Monday, April 27th, 2015, Salon III

6:15 PM – 8:30 PM

An Evening Honoring the Leaders in Health Media and Technology:  An Industry With Purpose: Technology and Media that Save Lives

Dr. Bruce Hensel, Chief Health, Medical and Science Editor/Correspondent for NBC4 Southern California, Moderator

Kate Langrall Folb, Director, Hollywood, Health & Society, USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center

Matt Paxton, A&E’s Hoarders

Sandra de Castro Buffington, Founding Director, Global Media Center for Social Impact at UCLA's Fielding School of Public Health

Patrick Vogt, CEO and Director, HealthiNation

practicing physician who is board certified in two specialties - Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine. His unique qualifications and ability to convert complicated medical information for a broad audience have made him one of the Country’s most pre-eminent health journalists.  In addition to his work on television, Dr. Hensel is a full Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCLA, Regional Director for Emergent Medical Associates and Chief Medical Officer of Language Access Network, a medical interpretive services company. He is also the host of the nationally syndicated call-in radio show, “Take Charge of Your Health with Dr. Bruce.” Dr. Hensel is the author of Smart Medicine: How to Prevent Medical Mistakes and Get the Most Out of Your Medical Care, co-creator/co-executive producer of the highly acclaimed, award-winning documentary “The Opposite Sex,” and is credited as one of the founders of the High Ethics and The Internet Committee, which was formed for the protection of privacy and to insure validity of health information on the internet. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, Dr. Hensel received a 2013 Los Angeles Area Emmy for Oustanding News Feature Reporting and an Edward Kennedy Award for Community Service.  He has amassed six other individual Emmys, three show Emmys, three Golden Mikes and two Los Angeles Outfest Film Festival Awards. The American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, the California Medical Association and the City of Los Angeles have also honored him for his outstanding contributions and achievements in health care reporting.

Kate Folb, Director, Hollywood, Health & Society: Kate Folb comes to Hollywood, Health & Society after working for over 20 years in the entertainment education field. After an early career in television and music production/management, Kate joined the Scott Newman Center as director of special projects. There, she worked with top TV shows and films on issues of alcohol and other substance abuse. Later, she spent nearly 10 years as director of the Media Project, a partnership of Advocates for Youth and the Kaiser Family Foundation, which addressed portrayals of adolescent reproductive health in the media. In 2001 she led Nightingale Entertainment, an independent consulting firm working with foundations and national non-profits including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Planned Parenthood Federation of America on entertainment education and celebrity involvement in national media campaigns. Kate speaks fluent Spanish, holds a bachelor's degree in Spanish from the University of Denver, and a master's degree in education from UCLA.

Matt Paxton has always been an entrepreneur; he started out as a child selling gum on the school bus and making a 70% profit. He was an analyst for the Federal Reserve right out of college, invented an all natural cleaner for flip-flops, owned a wet suit company and even tried selling pre-cut limes to Budweiser. Matt was determined to keep trying to find an area of business he could be successful in and make a lot of money. In 2006 Clutter Cleaners came to him as a way to pay rent. His first project was cleaning out his grandmother's basement. The amazing look of relief and joy on Matt's grandmother's face when the job was done immediately convinced Matt that this was a service people really needed, and Clutter Cleaner was born. He started out relocating senior citizens and now his company is featured on A&E's hit reality series, Hoarders. Matt helps compulsive hoarders clean out their homes and clean up their lives. He even tries to connect more with his fans, answering their questions live on the show's website after his show airs.  Clutter Cleaner doesn't view anyone's things as "junk" to just be removed. There is an understanding that there's a reason you have everything and that some things are more difficult to part with than others. Matt says he is most excited about finishing his first book, Secret Lives of Hoarders: True Stories of Tackling Extreme Clutter, which is set to be released in May of 2011. However unlikely, hoarding has become part of the pop culture landscape. Matt Paxton knows this very well. He has made it into a half million dollar a year business that employs six full-time employees. Several television shows and books on the subject of hoarding have recently become popular among wide audiences. However, Paxton faces the difficult task of working with people who have taken hoarding to a new level that has overrun their lives and homes. Paxton has become a star on the hit A&E show, Hoarders. He offers a look into the shocking world of people who have problems with hoarding while he tries to help them clean up their lives and get the help they need. It's no surprise that he has recently become increasingly popular with viewers of the show. He is a professional cleaner, not a therapist like many of the other contributors on the show. Therefore he is able to let his personality and thoughts come out more freely. People often praise him for speaking his mind, saying what other people are thinking, and being tough on the hoarders who need a strong-willed person to help them with their disorder.

Sandra de Castro Buffington, Founding Director, Global Media Center for Social Impact at UCLA's Fielding School of Public Health: Sandra de Castro Buffington is a global leader in entertainment for social change. As the Founding Director of the Global Media Center for Social Impact (GMI) at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health, Sandra unleashes the storytelling power of television, film, music and new media to improve health, social justice and wellbeing of people worldwide.  Sandra was named American Riviera Woman Entrepreneur of the Year by the World Film Institute in 2014, and Honorary Maverick and a Best in Biz Tribute by the Female Eye Film Festival in 2015.   Based in Los Angeles, GMI actively engages entertainment leaders to create compelling storylines that accurately address a full range of socially provocative issues, including health, youth sexuality and reproductive rights, immigration, racial justice, prison reform, gender/LGBT equality, and climate change. GMI collaborates with global media so that exceptional storytelling, socially conscious songwriting and interactive content on new media can move us from evidence to impact. Formerly director of Hollywood, Health & Society, Sandra created a global network of centers, including India and Nigeria with the hub in Hollywood, to improve the accuracy of health-related storylines in top TV shows and films. This groundbreaking work resulted in 565 aired-storylines in 91 shows across 35 networks between 2009 and 2012. Sandra is known for her award-winning work in global health and social transformation; 20 years were spent working internationally, and five of those years were spent in residence overseas. Sandra's vasectomy promotion campaign in Brazil earned seven international advertising awards, including a Bronze Lion at the Cannes Film Festival and Gold Medal at the London International Advertising Awards.

Patrick Vogt, CEO and Director, HealthiNation: Patrick joined HealthiNation in early 2014. He has served as chief executive for both public and private digital media technology companies, and held senior executive positions at some of the most premiere brands in the world including The Weather Channel, Sony, HP and Dell. He was most recently President of The Weather Channel’s (TWC) International Division, where he led the business outside the U.S. across all products and media.