October 2018 – Hunt Institute for Engineering & Humanity

October 28, 2018March 2, 2022

VR Small, Hunt Institute Fellow

Founder/Executive Director
Veteran Women’s Enterprise Center, Certified SCORE Mentor SCORE Dallas
Personal Slogan: “Dedicated to changing the way we see the world and do business!”

The Institute welcomes VR Small as an Associate. Ms. Small supports the business community via WINGS and as a Certified SCORE Mentor. She continually focuses her energy on developing innovative programs for women, veterans and small business owners—turning visions into realities as the Founder and Executive Director for the Veteran Women’s Enterprise Center (VWEC): a national initiative that has broken ground in southern Dallas as the first of many VWECs projected for Texas and our nation.

Ms. Small’s former positions include President and Chief Executive Officer, Small Industries Organizational Success Strategies (SIOSS), Founder and Executive Director for the Brooklyn Executive Business Women’s Association (BEBWA), Director of the Center for Healthy Living at Long Island University and more than ten years as an adjunct professor specializing in psychology, organizational development and management of human service agencies. VR’s expertise in building strategic alliances and providing innovative technical assistance spans nearly 20 years, illustrating a vibrant history of success helping individuals, nonprofits, businesses and associations access the resources they need to succeed.

A dynamic advocate for women veterans, VR testified in support of the original House Bill to make June 12, Women Veterans Day in Texas and organized a celebration of the 2017 signing of the Bill supported by women veterans across the region. She chaired the 2018 Dallas Planning Committee coordinating events around the city in recognition of the first official Women Veterans Day in the State of Texas, which also celebrated the 70th Anniversary of the 1948 Women Armed Services Integration Act. And in collaboration with the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, the VWEC has launched the “Moments that Matter” research project, the first local survey focused exclusively on women veteran-owned businesses in the DFW area.

Committed to advocacy for women and small businesses, VR serves on the Advisory Committee for TWU Center for Women Entrepreneurs. Ms. Small is a SMU, Hunt Institute for Engineering and Humanity—Inclusive Economy, Dallas Public Voices 2019, and Bush Institute Stand to Veteran Leadership Program Fellow and featured in Dallas Innovates: The Future 50. Actively involved in veteran support, she continues to serve on the 30th Congressional District Veteran Advisory Committee, Representative Neave’s Sexual Violence Task Force and support the efforts of various local veteran coalitions and service organizations. Ms. Small chaired the Veteran Business Subcommittee for the City of Dallas, Office of Business Diversity and was the 2017 VP for Veteran Affairs with SCORE Dallas. Most importantly, VR is a U.S. Navy Veteran, proud stepdaughter and sister to U.S. Army Retired Vietnam & Iraq Veterans respectively!

October 15, 2018March 2, 2022

Chris Kelley

Chris Kelley is an award-winning writer with more than 35 years of experience in journalism and strategic communications.

An ardent champion of truth and getting the story behind the story, Kelley began his career as a newspaper reporter fresh out of college, working his way through the ranks of The Dallas Morning News (Dallas-based A.H. Belo Corp.) — from street reporter to city editor over the course of 27 years — and ultimately becoming the founding editor of DallasNews.com, the evolutionary step of the Dallas Morning News, as the major news operation entered the new millennium.

A relentless problem solver, Kelley, after accepting a voluntary severance arrangement from A.H. Belo Corp in 2006, formed The Kelley Group to bring his communications skills to select non-profits, humanitarian organizations and visionary corporations to expand the reach of their message effectiveness, using both traditional media and New Media formats to inspire a greater audience worldwide to take positive action on society’s challenges.

Focusing on human causes and social justice issues, Kelley is an expert in media relations and crisis communications, and through his media consultancy he has partnered with the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, Refugee Services of Texas, SMU, the Lighthouse for the Blind (Envision Dallas), the Deaf Action Center, and Alliance for Greater Works, among other institutions that engage in what he describes as having a big difference to make but needing some help to make it more efficiently and effectively.

When asked for his motivation behind his impactful work, he replied, “At the start of every day and before sleep every night, I ask: ‘What will I do/what have I done to level the playing field for others who are unable to pursue this aim themselves.'”

