1861: The North Central College Podcast

The fall athletics season is underway! In the second episode of our two-part fall sports preview, we connect with head women’s tennis coach Joey Leto and head women’s volleyball coach Ray Gooden to talk about the outlooks to their seasons.

We also highlight a winning start to the 2026 campaign for the national title-contending football and women’s triathlon teams.

We invite you to tune in and Go Cards!

As the 2026-27 school year starts, so does another year of Cardinal Athletics. In this two-part special edition of 1861: The North Central College Podcast, five fall sport coaches discuss their off-season preparation and preview the upcoming season. Head coaches featured in this episode include Mahesh Narayanan ’97/M’05 (women’s cross country), Matt Sinnott ’03 (men’s cross country), Enzo Fuschino (men’s soccer), Andrew Gamarra (women’s soccer) and Rachel Gray (men’s/women’s golf).

Let’s go Cardinals!

Stay tuned for the release of part two of our fall sports podcast featuring football, women’s tennis, women’s triathlon and women’s volleyball.

While contributing to one of the most ambitious physics experiments in the world, Dr. Paul Bloom, professor of physics, made sure his students at North Central gained experience working right alongside him.
“You don’t really know how to do science until you try to do science,” he says.
In an expansive conversation, Bloom traces his journey to studying and teaching physics. He also discusses how the long-awaited results of the Muon g-2 experiment at Fermilab national laboratory are a tremendous achievement of precision. And he lends insight into the value of studying science at a small liberal arts institution.

“Be kind, work hard and say hello.” It’s a simple philosophy, but one that helped guide Macy Fleury ’26 through a remarkable undergraduate experience at North Central College. After graduating with a degree in exercise science in December, she immediately began the next chapter of her North Central journey as a student in the Doctor of Physical Therapy program. This spring, she was recognized as both the Outstanding Major in Exercise Science and one of North Central’s Outstanding Seniors.

Listen along as Fleury reflects on serving as a captain on the Cardinal track and field team, conducting original research on exercise and self-esteem, leading service projects across the country, and growing the Run with Your Heart Youth Running Camp she founded. She shares how a passion for movement and helping others has shaped her goals, and why the relationships she built along the way have made all the difference.

Dr. David Green, Paleka-Thomson Dean of the School of Business and Entrepreneurship, joins the podcast following a landmark moment for the College: earning AACSB accreditation, widely considered the gold standard in business education.  

Green reflects on his journey from rural Kentucky to higher education leadership, his passion for teaching and mentorship, and the evolving intersection of business and technology. He also shares how North Central’s business programs prepare students for success through experiential learning, industry partnerships and a commitment to continuous innovation. 

Listen along as Green discusses the significance of AACSB accreditation for current students, alumni and future Cardinals — and why he believes North Central is uniquely positioned to shape the next generation of business leaders. 

Today’s students — and their parents — are increasingly focused on the value of a college degree and how their college experience will provide them with a stable future. In her role as assistant provost for student success and engaged learning, Dr. Jenny Smith understands. After all, she’s a parent, too. In this episode, Dr. Smith addresses those concerns, and a whole lot more, as she talks about the importance of curiosity, high impact teaching practices, and how North Central College prepares students for an unscripted future, and for jobs that might not even exist yet.

North Central’s new Master’s Entry to Nursing Practice (MENP) program will welcome its first cohort of students in fall 2026. The program is designed, in part, as an opportunity for career changers to enter the College’s master’s level nursing program, regardless of their undergraduate major.

Our guest, Dr. Christina Nordick, founding director of the MENP program, knows a thing or two about career changes. The first-generation college graduate was a Naval officer before becoming a nurse practitioner, and then a teacher.

Nordick reflects on the winding road—which started on a goat farm in Wisconsin—that led to her own nursing career, how she developed her teaching philosophy, and how North Central’s nursing program stands out from the pack through their passion for nursing and integration of lifestyle medicine.

In this inspiring episode, we sit down with Dr. Karl Kelley, a longtime North Central faculty member, as he retires from teaching at the College—or as he prefers to say: moving to a new phase.

From growing up on a farm in Virginia to being a first-generation college student, a bus driver, a computer scientist, and eventually a beloved psychology professor, Kelley’s journey has been defined by curiosity, storytelling and connection with students and alumni from across 37 years on the North Central campus.

Kelley reflects on discovering his passion for teaching undergraduates, or as he calls them: “human becomings.” He shares why psychology is at the core of who we are, how statistics become a tool for better decisions and relationships, and why friendship and fun matter in learning. Tune in for warmth, wisdom and wonderful stories.

This fall, the North Central women’s triathlon team did something that no other Cardinal team had done before: they won a fourth consecutive team national championship. It was their eighth national title in nine seasons. Head Coach Tyler Woodward M’20 joins senior Bethany Smeed ’26 and sophomore Keeley Mick ’28 to share how each of them discovered the sport, why they chose North Central and what it takes to compete at a championship level. They describe the team’s close bond; the confidence and mental strength built through rigorous training and the experience of racing in an emerging NCAA sport.

Together, they highlight not only the keys to national success, but also the friendships and personal growth that come from being part of the close-knit North Central triathlon program. 

In October, campus community members saw something they hadn’t seen in more than a decade: a print edition of the student newspaper, The Chronicle. The newspaper – which is still available digitally – returned to print this fall under the leadership of editor-in-chief Brianna Eloiza ’26, a journalism and media communication major who is also pursuing a minor in sport management. Listen along as Brianna describes the process of bringing The Chronicle back to life in print and the feeling of seeing it in the hands of readers across campus.