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More than two years have passed since entrepreneur Ross Bradshaw embarked on the licensing process to open New Dia, a recreational cannabis dispensary in Worcester.

It wasn’t long ago CEOs were notably absent from such societal debates. For decades, business heads were advised not to talk about hot-button issues such as religion or politics.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and widespread protesting against racial inequality, the YMCA of Central Massachusetts’ doors are always open to continue to work towards equality with all groups.

At such a perilous time, the Worcester County business community is hampered by an uncomfortable problem: In the homogeneous world of business leadership in Worcester County, top officials at the area’s largest and best-known institutions are almost entirely white.

The killing of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, filmed for us all to witness, was truly horrific. The nation, and for that matter the world, has borne witness to the senselessness of his death, and responded with a call to action unlike any time in the past.

The emergency department staff at Milford Regional Medical Center typically prepares for a shift including patients seeking care for car accidents, heart attacks, or the rare mass casualty incident. No staff members had experienced a pandemic.

Here in Massachusetts at least 900,000 individuals serve as healthcare’s front line before the front line, and their numbers are growing in this pandemic. Across the U.S., the total is at least 53 million. 

Business is no longer as usual and while the optimists among us will seize the day, in the present moment, life is different right now, including work life.

Over the course of the last year and a half, the medical and recreational cannabis retailers have grown into two very different yet overlapping businesses, largely coexisting and occasionally competing.

A trio of researchers at UMass Medical School in Worcester are attacking the coronavirus pandemic from three different angles, as part of a $17-million Massachusetts effort to help the world combat the disease which has killed more than 400,000 people globally.