- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been provided by The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

Delta Dental of New Jersey.

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The North Ward Center.

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Fedway Associates, Inc. Georgian Court University.

And by The Adler Aphasia Center.

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- This is One-On-One.

- I'm an equal American just like you are.

- The jobs of tomorrow are not the jobs of yesterday.

- Look at this.

You get this?

- Life without dance is boring.

- I don't care how good you are or how good you think you are, there is always something to learn.

- Do you enjoy talking politics?

- No.

- People call me 'cause they feel nobody's paying attention.

- Our culture, I don't think has ever been tested in the way it's being tested right now.

- That's a good question, high five.

(upbeat music) - Hi, I'm Steve Adubato.

Thank you so much for joining us.

For those who know our program, you know that we've been promoting and creating more public awareness around organ and tissue donation for many years now.

We're taping on the 16th of February.

Organ and tissue donation more important than ever before, particularly a year plus into this COVID crisis.

We're joined now by Alyssa D'Addio, who's the director of hospital and community services at the New Jersey Sharing Network which is New Jersey's organization committed to organ and tissue donation.

Alyssa, great to have you with us.

- Thanks so much Steve.

- Before we even get into the impact of COVID on organ and tissue donation, your personal connection, your personal experience to this, and it's not an issue, it's a cause, is so powerful.

Talk about it.

- So what, you know, a lot of people say to me, "What got you to the Sharing Network, and working here for 10 years plus?"

And what did that is my dad.

In 2009, I was driving back to school after an Easter break with my parents.

I'm an only child, big Italian Greek family.

We had a great holiday, and I got a call abruptly from my family that my dad suffered a brain hemorrhage.

My dad was 50 years old, went to the gym every day.

Was our Superman, very involved in the community, sports.

You definitely wouldn't think that this would happen to him.

So it was sudden, it was tragic.

After days spending in the hospital hearing from doctors and the nurses that he wasn't gonna make a meaningful recovery we were approached from the Sharing Network and given the opportunity for organ and tissue donation.

And I say often "It's an opportunity" because in a moment of no control over bringing my dad back or having him back in our lives we were given an opportunity to save someone else's life and give a family back their loved one.

So we said, "Yes" right away.

My dad went on to donate both of his kidneys and his tissue has gone to over a hundred people throughout the United States.

So I can say as a mom now myself I am very proud to tell my grandchildren that, "You know one man wrote us a letter and said, 'I'm able to be with my grandchildren because of your father, and I wouldn't have that without him.'"

So as a mom, able to look at her grandchildren and say, "Your grandfather's a hero, and this is what he did."

I couldn't be prouder of him.

- It's such a powerful story.

And because we've been working with the Sharing Network for so many years, there are personal stories like that.

And by the way, log on to the Sharing Network website our team will put it up as we speak right now.

Let me ask you this, you know, we're taping as I said on the 16th of February it'll be seen after that a year plus into this pandemic what impact from your experience heading up hospital community services for the Sharing Network, what impact has COVID had on organ and tissue donation?

- I think the first thing was there was no rule book for anybody of how to handle this for whatever business or company or cause you were in, there was no rule book.

So we had to first figure out how to keep our staff safe while maintaining the hope that we have for the over 4,000 people that are waiting for a life-saving transplant in New Jersey, and the over 110,000 people that are waiting across the country.

- Do those numbers again if you could Alyssa, because they're just striking.

- Yup.

4,000 in New Jersey and 110,000 in the United States.

And these are people where we know how to make them better.

There's a cure for this, right, and it's transplant.

So how do we still provide them hope?

And then the other side to the coin which many people were going through is they can't be with their loved ones in the hospital.

So how do we talk to families about donation that can't even see their loved ones in the hospital because of visitor restrictions?

So it was about keeping our staff safe, giving hope to the people waiting, and then how do we connect with these families and provide them support during the worst time of their lives and plus a global pandemic on top of it?

- Wow!

You know, your personal connection speaks for itself.

But let me ask you, because there've been so many events there's a walk, there's a run.

There are so many gatherings and events that raise money and raise awareness that the New Jersey Sharing Network runs, many of them are being done virtually right now.

Connecting virtually, getting the message out virtually, for people who say, "You know, why don't we just put off this organ and tissue donation thing until quote after COVID?

Why doesn't that approach work for those who are waiting?

- Yeah, the need is now.

And I think time is of the essence.

These people are suffering and I think they needed to know that we were working.

The Sharing Network never shut down, 24 hours a day, whether it was our clinical department or in public education in our foundation, trying to reinvent the way we do things, and the way we connect with people.

You know we were hosting a lot of panel discussions that would stream through social media to try to engage the community.

