Fellow – Hunt Institute for Engineering & Humanity

March 30, 2022

Susan Alvarez, Hunt Institute Fellow

Susan Alvarez joins the Hunt Institute as a Fellow, bringing her expertise in civil engineering and environmental planning to solve sustainability issues within the Dallas area.

Ms. Alvarez is serving as the Assistant Director of the City of Dallas Office of Environmental Quality & Sustainability. She has a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, with a minor in geology from Rice University, and postgraduate work in water resources. She is a Registered Professional Engineer in Texas and 5 other western states, and is a Certified Floodplain Manager, and Master Naturalist in Texas. Ms. Alvarez brings over 40 years’ experience in broad practical experience in civil and environmental planning, engineering, and management for municipal, tribal, state and federal governments. She is currently focused on implementing the Comprehensive Environmental & Climate Action Plan, the Food & Urban Agriculture Plan, the City’s participation in the City Business Climate Alliance and other related efforts.

When asked what her motivation is for doing impact work she replied, “I would say that I absolutely want to make a positive impact on my community. Additionally, as I look at the science of climate change, I have come to understand two things: one, is that those communities that are the least able to deal with climate impacts will be the folks that are most impacted, and two, that the clock is ticking on our ability to forestall those predicted impacts; we collectively need to be doing as much as we can, as soon as we can”

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. 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

March 23, 2022

Olga Martinez Hickman, Hunt Institute Fellow

Dr. Olga Martinez Hickman, Ph.D. joins the Hunt Institute as a Fellow, bringing with her a passion for providing equal access to early childhood education in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.

Dr. Martinez Hickman is the Executive Director at Bachman Lake Together, where she supports cross-sector partnerships aimed at redesigning systems and strategies to enhance access to high-quality early childhood education for all children, regardless of zip code. Previously, Olga served as the Director of Programs and Partnerships for Read Fort Worth. Her work there promoted a collective impact, with the goal of increasing 3rd grade literacy for all students in the Fort Worth Independent School District. She has over a decade of relevant education experience that includes supporting statewide leadership, literacy, and system-change initiatives across Texas. Her areas of expertise include equity and excellence, parent leadership, and cultivating community connections to drive engaging instruction. Dr. Martinez Hickman is a product of public education, and earned her Ph.D. in K-16 Research, Policy, and Leadership from the University of Texas at Arlington.

Dr. Martinez Hickman is a 2019 Tarrant County Alumni of Leadership ISD’s Civic Voices and an alumni of inaugural Stagen Leadership Academy’s Social Change Leadership Program, designed to elevate the voices of powerful women leaders.

When asked what her motivation is for doing impact work she replied, “I want to help create systems that address barriers that have historically existed. It’s about experiencing the incremental progress toward our goal, small wins that may take a while, but will ultimately lead to change.”

March 23, 2022

Haddijatou Lamin Njie, Hunt Institute Fellow

Haddijatou Lamin Njie joins the Hunt Institute as a Fellow, bringing with her years of experience in sustainable international development.

Ms. Lamin Njie is an International Development Expert with over 25 years of working with Government, Multilateral Organizations and International Non-Governmental Organizations. She has a proven track record of formulating and implementing development projects and programs, evaluating projects, and leading program teams in a challenging environment.

Ms. Lamin Njie currently works as a Development Consultant. She is a member and Vice-Chairperson of the Internal Audit Committee of The Government of The Gambia. She served as Head of Program of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations in The Gambia from March 2018 to March 2020, and Country Director of the Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) in The Gambia from 2007 to 2015. She has held various managerial positions at the United Nations Development Program in The Gambia from 1997 to 2007. She has been the Team leader of the Governance, Human Rights and Gender Unit. In her earlier years, Ms. Lamin Njie served as an Economist and Financial Analyst at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs in The Gambia.

Ms. Lamin Njie holds a Master’s degree in Finance, a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, and a certificate in Development. She has undergone short-term training in monitoring and evaluation, micro-finance, information communication & technology, and gender.

