Each month, Look Who’s Talking features voices from across the Brigham answering the same question. If you would like to add your voice to the conversation, please submit a comment at the bottom of the page. This month, we invited people to share what they are thankful for in their personal or professional life.  

“I’m grateful for the world-class care my parents and I received during our inpatient stays with COVID-19 and pneumonia in December 2020. Grateful for the nurses, doctors, environmental services, patient care assistants and all who stay awake at night to do this work for us, the patients. Grateful for the incredible staff in the Emergency Department; they kept my dad alive for a second admission. The Intensive Care Unit staff who meticulously cared for him before and after intubation and a stay of almost two months. He is alive and well. The Brigham is such a world-class facility. We are lucky to have it here in our backyards. By the people, for the people!” — Jackie Travassos, RN, Infusion Clinic

“I am thankful for my wonderful mentor, Dr. Kevin Elias, and my fantastic lab mates in the Gynecologic Oncology lab. I cherish and appreciate Dr. Elias’s encouragement and confidence in letting me direct my own projects and pursue exciting science, his constant support both professionally and personally and his strong leadership. The work culture that he and our incredible lab manager, Kathy Hasselblatt, foster is what academic research labs needs more of. I am also extremely grateful for the love and light my husband and our dog, Archie, bring into my life!” — Akshaya Chandrasekaran, PhD, research fellow, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology

“With 2021 still being impacted by the pandemic, I’m thankful that the Brigham community remains closely knitted. I truly appreciated every smile, wave and interaction I had with coworkers and BWH staff. I would also like to shout out our research study participants who shared their pandemic experiences and struggles with us, so we can better understand what is needed the most during this unprecedented time to provide better care. Lastly, I wanted to express my sincere gratitude to my mentors and friends for their support; it has been a pivotal year for me, and I would not have made it without all of you!” — Finneas Wong, BA, research assistant, Developmental Risk and Cultural Resilience Program, Department of Pediatric Newborn Medicine

“I am always thankful for my husband and family’s support because without them, I wouldn’t be here today. I am also grateful to be working here at the Brigham, where I am constantly supported by my exceptional colleagues and staff. I am lucky to have such amazing people around me who help our Burn program grow, thrive and take care of our patients.” — Anupama Mehta, MD, medical director, Burn Center in the Division of Trauma, Burn and Surgical Critical Care and Emergency General Surgery

“I am thankful for my excellent colleagues in Rheumatology, inspiring patients and my outstanding mentors and research team who make work meaningful and fun, whether in-person or virtual. At home, I am thankful for family, my two cats, caffeine, wine, food, music and travel. Last but not least, I am thankful for safe and effective vaccines!” — Jeffrey Sparks, MD, MMSc, Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation and Immunity

“I am grateful for the new learning experience during these 20 months of COVID-19, which have changed all of our lives. These 20 months away from my daughter and grandchildren have been very emotional for me, but I am grateful I can still communicate through FaceTime and see them, although I can’t give them a ‘Nana Hug.’ I am not where I want to be, but I am grateful I am not where I used to be.” — Mayra Scott, shipping coordinator, Office Services

“I was diagnosed with a very serious illness during the COVID-19 pandemic. Without the great doctors (including Dr. David Mount) and nurses and staff at our fine hospital, I may not be here. I am thankful for God and all my family and friends who prayed for me to get well during my illness. I am thankful for all the donors who donate blood every day at the Kraft Family Blood Donor Center and on our Bloodmobile during this time. I personally used a lot of blood products and cannot express how thankful I am for all of you. Blood donors freely give of themselves to help people. They give from their heart, and we here at the Kraft Blood Donor Center see every day how much giving a pint of blood or a unit of platelets can help our patients.” — Maureen Zuzevich, recruitment program manager, Kraft Family Blood Donor Center

“I am thankful to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative for supporting our project on the internationalization of the 3D Slicer open-source software platform for biomedical research. I feel grateful for the unique opportunity to partner with colleagues in Africa to train a global community of health care providers and scientists and facilitate access to cutting-edge biomedical imaging technologies for improving patient care. I am also very thankful to be part of the NousNav team developing open-source neuronavigation technology led by Dr. Alexandra Golby in the Department of Neurosurgery. I feel incredibly lucky to work with Dr. Golby on providing neurosurgeons in low and middle-income countries access to state-of-the-art neuronavigation tools for brain surgery. I express my sincere gratitude to the donors that help us achieve these goals.”  — Sonia Pujol, PhD, Department of Radiology

“I’m thankful for working with such great team members and such great leaders. My fellow colleagues and managers are so supportive and willing to go the extra mile so we can get the job done. We feed off of each other and always give 110 percent effort to do our small part in assisting clinical and non-clinical staff throughout the hospital.” — Steven Kyriakidis, public space coordinator, Office Services

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