About Dr. Desirée
The first-born of a barber and a secretary, Dr. Desirée’s mother dreamed of Dr. Desirée being the first in the family to attend university. Dr. Desirée recalls her mother holding her hand at the door of the first-grade classroom of the private school that cost two-thirds of her salary, and saying to the 5-year old Dr. Desirée: “You will go to university. We don’t have the money to afford this, so you will have to win a scholarship. I’m telling you this now so you study hard and get good grades from the get-go.” When she was 15 years old, she saw a glossy brochure of Oxford University describing Oxford as a place where the world’s leading intellectuals created new knowledge. Dr. Desirée created a bolder vision than her mother’s dreams. She imagined herself studying at Oxford and having a global impact on medicine and healthcare. Like many teenagers interacting with her peers, she was bullied for expressing her bold vision. This unpleasant situation was a defining moment for her in developing the drive and determination to build a big vision for her future, for herself, and to make her mark in the medical field. This future was based on a deep understanding of physical, biochemical, mental/emotional, spiritual, environmental and innate intellectual resources that individuals need to have a healthy and fulfilling life.
Dr. Desirée : Studies
She first attended McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where she studied chemistry and quantum mechanics. When one of her chemistry professors suggested she apply for a Rhodes Scholarship, Dr. Desirée saw this as her chance to fulfill her childhood dream of attending Oxford University. She was fortunate enough to become the first Bahamian and the first woman from the British Caribbean region to win a Rhodes Scholarship. She studied medicine at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar as well as a Commonwealth Scholar, winning a Pembroke College Prize for top grades in her first year of medical school and a Radcliffe Infirmary Prize in her final year of medical school. Immediately after medical school, she went on to Cambridge University to study for her Master of Philosophy degree (MPhil) and doctorate (PhD) degrees in History and Philosophy of Sciences.
While she was studying for her PhD, in the final year of writing her thesis, Dr. Desirée found herself homeless, living with the crippling fear of being unable to afford a place to live. She spent many nights in a sleeping bag under the desk in her office, sleeping in cupboards and friend’s couches, living from hand-to-mouth with the equivalent of only $100 a month to live on, scrounging leftover vegetables from local market vendors, with all her belongings in a rucksack. (She still keeps the sack to remind her of the sacrifices of courage and choosing the hero’s journey.)
This adversity of homelessness reconnected her heart and mind with the vision of global impact, despite humble beginnings that started her on this life path at the age of 15, and the self-worth that comes with honoring our commitment to ourselves. It also strengthened her commitment to creating a system for help the many patients with chronic diseases activate their innate healing capacity by connecting and finding effective, evidence-based alternative solutions for their healing process. This vision informed the premise of Dr. Desirée’s thesis: Understanding the mechanisms, methodologies, and cultural and individual mindsets that created the current Western, disease-centered biomedical model and healthcare system, provides insight into how to reverse engineer the process to create a ‘whole-person’ model that focuses on preventive and regenerative health, as well as regenerative medicine therapy.
Dr. Desirée : Career
A few years after securing a successful dream job in psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital in London, Dr. Desirée found herself wrestling with an internal voice. ‘This is not your life’, the voice said. Ignoring this voice led to her facing depression. Despite being good at her job, she was unfulfilled and at risk of a lifetime of being on medication to manage her depression. She walked away from psychiatry, determined to find an alternative way to connect the dots between having joy and passion for life while also implementing her intellectual gifts in life sciences, her unique purpose, her innate creativity and curiosity, and her commitment to global impact in medicine and healthcare.
Dr. Desirée’s 25+ years of experience and focus on regenerative health solutions, therapeutics and technologies from the perspective of a researcher, an academic educator, a clinician, healthcare entrepreneur, corporate strategist and consultant has led her to become a worldwide thought-leader in the stem cell field. She is the CEO and founder of a unique global regenerative health platform called HEALinc (Health, Self-Efficacy, Analytics and Life-Design Innovation Incubator). HEALinc is the leading platform for matching top stem cell and regenerative health providers with people in need of alternative solutions for their healing process.
Dr. Desirée : HEALinc Platform
In 2018, she started the HEALinc Future Health Innovation Summits as a cross-disciplinary, cross-generational, innovative live event that connects innovators and top industry leaders. HEALinc Summits aim to harness the collective genius in stem cells and regenerative technologies and remove barriers to self-efficacy and enhanced personhood for the benefit of human health for anyone, anywhere on the planet. Featured speakers have included luminaries such as Peter Diamandis, Dr. Joe Dispenza, Tony Robbins, Dr. Bob Hariri, Aubrey de Grey, and Professor Joshua Hare.