Beyond the Summit

Welcome to Beyond The Summit, Trinity College’s podcast that looks at  accomplished alumni and asks them how they became who they are. Welcome  to our third season where we’re spending time talking with alumni whose  post-college careers have involved working or volunteering in the  sports world.

I’m your host Paul Sullivan, Trinity class  of 1995. With me today is Dave Lynch, class of 1993. He was a swimmer  for his four years at Trinity and turns out he and I played water polo  togther for two years.

Dave is vice president of  sponsorships & partnership management at the National Football  League, where he’s been for the past 15 years. Dave oversees the NFL's  portfolio of official sponsors and leads some of the League's largest  partnerships including Microsoft, Bose, Visa, Verizon, USAA, Marriott,  Oakley and Nationwide. Prior to the NFL, Dave spent 5 years at the NBA  within its Corporate Partnerships group overseeing various high-profile  relationships such as Verizon, AOL, and General Motors.  Dave started  his career at Advantage International / Octagon in both Event Management  and Corporate Consulting roles.

Beyond The Summit looks at accomplished Trinity College alumni and asks them how they became who they are. Welcome to our third season where host Paul Sullivan, Trinity College class of 1995, talks with alumni whose post-college careers have involved working or volunteering in the sports world. 

Kat Conlon, class of 2008, was an Arabic language and literature major. She played field hockey and basketball at Trinity. Kat is the executive director of The Mamba & Mambacita Sports Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a positive impact for underserved athletes and young women in sports. It was founded through the vision and loving memory of Kobe and Gianna "Gigi" Bryant. She  assumed that role in 2021. Before that she was the President of the Friends of the American University of Afghanistan.

Beyond The Summit looks at accomplished Trinity College alumni and asks them how they became who they are. Welcome to our third season where we’re spending time talking with alumni whose post-college careers have involved working or volunteering in the sports world.

Host Paul Sullivan '95 speaks with Oded Carmi, class of 2005. Oded was a wrestler for his four years at Trinity in the 174 and 184 and 197 weight class. He had at least 50 wins – which is the line for a good career. After graduating, Oded formed DN Van Lines, which is a moving company with locations in MA, VA, and FL but whose main line of business is as a contractor for the Department of Defense. An active business leader in Boston, Oded was appointed last year to the Massachusetts State Athletic Commission. The commission regulates, licenses, and sanctions all amateur and professional combat sport events in the state, including Boxing, Muay Thai, and Mixed Martial Arts.

Continuing season 2 of Beyond the Summit, New York Times columnist Paul Sullivan ’95 speaks with Trinity College alumni who have devoted their  post-college careers to serving and helping others. In the final installment of this season, Paul speaks with Walter Harrison '68 H'18. Walt Harrison’s career embodies service in many forms—education, military, and a dedication to the Hartford community. After graduating from Trinity, Walt served as a captain in the Air Force before earning his doctorate and pursuing a career as an educator. He was president of the University of Hartford for nearly 20 years, and he has had many positions on local boards, including Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center, Hartford Promise, and Capitol Squash (located on Trinity’s campus). In 2018, Trinity awarded him an honorary degree. Walt is currently a member of Trinity’s board of trustees.

Continuing season 2 of Beyond the Summit, New York Times columnist Paul Sullivan ’95 speaks with Trinity College alumni who have devoted their post-college careers to serving and helping others. Femi Faoye '08 is CEO and co-founder of D.R.E.A.M., a financial education and advocacy 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to empowering underrepresented, urban youth by equipping them with the essential knowledge for life’s challenging financial decisions. Femi is a passionate financial literacy advocate and leading personal finance expert. He is a native of Brooklyn, NY and has witnessed, first-hand, the crippling effects that a lack of financial illiteracy has on communities.

Continuing season 2 of Beyond the Summit, New York Times columnist Paul Sullivan ’95 speaks with Trinity College alumni who have devoted their  post-college careers to serving and helping others. 

In this episode, Paul speaks with pediatrician and geneticist D. Holmes Morton, M.D., who has dedicated his career to the Amish and Mennonites of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, treating children afflicted with genetic illnesses. Dr. Morton completed the Individualized Degree Program at Trinity College in 1979, and later he received the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism in 1993 and was named one of Time Magazine's “Heroes of Medicine” in 1997.  In 2006 he was awarded a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” for “Working tirelessly with rural communities to revolutionize service,  research, prescriptions, and outcomes for clinical treatment of rare  genetic diseases.” He has been featured in The New York Times, the winter 2020 issue of The Trinity Reporter, and CNN profiled the COVID-19 testing clinic he founded that features a new way to test for the virus and accommodates horse and buggy drive-through testing.

Continuing season 2 of Beyond the Summit, New York Times columnist Paul Sullivan ’95 speaks with Trinity College alumni who have devoted their post-college careers to serving and helping others. This episode, Paul speaks with Kristin Duquette ’13, a five-time American Paralympic record holder in swimming, a globally recognized disability rights advocate, a former political appointee to the Obama administration, and listed by the Clinton Foundation as one of 12 people “who will inspire you to make a difference.” Kristin is currently a preparedness officer for FEMA’s Transportation Security Grant Program and is a student at the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security Program. In 2020, Kristin was honored as one of Trinity’s 50 for the Next 50 in honor of the college’s celebration of 50 years of coeducation.

Christopher Hatch ’80

Continuing season 2 of Beyond the Summit. This season, we’re talking with Trinity alumni who have devoted their post-college careers to serving and  helping others. Chris Hatch serves as the CEO of Food Banks Canada, a national charitable organization dedicated to helping Canadians living with food insecurity. Food Banks Canada supports a network of Provincial Associations, affiliate food banks, and food agencies that work at the community level to relieve hunger.

Welcome to season 2 of Beyond the Summit. This season, we’re talking with Trinity alumni who have devoted their post-college careers to serving and helping others. In the first episode of the season, Paul talks with Fay Stetz-Waters IDP’01. Fay is the director of civil rights for the Oregon Department of Justice, and she supervises Oregon’s Bias Response Hotline. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history, with a concentration on social movements, but in her life, before and after graduating from Trinity, there has been an emphasis on service. Listen in as Fay shares her journey, from growing up in Baltimore to joining the Marine Corps, pursuing her education at her own pace, and ultimately building a career as a lawyer and judge. All along the way, Fay’s curiosity about the world around her made her particularly attuned to people’s experiences, and helped her become an advocate for change.

In this episode, Paul talks with Ross Buchmueller ’87. Ross founded and is the president and chief executive officer of the PURE Group of Insurance Companies (PURE) and he's a Trinity College Trustee. His career spans more than 30 years exclusively focused on the high-net-worth property and casualty insurance market. Ross began his career after Trinity at the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, where he spent more than a decade before founding AIG Private Client Group and then launching PURE in 2006. Listen in as Ross walks us through how he saw the opportunities for innovation in the insurance business—taking a customer-centric view that anticipates needs and delivery—and how he built PURE to solve problems that are important to consumers.

Host: Paul Sullivan

Producer: Helder Mira

Production consultants: Mary Mahoney, Caroline Deveau

Music: Winter In Liverpool, by Mullaha