An Odyssey with Anum Farooq (Odyssey Global Media)

Anum Farooq : The Neurodivergent Professional and Global Outlooks

Anum Farooq : The Neurodivergent Professional and Global Outlooks
An introductory series relating to neurodivergency and global systems, by first looking at perspectives from the world of work and the neurodivergent professional.
According to the Harvard Business Review; "Neurodiversity is a competitive advantage, and a growing number of prominent companies have reformed their HR processes in order to access neurodiverse talent; among them are SAP, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Microsoft, Willis Towers Watson, Ford, and EY. Many others, including Caterpillar, Dell Technologies, Deloitte, IBM, JPMorgan Chase, and UBS, have start-up or exploratory efforts under way. 
SAP uses a metaphor to communicate this idea across the organization: People are like puzzle pieces, irregularly shaped. Historically, companies have asked employees to trim away their irregularities, because it’s easier to fit people together if they are all perfect rectangles. But that requires employees to leave their differences at home—differences firms need in order to innovate. “The corporate world has mostly missed out on this [benefit].  
John Elder Robison, a scholar in residence and a cochair of the Neurodiversity Working Group at the College of William & Mary, writes “Indeed, many individuals who embrace the concept of neurodiversity believe that people with differences do not need to be cured; they need help and accommodation instead.”  
Anum Farooq is a highly accomplished and diversified, neurodivergent professional with an established skills set across education, entrepreneurial, youth and environmental advocacy, culture and arts field, as well as being internationally published.
Anum brings a unique blend of strategic thinking, creativity, and analytical skills to deliver innovative solutions to complex challenges, as a graduate of Imperial College London with a component of her degree in Management from Imperial College London Business School. Anum is also a country wide ambassador for an educational NGO.
With a proven track record in driving organizational success as Director of Odyssey Global Media, optimizing operational efficiency, and fostering stakeholder engagement, she is a results-oriented professional committed to achieving exceptional outcomes.
She is also an United Nations FCCC Youth Constituent and is an IYC Youth Advocate. She champions for education and neurodivergent individuals, and leads from her heart to make a meaningful impact on the world.
Anum is also a globally published artist, with her artwork is displayed on dedicated art channels and streamed across major platforms including Apple TV Plus, Samsung TV Plus, VIZIO, ViX, Google Play, Xumo and LG TV amongst others as a Loupe Artist.   She has been awarded the 2023 Artistic Excellence Award from the Circle Foundation for the Arts in Greece, and Exceptional Merit in the 4th Edition of the Global Talent Art Prize. She received the RAK Fine Arts Festival 2023 English Poetry Award in the UAE. In 2022, Anum was longlisted for Digital Innovation in Art Award and was a participant in the Noon Arts Award exhibition. 
Anum's artistic achievements extend beyond the art world, with her work being recognized by the wider community. In 2021, she was invited to be a Linked INNYC Women of the World Artist, highlighting her impact and influence on society as a whole. Her work has also been featured in social media campaigns, including The Poignant Rose in the Art, Culture, Tourism UK Social Media Campaign of 2021.

Ami Valdemoro and Illac Diaz: Empowering Communities Through Sustainable and Solar Liter of Light

Ami Valdemoro and Illac Diaz: Empowering Communities Through Sustainable and Solar Liter of Light
 
Liter of Light is a global, grassroots movement committed to providing affordable, sustainable solar light to people with limited or no access to electricity.
Through a network of partnerships around the world, Liter of Light volunteers teach marginalized communities how to use recycled plastic bottles and locally sourced materials to illuminate their homes, businesses, and streets.
Liter of Light has installed more than 350,000 bottle lights in more than 15 countries and taught green skills to empower grassroots entrepreneurs at every stop.
Liter of Light's open source technology has been recognized by the UN and adopted for use in some UNHCR camps. Liter of Light is the proud recipient of the 2016 St. Andrews Prize for the Environment, the 2015 Zayed Future Energy Prize, and a winner of the 2014-2015 World Habitat Award.
 
