Fellow – Page 7 – Hunt Institute for Engineering & Humanity

January 29, 2018March 7, 2022

Maryann Cairns, PH.D., Hunt Institute Fellow

Maryann Cairns is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Southern Methodist University. Dr. Cairns’ research is focused at the intersection of environment, infrastructure, and health. Her work examines socio-ecological interactions in polluted waterscapes, giving specific attention to the sustainability and efficacy of infrastructure development. Dr. Cairns has completed projects within these theme areas in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Western Balkans, and the United States. Her work in Costa Rica focuses on placing ethnographic information at the forefront of mathematical modeling and mixed-methods research poised to understand the impact of wastewater on enviro-social spaces and human health.

In May of 2021, she co-authored an article titled Global Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Approaches: Anthropological Contributions and Future Directions for Engineering which covers how anthropologists contribute key insights toward a comprehensive understanding of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) as a multidimensional, multiscalar, and culturally embedded phenomenon. Dr. Cairns’ work informing this article was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under Grant Number 1745934.

Before coming to SMU, Dr. Cairns was an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science & Technology Policy Fellow hosted at the US Environmental Protection Agency, and was a Postdoctoral scholar at Northeastern University’s Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute. She is a Board member for the American Anthropological Association’s Anthropology & Environment Society (A&E).

When asked what motivates her to do impact work she responded, “For me, sustainability is a focus on what matters. I want the things that matter to all of us –environmentally and otherwise–to be around for a while. I am so thankful for the access to education that have had throughout my life and career. It is a gift to be able to share what I have learned with my students and with the public. Leading truly collaborative research designed to solve environmental problems is everything to me. For me, knowledge should never be a secret.”

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.

January 29, 2018March 7, 2022

Robert Hunt, Ph.D.

Robert Hunt was born in Dallas, Texas, in 1955. After attending school in Austin and Richardson, he majored in History at the University of Texas in Austin. After completing a Master of Theology at Perkins School of Theology (SMU) he served as associate pastor of the Bethany United Methodist Church in Austin, Texas.

In 1985 he and his wife Lilian moved to Kuala Lumpur, where he taught at the Seminary Theology Malaysia and directed extension education programs. He received a PhD from the University of Malaya in 1993, focusing on Christian relations with Muslims in Southeast Asia. From 1993 to 1997 he taught and directed extension education programs at the Trinity Theological College in Singapore. From 1997 to 2004 he was pastor of the English Speaking United Methodist Church of Vienna, and an adjunct professor in Comparative Religions and International Relations at Webster University in Vienna.

Since 2004 Dr. Hunt has been the Director of Global Theological Education at the Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. He teaches courses in World Religions, Islam, Interreligious Dialogue, Cultural Intelligence, and Mission Studies. Dr. Hunt is author of several books, including The Gospel Among the Nations, A Documentary History of Inculturation, Islam in Southeast Asia, and Muslim Faith and Values: A Guide for Christians.

A strong advocate for using digital technologies to create effective, accessible theological education Dr. Hunt created and manages the Virtual Visiting Professor™ website (http://virtualvisitingprofessor.com), which makes available the best theological teaching from the 2/3rds world to a global constituency. He also created and hosts the podcast Interfaith Encounters that explores interfaith perspectives on contemporary social issues, as well as a blog, YouTube channel, and Facebook pages by the same name.

Dr. Hunt is a certified Cultural Intelligence trainer, Associate of the Tower Center for Political Science, and Hunt Institute Fellow. He is a member of the Board of Scholars of the Journal of Interreligious Dialogue, as well as the Executive Board of the Association of Professors in Mission, the American Society of Missiology, and is editor of the ASM book series. He serves on the steering committees for the SMU Doctor of Liberal Studies and Master of Liberal Studies programs and teaches in both programs

When asked what motivates his work, he replied, “The focus of my professional life, as a teacher and pastor, has been interpretation: helping people understand one another, their history, different cultures and religions, and themselves. I believe that every person, culture, and society has something valuable to offer to others, and that we discover this through critical and appreciative study, open dialogue, and a willingness to learn.”

He has been married for 37 years to Lilian Wong Hunt, a native of Sarawak, Malaysia and has two grown children. Naomi lives with her husband and daughters in Austria and Elliott lives with his wife in Los Angeles.

He speaks Malay and German.

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.

