The digital economy loves to talk about innovation. It talks far less about access.

As artificial intelligence accelerates, tech valuations soar, and governments race toward digital transformation, one question sits uncomfortably beneath the headlines: Who is being prepared to participate—and who is being systematically left out?

Hermina Johnny is not interested in incremental change. She is interested in structural correction.

Born in Saint Lucia and shaped by years of living and working across the United States and Europe, Johnny has positioned herself at the intersection of education, economic strategy, and gender equity. As Founder and Executive Director of the Aspire Artemis Foundation, she is working to redesign the pipeline into science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM)—with a deliberate focus on girls and underrepresented communities.

And she is unapologetic about the stakes.

“Digital transformation without intentional inclusion doesn’t close gaps—it widens them.”

From Global Policy To Ground-Level Access

Johnny’s academic background spans international relations, economics, anthropology, and international law. She earned her undergraduate degree from Connecticut College and completed an LL.M. in International Law and International Relations in Brussels, later pursuing research in constitutionalism and fundamental rights.

But rather than remaining in policy circles, she moved toward execution.

Global development frameworks routinely articulate commitments to equity. Yet implementation often stalls at the structural level. Johnny saw that disconnect firsthand.

So she built an institution designed to close it.

Education As Economic Infrastructure

Through the Aspire Artemis Foundation, Johnny develops STEAM-focused leadership programs, global symposia, and digital literacy initiatives that go beyond exposure. The organization integrates arts into STEM disciplines—not as decoration, but as strategic design—training young people to think adaptively in a workforce defined by rapid change.

Her framing is deliberately economic.

STEAM education, she argues, is not a social side project. It is workforce architecture.

“If education isn’t treated as infrastructure, we shouldn’t be surprised when opportunity collapses under pressure.”

Under her leadership, the foundation has convened programming connected to international development discussions and United Nations–related venues, reinforcing a simple but disruptive thesis: innovation ecosystems that exclude women are economically inefficient.

The conversation, she insists, must shift from representation optics to structural preparation.

Encouragement is not a strategy. Infrastructure is.

Small States, Global Systems — And Female Leadership

Johnny’s work also challenges geographic bias in global innovation narratives. Participation in forums linked to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the UN General Assembly, and the ECOSOC Science, Technology and Innovation Forum places her within high-level policy discussions.

At the Fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS4), debates centered on resilience and connectivity. For Johnny, the message was direct: small island nations cannot diversify their economies without digital capability.

And digital capability does not appear spontaneously. It is built—intentionally.

As a woman leader from a small island state, Johnny’s presence in these arenas disrupts two assumptions at once: that innovation leadership belongs to large economies, and that systems change is driven primarily by traditional power centers.

“Geography should not determine destiny. Neither should gender.”

Strategy Meets Execution

Before founding her nonprofit, Johnny built experience in business strategy and legal advisory work, including corporate and intellectual property matters. That foundation shapes her leadership style—analytical, cross-sector, and systems-focused.

But she refuses to operate solely at altitude.

She continues to teach and develop educational materials, maintaining direct engagement with learners. The result is rare: a leader equally fluent in boardroom strategy and classroom realities.

In conversations about women in technology, she pushes back against surface-level diversity narratives.

Representation without preparation, she argues, sets women up to enter systems that were never designed for them to succeed.

Structured pathways, market-aligned skills, mentorship networks, and institutional accountability are non-negotiable.

The Real Leadership Test

The digital economy disproportionately rewards early exposure and sustained access. Johnny’s work is built around intervening before exclusion calcifies into inevitability.

By positioning STEAM education as both an equity imperative and an economic growth strategy, she reframes inclusion not as charity—but as competitiveness.

In her view, the most dangerous myth in innovation culture is that talent naturally rises.

Talent rises when infrastructure supports it.

“The question isn’t whether women can lead in technology. The question is whether systems are willing to evolve fast enough to make room.”

In the expanding landscape of women in leadership, Hermina Johnny represents a category of leader that is increasingly impossible to ignore: not symbolic, not peripheral—but systemic.

She is not asking to be included in the digital economy.

She is helping decide who gets to build it.

The post Women In Leadership: Hermina Johnny Is Challenging Who Gets To Build The Digital Economy appeared first on Good News!.

