A Mind Focused on the Brain

Taking a multidisciplinary approach to brain health

says Sara. “No other organ tries to understand itself.”

For Sara, this fascination played out in an atypical route into the medical profession. Despite the long hours she remembers allocating to studying science while at Bialik, she also loved languages.

“My mom is a native Yiddish speaker, so being able to study the language at school and connect with her in that way was special and very unique to Bialik,” says Sara, who was the Yiddish valedictorian of her Grade 8 graduating class.

So she pursued the arts at McGill University, earning an honours degree in psychology with a minor in the philosophy of neuroscience. Sara was captivated by philosopher René Descartes’ theories and the concept of the separation of the brain and the mind.

From there, she decided to return to science and was accepted into McMaster University’s medical school as one of a few students with an arts background. With her medical degree, she continued her journey at UofT towards specialization as a neurologist, then travelled to Boston to complete a fellowship in cognitive behavioural psychiatry and neurobiology at Harvard. She also completed a master’s degree in public health at Harvard.

If you unearthed the time capsule Dr. Sara Mitchell’97 created during her time at Bialik, you’d fi nd she predicted the invention of video phones and the end of sickness. This early interest in innovation and health has stayed with her.

Now a neurologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Sara is keenly aware of how technology can help improve patient care. In her role as Assistant Professor at University of Toronto’s (UofT) Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Sara teaches all levels of medical students to see how innovation can contribute to quality healthcare, such as using virtual care to suit a patient’s needs.

As a cognitive neurologist, Sara studies cognition and behaviour in the brain, treating complex neurological diseases such as dementia. She has a passion for the brain.

“It defi nes us. I thought, if I’m going to spend my life trying to understand one thing, it’s going to be the brain,”

The breadth of experiences that people have with neurological illness and the range of specialists that treat them inspired Sara to lead the creation of the Brain Medicine Fellowship at UofT. She started this initiative to help integrate all the different approaches and disciplines of medicine that touch on the brain.

“It gives medical professionals the ability to learn about other specialties related to the brain,” she says, which is important in a healthcare system that can be so siloed. “The way brain disease can impact an individual’s relationships, view and experience of the external world in such unique ways is fascinating. I learn from each patient I see and from their experience,” says Sara.

While she can now treat patients virtually or check in with her husband and two kids via FaceTime, Sara is committed to achieving her second prediction from her Bialik days — working towards brain health.

Ripe for the Stage

Bialik alum, Robbie Wulfsohn’07, is living every young musician’s dream as the lead singer and songwriter for the band Ripe. Known for their upbeat alternative-pop funk sound, the band formed over a decade ago while the members were studying in Boston at the renowned Berklee College of Music. The band’s goal? To make dance music that gets people on their feet.

“There’s a tension between studied conservatory musicians trying to make dance rock and trying to make music that gets people moving,” shares Robbie. “Our music tends to be more escapist while still being cathartic. We’re playing those two things off each other and seeing what happens.”

While Robbie’s musical experiences at Bialik were limited to school plays and the choir, he credits Bialik for giving him the tools to explore Judaism and look at the world with critical thinking skills. “Being a student at Bialik with a second education happening alongside the first definitely shaped me,” he shares.

After graduating from Bialik and TanenbaumCHAT, Robbie began his musical collaboration at Berklee College of Music, making friends in his freshman year with musicians who would become his bandmates. Since then, together as Ripe, they have enjoyed steadily rising success, opening for artists like Milky Chance and Jason Mraz. Ripe’s global streams have surged past 65 million, thanks to an ongoing touring schedule, including sets at festivals such as Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, and appearing on PBS’s Austin City Limits.

With a recent move from the east coast to Los Angeles, Robbie is gearing up for a nationwide tour to support Ripe’s sophomore album, Bright Blues. The album paired them with new producers who have worked with the likes of household names such as BTS and Olivia Rodrigo, and their single “Settling” has reached the top 15 at Sirius XM Alt Nation. Stops on the tour include storied venues such as The Fillmore in San Francisco, but a highlight Robbie is looking forward to is returning to his hometown of Toronto to play The Danforth Music Hall.

Accolades aside, making it through COVID as a working musician is a feat on its own. “Getting to still be a band ten years later and surviving the pandemic and watching the growth can be considered a big accomplishment,” says Robbie, who also graciously lent his talents to our school’s virtual iHeart Bialik Living Room Concert in May of 2020, during the isolation of the lockdown.

Indeed, making it as a successful working musician, pandemic or not, is cause for celebration. Robbie certainly enjoys proving the early naysayers, who pointed out the unlikelihood of music as a profession, wrong. “A music career can happen for someone who goes to Bialik,” says Robbie. “Don’t be afraid if it’s what feels right; lean into that and do the thing that feels the most correct.”