Alison mentioned, they produce more waste than than the native animals, they increase the amount of the increase the amount of bacteria and algae, the algae there, therefore results in a decrease in that oxygen in the oxygen level. Koi and carp are somewhat oxygen sensitive, but they can tolerate a lower oxygen level than more active fish, like sports fish and fish for freshwater commercial fishing. So they they suffocate those animals out and when the animals can move, for instance, in the Great Lakes or Mississippi Basin, those animals do move and they move out of areas that are easily fished into areas where the large koi can't get as well as the unfortunately, the commercial and sports fishermen can't get at them. The other part is that that decreased oxygen tension that you mentioned results in slower reproduction of those commercially in sports fished animals, as well as outright Fish, fish deaths, sometimes very large scale fish deaths, as has been seen in a number of lakes and waterways here in Florida, as well as all up and down in the mid the mid, the middle of the United States.
Marco Ciappelli29:22
So much to learn. I don't know how you guys can stay on top of all of this. I'm kind of reading the notes that you share with us and I'm still like I want to go everywhere. So I'm gonna ask you a very simple question. Like a concrete example of one of the projects that maybe you're more or not going to say more passionate because sounds to me, you're passionate in everything you do, you wouldn't do. You wouldn't be doing this but an example to really show. Tell people that are listening how you know how a specific project may work and I was reading about the disaster There are behavioral health training, for example, like, how do you? How do you proceed when you when you when you find something that need attention?
Allison Sakara30:10
I'll be happy to feel that one Marco. Yes, please, in keeping our roots in disaster response. The Institute has been developing a disaster behavioral health training and educational program for persons involved in disasters affecting animals. Maurice and I and a number of our directors and in house experts have worked in this field on an awful many years. This program in particular, though, that we're developing now is being created for the benefit of government and non government responders, to animal care and welfare crises, as well as the human populations that they serve when they are responding to these particular crises. For instance, an outbreak of avian flu, there have been several of them that have been in the news in the past year. A farming community may require the destruction of a significant number of birds. These are animals that they've raised from chicks, to prevent the spread of disease to people and into the crude sources. Getting through this type of a disaster is difficult for everyone involved, understandably, the emotional and psychological toll that it has on workers, whether again, whether they're from federal or agencies, or as volunteers, the effects on families, the farm families, the local communities, the schools, and the children in the schools can be devastating. But at least by having a training and education, program, a plan to prepare as best as you can beforehand, and knowing where to go for help for you, for your team, for your family, for your school, for your community, has been shown to be very beneficial, and also reduce the risk of suicide.
Sean Martin 32:18
What strikes me there is I mean, that that last point that you just made, things work a certain way, right. And when there's a disaster, that just kind of all that kind of gets blown out of the water and, and things change, and we all have to figure out how to not just deal with a disaster, but then come back together and perhaps temporary, temporary operating environment, and then find our way back to quote unquote, a new normal. And that can be hard for for some. And I guess the first thing that comes to mind, there is kind of the the divide. We talked about a lot from a technical perspective, the digital divide, but there's financial and fiscal divide, and I suspect that that some communities have a tougher time preparing and managing and dealing and they need support from others to help them as well. I don't know if you can, you can comment on that where where people come together to kind of help shore things up where, where things are needed.
Maurice Ramirez33:30
Well, Sean, that is exactly the reason the high alert Institute was founded. We don't just provide education and Resource and Research. But our entire focus is to work with and for those individuals, organizations, institutions, businesses, and to a degree communities that are underserved, that have an unfunded mandate, who don't have the resources, to financial resources, to hire the 50 $100,000 consultant to bring in a team of trainers or to bring in a crisis response team in the event that the disaster has already struck. And now they're trying to to prevent the emotional and psychological impacts as well as the financial and economic impacts in their community. This is the reason that we that we host so much free education is the reason that to quote our Founding Fathers, we've pledged our our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred honors as as experts for good as found co founders, Allison and myself are board members. We have in total over 84 High highly trained experts and independent individually who volunteer their time, time that they could Sell otherwise, at very high cost, in some cases, specifically to help in areas that otherwise would go as you said unserved because they didn't have that resource. They didn't know where to get the resource, and or they couldn't afford the resource.
Marco Ciappelli35:20
Yeah, it's impossible to think that with as much passion that someone can have to tap into all of this, and adjusting to people or even 100 people. So I would love to learn more about how you in this 20 years of the organization, but even before we both your careers, where where are all your resources, who is collaborating to the, to the success of the high alert Institute on thinking partners, you mentioned experts and maybe even businesses? Like a little understanding on how can you accomplish all of this?
