The Team

Josh’s experience at the intersection of technology, media and business began at Forbes, where he chronicled the brainiacs and billionaires behind the turn-of-the-century tech upheaval as an associate editor while opening Forbes’s Bay Area office. A contributing editor at Wired for six years, Josh briefly expired while volunteering in a NASA hypergravity endurance experiment. He has also written for Vanity Fair, Outside and shelfloads of other publications, and served as editor in chief of 2017’s Future of Medicine report. Josh graduated from Yale with a BA in English and holds an executive education certificate in Sustainable Capitalism and ESG from Berkeley Law.

David is an award-winning life science and political journalist in print, television and radio; a best-selling author of 11 books published in 21 languages, including the global bestseller Calendar; and an entrepreneur and researcher. He writes for Vanity Fair, Scientific American, Wired, The New York Times, The Atlantic, Fortune and many others. His latest book is Talking to Robots: Tales from Our Human-Robot Futures. David is a former commentator for NPR’s Morning Edition and a former special correspondent and producer for ABC’s Nightline and 20/20. He is the cofounder and CEO of Arc Fusion, which convenes top leaders in life sciences for discussions about major issues of the day; he is the founding director of the Center of Life Science Policy at UC Berkeley and a former Health Strategist in Residence at IDEO. He has won numerous awards, including Magazine Story of the Year from AAAS and three nominations for National Magazine Awards. David’s next nonfiction book is The Secret Lives of the Sea: Voyages into the Ocean’s Microbiome, due out on September 12, 2023. David has been on the faculty of Singularity University and is a member of the SF Writers Grotto.

Ethan is a journalist who has spent the last two decades writing about culture and psychology. He is the author of Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche and Urban Tribes: A Generation Redefines Friendship, Family, and Commitment. His writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Outside, Discover, Men’s Journal and Wired, among other national publications.

Rebecca Ferrini is a full-time medical director for Edgemoor, the County of San Diego’s skilled nursing facility. She has specialties in hospice, palliative medicine and general preventive medicine. During her tenure at Edgemoor, the facility has achieved the highest possible ratings from the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (five stars, 20/20 CMS), has been named a top nursing home in US News and World Report for seven years and received the American Health Care Association / National Center for Assisted Living 2017 Gold – Excellence in Quality Award. In 2019, she received a California Association of Long Term Care Medicine Statewide Leadership Award, and in 2009, the American Medical Directors Association named her Medical Director of the Year. She is faculty for the Core Curriculum used to train nationally certified long-term-care medical directors and has become a nationwide expert in the care of younger adults, Huntington’s disease, risk management, management of behavioral problems and improving quality.

Jonathan is an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School and an attending emergency physician at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He is chair of the Mass General Brigham Enterprise Emergency Medicine Quality and Safety Council and chair of quality and safety for the MGH ED. Dr. Sonis also serves as an associate medical director at CRICO, Harvard’s patient safety and medical malpractice company. Dr. Sonis has extensive leadership experience related to quality improvement, provider and staff communication, and patient experience, and he lectures and publishes frequently on these topics. He received his MD with Alpha Omega Alpha honors from the Tufts University School of Medicine and trained at the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency, where he served as a chief resident. He has completed educational programs in leadership, quality service and value-based healthcare, and earned his Master’s in Health Care Management at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Joshua is a practicing dermatologic surgeon and author. His bestselling thrillers (Isolation Ward and Flawless) have earned comparisons to Michael Crichton and Scott Turow. He has published numerous clinical and scientific papers and was a contributing editor on the Future of Medicine report. He holds degrees from Yale and Stanford Medical School.

Danny has been the West Coast correspondent for The Sunday Times since the beginning of 2017, covering all things technology and Silicon Valley. He also hosts the weekly Danny in the Valley podcast. Before moving back to California, he spent 15 years in Britain, and has reported from more than 25 countries.