When asked what her motivation is for doing impact work she replied, “Over the years, delivering valuable solutions that change the lives of vulnerable populations gave me the opportunity to contribute selflessly to human development. Doing impact work serves this purpose.”

March 23, 2022March 23, 2022

Clara Ford, Hunt Institute Fellow

Clara Ford joins the Hunt Institute as a Fellow, bringing with her a passion of finding sustainable solutions to alleviate poverty.

Clara Ford was born and raised in Tanzania to a politician father and a mother who was a public school teacher, hence public service and the importance of giving back was instilled in her from a very young age. She migrated to the United States in the year 2000, and now lives in Dallas, TX with her husband and 3 children.

Clara graduated with a BBA in Accounting from the University of Houston-Downtown in 2010 and she currently holds 2 MA degrees for Applied Economics as well as Sustainability & Development from Southern Methodist University.

Her professional experience is within the financial service industry, where she worked as a Commercial lending officer, first for JP Morgan Chase Bank, and later in 2017 for Bank of America. She currently works for the Federal Reserve System as a Senior Associate Bank Examiner.

In 2019, Clara who is a Native Swahili speaker, together with her former Economics Professor from SMU, founded Kijiji Innovative Sustainable Solutions (KISS): a Non-Profit Organization as a tool for finding practical, but sustainable solutions for alleviating extreme poverty in rural Tanzania, starting with her late father’s birth Village of Kasisa. Her project was part of the 2020 cohort with the Clinton Global Initiatives University (CGI-U) through SMU MASD program.

As a way to give back to the country of her birth, she hopes to provide a venue for those willing in any capacity, to make a difference in the lives of Kasisa Villagers. She believes in the notion that, “It takes a Village” and only through cooperation and interdependence in helping folks help themselves, by giving them the tools they need to lift themselves out of poverty, can we end, in the long term, the perpetual cycle of poverty in rural parts of Tanzania.
KISS is also part of SMU’s Hunt Institute Global Development Lab Social enterprise program.

When asked what her motivation is for doing impact work she replied, “I believe when we customize solutions to address unique situations at a local level, it will allow us to be most effective in making a lasting impact towards poverty reduction in rural areas, one Village at a time, starting with Kasisa Village, Mwanza, Tanzania. That is the main aim of our Kijiji Project.”

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. 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

March 4, 2022March 8, 2022

Kathy Hubbard, Hunt Institute Fellow

Kathy Hubbard is the Assistant Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Southern Methodist University’s (SMU) Lyle School of Engineering. Kathy leads the school’s effort to develop the 21st Century Engineer, this engineer is representative of global diversity. She leads the school’s effort to increase the number of students representing traditionally minoritized groups pursuing engineering and computer science degrees. These efforts include recruiting and retention strategies of under-represented students and improving diversity within the school’s faculty ranks. She is also responsible for internal equitable and inclusive policies and practices.

Kathy sits on several university-wide committees, and she is the Advisor for the Lyle school’s National Society of Black of Engineers, Society of Hispanic Engineers, and the Society of Women Engineers student organizations. She is a certified executive coach and has worked with executives and managers from DART, Texas Instruments, and other organizations. Kathy has also worked with the Center for Creative Leadership to develop youth and early career leadership development programs.

When asked about her motivation for doing impact work she answered, “I believe we are all here to leave the spaces and places that we are privileged to occupy better than we found them. If I do that, then I have made an impact.”

Kathy is passionate about closing the education achievement gap. In addition to her duties at SMU, she is an Alumni Fellow with LeadershipISD, an education equity advocacy group. She also serves on the Building Solutions Advisory Board supporting initiatives in DFW school districts and the Maclin Family Foundation Boards that provided access for Black and Hispanic students to institutions like the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. Kathy is the Immediate Past Chairman of the Board of Trustees for St. Philip’s School & Community Center in South Dallas. In this role, she leads strategic initiatives and helps build the organization’s endowment and annual fund.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Texas at Arlington and a Masters in Education Leadership & Policy from the Simmons School of Education at SMU. Kathy is married to Michael Hubbard and is mother of two wonderful sons, Michael and Elijah.

