329: Deep Dive Series Episode 4: Connections to Empower Projects

The Art of Construction

This is episode 4 of a 4 part series on constructing housing for I/DD adults!
“Where does your heart rest in this work? I think that that’s going to build their business definitively…In this work of what you’re building or what you’re doing, are you fundamentally changing the life of the persons who are going to be in your asset?”
In this episode, Michelle Dumay of Energy Glass discusses the benefits and applications of Energy Glass, a solar alternative for standard plate glass windows. She shares case studies and challenges faced in implementing this technology and highlights the unique features of Energy Glass. Michelle also emphasizes the importance of considering the needs of the IDD (Intellectually and Developmentally Disabled) community in construction projects and encourages builders and affiliates to focus on the heart line of their work.
Michelle Dumay is the mother of a terminally ill child born with a rare brain abnormality that required nearly half of her brain to be removed when she was less than a day old. Among other medical conditions (cerebral palsy, blindness and quadriplegia) her daughter suffers from four types of seizures. Michelle is no stranger to medical/hospital settings having taken her daughter to more than 1400 appointments. Her experience as a caregiver and medical advocate has allowed her to serve on patient advisory councils for two children’s hospital (Los Angeles and Phoenix) and one insurer (Mercy Care).
As a trained chemist, she first turned to conventional-pharma for the treatment of her daughter's seizures. Then she learned of the medicinal value of cannabis and its efficacy in mitigating seizures. With great success, her daughter has been using cannabis for several years.
Along with advocacy, learning has been a huge part of this journey. Federal prohibition has hampered all things-cannabis, including medical use. Having experienced first-hand the benefits and efficacy of its use to mitigate her daughter’s seizures, Michelle wanted to petition her insurance companies to cover the cost of the cannabis medicine. Quickly she learned that this was a lofty aspiration for a huge unforeseen reason (besides Prohibition): medical cannabis dispensaries are not HIPAA-compliant and as such, cannot partner with insurance companies to serve cannabis patients. Working to solve her own problem and the looming problem of millions of cannabis-using patients, she entered into the world of cannabis governance, risk and compliance.
Learn more about Energy Glass: http://www.energyglass.com/egl/index.php
Follow Michelle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelledumay/
Watch Michelle's TedTalk: https://www.ted.com/talks/michelle_dumay_cannabis_gave_me_a_voice
Learn more about the Trailhead Community here:https://www.trailheadcommunity.org/