Page 10 - The MIL Connection: Summer 2024

Mental health in the workplace

On Wednesday May 22nd, MIL HR Director Danielle Hayes participated in an hour-long panel discussion
on mental health in the workplace. After presenting their views to 15 journalists that focus on business-
related issues, Danielle entertained questions from the reporters.
The session, titled “Putting the Human in Human Resources,”
was part of a program sponsored by the Luv U Project, a
small nonprofit dedicated to advancing the understanding of,
and treatments for, mental health issues. The panel was co-
sponsored by the American Psychological Association and Johns
Hopkins University School of Public Health. The goal of the panel discussion was to
raise awareness around workplace mental health issues and help business journalist
address the subject of mental health related topics with greater insight and heightened
sensitivity. The panel discussion took place at the offices of the National Press
Foundation in NW DC.

employee stories

AANHPI difference makers

To honor Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month 2024, all through the month
of June thought leaders representing MIL’s business sectors and different parts of the AANHPI community, reflect on the
achievements of a handful of AANHPI innovators that have advanced our collective understanding of the world around us
and changed our lives for the better. The AANHPI community hails from 50 diverse ethnic groups speaking over 100 different
languages, and this year MIL focuses on four AANHPI trailblazers that have entertained us, kept us safer, protected our
digital assets, and helped girls and young women envision a future in STEM. Join us at MIL as we recognize and celebrate the
contributions of AANHPI leaders in innovation.
Saying something with video
YouTube co-founder and AANHPI innovator Steven Chen famously said, “Every user has
something to say,” and on February 14th, 2005, Chen and fellow AANHPI computer scientist
Jawed Karim, along with third co-founder Chad Hurley, provided one of the most famous
places for everyday users to make a statement. After first meeting in 2002 while working
at PayPal, Taiwanese American Chen and Karim (of Bangladeshi and German descent)
discovered they were both comp sci graduates from the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign, and both possessed a distinctly American entrepreneurial spirit. Once teamed up,
that combined drive to create led to the launch of YouTube, the first and most famous video-
sharing platform.
YouTube’s first video posted by Karim (“Me at the Zoo”) has been viewed over 310 million
times since its April 23, 2005, debut (and add one more if you clicked on the link). Although
Chen, Karim, and Hurley no longer head YouTube—since they sold the platform to Google
in 2006 for an astounding $1.65 billion—the company is currently under the leadership of yet
another AANHPI innovator, Indian American electrical engineer and Google Chief Product
Officer Neal Mohan.
By YouTube’s own estimates, 500+ hours of video content is uploaded every minute by users
in 100+ countries worldwide using 80 different languages. The sheer volume of users invites
the question, Why? What is it about the melding of audiovisual imageries with user imaginings
that compels a worldwide audience of over a billion people to tune in every day? To gain some
insight, we asked MIL’s own creative innovator Marketing & Design Coordinator Hao Nguyen
to explain video’s widescale appeal.
Why is video so much more compelling than text or graphics alone?
Hao: Video combines visual and auditory elements which can be more captivating than static
text or graphics. Using music, storytelling, and visual imagery, even the simplest instructional
videos can create a deeper emotional connection with the audience, making the content

10 | the MIL connection | summer 2024