Maurice Ramirez36:01
Well, we've been very blessed, Marco and Shawn, we have a very active board of directors, we have had the benefit of of many, both partners for good, which are how corporations participate, as well as as subject matter experts who participate as experts for good. And there are several ways in individual corporations and even institutions of higher learning, can participate with, with the the institute its programs, and support is projects. As individuals, we have subject matter experts, as I said, who volunteer and other subject matter experts who are among your listeners, certainly can join our volunteer corps of subject matter experts who work on specific programs as experts for good and by the way, they get they get a tax receipt for the time that they spend doing that. You know, we're located here in Lake Wales, Florida, as I said, we are in a state forest. Those people who are local to us can volunteer at our aquatic animal shelter and rescue when we have a response need. Those individuals who are interested in maximizing the impact of their charitable donations, quite frankly, can become donors online. It's simple and it's easy or put on their own fundraiser, we even have a facility for that on our website. And the the individuals in college programs can become interns in our new intern for good program, we are now trying to train the next generation of impassioned people who will take that all hazards one framework approach and apply it in areas that Alison and I and our board and our current cadre of experts can't even imagine we hope.
Sean Martin 37:49
And I'm more I'm gonna pause you there quickly, marines because they I suspect my views people often travel to out of state to different colleges, and then back home or to other places, once they find work in the fields that they study for, presumably, which to me says a lot of what they learn is, as part of this interns for good program begins to spread outside of the core areas that you operate. At least that's what we've seen that yet. Yeah,
Maurice Ramirez38:21
we we we already have. We already work remotely with all of our experts. And unlike the vast majority of businesses who began remote work in 2020, with the with the pandemic and the pandemic shutdowns. We've been working remotely with our experts since 2011. And in some cases, even back before, as far as 2007. We work remotely because our x we prefer to work with the experts who are truly experts in their field. And not just nationally, we work internationally with experts all over the world. And we court and we're also partnered with 48 other corporations around the world who have products or services or algorithms or ideas, some of which they're not even developing for their own commercial use, that can support a project for good or that can support another type of program or that they just want to see it have some impact. It's Allison and I have consulted in the medical and regulatory of industry for as she said almost 30 years. It is amazing the number of corporations that develop intellectual property that they develop along the along the way towards an ultimate product, but it's not for that product. And that patent or that copyright or that idea, that process or that device gets placed off to the side. It actually becomes a liability on their balance sheet. And we have a number of companies that have donated the Those or donated the knowledge about them, to allow us to try to have an impact with them in other fields, fields the original inventors never never dreamed of. And we, it became so common that last year or two years ago, excuse me, we started the IP for good program to allow for terrines technology transfer. And among the things that are in technology transfer right now, or to renewable energy programs, that will increase the efficiency of animal care and animal welfare in one case, and will reduce the the social determinants of health noise, risk with wind turbines in another in another situation, you you call this section, or this section is all about this podcast is all about other society. And we look at that everybody thinks in terms of corporations and and entrepreneurs as being very self centric, very profit centric. And what we find is that really, there isn't other society in that in that big air category called entrepreneurs, who are very interested in Yeah, I have to make my profit, I have to be able to survive and pay my bills and feed my family, prepare for my own disasters and have my own resources. But I have all this other stuff, and I want to share it and I want to see it do something good. I just don't know how. And that's part of what the Institute does is that it helps those individuals who want that impact, or corporations that want that impact, to bring those goods, those services to that larger impact that larger opportunity to do good in the world.
Sean Martin 41:42
And then sometimes, that innovation can can have a much bigger impact than a monetary donation from an organization. And the the, the engineers or whomever is building and innovating, feel pretty good about that stuff, too.
Maurice Ramirez41:57
Absolutely. And very often corporate company may not have the the fiscal resources to to write a check. But they have something far more value valuable, as you said, Shawn, sitting there on the shelf that they're not even using, that in some cases, they've almost forgotten about, that they mentioned on the way out the door, as they're apologizing for not being able to help. And it turns out to be something of immense value and contribution.
Marco Ciappelli42:28
Well, if there is one thing that I've learned from prior conversation with, with you, it's fascinating. And it really makes you think, I think about the overview effect, you know, the one that astronauts get when they see the planet from from above. And it's like, it's just one unique in one connected synergic organism in a way, and I'm describing now your logo for the people that listen to the podcast. And of course, they can find that on the page for defining society, which is their planet. And then there is a Vitruvian. Man, so we could have an entire story on that one, I guess. But I think it will be for one of the next episode. I would like Alison and Marie's to take this last couple of minutes to tease our audience, maybe for what we will talk about in the next two episodes, which will still be about introduction to what you guys do. So why should they stay tuned for the next episode as well.