January 29, 2018March 7, 2022

Doric Earle, Ph.D., Hunt Institute Fellow

Doric Earle, Ph.D., is dedicated to helping communities, social enterprises and entrepreneurs achieve collaborative, engaging, and analytical solutions. Social impact is integrated into all of his work, including his co-founded, community-based real estate platform the Dallas Unity Fund LLC and several nonprofits such as Frazier Revitalization, Bridge Lacrosse, Green Careers Dallas, and Miles of Freedom.

Much of Doric’s recent work centers around Restorative Farms, in year two and expanding, whose objective is to be a self- sustaining nonprofit farm that will not only grow local food, but train and grow local urban farming professionals. Dr. Earle engaged his CCPA students in aiding in the communications efforts of Restorative Farms, especially in crafting strategy and content for the website and social media accounts.

A Ph.D. in Public Affairs with a focus on Urban Planning defined the foundation of his work that uses economic development as a catalyst to unlock potential in low-income communities. This economic development and place-building, focusing on entrepreneurship, is further seen through Doric’s developmental facilitation of an incubator for entrepreneurs in South Dallas (The District).

Discussing his motivation for doing impact work, Dr. Earle said, “Social entrepreneurship attacks a broad range of inequities. My mission is to find solutions and implement them.”

Working as a strategic planner and economic developer with Forward Planning, Doric helps individuals, corporations, and municipalities maximize their innate strengths and achieve long and short-term goals through analysis, project management, and leadership development. Dr. Earle spent thirty years in data analysis and development, (during which he earned his Ph.D.) working as an executive for large corporations, creating small companies, and launching new service concepts.

Dr. Earle understands cultural, social, and economic diversity through his global work while balancing the need for collaborative growth and understanding by working with a series of equally educated and diversely experienced individuals to ensure all development is driven with a well-rounded perspective. As a Fellow and a collaborator with the SMU Hunt Institute, he is working on eradicating poverty through the application of technology and a co-created platform that provides accessible housing to Fair Park (South Dallas) with the Dallas Unity Fund, LLC.

January 29, 2018March 7, 2022

Dr. Owen Lynch, Hunt Institute Senior Fellow

Dr. Owen Lynch is an Associate Professor in the Meadows School of the Arts at SMU. He is the director of the Organizational Communications track within the Corporate Communication & Public Affairs (CCPA) department. He also works as the director of the CCPA Honors Program & the SMU-in-London Communication Internship Program. Outside of the Communications Department, he holds the positions of Senior Research Fellow and Director of Community Engagement and Projects for the Hunt Institute of Engineering & Humanity within the Lyle School of Engineering at SMU.

He is active in the city of Dallas with regards to healthy, fresh food access and food justice issues. He has served and is a member of several food security committees and city-food interest groups. He also serves as the Director of Get Healthy Dallas, a nonprofit organization he helped form that is dedicated to addressing the lack of healthy food options, adequate education, and economic development opportunities in Dallas with special focus on the South Dallas and the Fair Park area.

His research interests include how organizations and communities are (re) produced through everyday discourse and routines of its members. His research methods focus on qualitative methodology, specifically participatory action research methods and asset-based community development which utilizes existing local assets to address current problems.

Dr. Lynch has mentored numerous undergraduate research projects. In the past five years, over 40 research papers have been competitively selected and presented at regional and national conferences by his students.

His own research has been published in competitive venues including Communication Theory, Management Communication Quarterly, Journal of Organizational Ethnography & the Journal of Applied Communication Research. He is also a co-founder and organizer of the Texas Humor Research Conference.

January 29, 2018February 9, 2021

Eric Larson, Ph.D.

Dr. Eric Larson is a Hunt Institute Fellow and an associate professor in the computer science department at SMU. He is also a member of the Darwin Deason Institute for Cybersecurity, Center for Global Health, and SMU AT&T Center for Virtualization. Dr. Larson is a founding associate editor for the journal on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable, and Ubiquitous Technology (formerly UbiComp).

His research explores the interdisciplinary relationship of machine learning and signal/image processing with the fields of security, mobile health, education, psycho-visual psychology, human-computer interaction, and ubiquitous computing. Like most academics, he has a passion for teaching and mentoring, and views research as an ideal opportunity to instruct the next generation of computer scientists and engineers. He is in a unique role, supporting cyber-security, education, healthcare, and sustainability applications via the integration of machine learning and ubiquitous sensing, and has become increasingly interested in sensing markers of health and context awareness using commonplace sensors. His research supports many healthcare, educational, and security initiatives by creating applications that (1) manage and diagnose many chronic/infectious ailments, (2) help learners master educational topics, and (3) investigate information leakage in pervasive and mobile devices. His dissertation research has also had impact in the area of sustainable resource usage, where he created algorithms for monitoring water, gas, and electricity usage using machine learning (now a commercial product).

