SMU – Page 10 – Hunt Institute for Engineering & Humanity

January 7, 2020March 2, 2022

Meredith M. Walker, Hunt Institute Fellow

Meredith M. Walker, Chief Economist for EarthX Hunt Institute, Fellow

Meredith Walker is a Global Economist and Head of Prize Advancement for XPRIZE—the world leader of international prize competitions that achieve radical breakthroughs for humanity, thereby launching profitable businesses, innovative industries, and revitalized markets.

Ms. Walker has over 25 years of experience conducting economic research on global issues and building international relationships to deliver innovative solutions. She activates a worldwide network of visionary leaders to provide the multi-million-dollar prize purses that incentivize teams to solve complex problems. A public speaker and published author, she delivers positive, proactive messages on economic growth, transformational technologies, and entrepreneurial, market-driven, cross-sector solutions to global problems in security, sustainability, and resilience.

Ms. Walker is a Fellow at the SMU Hunt Institute for Engineering and Humanity and a member of the National Association for Business Economics. She serves on the Board of Councilors for the EastWest Institute and is a member of Business Executives for National Security, the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum Board of Directors Alumni, and the Frontiers of Flight Museum Leadership Council. She is the America’s Future Series Advisory Board Chair and Megellas Award Trustee.

Prior to joining XPRIZE, Ms. Walker served as Chief Economist for EarthX, an international environmental forum, and led fundraising efforts for multiple non-profit organizations. She began her career as an economist at the Federal Reserve Banks of Dallas and New York and an international business consultant.

When asked what motivates her to do impact work, Ms. Walker said, “Through inclusive innovation guided by concern for environment and equity, we can work together to build a better future for all.”

Ms. Walker completed her MS in Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and held a Chinese language and area studies fellowship. She holds a BA from The University of Texas at Austin Plan II liberal arts honors program with a double major in Economics, minors in Asian Studies and French, and interned at the Pentagon and State Department Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Office of the Assistant Secretary. She is committed to international bridge-building for a better, safer world.

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 7, 2020April 18, 2022

Meghna Tare

Meghna Tare joins the Hunt Institute Affiliate program as a Fellow, bringing her expertise in sustainability, public policy, and education.

As UT Arlington’s first Chief Sustainability Officer, Meghna works collaboratively to foster partnerships among academic, research, and operational departments at UT Arlington, and to address opportunities to promote sustainability in several areas such as energy efficiency, waste management, transportation, education, outreach, community engagement, and interdisciplinary and sustainability-focused curriculum

She has spearheaded launching a Regional Center of Expertise for Education in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in North Texas, a program of the United Nations University, and the North Texas Food Policy Alliance.

She serves and represents UTA on several Advisory Boards including the National Academy of Science Board on Higher Education and Workforce Development—Policy and Global Affairs, Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), and on the Board of Directors for International Council for Local Environmental Initiative (ICLEI USA).

She was awarded Women of the Decade in Corporate Social Responsibility by the Women Economic Forum, and 2020 Women in Sustainability-Transformational Leader by Wells Fargo/Envision Charlotte.

She graduated with an MBA in Sustainable Management, MS in Environmental Science, and MS in Chemistry.

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 7, 2020March 2, 2022

David Son, Ph.D.

David Son joins the Hunt Institute as a Fellow, bringing his organic chemistry expertise. Son has been a professor in the Department of Chemistry at SMU since 1996. Dr. Son received his B.S. in chemistry from Andrews University (Berrien Springs, MI) and his Ph.D. in chemistry from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA). Dr. Son was a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at the Naval Research Laboratory (Washington, D.C.) before coming to SMU. Dr. Son conducts research on the synthesis of inorganic and organometallic polymers for a variety of applications including drug delivery, additive manufacturing, and aerospace. At SMU, Dr. Son has been awarded the Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Award, the Thomas W. Tunks Distinguished University Citizen Award, and the ‘M’ Award. Dr. Son has also served as Faculty-in-Residence at Boaz Residential Commons since 2014. Dr. Son’s most recent project in the Global Development Lab is the Biodegradable Plastics Project, which shifted its focus to developing a 3D-printed biodegradable mask frame in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The frame is intended to be used in conjunction with surgical or cloth masks and provides the benefit of a more adequate seal to the face, while also posing a better environmental impact than most disposable PPE.

Dr. Son’s current project in the Global Development Lab is the Biodegradable Plastics Project, a collaborative effort with Hunt Fellow Dr. Paul Krueger in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Son is focusing on the preparation of biodegradable plastics that degrade at tunable rates, and that degrade into safe and environmentally-friendly products. A primary focus of this joint project is to address the problem of medical plastic waste.