Laura is an award-winning San Francisco–based journalist and the author of four books, including The New York Times–bestselling memoir An Italian Affair. She also writes about science and climate for Genentech and Rewiring America and collaborated with scientist Saul Griffith on his recent book, Electrify.

Tami is a DEIA&B (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility and Belonging) consultant, leader and change-maker. She runs workshops on DEIA&B, and advises C-suites, executive leadership teams and human resource professionals on how to incorporate diversity into one’s corporate culture to increase loyalty and value. She is also a motivational speaker, encouraging others to build more confident, meaningful and successful lives. She was a journalist for many years with NBC News, first at Nightly News with Tom Brokaw and then with Dateline NBC. Tami was born with a physical disability and later in life was diagnosed with an invisible disability. She uses her life experiences to shed light on the fact that many people move between multiple underrepresented communities. Tami was a ski racer on an international circuit and uses that competitive spirit to stand up for a community that is often neither seen nor heard in boardrooms. She prides herself on getting her foot in the door and having a seat at the table.

Jenny received her PhD in Biomedical Science (Cancer Biology) from UCSF, where she studied novel drug candidates for pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. Her essays and poems have been published in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Tin House, Rattle, Zyzzyva and the San Francisco Chronicle, among other places. Her debut poetry collection, Focal Point, won the 2020 Steel Toe Books Poetry Award. Most recently, she worked with life science and biopharma groups as a competitive intelligence manager, with a focus on ovarian cancer. In addition to oncology, she has covered health insurance policy, diversity in medicine, medical humanities, end of life, mental health and more.

Dominique is a writer and filmmaker whose career has ranged from investigating political and social trends in the US to film analysis and interpretation. Currently a professor of Media Arts, Sciences, and Studies at Ithaca College, she has also worked with StudioBinder, Nantucket Film Festival, DOC NYC, Netflix, NBCUniversal and Hulu. Based in New York’s Finger Lakes region, she seeks out new cultural experiences to spotlight in her next script or article. Dominique has traveled to over 20 countries and speaks two and a half languages.

Natalie is a reporter based in Oakland, California. She loves to work with sound, write prose and dig up facts. When not doing those things, she consumes a lot of media and spends loads of time outside. Some of her favorite topics to cover are health, agriculture, food and the environment. She has reported for NPR, KQED, KALW, Grist and Civil Eats.

Patrick has a PhD in neuroscience from Stanford University and writes on science, technology and culture for publications such as The New Yorker online and Slate. His scientific research has been featured by The New York Times, National Geographic and Radiolab, among other outlets. His book, Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness, was published in October 2022.

Andrew explores the near future of biology and biotechnology. He is the cofounder of the Center of Excellence for Engineering Biology and the Genome Project-write, the international scientific effort to design and build large genomes, including the human genome. He also cofounded Humane Genomics, a New York-based developer of precision artificial viruses targeting cancer. Andrew is a former distinguished research scientist at Autodesk Life Sciences. His book, The Genesis Machine: Our Quest to Rewrite Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology, coauthored with futurist Amy Webb, was released in February 2022. He is currently exploring how our cells are a new asset class in the sense that they can be collected, analyzed and used in a variety of ways that have the  potential to generate significant value.

Ken double-majored in biological sciences and mechanical engineering at Stanford University. He later performed his medical training at Harvard Medical School, where he graduated in 1990 after taking a year off to do engineering development of new surgical laser systems. After completing his orthopedic residency at UC Davis, he completed two years of fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital before returning to UC Davis as an assistant professor specializing in adult reconstructive orthopedics. He also continued to perform engineering work in conjunction with scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, with whom he later helped to establish the National Science Foundation National Center for Biophotonics. He has 77 issued US patents, and founded and served as CEO and chairman for both Invuity (acquired by Stryker) and Bespoke Innovations (acquired by 3D Systems). He has subsequently founded several active companies and now practices orthopedic surgery in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Larry is managing editor for special projects at Attention Span, and cofounder and executive editor of Travelers’ Tales publishers, where he has worked on all of the company’s 160-plus books and helps oversee their publishing program. For three decades he wrote a newspaper column about travel security, as well as travel stories in major newspapers and magazines. He is also cofounder of The Prose Doctors, an editors consortium with more than 125 years of collective editorial experience. He has traveled in over 60 countries, from the Himalayas to the Dead Sea, the Arctic to equatorial rainforests. He holds a BA in English from Dartmouth.