His work has also helped to develop applications for real time cognitive load monitoring, privacy implications of smartphones, newborn jaundice screening, and lung function measurement, among others. These projects have resulted in eight patents of which six have been commercialized by various companies including Google. He has secured over $6 million dollars in federal and corporate funding that support these various initiatives. Dr. Larson has published one textbook and disseminated his research in over 50 peer-reviewed conference and journal papers, garnering more than 3700 citations. He received received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington where he was an Intel Science and Technology fellow. At UW, he was co-advised by MacArthur Genius Fellow Shwetak Patel and IEEE Fellow Les Atlas. He also has an MS in Image Processing from Oklahoma State University, where he was advised by Damon Chandler.

When asked what motivates his work, he replied, “In my work, I hope to bridge the gap between evaluation techniques from human computer interaction and machine learning research and evaluation. Too often machine learning researchers do not appropriately scope their evaluation or use iterative HCI techniques in the design of the system. Through intersecting the research in these areas, I hope to help human subjects research become more computationally technical (in terms of the modeling performed) as well as helping to assist machine learning research in becoming more adaptive and rigorous in its application.”

When he is not working, he is spending time with his wife and three wonderful children, including bike riding, making home improvements, and drinking copious amounts of coffee.

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.

January 29, 2018March 7, 2022

Elizabeth Sobel Blum, Hunt Institute Fellow

Elizabeth Sobel Blum is a senior community development advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, where she promotes community and economic development and fair and impartial access to credit. Her areas of focus include workforce development, health, early childhood education, community development finance and small business development. For example, Sobel Blum’s research, publications and collaborations help the Bank in its efforts to connect workforce development and health entities with the community and economic development sectors. Her publications include “Regional Talent Pipelines: Collaborating with Industry to Build Opportunities in Texas,” “Engaging Workforce Development: A Framework for Meeting Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) Obligations”and “Healthy Communities: A Framework for Meeting CRA Obligations.” Sobel Blum serves on the boards of national nonprofit ChangeLab Solutions and the Texas nonprofit First3Years. She earned an MBA from the University of Texas at Dallas, an MA from American University and a BA from Northwestern University.

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.

January 26, 2018December 18, 2020

Neil Hendrick, Hunt Institute Fellow, working in Puerto Rico Recovery Effort

October 26, 2017

Neil standing in front of an air plane taking a selfie picture — Neil Hendrick in San Juan, Puerto Rico in post disaster recovery work

Recently appointed Fellow, Neil Hendrick, is working with the Hunt Institute in the area of big data while advising and mentoring students on the Map for Good project.

Hendrick has worked for Tulane University, The University of California at Berkeley, and Harvard University, as well as several international nongovernmental and governmental organizations, including PATH and the International Criminal Court. Since 2006, he has worked to develop specific tools for digital data collection and promote their use by researchers, aid workers, and disaster responders. As Lead Developer on the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative’s KoBo Toolbox project, Mr. Hendrick developed a software system for digital data collection and deployed the system on a series of large-scale population surveys. Encompassing survey design, data collection, database synchronization, analysis, and reporting, the KoBo Toolbox system provides a comprehensive suite of tools for research and monitoring. Mr. Hendrick has extensive international experience. He has completed research in the USA, the Caribbean, Africa, and the Middle East.

Currently, Hendrick is in San Juan, Puerto Rico working in post disaster relief and rebuild effort, helping to get the town back online after this season’s devastating hurricanes. Here is an email he sent today that gives a snapshot of the “boots on the ground” work he is doing:

“Greetings from San Juan,

I just thought I would drop a note to the Hunt Institute to tell you all is going well in Puerto Rico. I have been working to connect cell phone and internet towers, working with communication companies, government agencies, and NGOs, nominally led by a disaster response organization called NetHope.

The basic scheme is that these communication companies need technical and material support to get their networks back online, serving communications through a network of fiber and radio links. NetHope sends out teams of network engineers, tower climbers, and knockaround guys to do the work, and in return NetHope is given about 10Mb of bandwidth on the network that we can then shoot out from towers to the town hall, hospitals, police stations, etc., so that they have internet access. My function is part heavy-lifting donkey, and part network configuration. That means basically that, when I am not dragging spools of cable from place to place, I squat in the server room at the base of a cell phone tower on top of a mountain and program radios to talk to each other.

