Long Life Learning
Yale SOM Executive Education talks with top scholars and experts about how to adapt and thrive throughout your career and life.
Subscribe to Long Life Learning on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player.
Assistant Dean and Executive Director of Yale School of Management Executive Education
Bio
Kavitha is a senior leader with strategic planning, financial, and business operations experience in higher education and healthcare. She has managed both revenue and cost centers valued at over $100MM and supervised large cross-functional teams in diverse and complex organizations. Kavitha is an expert presenter, writer, and communicator. She is a Yale MBA, passionate about mentorship and team development. Core competencies include strategic planning, external and internal communications, program development and execution, change management, lifelong learning and development. Kavitha Bindra is the Assistant Dean and Executive Education for Executive Education at the Yale School of Management (SOM). A summa cum laude graduate of Wellesley College with an MBA from Yale SOM, Kavitha worked at Deloitte Consulting and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City before returning to Yale SOM in 2012, where she served in various leadership roles across admissions, alumni relations and development, and lifelong learning before joining Executive Education in 2019. Kavitha is also a non-profit board leader, serving as the President of The Foote School Board of Trustees, as well as on the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management Board of Directors, which is dedicated to enhancing inclusion of underrepresented minorities in management schools and careers. Kavitha is a solo parent to two spirited daughters, and resides in New Haven, Connecticut.
Episodes
Jo Ann Jenkins on Social Change and Lifelong Mentorship at AARP
The final episode of season 1 features Jo Ann Jenkins, visionary CEO of AARP for the past 10 years. Jo Ann has revolutionized the mission of this “nonprofit, nonpartisan, social change organization” to help Americans embrace life after 50 as a vibrant time of transformation and connection. Jo Ann joins Kavitha to talk career pivots, lifelong mentorship, and legacy-making whose benefits extend to people of all ages. She invites us to consider the needs of an ever-evolving present day: one in which the fastest-growing age group in the U.S. is Americans 85 and up, and in which today’s 10-year-olds have a 50% chance of living to see their 100th birthday.
Bonnie Wan on Being a Misfit, a Vandal, and a Wise Beginner
This week, CSO, leadership coach, and author Bonnie Wan shares with Kavitha a moment of crisis that changed her life. Back in 2010, Bonnie found herself devoted to work and saying “yes” to everyone but her husband, her children, and herself. Out of a feverish night of writing, the Life Brief was born: an approach to self-examination, a lifestyle, and, most recently, the title of Bonnie’s bestselling 2024 book.
Stephanie Dunson on Writing Your Way to Collaborative Discovery
If you’ve ever caught yourself about to correct a spelling mistake on a grocery list, this week's guest has advice for you: Stop! And reflect: Why?
Michael Swiatek on Why This Is the Golden Age of Accessibility and Life
This week’s guest, Michael Swiatek, is a longtime airline executive and strategist. He also identifies as a blind, low vision individual, and is pioneering new ways to make flying accessible and comfortable to all travelers. Mike joins Kavitha to explain how he went from despising the airline industry to embracing it as a vocation, and why he’s excited, at age 61, to boldly step into a dual role as Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Accessibility Officer for Abra Group.
Joanna Lohman on Why She’s Refiring, Not Retiring
This week, Kavitha is joined by legendary pro-soccer player-turned keynote speaker and human rights activist Joanna Lohman. Together they discuss why Joanna says that she has “refired” rather than retired from professional sports, and why, as a Yale ELI Advisory Board member and upcoming cohort participant, she would encourage other ELI Fellows to do the same.
Marc Freedman on Seeking Curiosity and Purpose in Midlife Transitions
In our first-ever episode of Long Life Learning, host Kavitha Bindra (Executive Director, Yale SOM Executive Education) is joined by Marc Freedman, Founder and Co-CEO of CoGenerate. Marc is dedicated to championing intergenerational projects for the greater good, and will serve as Faculty Director for the forthcoming Experienced Leaders Initiative (ELI) provided by Executive Education at the Yale School of Management.
Welcome to Long Life Learning!
Long Life Learning host Kavitha Bindra introduces the premise of Season 1: how to center purpose and meaning in the context of midlife transitions. Just like participants in Yale SOM Executive Education's forthcoming Experienced Leaders Initiative, guests on the show are embracing their personal and professional milestones with dynamic leadership and tenacity! Featured voices include upcoming guests Marc Freedman, Joanna Lohman, and Michael Swiatek.