Theme: Time to Pause

In today's fast-paced world filled with distractions, taking time to pause and reflect can improve our personal wellness, reshape our career trajectory, and bring our awareness back to ourselves and our community.

This event will feature talks on a diverse array of topics including: ecological conservation in the Lackawanna watershed, the power of mindfulness meditation, finding your way when passion stops driving, lessons from a volcano, and more!

Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
525 Pine Street
Scranton, Pennsylvania, 18510
United States

Bernie McGurl

Conservation Activist

Bernie McGurl is a fourth generation native of the Lackawanna Valley. He was born in Scranton and grew up in Dunmore. He was a co-founder of the Lackawanna River Conservation Association (LRCA) in 1987. He later served as LRCA President and was hired as its Executive Director in 1991. During his tenure with LRCA, he worked with the LRCA Board in 1995 to establish the Lackawanna Valley Conservancy (LVC) to provide the services of a land trust in the Lackawanna Watershed. He continues working with the LRCA and LVC implementing conservation and community economic development work through out the Lackawanna River Watershed. His poetry has been published in numerous periodicals and anthologies.

Brian Martin

Medical Student

Brian Martin was born and raised in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Philosophy and Biology from the University of Scranton in the spring of 2020. Brian is currently a second-year medical student at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine. He has wanted to become a physician for as long as he can remember, and plans to pursue a career in Emergency Medicine once his studies at GCSOM conclude. In his free time, Brian enjoys cooking and baking with his fiancée, building furniture and wooden decorations in his workshop, volunteering in his community, hiking the many trails in and around the Scranton area with friends, and cheering his Yankees and Steelers on to victory.

Brittany Drumm

Program Lead, Center for Professionalism and Well-Being, Geisinger

Brittany Drumm, MBA, is a mother, an opera singer, a mental health and well-being champion, a wife, a life and career coach, a healthcare administrator, and a professional development fanatic (not necessarily in that order). She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Opera Performance from Westminster Choir College and a Master’s of Business Administration from Messiah University with a specialty in Management. A former administrative fellow at Geisinger, she’s taken on the role of operational leader of the Geisinger Center for Professionalism and Well-Being. She also maintains a small private coaching practice and sits on the leadership team of the Harmony Arts Foundation, a non-profit arts program in Bloomsburg, PA. She lives in Mifflinville, PA with her wonderful husband, their awesome son William, and their sassy cat Esme.

Glenn Finney

Behavioral Neurologist

Glen R. Finney, MD, FAAN is a board-certified behavioral neurologist, the subspecialty of neurology that studies all those things about the brain that are especially human like consciousness, language, tool use, personality, memory, and the diseases that threaten them such as Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders. Dr. Finney is a Professor of Neurology at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, and serves as the Vice-Chair for the School of Medicine Faculty Senate. He also is the Director for the Memory and Cognition Program at Geisinger Health. Dr. Finney, a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN), holds several leadership positions including the Chair of the AAN BrainPAC Executive Committee, member of the Academy’s Advocacy Committee, Secretary/Treasurer of the Pennsylvania Neurological Society, and Board Member of the Greater Pennsylvania Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association.

Julie Byerley

President and Dean, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine

Dr. Byerley provides leadership that fosters excellence, innovation and a focus on learners, patients and the promotion of health. Her focus is to maintain the school as an industry leader and model its community service mission. As chief academic officer, Dr. Byerley oversees the management of educational experiences for learners throughout Geisinger, including graduate medical education, nursing, pharmacy, advanced practitioners and other health professions. Dr. Byerley previously served as vice dean for academic affairs at UNC School of Medicine, where she oversaw the school’s educational enterprise and the Office of Faculty Affairs and Leadership Development. Dr. Byerley earned her bachelor’s degree in physics and a teaching certificate from Rhodes College and attended medical school at Duke University. She completed her pediatrics residency and chief residency at UNC-Chapel Hill, where she also earned a master’s degree in public health with a focus on maternal and child health

Khevna Joshi

Medical Student

Hi everybody! My name is Khevna Joshi, and I’m currently a first-year medical student here at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine. I am also an Abigail Geisinger Scholar aspiring to pursue a career in primary care, hopefully in the specialties of Internal Medicine or Family Medicine. A little bit about me: I’m from Nashua, New Hampshire, and I graduated early from Dartmouth College in November 2020 with a major in Neuroscience. When I’m not studying, you can find me dancing, loading up on chai tea latte, hiking a mountain, hanging out with friends and family, or sleeping!