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 7, 2020March 2, 2022

Paul S. Krueger, Ph.D.

Paul Krueger joins the Hunt Institute as a Fellow bringing his expertise in mechanical engineering. His research interests and activities include unsteady hydrodynamics and aerodynamics, vortex dynamics, bio-fluid mechanics, bio-morphic propulsion, fluid-boundary and fluid-particle interactions, and fluid processes in additive manufacturing using a variety of materials, including degradable plastics.

Krueger received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 1997 from the University of California at Berkeley. He received his M.S. in Aeronautics in 1998 and his Ph.D. in Aeronautics in 2001, both from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). In 2002 he joined the Mechanical Engineering Department at Southern Methodist University (Dallas, TX) where he is currently a professor and department chair. He is a recipient of the Rolf D. Buhler Memorial Award in Aeronautics, the Richard Bruce Chapman Memorial Award for distinguished research in Hydrodynamics, the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation (2004), and the Ford Senior Research Fellowship from SMU (2012).

Dr. Krueger’s most recent project in the Global Development Lab is the Biodegradable Plastics Project. This project aims to develop novel materials that may be used to reduce plastic waste and are versatile enough to accommodate a range of manufacturing methods including 3D printing. A key area of interest is in reducing medical plastic waste, as for instance by developing a 3D-printed biodegradable mask frame intended to be used in conjunction with surgical or cloth masks and provide the benefit of a more adequate seal to the face, while also posing a better environmental impact than most disposable PPE.

When asked about the motivation behind his impactful work, Dr. Krueger replied, “My motivation for working with the Hunt Institute springs from a desire to use engineering to help improve society and the environment we live in. Sometimes this means working to overcome problems we have created ourselves, which underscores our responsibility to do something about it.”

January 7, 2020March 2, 2022

Jeff Corkran

Jeff Corkran is a Fellow of the Hunt Institute that brings his industry expertise in using human-centered design and technology to discover, inform and lead product and design teams innovating in food systems, sustainability, finance, retail, healthcare and manufacturing.

Most of his recent work has been in design, strategy and operations for organizations and brands innovating or disrupting focused on sustainability and social impact, surfacing and growing positive opportunities that strengthen human-to-human and human-to-planet connections.

Some of those include the United Nations, Paul Allen’s Vulcan and the Discovery Channel, XPrize and others. He was previously VP Experience Strategy at Human Design in Boulder and ZenCash in Dallas, and was a partner in a human-centered, enterprise-focused design and development firm with offices in Dallas and Atlanta for about a decade, post-consulting, and post-agency, where he cut his teeth working on large-scale innovation projects for JP Morgan Chase, BMW, Brinks Armored, Mission Foods, large CPG and retail brands like Downy and others.

A series of inspiring moments led Jeff to pivot towards work for positive environmental and social impact with a systems thinking lens. He now draws from toolkits within design, story, and engineering to move good ideas from impossible to inevitable. Jeff now runs an impact design studio called takka, leads innovation and technology for a rapidly growing company in the organic foods retail space called Dirty Hands, and is developing new, experiential products and services for children’s mental health at The Wezmore Project. He previously led product and experience strategy at Impact Mill in Sonoma, researching, developing and launching models for increasing the potential for sustainability-centered behavior change.

When asked why he was drawn to the Hunt Institute, he replied, “Every facet of experience in life seems like it is on the verge of great change, and bursting with opportunity. If, why, and how we decide to make that change positive, equitable and just, and who we bring along on the journey is up to each of us, striving together on a deeply connected planet. If I can help make the best, most positive outcomes out of these moments for the future, for everyone and all life around us, and bring along or connect others too, then I’m doing what I am supposed to do.”

Jeff is a member of the Inclusive Economy Consortium Leadership Council at the Hunt Institute for Engineering and Humanity at SMU, is an advisory committee member and co-author on a project within Academy Health, funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and is a former board member at the systems-focused Unschool of Disruptive Design. Jeff is an advisor to companies like Good Coworking in Dallas, and is a lead mentor at Dallas-based tech accelerator Impact Ventures. He has coached and mentored individuals and teams at SXSW, AIGA, Uncharted, HackDFW and other events, and launched several community-building events and organizations like Dallas Startupweek with small, but mighty volunteer teams.

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.

December 19, 2019March 2, 2022

South Dallas Soul Rep Theater

Left to right: Dr. Eva Csaky, Executive Director of HI, Soul Rep’s Guinea Bennett and Tonya Hollaway, Kyle Baker undergrad student designer, Dr. Jessie Zarazaga, HI Fellow and project advisor, and Corrie Harris, Assistant Director, Hunt Institute and GDL portfolio manager.

