Our program on June 17, 2021 featured Damian Wampler, Public Diplomacy Officer, Office of Press and Public Diplomacy, U.S. Department of State discussing the state of US-Russian Relations. 

This program was off-the-record.

Damian joined the Foreign Service in 2009. His first assignment was in Central Asia, where he served as the Embassy Spokesperson and Information Officer in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Due to his background in education and culture, he served as the Cultural Affairs Officer in Tbilisi, Georgia, and the Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer in Moscow. He has managed and overseen major academic and professional exchange programs such as Fulbright and created numerus programs to promote cross-cultural understanding. He has also served in a consular capacity adjudicating visas and supporting American citizens overseas in Harare, Zimbabwe, and Karachi, Pakistan.   

Before joining the Foreign Service, Damian served in the Peace Corps in Kyrgyzstan teaching English and returned to Kyrgyzstan as a Fulbright scholar to do research. He also worked as a recruiter for the FLEX high school exchange program in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, and as Peace Corps recruiter for the New York regional office.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in English Literature and Anthropology from Boston University, and received his Master’s in human and political geography from the Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia at UW-Madison. He also earned a Master’s in Professional Studies from the School of Visual Arts in New York, and is a photographer and author of plays, screenplays, and graphic novels. He was born and raised in Newark, Delaware, and serves overseas with his wife, son, and two dogs. 

Many of us received our Covid vaccinations through the work of the Southeast Seattle Senior Center with the City of Seattle. In addition, the Club has donated $5,000 to the Center for an elevator project.

Lynda Greene is the Executive Director of the Southeast Seattle Senior Center.

For over 51 years, Southeast Seattle Senior Center, fondly known as SESSC,  located in the Rainier Valley, has been a neighborhood activity center that addresses the social, educational, and health needs of aging adults and the community at large.  Over 600 seniors living on Beacon Hill, Skyway, Rainier Valley, Renton and the Central Area are active participants at the Center.  Activities are designed to include all physical stages of aging such as exercise programs, computer classes, weaving and quilting classes, card clubs, line dance classes, Spanish classes, recreational trips, and much more.

She has over four years experience heading up the Resource Development Department at a non profit organization in Seattle. Prior to that, she worked in the hospitality industry as Senior Sales Manager and finally as director of Sales at a boutique hotel.

She left the hospitality industry because she felt a strong pull toward the mission oriented work of the non-profit sector. Lynda continues to impress with her people skills, confidence, warmth and cultural competency. She is often described as the go to person, grounded, unflappable and skilled at building teams with volunteers and staff to pull off projects of all kinds.

As  Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington and a private rheumatologist in Renton for 20 years, Dr. Andrew Holman was able to help define a new concept in medicine called immuno-autonomics: How stress flares immune activity.

Find Dr. Holman’s Slide Deck here.

In rheumatoid arthritis (RA), Seattle-based Inmedix validated stress as the primary reason immunosuppressive treatments fail. 

Inmedix suspects it could to do the same for COVID-19: assess and control how fight-or-flight stress drives the disease to cytokine storm, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), ventilator support and death.  More important, mitigating fight-or-flight stress in COVID-19 might reduce the overwhelming immune activation, just as it did in untreatable rheumatoid arthritis.

Dr. Holman told us that “It comes down to stress.”  There is a growing body of evidence that stress has a big impact on health–particularly with regard to immune system regulation and the treatment of of autoimmune disease.  Some of these stress reactions are hard wired into humans.  

Increased stress seems to weaken treatment and is often the primary reason that treatment fails in patients.

Dr. Holman’s company, Inmedix is developing very sensitive tests that measure the heart rates.  These tests measure beat-to-beat changes.  These changes are indications of the impact of stress.  The new technology is able to measure these changes accurately to 1/1000 of a second.  The goal is replace blood testing–in some cases–with math–and greatly improved the treatment of disease.

Notes From Hal Beals:

Scientific data shows that stress is strongly linked to autoimmune diseases like Rheumatoid Arthritis, Psoriatic Arthritis, Lupus and Fibromyalgia. 

Dr. Holman’s research is to measure the biochemistry of stress to predict therapy effectiveness through his company-Immedix. Today there is evidence that Heart Rate Variability is associated with stress which triggers the well known “flight or fight” responses that increases stress. The brain can trigger this response in1/1000 second.  The average heartbeat takes 1/2 a second.   But useful measurements of Heart Rate Variability, measurements must be accurate to 1/1000 second. Immedix is getting close to this level of accuracy.  

75% of patients with autoimmune diseases do not improve with standard treatments.  Dr. Homan believes that with more accurate measurement of stress levels, more effective drug treatment, combined with changes in diet, exercise, sleep and meditation will reduce stress and greatly improve the quality of life for patients. And new research indicates that stress is related to certain cancers.  

Note: A program summary is on the way! Doc did a great job telling the story of his impressive journey from a young boy in Jim Crow’s Mississippi to becoming a Seattle University professor with four degrees! We are grateful to have him as a member.

Wilson “Doc” Reed was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, into a family of farmers. He grew up in the small town of Redwood, which became the home of International Paper Company after buying up many of the small farms in the area.

Doc lived his early life during the Jim Crow era of the South that was regulated by twenty-two laws regarding race relationships.  Because of this strife nearly six million Americans fled the south and migrated to the north and the midwest.  He attended racially segregated schools. 

Doc’s mother died at age 36 from cancer and his family pretty much fell apart.  In 1969, he boarded a bus and traveled 2,600 miles, arriving in Seattle to live with his father’s family.  He attended the University of Washington and earned four degrees. 

He taught at Seattle University for seventeen years before retiring.  He is currently writing a book on poverty to Ph.D. and lives in Shoreline. He is a single Dad to a 21 year old son.

Education:

• Ph.D., Political Science, Northern Arizona University
• M.A., Criminal Justice, State University of New York at Albany
• M.A., Political Science, University of Washington
• B.A., Political Science / African American Studies, University of Washington

Visit Dr. Reed’s Website here.

Eric Ramsing’s Notes:

1. Ranken introduced the Speaker, Dr. Wilson “Doc” Reed. Also known by the sobriquet “June Bug”.
   1. Born and raised in Vicksburg, Mississippi on a family farm
   2. Reed spoke of the Jim Crow laws growing up in Mississippi while showing family photos of youth.
   3. Talked of how life under the harsh rule of segregation and uneven interpretation of the rule of law, and of unspoken “law”, resulted in a feeling of self-inferiority.
   4. Imparted his historic support system composed of Leaders, Teachers, Parents and Clergy.
   5. Four degress:
      1. University of Washington, BA and a MA in Political Science
      2. Masters degree in Criminal Justice from the State University of New York-Albany
      3. Ph.D. in Political Science at Northern Arizona University

1. “Vicksburg to Seattle” in 1969 by bus.