Under 40 and On a Mission:
Help Kids Thrive!
What will the future look like for our children? How can we enable their optimal growth and pave the way for a better tomorrow?
Among the many Gators working towards solutions are these seven young UF alumni, all celebrated at the latest 40 Under 40 celebration.
Whether they are advocating for birth equity, curing pediatric cancer, sparking youngsters’ interest in STEM or inspiring students to perform at Carnegie Hall, these dedicated Gators are on a mission to help kids thrive.
Megan Walker: “This is a health crisis greater than more well-known infant/child issues.”
Every 12 hours, a U.S. woman will die from pregnancy-related causes, making the United States’ maternal death rate the highest among developed nations. Just as tragically, more than 22,000 babies die before their first birthday, which translates to two babies every hour. As chief volunteer officer and vice president of mobilization and community engagement at the March of Dimes, Megan Walker (BS ’05) works tirelessly to reverse those statistics and ensure that every mom and baby is healthy, regardless of wealth, race or geography.
“Though we don’t often talk about it, this is a health crisis greater than the more well-known infant/child issues like juvenile diabetes, childhood cancer or even autism,” says Walker. “My role is to harness partners to come together and give this issue the attention and resources it deserves.”
Under Walker’s leadership, the March of Dimes recently united with more than 700 organizations to form the Mom and Baby Action Network, which is implementing real-world solutions to tackle premature births and the fight for maternity leave. She also oversees nationwide efforts to raise $2.5 million annually, engaging and retaining millions of supporters and volunteers.
As the mother of two young children, Walker acknowledges it is tough balancing the competing demands of family and a high-impact career, but she takes on this challenge gratefully.
“I have a calling to serve others,” she says. “Service is love in action, and I give 100% to both my family and to a career in nonprofit management that I love.”
Aisha Ayoub: From Lego to launches
Wertheim grad Aisha Ayoub (MSME ’07) is an engineering powerhouse. For eight years, she served as build and integration engineer for SpaceX’s Dragon Crew, the first private spacecraft to take humans to the International Space Station. Then in 2019, she became chief engineer for Microsoft’s cutting-edge HoloLens team, designing augmented-reality wearables such as smartglasses.
Her influence in shaping access to new worlds extends to young people, too. At age 15, Ayoub worked with Segway inventor Dean Kamen and cofounded an organization dedicated to teaching children about science and engineering, now known as FIRST LEGO League (FLL).
With the support of Danish toymaker LEGO, FLL is now international with nearly 680,000 participants, ages 4 through 16, in 110 countries. Each league season culminates with a celebration where teams show off what they learned and invented, and in the oldest division, compete with their robots. Top teams earn an invitation to the FLL World Festival where teams from all over the world meet and compete.
“I’ve served as a mentor, judge and volunteer every year,” says Ayoub.
Dr. Jason Gallant: Handing children the tools of emotional control
“Instead of focusing on ways to get rid of strong emotions, learn to be great in the presence of them.”
That is the motto of pediatric psychologist Jason Gallant (MED ’07, PHD ’11), and he has spent more than a decade helping young people internalize this wisdom, first as director of the Boys Town Central Florida Behavioral Health Clinic, in Oviedo, and now as chief psychologist at the Florida Center for Behavioral Health, in Boca Raton.
Dr. Gallant has written extensively on test anxiety, pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder and youth self-injury, but he finds his greatest fulfillment, he says, when working directly with patients and their families.
“No two families are the same,” says Gallant. “Each has its strengths and barriers.”
He likes to hone in on what is triggering a behavior or a destructive relationship and then give family members the tools to transform whatever is holding them back.
“It is incredibly invigorating,” he says of the process.
Gallant’s own family history inspired him to give back to UF, where he endowed a scholarship to honor his late grandparents, Harry and Pauline Zaid, of Pembroke Pines, who taught him to help others.
“Candidly, they had so little but gave so much,” he says. “That someone else can benefit from what they instilled in me makes me so proud.”
Dr. Michael Ortiz: For pediatric patients and their parents, he becomes part of the family
Families travel from all over the world for treatment at MSK Kids at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, in Manhattan, the nation’s leading hospital for pediatric cancer patients. Among the experts they seek out is pediatric oncologist Michael Ortiz (MD ’10), who specializes in solid tumors, particularly sarcomas and cancers of the liver and kidneys.
While pediatric cancer is rare, it is on the rise, and Dr. Ortiz focuses on healing young patients through quality care, education and research. That dedication sees Ortiz immersed in translational research, identifying new biomarkers and developing therapies for patients with high-risk and relapsed cancers.
When working with patients, Ortiz is renowned for his expertise and supportive, caring touch.