#AlvinFoo

The post Use challenging times as opportunities for growth. appeared first on Good News!.

Listen to “Author Celia Ryker new book Augusta” on Spreaker.

Celia Ryker website https://celiaryker.com/

Historical Fiction Author Pens Stunning Novel Based On Her Grandmother’s Challenging Life Of Abject Poverty, Marriage At 13, And Having To Make A Haunting Choice

Celia, a silver and gold winner for Human Relations Indie Book Award, writes a human interest novel based on the real-life struggles of her grandmother. Celia Ryker brings to life Augusta, highlighting the struggles of a young girl forced to grow up too fast. Celia writes based on the lessons her grandmother taught her about life and the beauty of it.

Let me know if you would like to have Celia on your show.

Mayte W.

“In this novel inspired by the challenging life of the author’s grandmother, a woman is left to raise her four children alone during the 1920s… Smooth-flowing prose carries the tale forward at a steady pace.. farm and city vignettes create vivid images of time, place, and economic class, and Augusta emerges as a formidable woman in the face of daunting odds. A historically evocative period drama that’s poignant and disquieting.”
–Kirkus Reviews

“Augusta is an insight to another era and a testimony to a woman who became more resilient as she was challenged. Engaging writing propels the story through the decades of Augusta’s life, and what a life it was.”
–Jennifer Belton, Former White House Library Director

The early 20th century was unforgiving on many women. Writer Celia Ryker’s grandmother was one such woman who had more than her fair share of a hard life. Ryker has written a powerful, insightful novel (Augusta) based on the exploits and overwhelming challenges her grandmother faced during the Depression.
Raised on a hard-knock farm in Arkansas and married off to the father of one of her classmates at the age of 13, lead-character Augusta was not set up for a life of bliss. Then, abandoned by her second husband in 1920s Detroit, with four children to provide for and only an eighth-grade education, she is forced into a decision that will haunt her forever.
From the author of Walking Home: Trail Stories, Ryker’s Augusta is gripping historical fiction based on the true, against-the-odds story of her grandmother, a woman who fled the hardships of the Ozarks at the turn of the 20th century for a new city, and a chance at a better life. She had to confront the kind of poverty that you can almost smell, the kind that is in the background of the Neapolitan novels by Elena Ferrante and The Grapes of Wrath. All three novels tell us that poverty has to do with a lot more than money. Self-worth is measured differently by the poor, so are luxury, duty, comfort, and success. The poor are snared by forces outside their control.

Some readers might find this a heroic story, but there were millions of farm folk like Augusta at the beginning of the 20th century. They did what they needed to do to survive. Men were sheared of their dignity when they lost the farm or lost a job, and couldn’t support their families. Like Augusta’s two husbands, they often turned to alcohol in their shame. The women made do, taking responsibility for the children.

Her particular struggle was common in the early 1900s: Marriage at 13, children born as they came, a move from the farm to the grinding, dirty, dangerous city, and meeting new immigrants who had fled similar hardships.

Details carry the story and are constantly surprising. The reader learns how the first washing machines worked, how unwelcome a hospital birth was after knowing the intimacy and convenience of having your baby at home, and what tenements were like.

Ryker shares with us in an interview the following:

Why Ryker’s grandmother inspired the writing of Augusta.

Who her grandmother was and why she is Ryker’s heroine.

The struggles women faced during the early part of 20th century America.

How Augusta survives two bad marriages: one at age 13, and one who abandons her.

The challenges of raising four children on her own during the Great Depression

Why Augusta is haunted by a decision she has to make due to poverty.

Historical novels require strong characters with heart — and Augusta’s heart shines through a life filled with adversity. Augusta puts her head down and does what must be done to provide for her children. Her unshrinking strength is an inspiration.

Ryker’s previous book, Walking Home: Trail Stories, is about more than mud, sweat, and blisters while distance hiking the Long Trail. Reminiscent of Cheryl Strayed’s Wild, Ryker’s mind wanders as her legs carry her forward, beyond a woodland path, to places and people she thought she had forgotten. Her grandmother’s spirit appears on Mount Baker. A lost cousin waits for her at the bottom of every ladder. Her late father’s words reverberate among the calls of barred owls. There were days when she didn’t see another hiker, but she was never alone. Ryker began writing about a difficult hike and ended up writing about the people who inspired her throughout her life. These are her “trail stories.”