And we actually saw a 14% increase in the National Donor Registry during this time- - Tell folks what the donor registry is by the way.

- You can go to njsharingnetwork.org and register to be an organ donor through the national registry.

That's separate from the motor vehicle, however, it's the same purpose.

The good thing about- - Explain that to folks as people go on the website right now and our team will put it up, explain the national registry, donor registry, versus you get your license et cetera, et cetera, explain that.

- So the national registry would be a one-time signup.

There's no renewal.

Like when you go to the motor vehicle as a New Jersey resident, when you renew you need to say yes again.

It doesn't carry over necessarily when you say yes to organ donation.

So the great thing about the national registry is you sign up once and your wishes are known and they're there, your decision is made.

And you can also share that decision with your friends and family using the email feature at the end.

So we do encourage people to go to the national registry 'cause it is a one-time deal.

You do it and you're done.

- You know, and by the way, we're gonna be joined at another time by Justin Johnson, who is director of clinical services at the Sharing Network to talk about the frontline, because he's on the front lines.

Talk about the experience of a frontline healthcare worker.

Alyssa, is there a message you wanna deliver in the few seconds we have left?

- Yeah.

- To all those watching right now.

What's that message?

- I think the message is, when you're home with your family and you have time to be with them I think bring up the topic of organ and tissue donation.

I understand that it may not be an easy one but it's an important one.

Make your decision known to them, register, and the other thing the Sharing Network will never do is, we'll never stop honoring our organ and tissue donors and their families.

That's our top priorities, priority always.

They're our heroes, so we're so thankful for them.

- So to Joe Roth and Elisse Glennon, and the leaders at the New Jersey Sharing Network, and we thank them and the entire team so much.

Thank you so much, Alyssa.

- Thank you so much for the support Steve, we appreciate it.

- You got it, we'll be right back after this.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

- We are honored to be joined by one of our colleagues in public media.

Steven Williams is President and CEO of the great WBGO 88.3 and also on the internet.

You can find it all around the world.

Mr. Williams, how are you?

- I'm well, thank you, sir.

How about yourself?

- Doing great, doing great.

We're taping on the 16th of February.

This'll be seen later.

Let me ask you this.

For those of you who do not know what WBGO is and why it matters so much, give a brief description, please.

- Well, WBGO is the flagship jazz radio station along the Eastern Seaboard and, and for many people the flagship jazz radio station around the world.

We've been broadcasting to the New York City Metro area since 1979 and certainly thereafter obviously we went live on the internet.

And so we've been broadcasting to the entire world since the 1980s.

- You know, as we tape this program a year or so into the pandemic and it'll be seen beyond that, the biggest challenges you and your colleagues - you took over by the way on January 4th, 2021, you've been connected to the station before that, you understand programming better than most with your background.

Biggest challenges this station faces as it relates to COVID.

- Well, the biggest challenge was trying to figure out how we were going to keep our staff safe and out of harm's way.

And I think we met that challenge head on and here we are a year later in a work from home situation for not just all of our announcers but for all of the WBGO staff.

We decided, Steve, in late March that because the COVID had been escalating to just disastrous proportions here in the New York City area and around the world really, that the most important thing for us was to figure out a way to move all of our announcers into a remote working situation that would allow them to work from home or from anywhere else.

And again, like I said, stay out of harm's way due to the escalating nature of COVID-19 more than a year ago.

And here we are, a year later and broadcasting, as we have been in a remote fashion and barely perceptible.

Many of our listeners don't even realize that all of our announcers are working from home because the transition is virtually seamless.

- You know, the other thing is, by the way, let me disclose that One-on-One airs on Saturday mornings at 6:00 am on WBGO.

There's so many folks tell us they, you know that's the program where the conversation matters most.

You don't need to see it per se and that's why it's such a powerful medium or platform to be on.

So check us out 6:00 am on Saturdays, One-on-One.

Let me ask you this, from a fundraising point of view, you know, we're working to keep our team safe as well but we also have to keep our doors open, even though we gave up our office, meaning no money, no mission.

Fundraising, talk about it.

- Well, you know, the fundraising happens for a public radio station in a variety of ways.

Certainly there's the individual donor, the person who gives their 10, 15, $20 a month when we ask for that donation.

And then there, of course, are business support models for us that include underwriting announcements and then there's the major gifts model that, that incorporates corporate gifts and donations from well-heeled fans of the radio station, you know, over $5,000 and more and so.

But we were hit hardest, Steve, in the area of underwriting, because, you know, as a jazz radio station, as a music radio station, we rely heavily on the support of the jazz ecosystem.

You know, performances, concerts.