I will return at the end of the month, and if I can send more updates in the meantime, I will do so. At this moment, I have to drive to Aibonito to climb on top of the City Hall building to see if it has a line-of-sight to the nearest cell phone tower.

Hasta la proxima vez,

~Neil”

As a Research Technologist, Hendrick develops software and hardware solutions for research teams and directs the applications of these solutions in the field. As a software developer and field research supervisor, Hendrick has wide practical experience in conducting research, creating and implementing software and hardware improvements to the research process, and managing data collection systems. The technologies he develops allow for the collection of quantitative and qualitative survey data, GPS points, video, audio, and other applications. Mr. Hendrick manages the logistics for employing technologies for research, including team training, data collection supervision, and field-based troubleshooting. He also develops customized databases, manages data analysis, synchronizes data processes for research teams, and specializes in data visualization and presentation (infographic design). He has executed projects in the USA, the Caribbean, Africa, and the Middle East.

We are honored to have him on the Hunt Institute roster of Fellows. In addition to all the work he is involved in, he brings an incredible layer to the student development part of our program. For more information or to get in contact with Neil, you can reach him at:

Hendrick.Neil@gmail.com

813-500-8112

January 26, 2018March 7, 2022

Tynesia Boyea-Robinson, Hunt Institute Fellow

Tynesia Boyea-Robinson is a Hunt Institute Fellow, the President and CEO of CapEQ, and an Executive Board Member for Big Thought. Boyea-Robinson exemplifies cross-sector leadership with extensive experience in consulting on impact investment. She has a desire to collaborate with Dr. Eva Csaky in mentoring students involved in research in the inclusive economy and can be seen working in the Institute readily available for our team.

In her book, Just Change: How To Collaborate For Lasting Impact, Tynesia shares her experience investing in cities and leaders across the country. The goal of Just Change is to help readers understand what’s working, what’s not working, and why in order to improve their own communities. Boyea-Robinson’s experience as an entrepreneur, Six Sigma blackbelt, and technologist uniquely positions her to catalyze a results-driven era of social change. In her previous role as Chief Impact Officer of Living Cities, she was responsible for ensuring $100M of investment produced outcomes that improved the lives of low-income people across the country.

In 2011, Boyea-Robinson founded Reliance Methods to help Fortune 500 clients like the Carlyle Group, Marriott, and others change the way the world does business. Tynesia has been religiously leading and writing about enterprises that “do well and do good” for over a decade. As President and CEO of Reliance Methods, she continues to demonstrate how business and community goals can powerfully align towards mutual outcomes.

Boyea-Robinson relies on her deep experience as a social change agent to advise clients. For example, she leveraged effective cross-sector partnerships to help establish the Social Innovation Fund and the Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act. Additionally, as founding Executive Director of Year Up National Capital Region (NCR) she raised $20M, was recognized by President Obama, and supported the organization to ensure thousands of low-income young adults are hired in careers with family sustaining wages.

When asked what motivates her in impact work she replied, “We need to reimagine what is possible for an economic system that helps everyone. Businesses and corporations can and should be a large part of this reimagining—obviously, they are the primary driver of capitalist values and decision making. Capitalism is just a tool to meet an end–we just have to use the tool in the right way.”

Earlier in her career, Boyea-Robinson was a leader within several business units at General Electric. From transforming the entire company to utilize technology for online sales to leading an international mortgage bank acquisition, her experience at GE groomed her to achieve outcomes regardless of industry.

Boyea-Robinson has been a featured speaker for a broad array of audiences including South by Southwest and the White House Council for Community Solutions. She has published several articles, which have been featured in the Washington Post, Forbes and in Leap of Reason: Managing to Outcomes in an Era of Scarcity. Her work was also highlighted in the New York Times bestseller A Year Up as well as in the Harvard Business School case study Year Up: A Social Entrepreneur Builds High Performance. She serves on numerous boards and committees.

Boyea-Robinson received her MBA from Harvard Business School and has a dual degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Duke University. She and her college sweetheart, Keith, are committed to indoctrinating their children, Dylan and Sydney, with, “… a love of Duke basketball and all things geeky and sci-fi.”

November 9, 2017March 7, 2022

Senior Fellow To Host National Communication Association Pre-Conference

Seedlings growing in the community garden on SMU campus. Food desert. Vegetables. The Hunt Institute.

