3726 - Decisions…Decisions!! A How-to-Make-Better-Ones Workshop (Stuart Zola)
Course Description
Instructor: Stuart Zola, PhD
Stuart Zola, a world-recognized neuroscientist, will introduce you to better quality decision-making using interactive activities and visual thinking. He’ll also share a few secrets about how the brain helps manage your decision process. Workshop participants will build skills in weighing options, seeing the big picture, and identifying strategies important for making good decisions. The approach is encompassing – decision-making can be applied to any subject area (think: business, relationships, physical and emotional health, education, even lunchtime (pizza, or the salad?). In one of the most popular aspects of the Workshop, Dr. Zola brings together experiences and wisdom from different and unusual decision-makers, e.g., a professional poker player, a professional mountain climber, and a professional magician. Decision-making is not mechanical, it is personal, and in the oncoming world of artificial intelligence (AI), the skill of including the human factor in decision-making is going to be ever more important. You’ve made the right decision attending this session!
BIO: Stuart Zola’s neuroscience research has been at the cutting edge of efforts to understand how memory is organized in the brain, and his translational research led to the identification in humans of neural systems in the brain that are critical for memory function and other systems important for habit and habit formation.
Prof. Zola’s many roles in leadership include Director of the Graduate Neuroscience Program at the University of California, San Diego, Director of the Yerkes National Primate Research Center (now the Emory NPRC) at Emory University, Co-Director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at Emory, Senior Research Career Scientist and Deputy Associate Chief of Staff for Research at the Atlanta VA Medical Center, and Interim Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at Emory University under then-President, Claire Sterk.
Additionally, Prof. Zola co-founded with several Emory colleagues, NeuroTrack Technologies, Inc., a company started at Emory University and now located in Redwood City, CA., focused on digital phenotyping for early detection of cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s disease. More recently, as the result of a chance conversation with his next-door neighbor, Matt Golden, they co-founded MapHabit, Inc., an Atlanta-based assistive technology company focused on enhancing quality of life, independence, and ability to successfully manage activities of daily living (ADLs) in individuals living with diverse cognitive challenges throughout their lifespan.
He is currently the Innovator/Entrepreneur in Residence at the Hatchery, Emory University’s Center for Innovation, mentoring students in various stages of their entrepreneurial start-ups and early-stage businesses. Prof. Zola is a sought-after, amazing speaker and MC, and he uses his natural sense of humor and his long-time hobby of sleight-of-hand magic to engage audiences as he transfers his knowledge.