As an author, Kelley has traveled the world to get the first-person accounts of those who’ve lived through the indescribable trauma of human atrocities, specifically in an effort to keep the stories of those who’ve survived the horrors of the Rwandan genocide of the late 20th Century from being buried by the passing of time. And, through the friendships he’s forged with people of all walks of life, who’ve endured monumental hardships and nevertheless prevailed to grasp their own purpose and meaning and forge their own successes, Kelley has gained an appreciation for the potential within every person and strives to present the triumph of the human spirit in all his work.

Among his works, Kelley is the author of Rwanda: 25 Years Later: A primer on the 1994 Rwandan Genocide and what’s happened since then (2019, Amazon) and I Was a Stranger: Hope for a Hidden World (2008, Brown Books).

He also served as executive producer of the DVD, JFK: Story Behind the Story, on the 40th anniversary of the JFK assassination. He is executive producer of Tragedy Over Texas: The Columbia Shuttle Disaster. And, he has also helped produce an online resource for KERA-TV and Radio, Living with the Trinity (TrinityRiverTexas.org).

Kelley is a contributing author for Demographics: A Guide to Methods and Data Sources for Media, Business, and Government (2006, Routledge).

Kelley is a graduate of Texas Christian University and is a member of both the News Leaders Association and the Dallas Press Club.

Kelley and his wife, Sheryl, live in Dallas and have raised two children who have both followed in their parents’ footsteps of living to enjoy life with meaning and purpose while striving to be servant-leaders in collaboration with others who are seeking to achieve equity and equality for all persons.

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

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October 15, 2018March 2, 2022

Andrew Quicksall, Hunt Institute Fellow

Associate Professor, SMU
B.S., Environmental Sciences, Texas Christian University, 1998
M.S., Geology, Washington State University, 2000
Ph.D., Earth Science, Dartmouth College, 2009

It is with pleasure we announce Andrew Quicksall as a Hunt Institute Fellow. The Hunt Institute Fellows are appointed for their expertise and demonstrated excellence in their fields. During their tenure, they will collaborate on projects and contribute to the endeavors of the Institute.

Andrew Quicksall, Ph.D., as assistant professor of enviornmental engineering, studies aqueous metal enrichment and water contamination in the natural environment by probing both solution and solid chemistry of natural materials.

Supported by a grant from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Quicksall and a team of his graduate students collected water samples in UNHCR camps and brought them back to SMU for analysis and also trained workers in and around the refugee camps to test water supplies. The group is integrating information from other sources to develop a database that will help UNHCR planners provide safer drinking water in existing and future refugee camps.

October 15, 2018March 2, 2022

Evelyn Parker, Hunt Institute Fellow

Susanna Wesley Centennial Professor of Practical Theology
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

It is with pleasure we announce Evelyn Parker as a Hunt Institute Fellow. The Hunt Institute Fellows are appointed for their expertise and demonstrated excellence in their fields. During their tenure, they will collaborate on projects and contribute to the endeavors of the Institute.

Evelyn Parker is Associate Professor of Practical Theology at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. She joined the faculty in July 1998. Parker received her Bachelor of Science (B.S.) from Lambuth College, Jackson, TN (1974), and her Master of Science (M.S.) from Prairie View A&M University (1983). Upon receiving her M.S., she served as a research scientist in the Department of Human Biological Chemistry and Genetics at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. She attended the two week Christian Educators Seminar at Perkins School of Theology from 1986 until 1989 and received a Certificate as an Associate in Christian Education in June 1989. The seminars were the impetus for further study in theological education and the transition from a vocation in biological research to one in educational ministry. During the fall of 1989, Parker became a full-time student at Perkins and in 1991, she earned a Master of Religious Education. In December 1996, Parker earned her Ph.D from the Joint Program of GarrettEvangelical Theological Seminary/Northwestern University in Religious and Theological Studies, with an interdisciplinary emphasis in Christian Education, Womanist Approaches to Religion and Society, and Education and Public Policy. While at Garrett Seminary/Northwestern University, she was a Fund for Theological Education Black Doctoral Scholar from 1993-1995.

Parker is the editor of The Sacred Selves of Adolescent Girls: Hard Stories of Race, Class, and Gender (Pilgrim Press, 2006) and Trouble Don’t Last Always: Emancipatory Hope Among African American Adolescents (Pilgrim Press, 2003). She is the co-author of In Search of Wisdom: Faith Formation in the Black Church (Abingdon, 2002). Parker has also published several chapters and journal articles on adolescent spirituality. She is an active member of the International Academy of Practical Theology, the American Academy of Religion, the Association of Practical Theology, and Religious Education Association, where she has presented papers, coordinated segments of consultations and convened sessions.

