March 31, 2021 | 5:00 pm ET | bit.ly/ItCanBeDoneWFU
They Say It Can’t Be Done is a documentary that explores how innovation can solve some of the world’s thorniest problems. The film tracks four companies on the cutting edge of technological solutions that could heal the seas, solve hunger, eliminate organ wait lists, and reduce atmospheric carbon. Innovation never comes without risk and often brings consequences that can impact our health, safety, and environment which is why our regulatory system is designed to protect and serve the public interest. In the fast-paced world of technological development, however, even well-intentioned regulations can inadvertently hamper beneficial progress. Each company in the film has the potential to solve some of our greatest challenges, but all face a common roadblock: a regulatory system that could impede their pathways to success. Is it time for us to imagine a new regulatory approach? Join moderator and CSC Executive Director, Dr. Christina Elson, as she leads the discussion on optimism, innovation, and constraints with distinguished panelists from WFU and the documentary, They Say It Can’t Be Done: Patrick Reasonover (Producer, They Say It Can’t Be Done); Dr. Anthony Atala and Dr. Julie Allickson (Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine); Brandon Barney (Primary Ocean); and Dr. Stan Meiburg (WFU Graduate Studies in Sustainability). There will be time for Q&A during the webinar, and you may also submit questions in advance. Registration is required to obtain the link for the webinar and to receive instructions to view the film and to submit questions to the panelists in advance. Register here: bit.ly/ItCanBeDoneWFU Panelists: Patrick Reasonover is a partner, writer, and producer at Just Add Firewater and an Outreach 
Affiliate with the Wake Forest Center for the Study of Capitalism. He has produced two feature documentaries, including They Say It Can’t Be Done, a look at how innovators are poised to solve the world’s greatest challenges, which launches Spring 2021. In 2020, he directed an animated comedy web series based on the NYTimes bestselling Politically Incorrect Guides. He is in development with partner Andrea Fuller on a new feature on medical innovators. Patrick has produced over 40 narrative short films, including a finalist for the 2018 Student Oscar. He consults on story development nationally and internationally. Patrick has a B.A. in Philosophy and Creative Writing from Emory University. Anthony Atala, MD is the Chair and Institute Director and a practicing surgeon and a researcher 
in the area of regenerative medicine. Fifteen applications of technologies developed in his laboratory have been used clinically. He is editor of 25 books and three journals. Dr. Atala has published over 600 journal articles and has received over 250 national and international patents. Dr. Atala was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences, to the National Academy of Inventors as a Charter Fellow, and to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. Dr. Atala is a recipient of the US Congress funded Christopher Columbus Foundation Award, bestowed on a living American who is currently working on a discovery that will significantly affect society; the World Technology Award in Health and Medicine, for achieving significant and lasting progress; the Edison Science/Medical Award for innovation, the R&D Innovator of the Year Award, and the Smithsonian Ingenuity Award for Bioprinting Tissue and Organs. Dr. Atala’s work was listed twice as Time Magazine’s Top 10 medical breakthroughs of the year, and once as one of 5 discoveries that will change the future of organ transplants. He was named by Scientific American as one of the world’s most influential people in biotechnology, by U.S. News & World Report as one of 14 Pioneers of Medical Progress in the 21st Century, by Life Sciences Intellectual Property Review as one of the top key influencers in the life sciences intellectual property arena, and by Nature Biotechnology as one of the top 10 translational researchers in the world. Julie G. Allickson, PhD is the Chief Manufacturing Development Center Officer and has more than 25 years of experience in clinical 
translation of cellular therapies and regenerative medicine products, including business management and board directorship experience. She has eight years of experience as an executive officer with a publicly traded company building services for cellular banking, including licensure of technology with more than 30 affiliates. She is an experienced scientist who excels at delivering innovation, driving milestones, maintaining sensitivity to financial considerations, building multidisciplinary teams, as well as strategic planning, project management, and regulatory expertise. Dr. Allickson has a history of creating value in clinical development and translation. Brandon Scott Barney is a Co-Founder and Director of Research & Communications and an American broadcast journalist and serial 