Alba is a sustainability director based in Attention Span’s Boston office. She focuses on strategic projects related to sustainability, diversity and inclu- sion, stakeholder engagement and event planning and execution. Prior to Attention Span, Alba spent eight years at Ceres—a sustainability advocacy organization—where she managed relationships with a cross-sector group of Fortune 500 companies and led a network of 100-plus nonprofit organizations. Alba holds a degree in Environmental Science, a Master’s in Corporate Social Responsibility from the EOI Business School in Madrid and a sustainability certificate from Harvard Extension School.

Elijah is a recent graduate of Pitzer College, where he studied cognitive science and premed. His interests include topics in 4E cognition, the use of tools in sensation and perception, and critical neuroscience.

Garrett leads strategy development for Attention Span’s clients in food, health and nutrition. An Emmy-winning technologist, Garrett honed his savvy as VP, CFO and general manager of KHIZ-TV Los Angeles as the youngest GM in LA television. He oversaw all operations of the station and company, executing its successful turnaround and engineering overhaul. Before KHIZ, he helped launch Global Outsight—a biotech and media strategy and M&A consultancy in Cambridge, Massachusetts—and was on the staff of the mayor of Boston as the analyst for the Boston Fire Department. He is a Harvard graduate who studied engineering and the History of Science. Garrett is chairman of the Cancer Nutrition Consortium, a volunteer firefighter, and served on the boards of Find the Cause Breast Cancer Foundation and Project Hope Alliance.

Peter leads the team at Attention Span, after a decade as CEO of a Cambridge, Massachusetts, strategy consulting firm where he successfully created new companies, facilitated university tech transfer to startups, and turned around underperforming ventures. Previously, Peter was the CEO of KHIZ-TV Los Angeles and of Initial Broadcasting of California, where he led the transformation of an underperforming LA broadcast station into a cash-flowing digital TV pioneer, winning an Emmy in the process and producing a successful exit. He devotes a lot of his time to nonprofit endeavors, having served as chairman of the International Rett Syndrome Foundation and the Cancer Nutrition Consortium, and now focuses on higher education access and food security. Peter graduated from Hamilton College and did his graduate work at Harvard University, where he taught Asia – related economic development courses for eight years.

Tyson manages the design team in Ithaca, New York. His expertise is in brand strategy, UX/UI and architectural environments. He has contributed to dozens of award – winning projects that include printed materials, films, websites and architecture. He received his Master’s in Architecture from the Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied digital fabrication and computational design. He also holds a BS in Electronic Media, Arts and Communication from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Shawn is an award-winning San Francisco Bay Area–based senior art director and designer. She has worked for world-class advertising agencies and design clients on accounts ranging from cars to food, fashion to tech, education to biotech. She studied design, art, textiles, interior environments, theater and women’s studies at California College of the Arts, San Diego State University and UCLA.

Ethan is an interdisciplinary designer and programmer working out of the Attention Span Ithaca, New York, design lab. Specializing in website production and human–computer interactions, he has experience working with everything from print media to virtual reality environments. Previously, Ethan worked as a front-end developer at a number of website start- ups and spent several years as an undergraduate researcher and designer at Ithaca College. While there, he worked with a team of researchers and faculty members creating an interactive, narrative- driven, purposeful game to mimic the kind of informal foreign language acquisition students can experience while studying abroad. Ethan received his BS in Emerging Media Design and Production from Ithaca College, where he also triple-minored in Web Programming, Game Development and Computer Science.