Parker is a native of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where she grew up in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (CME). She has served the CME church as a local and district Director of Christian Education. She has also taught numerous educational ministry workshops and seminars on local, district, Annual Conference and Connectional levels. She has represented the CME Church on the World Council of Churches (WCC), Faith and Order Plenary Commission from 1996 to 2006. During the WCC Ninth Assembly in 2006 she was elected to the Central Committee and serves until 2013. Within the WCC Central Committee she is co-secretary/reporter for the Nominations Committee. She is also a member of the 10th Assembly Planning Committee that will be held in Busan, South Korea in 2013. She is an active member of the Kirkwood Temple C.M.E. Church in Dallas, Texas where she serves as Christian Education Coordinator.

October 15, 2018March 2, 2022

Paola Buckley, Hunt Institute Fellow

Paola Tettamanzi Buckley, is a Hunt Institute Fellow, Senior Lecturer, and Advisor at Southern Methodist University. A native speaker of French, Italian, and English, Buckley has taught foreign languages at Southern Methodist University since 2003. She is presently an associate area chair and faculty advisor for the department of French and Francophone Studies. She also designed and directs the SMU-in-France summer program, a five-week faculty-led immersion program in Paris.

She teaches Business French and oversees the internship program for French majors and minors who wish to apply their language skills in a professional setting. She is a Board Member of the Alliance Française of Dallas.
Before becoming a faculty member at SMU, Paola worked at United Nations headquarters in New York and was accredited as both a French and Italian interpreter by the State Department in Washington; she has served as an interpreter at the White House, the Pentagon and other U.S. government agencies.

Paola’s academic interests include Languages for Specific Purposes, Study Abroad and Translation. She is currently translating the book Au Texas by Victor Considérant.

When asked what motivates Paola to do impactful work she said, “When you open your passport, you open your mind: students who are exposed to multiple languages and cultures gain insights about themselves and develop new perspectives that are essential to advance a more balanced and genuine understanding of the world in which they live and the people with whom they interact.”

Her most recent academic presentations include:
French for Fashion and the Diplôme de Français Professionnel: a model for Second Language immersion abroad. ISLSP-CIBER conference:5th International Symposium on Language for Specific Purposes, March 2019

Enseigner le français des affaires en ligne ? Mais oui, c’est possible! Webinaire, Chambre de Commerce et d’Industrie de Paris, September 2020

“Global Literacy and Languages for Specific Purposes: Curricular design for building transferable skills” Southern Methodist University, Research Cluster co-convener

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

October 15, 2018March 2, 2022

Dr. Simon Mak

Dr. Simon Mak (@profsmak) is Executive Director of the Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship and Professor of Practice in the Department of Strategy, Entrepreneurship, and Business Economics at the SMU Cox School of Business. He directs the Caruth Institute staff and its many community service programs, such as the Dallas 100 Entrepreneur Awards, the Southwest Venture Forum, the Starting A Business certificate course, and the Startup Camp for Teens. In addition, Dr. Mak leads the academic entrepreneurship programs at Cox by overseeing the BBA Specialization in Entrepreneurship and the MBA/graduate program in entrepreneurship, managing a team of over a dozen adjunct professors in teaching over 20 entrepreneurship courses. Dr. Mak also works with the Lyle School of Engineering on the MS in Engineering Entrepreneurship degree program.

Dr. Mak is one of the leaders at SMU in researching blockchain and created an MBA class called Blockchain Entrepreneurship where he taught about CryptoKitties as one of the first NFT (Non-Fungible Token) startup business models. He has traveled to London, Berlin, Malta, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Israel, Beijing, and Shanghai researching blockchain startups. He has formed a company Genesis Blockchain Academy, LLC that is supported by the SMU Incubator.

Dr. Mak also researches esports entrepreneurship and just completed a project with a graduate assistant researching startup business models in esports. He is the faculty advisor for the SMU Esports Club and co-director of the newly created SMU Esports Business Management Certificate. He has traveled to London, Stockholm and Israel researching esports startups. His newest research interest is in space entrepreneurship.

