Guest: Dr. Gifford-Jones (medical writer)
Dr. Gifford-Jones’ job is to keep people healthy. This is easier said than done, but he believes it can be done through many factors, ranging from genetics to diet to staying active. His journey started in medical school, leading him to careers that inspired and fuelled him to continue a career in medicine and surgery.
Society wants monopolies for certain things – mostly our utilities, such as power, natural gas, and so on. Mark Jaccard’s job is to lead a team that keeps those monopolies in check, as the CEO of the British Columbia Utilities Commission. In addition, he is a professor at Simon Fraser University in the environmental field. It’s a busy life but it was a long time coming, as someone who wanted to work in the economics part in the energy industry.
Vancouver Community College is the oldest of its kind in British Columbia – this fact is not lost on Ajay Patel, who appreciates his role as its president every day. While a lot of his work is managing the institution’s operations, it is the idea of influencing the future generations of students that excites him.
“If you’re going to give yourself any job title in the world, you might as well make it a fun one.” That is why Ali Binazir turned his mental health therapy career into becoming a happiness engineer. This is an area that has fascinated him, living in affluent areas that are seemingly filled with miserable people. His research dives into how that happened and whether there is a physical or psychological reason for this. Despite having a small team, much of his work is done solo – and that is one of the biggest challenges to his success that he had to overcome.
Did you know there is a World Happiness Report? That is what John Helliwell devotes his professional life to, creating metrics and analyses to measure happiness around the world in order to influence decisions that promote personal wellbeing – a far cry from where he thought he would end up.