entrepreneur with a social conscience. He is co-host of Southern California’s longest running public radio program covering the digital revolution: KPFK 90.7 FM’s Digital Village Radio. His segment, DigitalCulture.LA, co-produced and co-hosted with Brittney Gallagher, is on investigation into the history and future of science and technology and how computers and the internet are changing our society. Mr. Barney is a leading researcher on technological disruption and has advised government officials and corporate leaders from around the world on the impacts of emerging technologies. Brandon is committed to the advancement of the Southern California and specifically the innovation ecosystem known as Silicon Beach. Mr. Barney manages the Non-Profit, Intellectual Property, and Startup groups at the Barney Law Firm. He trains students of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds in after school and summer school programs throughout Southern California that provide Americans with real world experience on the front lines of technology working with the most innovative organizations to solve the biggest problems facing humanity. Brandon has made his home in the creative soul of Los Angeles: Venice Beach. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Venice Symphony Orchestra and the Open Temple and he volunteers at the Israel Levin Senior Center helping Los Angeles’ most senior citizens live well. Brandon is working now to connect Silicon Beach to the new blue economy and the potential of seaweed to heal the sea, soil and air. Dr. Stan Meiburg is the Director of Graduate Studies in Sustainability at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North 
Carolina, following a 39-year career with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. From 2014 to 2017, Dr. Meiburg served as EPA’s Acting Deputy Administrator, the agency’s second highest position. Before becoming Deputy Administrator, Dr. Meiburg served in senior career positions as EPA’s Deputy Regional Administrator in the Southeast and South Central regions of the United States, as well as in EPA offices in Research Triangle Park and in Washington, DC. He received EPA’s Distinguished Career Service Award, EPA’s Gold Medal for his work on the Clean Air Act Amendments, the Commander’s Award for Public Service from the Department of the Army, and the Distinguished Federal Executive award, the highest civilian award for a Federal senior executive. He is currently chair of the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission, a member of the Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, and a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. Dr. Meiburg holds a B.A. degree from Wake Forest University, and masters and doctoral degrees in political science from The Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Christina Elson is the Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Capitalism. Christina is a 
firm believer in the value of interdisciplinary thinking in fostering creativity and the development of an entrepreneurial mindset in supporting individual flourishing. To the Executive Director role, Christina brings her background as an anthropologist and businessperson. Her business career has focused on designing realistic, executable strategies to successfully launch new initiatives and ventures while maintaining an underlying focus on continuous improvement. Her research career has focused on the creation and dissolution of shared elite identities and on the limits of early states. More recently, she has initiated projects exploring psychological traits and behaviors that support team success. ABOUT THE WAKE FOREST INSTITUTE FOR REGENERATIVE MEDICINE: The Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) is recognized as an international leader in translating scientific discovery into clinical therapies. Physicians and scientists at WFIRM were the first in the world to engineer laboratory-grown organs that were successfully implanted into humans. Today, this interdisciplinary team that numbers about 400 is working to engineer more than 40 different replacement tissues and organs, and to develop healing cell therapies – all with the goal to cure, rather than merely treat, disease. ABOUT PRIMARY OCEAN: Primary Ocean seeks to reverse climate change: through seaweed cultivation and commercialization through the deployment of our weapon of mass bioremediation – large-scale seaweed farms – to draw down carbon, restore oxygen, and create habitat in our oceans; and by refining and distributing organic seaweed by products as food, fertilizer, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, bioplastics, and biofuels for the replacement of agrochemicals, plastics, and fossil fuels. ABOUT WFU GRADUATE STUDIES IN SUSTAINABILITY GUIDED BY A UNIVERSITY MOTTO that charges us to pursue our best self in the name of humanity, PRO HUMANITATE, The Sustainability Graduate Programs call on a vast array of scholars and practitioners. We are committed to advance a shared mission aimed at developing solutions to some of the world’s most intractable problems. Here, the next generation of change agents explore emerging solutions through coursework and research with faculty experts across multiple disciplines. Our immersive strategic alliances empower students to engage with truly committed partners.
This event is made possible by the combined efforts of the WFU Office of Sustainability, the WFU School of Business Graduate Student Coalition, WFU School of Business Integrative Student Services, and the Wake Forest Center for the Study of Capitalism.