In 2021, Ortiz treated two-year-old Joshy Ford for a relapsed Wilms tumor, aka nephroblastoma, a type of childhood cancer that starts in the kidneys. The new treatment protocol he devised for the toddler encompassed 25 weeks of chemotherapy, surgery and six rounds of radiation. The child’s father, Josh Ford, couldn’t praise Ortiz’s efforts enough.
“It was such a blessing,” Ford told the Hudson Valley Times Union last year. “He is the doctor, but [also] a family member. The [MSK] team is just amazing ….”
“Dr. Ortiz is my daughter’s oncologist, too,” says parent Alexandra Zissu. “Ford speaks the truth; I could not love Dr. Ortiz more if he were my own family.”
Ortiz also takes to social media to support fundraising and toy drives for MSK patients and, in recent months, to advocate for children with cancer in Ukraine.
“We have the most amazing patients,” Ortiz wrote on Twitter. “They and their families continue to inspire us with their trust, patience and generosity.”
Heather Hanks: Making the connection between gaming and grey matter
Yes, kids love video games, but did you know that competitive gaming — aka e-sports — has distinct benefits for budding minds?
Studies have shown that competing in team esports increases grey matter in the brain and strengthens much-needed peer-to-peer connections. It also fosters life skills like teamwork, leadership and communication and opens the door to millions of dollars in college scholarship opportunities.
Benefits like these inspired computer-science teacher and STEM innovator Heather Hanks (BA ’05) to launch Florida’s first districtwide e-sports program, paving the way for the creation of the Florida Scholastic Esports League, the state affiliate of the North American league.
Hanks currently serves as assistant principal at Dover Elementary School, in Hillsborough County, and is a sought-after workshop leader, keynote speaker and author in esports, STEM, robotics and digital learning. Her many awards include a Florida Teacher Leader Fellowship from the UF Lastinger Center.
While she is a whiz at making students passionate about technology, Hanks never loses sight of her larger purpose: to foster young people’s personal growth, including how they relate to others.
Her greatest point of pride? “Coaching my daughter on an all-girl robotics team,” Hanks says. “She had enough foundational computer science skills to develop and executive the program for her team; however, she took the time to show her teammates and let them experience the success of doing it for themselves.”
Daniel Gonzalez: Helping the medicine go down
Parents, the next time you measure out cough syrup or pain reliever for your child, thank the scientists who figured out the exact, safe dosage — experts like researcher Daniel Gonzalez (PharmD ’09, PHD ’12).
The double Gator is a tenured faculty member at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s Eshelman School of Pharmacy, in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics. As a researcher, Gonzalez explores how drugs interact with young patients, guiding drug-dosage selection and improving drug safety in children. With 75+ peer-reviewed articles, Gonzalez is recognized as a leader in his field, and his lab’s work is supported by Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, which promotes “healthy pregnancies, healthy children, healthy and optimal lives.”
Gonzalez’s research program has established optimal dosing for many common medications used by infants and children, including the antibiotic clindamycin. He is now using pharmacokinetic modeling to optimize drug dosing in children with obesity.
Improving drug safety for children is his life’s mission, he says, and it drives his nonstop efforts in the lab. For inspiration, he turns to these words of Nelson Mandela: “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
Dakeyan Cha’ Dre’ Graham: Bringing music to students, and students to Carnegie Hall
Since first being honored as an outstanding young alum, educator Dakeyan Cha’ Dre’ Graham (BMUSE ’07, MM ’09) has continued his ascent in Florida and on the national stage.
Fondly referred to by his students as “Dr. Dre,” Graham made his mark as a music educator, serving from 2009 to 2021 as director of instrumental studies for Hillsborough County Public Schools. There his dynamic pedagogy inspired his students to such heights they were invited to perform at Carnegie Hall. His efforts also earned him nods as a semi-finalist and quarterfinalist for Grammy Music Educator of the Year in 2013 and 2020, respectively, and in 2020, he was named Florida Teacher of the Year.
Graham’s impact expanded statewide in 2020 when he served as the Christa McAuliffe Ambassador for Education, touring Florida and giving workshops. He then became the executive director of independent education and parental choice at the Florida Department of Education.
Graham says he owes much, personally and professionally, to his University of Florida education.
“UF prepared me to function in a world that did not look like me and to not view that as a barrier, but as an opportunity to thrive and elevate others who do look like me,” said the new UFAA board member. “UF is also where I met my wife, which is probably the greatest gift.”
His advice for others?
“Know your ‘why’ and keep it at the foundation of everything you do,” he says. “Visit it daily and pursue it relentlessly. Someone, somewhere, needs you in their life!”
Published
September 21, 2022