Sages & Seekers – Hunt Institute for Engineering & Humanity

September 20, 2021February 10, 2022

Jin-Ya Huang: Conversations about Community and Resilience

On this episode of the Hunt Institute’s Sages & Seekers Podcast, Jin-Ya Huang discusses the importance of storytelling; her experience founding Break Bread, Break Borders; and what it means to be a social entrepreneur.

The Hunt Institute Social Enterprise Program is proud to have Jin-Ya Huang of Break Bread Break Borders (BBBB) as one of four social entrepreneurs in our founding cohort in 2018.

Break Bread, Break Borders is catering with a cause: empowering refugee women to earn a living through their existing cooking skills while they share their incredible stories with the community.

In the conversation, Huang said, ““We’ve had tough conversations when people ask the women that we work with, ‘Why did you come to America?’ or ‘Why are you taking our jobs?’ As they break bread together at the table, they gain an understanding of each other. They’re breaking down borders.”

What is Hunt Sages & Seekers?

The Hunt Institute Sages & Seekers Podcast shares the stories of innovative social leaders and the resilient communities that have shaped them. The series explores guests’ personal experiences with social issues ranging from inequity in the arts and school segregation to climate change and police violence. Through conversations with these agents of change, listeners gain insight into the history of these matters and discover how we as a global community can work to correct them. Follow us on SoundCloud at Hunt Sages & Seekers Podcast.

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.

September 16, 2021February 10, 2022

Anna Clark: Conversations about Community and Resilience

On this episode of the Hunt Institute’s Sages & Seekers Podcast, Anna Clark, president of Heirloom Digital and co-founder of the Inclusive Economy Consortium (IEC), discusses sustainability, storytelling, and starting both the IEC and Heirloom Digital.

Anna began her career as a management consultant with PwC Consulting and IBM. In 2005, she founded EarthPeople Media, a sustainability communication consultancy. In 2017, she joined Hill+Knowlton Strategies as a principal, providing senior counsel in corporate affairs and CSR to industry leaders. Her clients and strategic partners have included startups, global corporations, universities such as SMU and Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University in Dubai, and international organizations such as International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of The World Bank. She is presently focused on building Heirloom Digital, a multimedia company she founded in 2019.

Discussing the founding of the IEC, Clark said, “This is the fourth biggest metropolitan area in the United States. There’s a huge economy in North Texas. What would it look like if we tried to make a change here in a positive way?”

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August 27, 2021

Dr. Froswa’ Booker-Drew: Conversations about Community and Resilience

On this episode of The Hunt Institute’s Sages & Seekers Podcast, Dr. Frowsa’ Booker-Drew discusses the importance of transformational relationships and the vulnerability we’ve all experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Froswa’ Booker-Drew is the Founder and CEO of Soulstice Consultancy, specializing as a Partnership Broker and Leadership Expert for companies and organizations to thrive with measurable and meaningful impact. She also is the VP of Community Affairs and Strategic Alliances for the State Fair of Texas. Dr. Booker-Drew is a passionate philanthropist and Co-Founder of HERitage Giving Circle. Her connectivity expertise and notable research is highlighted in quotes and profiles in major media such as Forbes, Huffington Post, Bustle, Ozy, and other outlets around the world.

Dr. Booker-Drew said in the conversation, “Once we come out of this, it’s going to force us to value relationships and time very differently. We’re going to think about the spaces and places we put ourselves in.”

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August 12, 2021August 12, 2021

Dr. Aurelie Thiele: Conversations about Community and Resilience

On this episode of the Hunt Institute’s Sages & Seekers Podcast, Dr. Aurelie Thiele, Associate Professor in the Operations Research and Engineering Management (OREM) Department in the Lyle School of Engineering at SMU, discusses growing up in France, the value of forming connections in the classroom, and the power of defining yourself as a resilient person.

Dr. Thiele’s research is on decision-making under high uncertainty with a focus on robust optimization, and one current topic of interest for her is robust revenue management with choice models. Her research has received the George E Nicholson prize, an IBM Faculty award, several National Science Foundation awards and a Lehigh Faculty Innovation Grant. Dr. Thiele also received a Research Grant from the SMU Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility.

Dr. Thiele said, “American culture favors finding a silver lining in everything, so when something bad happens you are almost obligated to look for the sliver lining right away. Especially in times of pandemic, we also have to allow ourselves to grieve for what we’ve lost.”

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August 12, 2021

Ana Rodriguez: Conversations about Community and Resilience

On this episode of the Hunt Institute’s Sages & Seekers Podcast, Ana Rodriguez, Managing Director of the Latino Leadership Initiative in the Cox School of Business, discusses representation and diversity at SMU, the importance of mentorship, food security, self-care and grit.

Rodriguez ’03 serves as the head of the Latino Leadership Initiative (LLI), the nation’s only executive education program dedicated to the professional advancement of Latinos. In this role, she helps students and executive-level employees from minority backgrounds transform their lives and careers. The program also helps more than 40 companies – like AT&T Communications, State Farm, and Walmart – retain and develop C-suite talent, so they don’t miss out on the market value and cultural perspective that Latino professionals bring to the workplace.

Rodriguez said, “Grit is a beautiful thing. I’m very thankful for what I’ve overcome because it helps me so much. I’m always the first to volunteer for things, the first to say, ‘I’ll do it! And I’ll execute it beautifully.’”