Dr. Mak specializes in ideation (having created an BBA course called Identifying Entrepreneurial Opportunities), emerging business models and strategies, corporate entrepreneurship (having created an MBA course called Corporate Entrepreneurship:Intrapreneuring), and global entrepreneurship (having created an MBA course called Global Explorations in Entrepreneurship and brought his students to Berlin, Zurich, Israel, and Kuala Lumpur to study their local entrepreneurship ecosystems). Dr. Mak also teaches strategic thinking in the SMU Cox Executive Education program called Transformational Leadership.

Prior to joining SMU, Dr. Mak worked as an engineer for Fortune 50 companies Raytheon and Digital Equipment Corporation, and then was an early employee of venture-backed software startup Mercury Interactive in Silicon Valley as a field applications engineer and then was the Texas Regional Sales Manager after the company’s IPO. He was involved in his own healthcare dot.com startup and presented to top-tier venture capital firms in Silicon Valley, and then was the vice president of sales and marketing for a startup Asian business magazine, and most recently he was vice president of marketing and business development for a small, Dallas-based private-equity backed Linux software company and led the sales expansion into the Japanese market and the eventual company sale to a large Japanese systems integration company.

When asked what motivates his work, he replied:

Give a person a fish and s/he will eat for a day. Teach a person to fish and s/he will eat for a lifetime. Inspire a person to build a fishing business, then s/he will feed her/his community for a lifetime. This is my personal mission as an entrepreneurship professor.

Dr. Mak earned his BS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, an MBA in Finance from the SMU Cox School of Business, and a Ph.D. in Applied Science (Systems Engineering focus) from the SMU Lyle School of Engineering, where his PhD dissertation was entitled: Improving Investment Performance of Venture Financing Utilizing Bayesian Fundamentals. Dr. Mak is also the recipient of the SMU Cox Teaching Innovation award, SMU Distinguished Community Service Award, the SMU Rotunda Outstanding Professor Award, and the Global Educator of the Year by the Dallas Global Chamber of Commerce. Dr. Mak is also the faculty advisor to the SMU Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Club, the MBA Entrepreneurship Club, the SMU Intervarsity Fellowship, is on the SMU Incubator Advisory Committee, and also helps judge the annual Big Ideas undergraduate business plan competition.

In January 2021, Dr. Mak helped launch the USASBE (United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship) Special Interest Group (SIG) on Tech Entrepreneurship and serves as the inaugural chair.

In January 2021, Dr. Mak was appointed to the Dallas Mayor’s Task on Innovation and Entrepreneurship where he chairs the Big Fat Hairy Audacious Idea Committee.

#PeaceLoveStartups #FollowYourCalling

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

October 6, 2018March 2, 2022

Global Development Lab

Launched by the Hunter & Stephanie Hunt Institute for Engineering & Humanity and housed in the Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering at Southern Methodist University, the Global Development Lab is a catalyst for projects fostering global development one concept at a time.

The program uses a project-based interdisciplinary engagement model that involves student teams working with experts on solutions for pressing global issues identified by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). An exemplary project team would consist of an Affiliate of the Institute, SMU staff, undergraduate and/or graduate researchers, industry partner(s), a local in-country partner, and an undergraduate project manager.

The Lab is governed by three guiding pillars (1) foster technology, engineering, and market-based ideas with the goal of creating innovative solutions for a resilient humanity addressing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, (2) ally with local partners with systemic engagement in their communities working on addressing local challenges, (3) Engage our network of experts for the development and testing of ideas in order to maximize the viability of solutions.

GDL high-impact projects of systemic importance can be categorized into three focus areas within SDGs: (i) transformational technology, (ii) sustainable food systems, and (iii) resilient infrastructure.

Overview of engagement in the GDL:
A. We host student groups or individual students working on research or a project that aligns with the guiding principles of the Hunt Institute without direct management of outcome from the GDL team.

B. We partner to form a project with formal hands-on engagement from GDL’s functional teams and network. A Fellow in the Hunt Institute may apply to create a new project or join an existing one. Funding is available from various sources which will be determined after project eligibility is determined.

C. We pioneer a new initiative with full responsibility to manage the design, implementation, and growth of the project into a program by HI’s leadership and functional teams. Once project grows into program level; further engagement is recruited via partners in government, NGOs, non-profits, and so forth.

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn,Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.