Through social media and community replication, the movement has spread; 145,200 households in the Philippines, and 353,600+ homes in over 15 countries with main offices in Philippines, USA, and Colombia. Women's cooperatives now operate building the Liter of Light @Night lights in the Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Colombia.
 
 
 
 

HER EXCELLENCY CHIZOBA NZEAKOR: CLIMATE CHANGE & SUSTAINABILITY PERSPECTIVES FROM QUEENS COMMONWEALTH YOUTH TRUST MEMBER, SDGs 4, 7 & 13 ADVOCATE AND ENTREPRENEUR

Climate change and sustainability perspectives from Her Excellency Chizoba Nzeakor, who is a highly accomplished Global Youth Ambassador, Entrepreneur, and SDGs 4, 7, and 13 Advocate, with a strong focus on climate and clean energy.
 
As a member of the Queens Commonwealth Youth Trust Network and the Commonwealth Sustainable Energy Transition Youth Executives, Chizoba is part of a global community of over 850 leaders dedicated to creating positive social change in the Commonwealth. She is also an MBA candidate at Quantic Business School, a Fellow at Student Energy, and a UN-SDSN Local pathways Fellow.
 
Her professional experience and expertise in this field have earned her recognition as a future leader, by the Aspen Institute at the Aspen Ideas Climate Summit in Miami Beach 2023
 
Chizoba is the Founder and CEO of Climate Technology Solutions, Zoba Advisory, and Caroline Raphael Events. Her passion for renewable energy, event planning, project management, climate change education, and clean energy advocacy has led her to work with renewable energy firms, climate education organizations, and other institutions to accelerate the Net Zero goals and create access to clean energy, education, and various other opportunities.
 
With her extensive experience in the field, Chizoba has worked as a solar/inverter system developer, accelerating the demand for solar energy by creating relationships that bridge the gap. As an energy and climate finance specialist for PAWAVEST, she led analysis and managed institutional partnerships in clean energy finance. She has also served as the Head of Business Development, Partnerships, and Programs at Zenelgie Global Solutions, an Engineering, Procurement, and Construction renewable energy company. Currently, she is an Energy Project Coordinator at Integrated Africa Power in Bonn, Germany.

PAUL VERNON & KELSEY SMITH : FILM-MAKING, DIRECTING, ACTING, MANAGING & THE WORLD OF AI, ART, BOOKS & MUSEUMS

An incredibly insightful interview with film-maker, director, author and artist Paul Vernon and his fiancée Kelsey Smith who is an optician and a manager at The Eye Place.
 
The conversation centred on film-making, directing, acting, art exhibitions, books, management to artificial intelligence and museums with fascinating perspectives.
 
Paul Vernon is an internationally screened award-winning filmmaker, author and artist whose work has been selected in places such as London Short Film Festival at the ICA, BAFTA, San Diego Comic-Con and LACMA. With press coverage by the BBC and film commissions for the Danish Arts Foundation, as well as collaboration with the Arts Council England.
 
His film '​​Lost In The Nameless City' had its world premiere in competition at the Artists Forum Festival of The Moving Image in New York, was the winner of an Experimental Award in Romania and screened in Mexico in competition among only nine other films ​at the Cinetekton International Film & Architecture Festival. 
 
He has also authored two books, one being 'Strange Space: An inquisitive gaze at ignored architectural splendor, intricate mundanity and the soul of its nuances.
He is currently working on his film 'Spirit' in the Unearth art collective, curating and designing his new museum Vortex as part of his label Captain Cowboy and has started working with AI illustration tools towards virtual exhibitions, exploration, experimentation and fresh narratives. 
Kelsey Smith has a Science background as a qualified dispensing optician educated at Anglia Ruskin university, recently becoming the manager of her own store for company The Eye Place in London. She has a creative streak and has crafted gifts, sewn, acted and helped curate and install art exhibitions.

