new year, new work

From hanging out with ex-convicts at a woodworking shop on the West Side or Chicago's millionaires and high end jewels in the Gold Coast, it's been a busy month back to work! Loving the variety, challenges and inspiring assignments.

Here, Chicago Public School teachers have a lesson on using robotics in their classrooms as part of the Rush Educational Mentoring Program

 Bee-bot

A portrait of Dr. Christina O'Donoghue for a story about isolated limb fusion - an advanced and minimally invasive technique to treat advanced melanoma. The technique stops the flow of blood with a tourniquet and chemo drugs are put directly into the blood of the limb for 40 minutes using special catheters.

Rush University students give out community health screenings at Mount Olive Baptist Church on the West Side of Chicago on Martin Luther King Jr. Day

 Checking out the nurses station for their daily huddle to help efficiency and productivity

The first Saturday of February I got to hang with a few ex-convicts who are being retrained in woodworking at BKE Design shop on Lake Street as part of a community funded project to revitalize the West Side. It's all part of our bigger project, the Total Health Collaborative, in which Rush is partnering with other health care and education providers, the faith community, business, government and community residents to improve the health and economic vitality of Chicago's West Side:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8_4KgVTYwg

The shop itself was like walking into a time capsule and has been a wood shop in the city since 1924.

As part of the Rush Women's Board, a philanthropy cocktail hour was held at the high end Graff Jewels on Oak Street last week. With jewelry specially flown in from London and pieces for sale from $5,000 to $3.5 million, there was someone for everyone.