“The biggest dream is to have this as a stake in the ground in South Dallas and always be available to the community,” Soul Rep Co-Founder Guinea Bennett-Price said.

In the Spring of 2019, the Hunt Institute for Engineering & Humanity’s Global Development Lap (GDL) began a project for Soul Rep Theatre Company. The deliverable was a beautifully bound brochure to help communicate the vision and designs for renovations of a South Dallas building. The proposed building will serve as a community arts center, complete with a multi-use performance space, practice area, and communal gathering space. The project focuses on key areas like resilient infrastructure, the practice of employing human-centered design principles to engage communities, and fostering inclusive economic development which provides an opportunity for small businesses to function out of the area and reinvest into the local economy.

Soul Rep Theatre Company was founded in 1996 to provide opportunities for actors, writers, and directors to develop and share their talent with the Dallas arts community. The company, once run solely by volunteers, is now a professional theater company with a subscription-based season. According to its founders, their mission is to provide quality transformative Black theater that enlightens the imagination, the spirit, and the soul. The theatre also seeks to shift the paradigm of how the Black experience is valued by the world.

With renovation designs provided by this project, Soul Rep hopes to use the multi-purpose space to engage the community and foster collaboration in South Dallas. To help realize this goal, the renovation plans include a front porch restoration which to be used as an open space for neighbors and the Soul Rep community to connect. Soul Rep hopes that the front porch, and Soul Rep Arts Center as a whole, will revitalize Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, a street and area that has been long forgotten. The company envisions the space to be a unique and innovative “home” to curate, celebrate and collaborate as a community. “The biggest dream is to have this as a stake in the ground in South Dallas and always be available to the community,” Soul Rep Co-Founder Guinea Bennett-Price said.

The Soul Rep team hopes that the Arts Center will lift up not only the community but also the presence of Black Art in Dallas itself. Citing the lack of Black Art in the Arts District, Bennett-Price said she hopes that this center will reignite the Black Theatre Movement. “Grassroots is our identity,” Bennett-Price explained. “We want to grow beyond and we want to be the tree instead of the grass and the roots.”

Article was written by Jaclyn Soria, undergraduate Journalist

GDL team:

Dr. Jessie Zarazaga, Hunt Institute Fellow and project advisor

Kyle Baker, undergraduate research analyst and designer

Katherine Linares, grad Project Manager

Corrie Harris, Global Development Lab Portfolio Manager

December 15, 2019March 2, 2022

2019 Social Enterprise Cohort

Hunt Institute's Social Enterprise Program

Our 2019 Cohort focused on developing and improving food systems across Dallas and around the world. Of the four Social Entrepreneurs in this cohort, only one was unable to continue work during the pandemic. As we approach the end of the year, below is a brief description of each social entrepreneur’s venture along with links to their work in order to read more and/or follow their progress in the future.

Break Bread, Break Boarders

Founder: Jin-Ya Huang

Break Bread, Break Borders is catering with a cause: empowering refugee women to earn a living through their existing cooking skills, while they also share their incredible stories with the community. Huang is an Affiliate of the Hunt Institute and one of our first Social Entrepreneurs. The Dallas Observer featured her story in their December 19, 2019 edition. In addition, Huang was a member of the 2020 Class of Presidential Leadership Scholars. Most recently, Huang was featured as a TIME Magazine Community Bridge Builder.

Restorative Farms

Founder: Dr. Owen Lynch

Restorative Farms wants to grow a better Dallas. Their mission is to foster a vibrant and viable community-based urban farm system — an agrisystem — in one of the country’s largest food deserts: South Dallas, Texas. Lynch has been featured in several blogs describing his various community engagements and awards. He is a Senior Fellow in the Hunt Institute and has worked in this area of research for many years. Most recently, Restorative Farms was featured in the Dallas Morning News article Urban farm sprouts on unused DART property beside South Dallas station.

Janta Energy

Founder: Mohammed Njie

Janta is determined to significantly improve access to energy in The Gambia, where most rural citizens and institutions like schools have no electric power. One of Janta’s key energy sources is agricultural waste because farming is a primary economic activity in The Gambia. Njie has been recognized as a Grand Challenges Scholar, winner of SMU’s Big Ideas, and is also part of the SMU Incubator. He is the first SMU student to be invited to the Hunt Institute’s Social Enterprise Program receiving the title of Social Entrepreneur.

Garden of the World

Founder: Kunthear Mam-Douglas

Garden of the World aims to bring the connection between nature and mental health to light through a mindful world garden that promotes sustainable food systems in Dallas. This work is suspended until further notice due to the global pandemic. We remain hopeful it will resume soon.