Most of the things that we rely upon were completely devastated by COVID-19.

The jazz ecosystem relies heavily on presentation and performance.

And of course there was none of that happening.

- That's right.

- Very little of that has happened over the last year.

So because we derive much of our revenue from those sources, we were hit pretty hard.

We've managed to stay afloat.

In fact the last quarter, we're right now on our 25th fiscal year, '21 Our last quarter was actually one of our best just as we entered into the new year.

So the community, the community of business supporters and of course, listeners have rallied to support WBGO in what is a very tough time.

And it's not just WBGO, right?

I mean, it's - - Public media.

- It's public media in general.

All - - Steve, I'm sorry for interrupting.

Tell folks why you believe, listen, again, for those who know we're affiliated with public broadcasting, WNET, the public television station New Jersey, et cetera.

We know that public broadcasting, public media is important for those who may not appreciate us, some call us the "enemy of the people", not public media, media overall, we have no horse in any race at WBGO journal.

Doug Doyle, nobody, we're not rooting for anyone.

We're trying to provide valuable, important information incredibly important music, American, the original American art form, great American art form, jazz, et cetera.

Why is public media so important now more than ever, Steve?

- Well, now more than ever the public relies upon the information and the entertainment, the solace if you will, that public media organizations provide as only public media organizations can provide.

And this also relates to why it was important for us to stay on the air and keep our normal programming operations intact, right?

Because we realized that the public relies upon us especially in difficult times.

And I think about the reliance the public had on WBGO in the aftermath of 9/11, and this is similar.

This is a very similar situation in terms of the public need to be informed, to be comforted.

- How about to be calmed and comforted - Get them to calm down, right.

- Right?

- Right, right, To know that there is something that's going to be on the other side of a very difficult set of circumstances.

So public media provides not only that connection to your community and the calm or solace that music stations like WBGO provides, but also there's, you have to have some sort of, some sense of normalcy within your circle, (chuckling) and so desperately abnormal, - That's right.

- You need to have some sort of touch to that semblance of normalcy and I think that that's, that's one of the things that we've provided and can provide so well, so unique in terms of what we can do as public media organizations.

- Well, Steven Williams is the President and CEO of a great American institution, a great media iconic institution, at WBGO and I could say 88.3 on the dial, but also check out their website.

And Lauren, let's make sure that the website's been up, we'll do it in post-production.

- If I could add just one more quick, - Real quick, few seconds left, go ahead.

- Real quick, you know, in a time where there's so much divisiveness and so much fractured relationships, so many fractured relationships, WBGO and jazz, as an institution, as an art form is the great unifier.

You have to look at it like this, Steve.

Jazz relates and appeals to all walks of life.

You know, you're young, you're old, you're black, you're white, you're male, female or whatever your gender specification is.

You're rich, you're poor, you're educated, you're not necessarily educated, you're a Republican, you're a Democrat, right?

You live in the United States or you live in Africa or you live in Europe.

It doesn't matter.

Jazz is the great unifier.

Everyone comes together because of their love for this art form.

And that's, again, one of the most important things about WBGO's existence at this time, this really important time in our lives.

- Glad you shared that, Steve.

Thank you so much.

We're honored to be colleagues in public media with you.

Thank you, Steve.

- Thank you, Steve.

- I'm Steve Adubato, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

- We're joined once again by Brian Gragnolati, President and CEO of Atlantic Health System.

Good to see Brian.

- Great to see you Steve - So we're taping on the 16th of February, be seen later.

Put things in perspective.

If we're talking about vaccine distribution, vaccine availability.

Right now, as a major player in that with Atlantic Health, what are the biggest challenges you believe we face, A and B, I'm going to load up this question, where do we need to be three months from now?

- So the fact that we have these two vaccines right now and they came to us as quickly as they did and they are highly effective is a miracle.

So that's the good news.

The fact that here at Atlantic, we've almost administered a hundred thousand doses of that vaccine into our team members, our frontline workers, as well as our community members.

- As of now, it'll grow, obviously.

- Yeah, you bet.

It's also pretty amazing, but the real trouble right now we're having, is getting that vaccine.

We're doing about 3000 vaccinations a day and we can be doing 10,000.

We got 11 sites set up and we're ready to rock and roll.

We just need the vaccine.

- You could do 10,000?

- We could do 10,000 vaccinations a day.

- So, if the Biden administration is able to do what it says it wants to do, in terms of increasing the supply.

With all of the confusion, all of the, "Oh, I can't get through on that website, "this phone number," whatever, you're saying just the significant dramatic increase in supply, dramatically changes, doesn't fix all of the distribution problems but dramatically changes it by itself.

- Absolutely.