March 4, 2022March 23, 2022

Dr. Michael Adler, Hunt Institute Fellow

Mike Adler, PhD, joins the Hunt Institute as a Fellow, bringing with him his expertise in community engagement with the Puebloan Nations in New Mexico.

Dr. Adler is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Southern Methodist University and holds the William Clements Jr. Endowed Executive Director position in the SMU-in-Taos program. His academic training is in archaeology, and his primary research focus is the complex ancestries of Native Americans, particularly Puebloan, communities in the American Southwest. He has also worked overseas in Jordan on early village archaeological contexts. He has a strong interest in the current roles (and sometimes, failures) of archaeology in the creation of knowledge about the past.

He collaborates with Native American communities to investigate concepts of ancestry, cultural identity, and how communities create and recreate that complicated concept called “the past.” He also works with traditional acequia irrigation cooperatives in Northern New Mexico to document their ancestral land and water use systems. He works with his students and colleagues to bring archaeology and knowledge of the past to the public and considers experiential education as one of the most important legacies we can provide to future generations.

When asked what his motivation is for doing impact work he replied, “I would say that I’m privileged to be able to help communities better understand their unique and collective pasts. Every community deserves a past that best reflects their accomplishments and challenges, and to do that one has to listen first to the community needs and interests, and continue listening as the past becomes better understood.”

December 8, 2021March 2, 2022

Dr. Sukumaran Nair, Hunt Institute Fellow

Dr. Suku Nair joins the Hunt Institute as a Fellow bringing his expertise to the transformational technology work being done in the Institute. He is a Southern Methodist University Distinguished Professor and the founding director of the AT&T Center for Virtualization at SMU

Dr. Sukumaran Nair is a Southern Methodist University Distinguished Professor and the founding director of the AT&T Center for Virtualization at SMU. Along with these roles, he has a history of involvement across departments and programs. Namely, he is the founder of the Cyber Security program at SMU, and he was the Chair of the Computer Science and Engineering Department from 2008 until 2016.

Dr. Nair has joined the Hunt Institute as a Fellow, accompanied by his prowess in computer engineering and cyber security. At the SMU AT&T Center for Virtualization, researchers from across the University conduct interdisciplinary research to address technical, economic and social issues related to virtualization of all elements of the pervasive digital infrastructure.

When asked about his motivation to do impactful work, Dr. Nair responded, “We are excited to join hands with the Hunt Institute in empowering rural development through technology.”

His research interests include software-centric telecommunication networks, software-defined networks, virtualization technologies, trustworthy AI, and cyber security. He has published extensively in the area of high assurance computing and networking. His research has been supported through funds from the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Security Agency (NSA), National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), Office of Naval Research (ONR), and various industry leaders including Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, CAE, IBM, AT&T, and Google. Some of his recent awards include the Dallas 500 award and CIO/CTO award for Outstanding Tech Advocate from the D CEO magazine, SMU Ford Research Fellowship, IBM faculty award, and the Distinguished University Citizen award.

He received his B.S. from the University of Kerala, India in 1984, his M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana in 1988 and 1990, respectively.

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 21, 2021February 10, 2022

DeeDee Conway, Ed.D., Hunt Institute Fellow

DeeDee Conway Ed.D. serves as an Associate Dean at the Lyle School of Engineering and Research Assistant Professor in the Caruth Institute for Engineering Education at Southern Methodist University. DeeDee joins The Hunt Institute team as a Fellow, accompanied by her valuable expertise in education.

Her research focuses on engineering education professional development and technical training as a means of understanding what institutions do to prepare students for not only positions in the industry but also positions in higher education, such as organizational and leadership development practices. This includes the analysis of cultural norms within an institution and opportunities for the reform of education to better suit the requirements of today’s industry and higher education institutions. Other research interests include creating a better understanding of culture in education, finding ways to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as understanding the needs of non-traditional learners.