Each of the Social Entrepreneurs has made a mark in their communities and a dent in the work that needs to be done in our sustainable food systems. As we embark on a new year, we celebrate the completion of this cohort and prepare for the next.

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.

December 3, 2019March 2, 2022

Javier Destarac ’20

Javier A. Destarac graduated from Southern Methodist University with a B.A. in Markets and Cultures.

Javier was born in McAllen, Texas but grew up in Tyler, Texas to a multicultural family speaking Spanish at home and English in school. He enjoys learning from new cultures and helping others. Javier has experience in working in marketing over this past summer in his most recent internship, doing research in digital media at NYU.

Javier worked with the communications team to develop and market Impact Nights as well as the marketing strategy of the Hunt Institute. In the future, he hopes to translate his work in the Hunt Institute to a career in Marketing while continuing to spread awareness for sustainability across all platforms. Javier also would like to continue his hobbies of playing tennis, playing the piano, volunteering.

November 18, 2019March 2, 2022

Dr. Candice L. Bledsoe, Hunt Institute Fellow

Bledsoe is a Faculty member at Simons School of Education & Human Development’s Graduate Liberal Studies Program, a professor at Cox School of Business, serves on the Leadership Council in the Inclusive Economy Consortium, and Fellow in the Hunt Institute. Bledsoe is, the executive director of the Action Research Center, an organization designed to enhance equity in our communities. Dr. Bledsoe is also the founder of the Collective

Candice L. Bledsoe, PhD. is a Faculty member at Simmons School of Education & Human Development’s Graduate Liberal Studies Program, a professor at Cox School of Business, serves on the Leadership Council in the Inclusive Economy Consortium, and Fellow in the Hunt Institute. Bledsoe is, the executive director of the Action Research Center, an organization designed to enhance equity in our communities. Dr. Bledsoe is also the founder of the Collective, a group comprised of community leaders, writers, scholars, and entrepreneurs who share the stories of minoritized women in America. She is the co-convener of the SMU Women of Color Research Cluster sponsored by the DCII. The cluster aims to create space for women of color to share their stories, especially as it relates to the intersections of race, gender, and class.

Dr. Bledsoe has received numerous fellowships including: The National Endowment of Humanities, the New Leadership Academy, National Center of Institutional Diversity, University of Michigan, and Boone Family Foundation. She is a proud member of the 2017 cohort of Dallas Public Voices. She is the recipient of the 2020 UN Day Global Leadership Award, in the category of Sustainable Development Goal 4, Quality Education. This prestigious award reflects the bold, transformative work Bledsoe has done to advance the United Nations goals for sustainable development, shifting the world onto a more resilient path through quality education.

When asked about her motivation working with the Hunt Institute as a Fellow and collaborator across multiple initiatives she replied, “The Institute’s mission is to serve as a national and international hub to partner with leaders in business, academia, NGOs and government to develop and scale sustainable and affordable technologies and solutions to local and global challenges. At the SMU Hunt Institute, I enjoy using creativity and innovation to develop new solutions to create change.”

Dr. Bledsoe holds a bachelor’s degree from Baylor University. She received her masters from Southern Methodist University and her doctorate in higher education from University of Southern California.

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

September 16, 2019March 23, 2022

Lillie Noe ’20, Hunt Institute Associate

Lillie Noe ’20, joins the Hunt Institute as an Associate, bringing with her a passion for providing quality heath care and advocating for sustainable apparel.

Lillie Noe is a Program Manager for Professional Membership with the American Heart Association. She works with healthcare professionals advancing the AHA’s mission to improve cardiovascular health for all, including identifying and removing barriers to health care access and quality.

Lillie received her MBA in 2020 from SMU’s Cox School of Business, where she concentrated in Strategy. While at SMU, Lillie served as the Hunt Institute’s Program Manager for Social Enterprise, launching the Institute’s first cohort of social entrepreneurs. She also led SMU’s chapter of Net Impact where she organized volunteer opportunities and speaking events to help MBA students use their skills on behalf of the Dallas community.

Before her MBA, Lillie worked in the apparel industry and had a particular interest in sustainable and local production. She worked for a bridal and evening gown designer manufacturer in Dallas and, as an MBA student, interned for Eileen Fisher, an industry leader in sustainable apparel. Lillie holds a B.A. in Plan II Honors and a B.S. in Textiles and Apparel from the University of Texas at Austin.

Lillie previously explained her interest in sustainable apparel, saying, “In my undergraduate studies, I was struck by the amount of environmental waste and human harm unleashed by the apparel industry as a matter of routine. I believe that we have to use business to promote more than just profit if we are to have an equitable and sustainable future.”