MICHELLE KIM : GRASSROOTS VOICES OF UNITED NATIONS FCCC YOUTH CONSTITUENTS

Incredibly wonderful to meet fellow United Nations FCCC YOUNGO Youth Constituents at COP28 to hear their insights for the Odyssey Global Media Podcasts. An absolute honour to meet Michelle Kim who is a sustainability educator, youth community leader and advocate working heavily on UN SDGs & Social+Environmental pillars of sustainability. 
She has numerous lived experiences growing up in four different countries- Korea, Philippines, Canada and U.S, and experienced poverty, climate crisis to racism. 
Therefore, all her experiences are rooted from her care and love for people and the planet. I adore her ethos of 'No one gets left behind'.
Michelle is currently completing her Global Development Master’s Degree at Harvard University
Meeting Michelle was a real privilege and this is a beginning of our collaboration, and hopefully more for the future!
Michelle has incredible meaningful work from being involved in current climate education in both global South and North, working at international and local levels. As youth ambassador with UN Association Canada, she worked to promote UN SDGs; and worked with charity organization in Canada for indigenous youth and marginalized youth on developing climate initiative projects for Great Toronto Area, amongst other incredible achievements.

AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER THROUGH INNOVATIVE RESEARCH AND A HUMANE PERSPECTIVE

BOB BOWEN: AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER THROUGH INNOVATIVE RESEARCH AND A HUMANE PERSPECTIVE
 
Bob Bowen is an Adjunct Professor of Social Work at Malone University in Canton, Ohio (USA) and a behavior support practitioner with Prag Consulting in Melbourne, Australia. He has over 40 years of experience supporting individuals with complex behavioral needs in the United States, Canada, and Australia. He has provided keynote and plenary presentations at conferences in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, Australia, Hong Kong, Canada and the United States.
Bob is the developer of The Matrix of Needs, an innovative approach to understanding human needs. He has published over 20 peer and scientifically reviewed articles, three book chapters, and presented hundreds of workshops on the prevention of workplace violence, while improving the quality of life for people affected by disabilities, and the staff who support them.
During his career in human services, Bob has held positions ranging from direct support professional to CEO and almost everything in between.
He has also served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester in New York for eleven years, and also has experience teaching at Walsh University in North Canton, Ohio, and at Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo, Iowa. In his work and his writing, Bob strives to integrate his passion for knowledge and compassion for people into a humanistic framework for behavior support that is trauma centered, not just trauma informed.
Bob is a member of the Expert Advisory Group for the National Psychosocial SafetyNetwork in Australia, the Restraint Reduction Network in the United Kingdom, the National Association of Social Workers, the National Organization of Human Services and the Association for Positive Behaviour Support. Bob is certified in trauma treatment  through the National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine, and  the Trauma Research Foundation

Gabriella Silvagnoli with Anum Farooq

GABRIELLA SILVAGNOLI: INSIGHTS FROM A GLOBAL ART CURATOR
Gabriella Silvagnoli is a Puerto Rican-born people person with a love for video creation, art, and visuals. She studied at Boston University and graduated with a bachelor’s in Film and Television and a minor in Art History.
Gabriella’s passion for art and design led her to the New York and London art world scenes, where she has worked as an art advisor, video producer, and art curator. She has helped curate the artwork for countless residential and hospitality spaces worldwide.
Gabriella now works as a digital art curator at Loupe Art, an art streaming platform focused on bringing art onscreen and transforming spaces, one screen at a time.

Katharina Eisenberg with Anum Farooq

KATHARINA EISENBERG : EXPLORING ART THROUGH SPIRITUAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES
Katharina Eisenberg (also known as: Kunst und Klartext) is a contemporary artist from Germany. Concerned with the abilities of the human mind, her works reflect psychological and global issues, mirroring the qualities and specifics of the time and sphere we live in. In her multiparted series - acrylic paintings and mixed media 3D installations- she also often works with symbols, which talk to the subconscious. Currently making international projects and art residencies in different countries, expanding her global network to get to know the meta-level of various forms of beings. This is a great inspiration for her, leading to multilayered new artistic impulses. The metamorphosis process is very aware in her artwork, the phoenix will tell you more.