What comes to mind when we hear the words “United Nations”?

Big? Definitely. Powerful? Probably. But — innovative?

That’s what I’m wondering as several excited UN Millennium Campaign staffers escort me through security at the UN’s Midtown Manhattan headquarters one sunny afternoon in the run-up to the UN General Assembly. And to put it plainly, I am bracing myself.

I was here because of UNMC Director Mitchell Toomey and my friend Anand Kantaria, a UNMC stalwart and all-around wonderful human who’d asked me to host the organization’s Peoples’ Voices Awards Ceremony during the GA.