“Augusta shows women everywhere that no matter how hard one’s journey is, the key is to keep moving, and to not let one’s past or rough start dictate their life’s outcome,” concludes Ryker.

#historicalfiction #author #novel #augusta #grandmotherschallenginglife #abject #poverty #marriage #hauntingchoice #celiaryker #dictatingoutcome

The post Historical Fiction Author Pens Stunning Novel {Augusta} Based On Her Grandmother’s Challenging Life Of Abject Poverty, Marriage At 13, And Having To Make A Haunting Choice appeared first on Good News!.

There is now a new treatment option for the estimated 2 million people in the United States living with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis1,2,3 whose symptoms may make day-to-day life more challenging. For those that aren’t familiar with psoriasis, it is a widely prevalent, chronic, systemic immune-mediated disease.4

And up to 90% of patients with psoriasis have psoriasis vulgaris, also known as plaque psoriasis,5 which is characterized by distinct round or oval plaques typically covered by silvery-white scales.

One of the challenges that both doctors and patients face is that despite the availability of therapies, many people living with plaque psoriasis in the United States are untreated or undertreated.5,6

But good news has arrived. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has officially approved a new treatment for adults with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis who are candidates for systemic therapy or phototherapy.

Dr. April Armstrong, dermatologist and clinical investigator in one of the treatment’s trials and Associate Dean and Professor of Dermatology at the University of Southern California, alongside Leah M. Howard, J.D., President and CEO of the National Psoriasis Foundation, will discuss the impact of psoriasis and a new, FDA-approved oral treatment for moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis. *

*Dr. April Armstrong and Leah Howard are paid spokespeople and are being compensated for their time.

Interview is courtesy: Bristol Myers Squibb

1. Armstrong AW, Mehta MD, Schupp CW, Gondo GC, Bell SJ, Griffiths CEM. Psoriasis prevalence in adults in the United States. JAMA Dermatol.2021;157(8):940-946. doi:10.1001/jamadermatol.2021.2007

2 Armstrong AW, Read C. Pathophysiology, clinical presentation, and treatment of psoriasis: a review. JAMA. 2020;323(19):1945-1960. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.4006

3 Armstrong et al. Undertreatment, Treatment Trends, and Treatment Dissatisfaction Among Patients With Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis in the United States: Findings From the National Psoriasis Foundation Surveys, 2003-2011. JAMA Dermatol. 2013;149(10):1180–1185.
4. Armstrong AW, Schupp C, Wu J, Bebo B. Quality of life and work productivity impairment among psoriasis patients: findings from the National Psoriasis Foundation survey data 2003–2011. PloS One. 2012;7(12):e52935.

5. Menter A, Gottlieb A, Feldman SR, Van Voorhees AS et al. Guidelines of care for the management of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis: Section 1. Overview of psoriasis and guidelines of care for the treatment of psoriasis with biologics. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2008 May;58(5):826-50.

6. Lebwohl M, Langley RG, Paul C, et al. Evolution of patient perceptions of psoriatic disease: results from the Understanding Psoriatic Disease Leveraging Insights for Treatment (UPLIFT) survey. Dermatol Ther (Heidelb). 2022;12(1):61-78. doi:10.1007/s13555-021-00635-4

#aprilarmstrong #leahhoward #plaquepsoriasis #psoriasis #treatment #immunedisease #prevalent #chronic #systemicdisease #clinicaltreatment

The post PEOPLE WITH THE SKIN CONDITION KNOWN AS MODERATE-TO-SEVERE PLAQUE PSORIASIS NOW HAVE A NEW Rx TREATMENT OPTION appeared first on Good News!.

For many people, becoming a caregiver is often a new, unfamiliar experience. And finding the right information – or even knowing where to look – can be challenging. That’s why we’re bringing everything to you. Here you’ll find articles, product recommendations and other resources picked just for you to help in your caregiving journey.

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The post Cheri Geraffo, National Director of Sales and Account Management share UnitedHealthcare Solutions for Caregivers https://www.uhcforcaregivers.com at CES. A outstanding resource for caregivers. appeared first on Good News!.