Maurice Ramirez43:38
coming episodes, we'll be talking about disaster readiness. And because disaster readiness is more than just planning and preparation, and giving some very specific examples, as Shawn alluded to, of what individuals can do, just to be more disaster ready within their own, within their own families and homes, as well as in their businesses. And we have a saying, We want everyone to, to to prepare or be ready, the way they're going to play. We want them to to practice the way they're going to play. We want the day that the crisis strikes to be as close to a normal business and family day, as is possible given the circumstances. And that happens through good planning. We'll then we'll also be talking about our animal wellness and environmental program. And Allison can give you a few more peek behind the curtain as it were as to what we will talk about with that.
Allison Sakara44:44
We will be sharing with you some of the things that we're trying to help with in the animal care and welfare world and in the environmental one nature. One model, one health paradigm that has existed for decades. engage across many different like minded organizations. And there are a few holes that have evolved over time, and how we're trying to help fill those. As Maurice mentioned, many of these mandates occur without necessarily the funding to make them happen for for many organizations, whether the government or small, small, smaller organizations trying to be compliant with those mandates. And we've been able to put together some programs to help them meet those needs. Taking that on ourselves, taking on that burden, it's applying that for free.
Maurice Ramirez45:41
And then along the way, we'll be salting in some of our projects for good, that have some surprising impacts. And, in some cases, some surprising partners, as well as just a very great potential to do global good, as well as local good. And then we'll also be covering our space. And it's based healthcare and AI informatics, which came to us in a very odd way, in that we were originally asked to address disaster medicine in space. And as disaster experts, it made sense that we wouldn't be approached, but these are areas that a lot of the spacefaring agencies have already addressed very well. In fact, NASA was one of our clients many years ago, and has taken the lead in the area of space, potential space disaster. But along the way, we discovered that there were other areas in space healthcare, that needed to be addressed from a from a whole new approach to the framework of regulation and even jurisdictions.
Marco Ciappelli47:04
Well, I'm really excited for that, Shawn, what do you think?
Sean Martin 47:08
Well, I mean, yeah, there's so much more to cover, I mean, animals, I love animals and spaces cool. And, and when you start to get into the tech like AI, where everything's driven by data, and I also happen to love the whole health care, tech, health tech space as well. For me, I'm just really excited to, to hear more about all the things you're up to and, and how they aren't just pet projects. They're they're actually things that that make a difference. And hopefully, we can get into some of the those details as well for some of the outcomes that you've seen as we dig in deeper to some of these topics.
Marco Ciappelli47:53
Absolutely. And the reason why I have no doubts that it was going to be an ongoing collaboration is exactly this. I mean, every single conversation, Maurice and Alison, that we had, prior to start recording this podcast, you always bring some really interesting topic and partnership and collaboration and experts. So I'm very honored. And we are I can speak with shot for Shawn as well to have you as a ongoing, serious, permanent guest. And, of course, sometimes even host some of the conversation and we can organize some panels together. So with that said, we're ready in the 50 minutes, Mark. So I'm going to thank you so much for this first episode, I want to invite everybody that wants to learn more about the high alert Institute and every topics that they touch, to stay tuned, because there'll be another two introductory episode about what they do. And then at that point, we're just gonna go and start diving in into individual topics. So again, Maurice and Alison, thank you, thank you so much for for being part of this.
Allison Sakara49:10
Oh, it's been our pleasure, Marco. And, Sean, we really appreciate having this conversation with both of you for sharing a few insights into what we're doing what we're all about sharing that passion that we have and that we are collecting from others that we meet.
Maurice Ramirez49:27
Thank you so much, gentlemen, it's been an absolute honor.
Marco Ciappelli49:30
Absolutely. And for everybody that enjoy listening through the Redefining Society on ITSPmagazine, there will be links and resources. Of course, the website is high alert institute.org. But we will put all those notes in a written form and hyperlink in the in the Episode Notes, so we hope that you maybe ask some questions, maybe the next episode, we will open up for comments You may leave from this first one again. Thank you very much, everybody. And Sean, thank you for joining me.
Sean Martin 50:07
It’s pleasure to be honest. Glad to be on. It's all about the people, the pets and the planet.
Marco Ciappelli50:12
Right? And Roberts and Allianz and all of that. Really cool. All right, thank you very much, everybody.