“Innovative Interventions in the Dallas Food & Job Desert Panel”

Wednesday- November 15th 3:00-4:40

At the Hunt Institute in Caruth Hall – Suite 206

Senior Research Fellow Dr. Owen Lynch will be hosting the National Communication Association Pre-Conference at the Hunt Institute on November 15^th. The Pre-Conference will focus on urban communications with an emphasis on approaches to researching pressing issues facing global cities. One of the highlights of the event will be an open panel on Innovative Interventions in Dallas. The panel will feature local change agents presenting their unique models and organizations that address the food and job desert crises in Dallas.

Chad Houser is the Executive Director and Chef at Café Momentum – a restaurant and culinary training program for juvenile offenders at Dallas County Youth Village. Café Momentum is a regionally recognized restaurant (Top Dallas Restaurant in 2016) and a national recognized organization that provides a transformative experience for its interns. Through a 12-month paid post-release internship program, young men and women coming out of juvenile facilities rotate through all aspects of the restaurant, focusing on life and social skills, with coaching and development. Café Momentum employs an entire case management staff, providing an ecosystem of support around their interns to help them achieve their greatest potential.

Ryan Eason is the Manager of Community Relations and Strategic communications for Medical City Healthcare. Ryan created the program Kids Teaching Kids to educate students about healthy eating habits. Local high school culinary students create healthy recipes for elementary students, while encouraging them to make their own healthier treats during a 21 day challenge. Finally, these high school culinary students create healthy kids menus (like mac and cheese with pureed squash) that can be offered in restaurants. The program has brought a healthier lifestyle to tens of thousands of school children in north Texas. Ryan created the program four years ago, and it continues to grow each year thanks to his dedication and creativity. The Kids Teaching Kids program is sponsored by Medical City Children’s Hospital and the Greater Dallas Restaurant Association.

Owen Hanley Lynch is an Associate Professor of Communication at SMU, and the Senior Research Fellow for the Hunt Institute for Engineering & Humanity in the Lyle School Engineering. Dr. Lynch is also the Executive Director of Get Healthy Dallas, a nonprofit organization dedicated to addressing the lack of healthy food options, adequate education, and economic development opportunities in South Dallas. In November 2017, he is launching a new initiative, Restorative Farms. Through its many partnerships, Restorative Farms hopes to transform the South Dallas food and job desert into a vibrant source of food, employment, and opportunities for low-income Dallasites. Though Stage 1 of the Restorative Farms project doesn’t formally launch until November 21^st, it is already having great community impact.

Jennifer Eyer leads the Food in Schools Initiative for Children at Risk. Part of the Food in Schools program is the Universal School Breakfast throughout Dallas Independent School District. Universal School Breakfast dramatically improves access to healthy food for children, while increasing their attentiveness and classroom performance. This program is coupled with an extensive outreach programming to educate other school districts across the state on strategies to implement universal school breakfast programs and to increase participation of schools. Children at Risk also educates and performs outreach on summer meal programs and, more recently, after–school meal programs, assuring that school age children receive the daily nutrition needed for healthy, productive lives.

Drew Demler is the Manager for the “Errol McCoy Greenhouse on the Midway” and the head grower for the “Big Tex Urban Farms”. Big Tex Urban Farms (aka “Big Tex) is a revolutionary mobile agriculture system in the heart of South Dallas’ Fair Park. Big Tex experiments with hundreds of raised beds and various space saving innovations that address urban gardening’s most pressing challenges. In the past two years, Big Tex has piloted an innovative program that addresses the barriers to healthy and accessible produce throughout South Dallas by partnering with community gardens and organizations in the immediate Fair Park neighborhoods as well as connecting with like-minded agriculture entities to work towards providing the South Dallas community with locally grown produce.

September 8, 2017August 27, 2020

Howdy from Maggie, Project Lead

March 21, 2017

Howdy! Maggie here. I’m one of the (many) brains, hands, and hearts behind this project. We still have yet to name our trailer friend, but I’m hoping that will happen when we see him (her?) all painted up.

I’ve been a Fellow at the Hunt Institute since last August, so I have seen this project evolve from the get-go. And believe me, it’s evolved. I am thrilled with our little Shasta and the direction the creative team here at Hunt is hoping to take it.

This morning, we met as a group to catch up and brainstorm. We have an event at the Hunt Institute this Thursday, so that has briefly taken priority over the trailer. I had the chance to meet Mario, our trailer outfitter, over the phone to talk dimensions, windows and flooring — hint: lots of light from above and reclaimed wood 🙂 As he finishes those modifications, we’ll be able to start on the interior layout and exterior wrap. We’ll keep you posted on the design.

In the meantime, here’s a snap of our project board as of today. 31 days left! We can’t wait to meet you all in just over a month at Earth Day TX.