Call from Friday November 6th, 2026 featuring author of The Worry Backpack, Erin Welsh.

Erin Welsh, LCPC, is a licensed clinical professional counselor, author, and founder of Welsh Wellness and Counseling. Her work focuses on helping middle school, high school, and college-age students better understand anxiety, confidence, executive functioning, and the challenges that can be hard to put into words.

Her first book, The Worry Backpack: A Story About the Invisible Things We Carry, was created to give kids a relatable, accessible way to understand the worries they carry every day. Erin writes stories that feel like "big kid" books while remaining approachable for readers who may need extra support with reading.

Call from Friday October 30th, 2026 featuring Dr. Lydia Pecker.

Dr. Lydia H. Pecker is a pediatric hematologist and Director of the Young Adult Clinic at the Sickle Cell Center for Adults at Johns Hopkins.

Dr. Pecker received her undergraduate degree in Africana studies from Brown University and earned her M.D. at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She completed residency training at Children's Hospital at Montefiore and completed a fellowship at Children's National Medical Center and the National Institutes of Health's National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute before joining the Hopkins faculty in 2016.

Dr. Pecker's NIH and foundation-funded research focuses on reproductive health in people with ovaries and sickle cell disease.

Call from Friday October 23rd, 2026 featuring author Ken Terry.

Ken Terry is a health care journalist with more than 30 years' experience and the author of three books on health care reform. His most recent book, available from the American Association for Physician Leadership, is entitled Beyond Medicare For All: Cracking the Code of the Healthcare Affordability Crisis.

Call from Friday October 16th, 2026 featuring Dr. Pouneh Razavi.

Dr. Pouneh Razavi is the Director for Breast Imaging in the National Capital Region (NCR). She is a breast imaging radiologist at Sibley Memorial Hospital and interprets mammograms, ultrasounds and MRIs in addition to performing all minimally invasive breast procedures, including breast biopsies.

She oversees breast imaging operations at the Sullivan Breast Center at Sibley Memorial Hospital and Johns Hopkins Medical Imaging in Bethesda. Dr. Razavi earned her medical degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine. She completed a residency in radiology at Georgetown University Hospital, followed by a fellowship in breast imaging at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Prior to joining the Sullivan Breast Center in 2008, Dr. Razavi was an attending physician and breast imager at Georgetown University Hospital.

Dr. Razavi is a member of the Medical Advisory Committee for Project WISH (Women Into Staying Healthy), member of the Medical Advisory Committee for the Judith Lese Foundation, Society of Breast Imaging, National Consortium of Breast Centers, and Radiological Society of North America. She has published articles and presented at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) on a radiologic pathology course. She has a strong interest in Breast MRI and has been an invited speaker at local hospitals and associations, including presenting grand rounds at Prince William Hospital on the utility of breast MRI. She has presented on the breast cancer symposium on screening for breast cancer, and at the Sibley Memorial Hospital Breast Health: Knowledge Is Power seminars and Suburban Hospital Knowledge is Power seminar.

Call from Friday September 25th, 2026 featuring Dr. Su Thavarajah.

Dr. Sumeska Thavarajah is an assistant professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her areas of expertise include nephrology.

Dr. Thavarajah earned her M.D. at Wayne State University School of Medicine. She completed her residency at the University of Connecticut Health Center and performed nephrology fellowships at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and the University of Connecticut Health Center.

She serves as chair of the National Kidney Foundation of Maryland's Medical Advisory Board. She was recognized by the National Kidney Foundation of Maryland with a Linda Cameron Award for Patient Services in 2015.

Call from Friday October 2nd, 2026 featuring Dr. Jon Zenilman.

Dr. Jonathan M. Zenilman is a professor of medicine, at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He also has joint appointments in population family and reproductive health, international health, and epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Dr. Zenilman is known internationally for his work in infectious disease epidemiology. Prior to coming to Johns Hopkins in 1989, he was a medical epidemiologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) where he developed the National Gonococcal Isolate Surveillance Program (GISP). , which has operated continuously since 1987. He also coordinated and wrote the 1989 STD Treatment Guidelines and has continuously consulted with CDC since.

In Baltimore, his activities have included directing the Baltimore City Health Department Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) program and developing the Johns Hopkins Center for STI Prevention and Training. His research encompassed nearly all areas of STD behavioral science and clinical epidemiology, as well as extensive experience in conducting Phase 1 through Phase 3 clinical trials for drugs and vaccines. In addition to being a productive researcher and clinician, he has been active in health policy, has served as a Senior Medical Advisor for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (DHHS) 1995-1997, has testified before Congress and the Maryland legislature on infectious diseases related issues. He has been a technical consultant on numerous advisory committees for CDC, NIH, DoD, and the US Presidential Commission on Bioethical Issues and on numerous data safety monitoring committees for drugs and vaccines.

Call from Friday October 9th, 2026 featuring Dr. Shmuel Shoham.

Shmuel Shoham, M.D. is Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Dr. Shoham has over 20 years of experience in management of patients with invasive infections, and is the author or co-author of over 100 original articles, book chapters and topic reviews. He is a nationally recognized expert in infectious diseases of immunocompromised patients and his research explores diagnosis, prevention and treatment of infections in such patients. Dr. Shoham serves as a reviewer and expert consultant to multiple journals, professional societies, hospitals and government agencies in the US and numerous countries abroad.

He is a member of professional guideline committees for the American Society of Transplantation (AST), the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer/Invasive Fungal Infections Cooperative Group and Infectious Diseases Mycoses Study Group (EORTC/MSG) and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN). Dr. Shoham is the recipient of numerous awards including the American College of Physicians' (Washington, DC Chapter) laureate award, their highest honor.

Dr. Shoham received his medical degree from Thomas Jefferson University (Philadelphia, PA) and medical residency and infectious diseases fellowship training at Boston University School of Medicine (Boston, MA).

Call from Friday September 18th, 2026 featuring Randi Eichenbaum.

"I'm BRCA2+, which means I'm high-risk for certain cancers. I lost my mom to ovarian cancer, and I later had breast cancer myself. So I didn't come to hereditary cancer risk as an entrepreneur looking for a market. I came to it as a patient lost in it, and eventually realized my product brain and my personal story were pointing to the same missing thing."

MOTA (mota.care) is a digital companion designed to help women with BRCA mutations navigate their care journey. They provide personalized roadmaps based on National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines, connect people with vetted specialists, and offer a supportive community of others on similar journeys.