DeeDee’s recent publications are grounded in identifying pathways to prosperity for underserved populations, adult learners, and organizational leadership/culture. DeeDee holds a BBA from American Public University and her M.Ed. in Education and Ed.D. in Higher Education from Southern Methodist University.

When asked what motivates her impact work, DeeDee said, “I want to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to advance and grow in whatever way they choose. I work to advocate and help those that have difficulty navigating through various systems, policies, and processes.”

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 8, 2021February 15, 2022

Kathy Jack, Ph.D., Hunt Institute Fellow

Kathy Jack The Dallas Healthy Cities Program Director for The Nature Conservancy in Texas (TNC)

Katherine Jack, Ph.D., brings her expertise in environmental technologies, sustainable development, and community health and resilience to the Hunt Institute as a newly appointed Fellow. Since 2017, she has served as The Dallas Healthy Cities Program Director for The Nature Conservancy in Texas (TNC), working with community partners to create a climate-resilient Dallas and to leverage the power of nature to benefit all residents. Dr. Jack also serves as Co-chair for the TNC Cities Network group to refine shared metrics for human and conservation well-being in the urban landscape.

Dr. Katherine Jack is an experienced Program Director and researcher, with more than twenty years working in both local government and non-profit sectors to advance community conservation, resilience, and sustainability. Her focus has always been at the intersection of people and nature. This includes the social dimensions of conservation and technological innovation, with expertise in renewable energy, emissions science, and nature-based strategies (NBS).

Notably, one of her recent research project publications is “Green Stormwater Infrastructure for Urban Flood Resilience: Opportunity Analysis for Dallas, TX”. This research study was conducted by Dr. Jack and TNC team, as well as Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, to assess the potential for GSI to enhance stormwater flood management in Dallas. Wherein, her team identified substantial cost-effective opportunities to deploy GSI for flood resilience and community benefits within the City of Dallas.

Her other key initiatives include advancing local air monitoring for improved public health outcomes, a collaborative effort of tree planting through Cool & Connected Oak Cliff, serving on the Stakeholder Advisory Committee to Dallas’ Environmental and Climate Action Plan, and on the Best Practices Advisory Committee for the Texas Tree Foundations’ Southwestern Medical District Streetscape Transformation project.

When asked what motivates her to do impact work, Dr. Jack said, “I am solutions driven! I am motivated by the urgency and complexity of the challenges we face at the intersection of society and the environment, and I am absolutely inspired by the richness of creating solutions with people across disciplines, experiences, and perspectives.”

Dr. Jack received her Bachelor of Arts in Environment and Society from Cornell University, a Master of Science in Environmental Resources Engineering, in the International Development Technologies Program at Humboldt State University, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Science from the University of North Texas.

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 1, 2021February 10, 2022

Alex Radunsky, Ph.D., Hunt Institute Fellow

Alex Radunsky, Ph.D. joins the Hunt Institute as a Fellow, bringing his expertise in mixed-methods research in public health and health behaviors. Alex is an innovative research scientist and educator who uses complexity aware methods to disentangle health systems challenges, with a particular interest in how technological and scientific innovation can be leveraged for public good.

Dr. Radunsky is a Visiting Researcher at the Heidelberg Institute of Global Health at Heidelberg University, and he also serves as Director of Global Health and Policy at the Institute for Technology & Global Health. He received his BA in Political Science and his MPH in Epidemiology before earning his doctoral degree in Global Health and Population from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

When asked what motivates him about impact work he responded, “I use data and complex adaptive systems analysis to more deeply understand what we all need as human beings.”

He has conducted multi-sectoral evaluations of health, health behaviors and health service institutions in over a dozen countries while working at the Earth Institute at Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania. Alex has presented work to expert audiences at numerous international conferences. This work uses qualitative and quantitative methods to focus on individual perception, institutional practices, community traditional practices, gender, marginalized populations, HIV, infectious disease, malnutrition, and more. His published research includes pieces on the quality of global health evaluations by aid agencies and child stunting reduction in sub-Saharan African countries.

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.