It's all about supply because we have safe and effective vaccines.

We've got other vaccines that are coming online which look like they're gonna be easier to handle, have less cold-storage requirements and things like that.

And we've got, particularly here in New Jersey, we've got over 300 sites in New Jersey alone for vaccination.

We can do and we can get to the goal, of having 70% of the population vaccinated by the summer.

If we have the vaccine.

- Let me do this.

And by the way, Atlantic Health one of the many healthcare organizations, hospital systems that support what we do.

Brian, let me follow up on this.

As it relates to the role of hospitals and hospital systems, and by the way, let everyone know what hospitals are in your system.

- So we've got Morristown, Overlook, Chilton, we've got Newton, Hackettstown and we've got a rehab center that we do in partnership with Kindred Healthcare.

- So my question really is about the role of hospitals and healthcare systems.

From your perspective, and you understand this nationally because you were the chair of the National Hospital Association if you will, correct?

- The American Hospital Association.

- American, I apologize.

So are you comfortable with, are you satisfied with the degree to which hospitals and hospital systems have been engaged and participating directly with the vaccine distribution?

- Here in New Jersey, because remember, the Trump administration gave the responsibility to the states, of administering the vaccine.

Arguably, in a way that was difficult for the states to be able to accept it, but they did that.

And the governor put together a method of doing this and the first group of hubs that were created were our hospitals and health systems, because of our ability to handle this type of medication because of the cold-chain requirements.

And the fact that we could reliably distribute this to large numbers of the first priority patients, which were healthcare workers.

All of us in the state who work in hospitals and health systems take this as our community vow.

I mean, this is what we do and we are ready, willing and able to serve the community in this way.

And that's why here at Atlantic we've really leaned into this.

And I've said to our team, we will be in a position to do 10,000 vaccines a day.

That's what we need to do.

And that's what we mobilized to do.

- You mentioned frontline healthcare workers.

So, there are some folks, it's anecdotal but it's not just me.

There are some friends, family members who said early on when the vaccine became available at an incredibly warped speed, warp speed fashion.

"You know, if physicians or nurses "or other frontline workers "are reluctant to take the vaccine.

"Why would I?"

Now that was earlier on.

As we speak today on the 16th of February, to what degree is there resistance on the part of frontline healthcare workers, A or B hesitation, and there's a difference.

Resistance is, you know, I'm not doing it, hesitation is, I'm waiting.

Go ahead, Ryan.

- So as we speak today, 62% of our team members at Atlantic are vaccinated.

And there was really no hesitation in that.

The remaining folks really are a bit watching and waiting.

That hesitation, "Let me see what happens" because there's a lot of myths out there, rather than facts, out on the web and people listen to that.

But in addition people want other people to go first, also.

(Steve laughing) And so, we see that occurring, but every day more and more of our team members are getting vaccinated as we are vaccinating community members.

But remember to do a hundred thousand vaccines, we've got 18,000 employees.

So the bulk of the vaccinations that we've been doing are to community members.

- I'm gonna follow up with something.

You said 62% of your employees.

Is it higher for physicians and nurses as clinicians, than it is for everyone else?

Is there a difference?

- Yes, it is.

I think the closer you are to the science and understand the science, your questions are answered and you go ahead and do it without any hesitation.

I think people want to have their questions answered about the vaccine.

And so a lot of the work that we're doing now on the balance of our workforce, we're really spending the time to listen to those questions and answer those questions, in a way that people have confidence in moving forward.

- That is reassuring that those who are closest to the quote, science, as you said, Brian are more likely - Absolutely.

to have gotten it in and we'll get it.

Brian Gragnolati is President and CEO of Atlantic Health System.

I want to thank you, Brian for joining us.

To you and your colleagues particularly those who are on the front lines, the physicians, the nurses, the respiratory therapists, so many others, thank you for what you do every day.

Thank you, Brian.

- Thank you, Steve.

Take care.

- I'm Steve Adubato.

Thank you so much for watching.

We'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

Delta Dental of New Jersey.

The North Ward Center.

NJM Insurance Group.

The New Jersey Education Association.

The Fidelco Group.

Fedway Associates, Inc. Georgian Court University.

And by The Adler Aphasia Center.

Promotional support provided by NJ.com, And by NJBIZ.

(Music playing) NJM Insurance Company has been serving New Jersey policy holders for more than 100 years.

But just who are NJM'’s policy holders?

They'’re the men and women who teach our children.

The public sector employees who maintain our infrastructure.

The workers who craft our manufactured goods.

And New Jersey'’s next generation of leaders.

The people who make our state a great place to call home.

NJM, we'’ve got New Jersey covered.