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August 2, 2021August 12, 2021

Kamilah Collins: Conversations about Community and Resilience

On this episode of The Hunt Institute’s Sages & Seekers Podcast, Kamilah Collins shares the tools for discovering our social identities and explains how we can use that knowledge to better understand and collaborate with others.

Kamilah Collins is President of Collins Collaborations, and she has over twenty years of workshop facilitation, program management, and community engagement expertise. She provides creative and practical strategies to increase our capacity for change while amplifying diversity. Her passion for connecting people and strengthening communities shines through in every engagement. Her enthusiastic communication style and commitment to advancing equity transforms minds, hearts, and organizations around the country.

Collins said, “These social tensions are challenging, especially if we can opt out. It’s fantastic that you have a choice, it’s unfortunate that others don’t.”

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August 2, 2021August 12, 2021

Chris Kelley: Conversations about Community and Resilience

On this episode of The Hunt Institute’s Sages & Seekers Podcast, Chris Kelley discusses the Rwandan Genocide, its causes, how Rwanda has moved forward, and what we can all learn from this story. In the spring of 2019, Kelley published “Rwanda: 25 Years Later: A Primer on the 1994 Rwandan Genocide and What’s Happened Since Then.”

A Senior Fellow in the Institute, Kelley has more than 35 years’ experience in the journalism, interactive content and strategic communications fields. He is a passionate advocate for partners, working with them to develop influential content in all media formats (print, video, web, and social media) that inspires targeted audiences to action. Kelley is an expert in media relations and story-telling, having worked 27 years for Dallas-based A.H. Belo Corp., where he served as editor of DallasNews.com, website of The Dallas Morning News, and as a news reporter for 18 years. His video productions have received wide acclaim.

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.

In the conversation, Kelley said, “Rwanda is proof that through hard work, and with forgiveness, people can work through difficult issues.”

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August 2, 2021August 12, 2021

Janeil Engelstad: Conversations about Community and Resilience

On this episode of The Hunt Institute’s Sages & Seekers Podcast, Janeil Engelstad discusses the power of collaboration, self-reflection, and gratitude.

Engelstad is the Founding Director of Make Art with Purpose (MAP), an organization that produces collaborative artist-led projects that address social and environmental concerns. MAP projects include communities as partners in the production of the work, directly engage the audience to participate beyond the role of passive observer and ignite creative collaboration from museums, schools, government, business, NGOs and other partners. Her podcast, MAP Radio Hour, conversations at the intersection of art, design, science, politics and justice is hosted by Creative Disturbance and ARTECA/MIT.

In the conversation, Engelstad said, “In sharing our stories, we find our commonality and where we meet as humans.”

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July 21, 2021August 12, 2021

Janette Monear: Conversations about Community and Resilience

In this episode of The Hunt Institute’s Sages & Seekers Podcast, Janette Monear explains the vital relationship between the environment and community and how we can work to save it.

Janette Monear is President and CEO of the Texas Trees Foundation, a private nonprofit focused on urban forestry, green infrastructure and sustainable design. She is a frequent speaker at local and national conferences, and she co-produced and wrote the narration for the Telly award winning Public Television documentary “Spirit of the Trees.”

Under Monear’s direction, the Foundation created two major studies, State of the Dallas Urban Forest Report and The Dallas Urban Heat Island Study which helped transition the environmental focus for the City of Dallas.

As a visionary and social entrepreneur, she has integrated a model for the Texas Trees Foundation that provides a diverse portfolio of funding through nontraditional revenue streams for projects and programs that bring public and private partnerships together. Monear’s creative vision, collaborative commitment, and passion for trees have helped to transform the landscapes of North Texas and beyond.

Janette says, “There’s a sorrow because you will never see what I saw, that was so beautiful, until we change some things around. That sorrow is what drives the movement for climate change.”

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July 8, 2021August 12, 2021

Clyde Valentín : Conversations about Community and Resilience

In this episode of The Hunt Institute Sages & Seekers Podcast, Clyde Valentín tells us how creativity can be used to tell stories and empower people to make their own culture.

Clyde Valentín was born and raised in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. He is the Co-founder and former Executive Director of Hi-ARTS (formerly known as the Hip-Hop Theater Festival). He is the inaugural Director of Ignite/Arts Dallas: People, Purpose + Place the community engagement initiative at SMU Meadows School of the Arts. The mission of Ignite/Arts Dallas is to challenge the imaginations of students and citizens to envision more just and vibrant communities through art and culture experiences. Clyde was a 2015 Community + Culture Fellow of the National Arts Strategies’ Chief Executive Program.

Valentín is an advisory committee member of the Latinx Theater Commons and has served as a consultant or panelist for numerous national arts organizations including Creative Capital, the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP), YouthSpeaks/Brave New Voices, the New England Foundation for the Arts, Theater Communications Group (TCG), the National Association of Latino Arts & Culture (NALAC), the National Performance Network (NPN) and AlternateROOTS. He most recently joined the Local Advisory Board for Year-Up DFW and the Board of Texans for the Arts, the statewide advocacy organization for public funding in the Arts in Texas.

Clyde says, “Although I had that living memory as a native Brooklynite, I also was able to ride the wave of that creative growth.”

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