#373 Nicole F. Roberts: How a Neuroscience Dropout Built a Life Around Purpose—Part One
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What inspired Nicole to shift from neuroscience to public health?
Hi, everyone. Welcome to our show, Chief Change Officer. I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. Our show is a modernist community for change progressives in organizational and human transformation from around the world. Today, we are diving into the No Strict Lines journey of Nicole Roberts. Nicole is a doctor of public health, co-authoring a business book called Generosity Wins with a seasoned CEO, Monty Wood, who happens to be one of our guests on the show. Nicole once posed her PhD to start a human rights firm. Just to give you a sense of how things go, in this two-part series, we talk about what happens when you let purpose guide your work instead of a perfect plan. We get into the science behind generosity, how real human stories shaped her book, and why the best leaders know when to ditch the rulebook. And she also helps run a brain summit every year during the Super Bowl. So this conversation goes places. Let's jump in. Hi, Nicole. Welcome to the show. Welcome to Chief Change Officer. I feel like I'm meeting an old friend.
You're a co-author in a book called Generosity Wins with Monty Wood. Monty and I had such a great conversation. I can't wait to get his co-author back to the show, which is you.
Welcome again. Thank you. Thank you. I'm thrilled to be here. Monty raved about his time with you. I heard all about it. And so when you sent a note and said, I'd like to talk, I was like, absolutely. Yeah. So thank you. I love the idea of getting, I'm sure you'll come to find that we are very different people. We share like a mission, which is what brought us together, but we are very different. So I'm interested to also hear like on the back end, you can pick it apart.
Yeah. Sure. Let's start with your journey, your history, and then we'll dive into different elements of your past and your present.
So I grew up in the South and in the Midwest, but then moved to go to school. And school, yeah, we can talk about that. That was a long process. It was not a linear, not a straight line. We'll say that. But I did college, I did a master's degree and then a doctorate. My doctorate is, I'm a doctor of public health, but my background is actually a bit more in neuroscience. And so where I've always loved to work is in global public health, solving big problems, but also in that behavioral space. Why do people do the things they do? How do we I don't love this term, but it came to me, meet people where they are. And if you're trying to make people healthier, happier, you have to start with where people are, though. You can't just say, do this.
That doesn't work for people. Our brains fight change. Like that's just inherently what happens and change is hard. And so you always have to think about what are people's actual circumstances? What does their day look like? Someone who has multiple children is very different than someone who has no children.
How did personal challenges impact Nicole's career path?
Someone who drives cars is someone very different from someone who has to walk or take public transportation. So you really have to think about why do people make the choices they do and how do we influence those choices for good if and when we can.
You studied public policy and later focused on public health. What originally drew you to public policy? Especially being in Washington, DC, a place so closely tied to politics and government. I know you also spend time in politics. So I'm curious, not just about the shift from point A to B to C, but also about the thinking behind those transitions.
Sure. So before all of that, actually, I, in undergrad, I was psychology and biology. I ran a double major, and my goal was actually to go to medical school. And I had this idea that I was going to be like the greatest neurosurgeon or neuroscientist of all time. And then as I got towards the end of undergrad, I realized... I was terrible at chemistry. I thought, oh no. And this was right at the height of like the pharmaceutical rep and all that kind of stuff right around the early 2000s. And I just I panicked and I thought, oh, my gosh, I'm going to go to medical school and I'm going to end up in the middle of my class. I'm going to end up at some hospital writing prescriptions and that that's going to be my life. And I just I froze.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What inspired Nicole to shift from neuroscience to public health?
0:13–4:10
2
How did personal challenges impact Nicole's career path?
4:10–8:24
3
What is the relationship between policy and politics in healthcare?
8:24–12:28
4
What led Nicole to start a human rights firm?
12:28–16:32
5
Why did Nicole's dissertation topic change after six years?
16:32–20:06
6
How does generosity play a role in success according to Nicole?
20:06–24:09
7
What lessons can we learn from Nicole's unpolished journey?
24:09–27:07
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Chief Change Officer™: Ensemble
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