Catalyze

Our final episode of our second season features someone who knows a great deal about living a life of service. We talk with the CEO of Habitat for Humanity International: Jonathan Reckford, Morehead-Cain Class of 1984.

Listen to Jonathan talk about his varied career path, which includes a stint in strategic planning for Disney and an SVP role at the company that founded CarMax. The conversation ranges from the elements of leadership, to the importance of data in nonprofit work, to the real meaning of the word “vocation.”

This week we talk with Cathy Alston-Kearney, an alumna from the Morehead-Cain Class of 1981. Cathy grew up in Nashville, North Carolina and now lives in Warrenton, North Carolina—population 862.

For twenty-one years, Cathy was the executive director of the Warren Family Institute, helping underprivileged families find affordable housing. She now works as the student success director for Warren County Schools and as a pastor for Oak Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church—a denomination known as AME for short.

Cathy was a SEVEN Speaker at the 2018 Alumni Forum, just a few weeks ago. Her talk, which she titled “The Men in My Life,” received a standing ovation. Soon you'll find out why.

This episode of Catalyze features Major Jason Kemp, former commander of India Company, Third Battalion, Second Marines—and now an officer in the U.S. Marine Reserves. Jason currently lives in Raleigh, and he works for a utilities company called Pike Electric. On top of that, he spends a few hours a week helping veterans get connected to the Triangle community through a network called Marine for Life.

During his ten years of active duty, Jason completed two deployments to Iraq and another on a U.S. Navy ship that visited Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. He says his geography degree was extremely useful on deployment.

Our conversation dips into the fascinating parallels between service in the Marines and working for a utility company, Jason's unfulfilled dream of being a farmer, and a very helpful life-planning exercise for any age.

The son of a Vietnam War veteran, Major Jason Kemp grew up in Mount Airy, N.C.

Gender roles often prescribe that a husband should be the breadwinner while a wife should stay at home. But the modern feminist movement can also make women feel guilty if they do choose to stay at home with their kids. How does a high-achieving, values-driven college graduate like a Morehead-Cain navigate these challenges?

In this episode of Catalyze, Jed Lau, Morehead-Cain Class of 1998, and Kerry Anne Harris, Morehead-Cain Class of 2011, share their unique stories of intentional living through full-time parenthood.

During our talk, Jed mentions a spreadsheet with his family’s five-year plan. You can see a copy of it here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1X2-9NYuBp8Pt0lkT-EN4exu_MaTqvv4KBzgDNdbf5pM/edit#gid=0

This week we’re continuing a season that highlights lives of service.

You'll hear from Meg VanDeusen, Morehead-Cain class of 2014. Meg is a former Fulbright English Teaching Assistant, former Girl Scout Troop leader, and current senior manager of operations and finance at a small nonprofit called Feedback Labs.

Our conversation starts with her foundation in service: through the Girl Scouts and the Carolina Center for Public Service. We also discuss her experiences teaching abroad and her current work and what she sees is a key component of providing service to others.

Welcome to Season 2 of Catalyze, a podcast from the Morehead-Cain Foundation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

As we shared during our first season, Catalyze features stories of values-driven leadership. This season we’ve chosen to highlight lives of service.

Our first episode this season is a conversation with Dr. Amir Barzin ’06, a Persian-Texan who works in family medicine at UNC. After attending Carolina as a Morehead-Cain, Dr. Barzin worked as a law-clerk and an EMT before earning a master's in medical science and then a DO: which stands for doctor in osteopathic medicine. We dive into what that means, during our conversation.

Today, Dr. Barzin is the director of UNC's Family Medicine Center, director of UNC Urgent Care, and director of Family Medicine In-Patient Service.

This is the last episode of our first season, and we are sad to have it end. But don't despair, we'll be back soon enough. And this week we've got a very special guest for you to close out the season: David Gardner, Morehead-Cain Class of 1988.

David is cofounder of a whimsical financial services company called The Motley Fool (https://www.fool.com/), which he established in 1993 along with his brother and a friend. David is incredibly successful at picking stocks, and he's known among the Morehead-Cain community for a legendary SEVEN talk at the 2009 Alumni Forum where he picked seven stocks alumni should've invested in right then. If someone in the audience had invested $1,000 across those seven stocks that day, they'd have more than $13,000 today. And that is not a fluke or a lucky break. David picks successful stocks like these literally every day.

In our conversation, we talked about the story of The Motley Fool, how David learned about stocks, and what he wishes everyone knew about financial investing. David's energy is palpable, and his optimism irresistible. This was a fun conversation by any standards—and way more fun than you'd expect a conversation about stocks to be!

Follow David’s 2009 Alumni Forum stock picks here: http://caps.fool.com/player/moreheadreunion9.aspx

Welcome to Catalyze, a podcast produced by the Morehead-Cain Foundation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

This week we sat down with Barbara Hyde, Morehead-Cain Class of 1983. Barbara has spent much of her life finding ways to support causes she cares about. She’s the chair and CEO of the Hyde Family Foundation—a nonprofit credited with helping transform the city of Memphis.

Barbara also cares a great deal about Morehead-Cain and Carolina. She has been Co-Chair of the 2015 and 2018 Alumni Forums, helped found Morehead-Cain's first fundraising efforts, and is on the board of the Morehead-Cain Scholarship Fund. She has also served on the University's Board of Trustees and helped launch its massive, four-billion-dollar fundraising campaign last fall.

In our conversation, we discussed what it's like to have kids at UNC—including a daughter with the Morehead-Cain Scholarship!—the unique strengths and challenges of Memphis, and what it's like living a life of philanthropy.

Welcome to the fourth episode of Catalyze, a podcast from the Morehead-Cain Foundation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This week we speak with Wade Smith, a Raleigh-based attorney from the Morehead-Cain class of 1960—when it was known as just the Morehead.

Wade was born in Albemarle, North Carolina, in 1937. His parents were textile workers. In high school, Wade was an All American football player, and he received multiple college football scholarship offers. You'll be happy to hear he chose the Morehead-Cain instead.

At UNC he served as captain of the football team and earned membership in the University’s highest honorary, The Order of the Golden Fleece. Wade then attended UNC School of Law. After clerking for a North Carolina Supreme Court Justice, Wade co-founded the law firm Tharrington Smith, where he still works today. He’s tried dozens of cases in state and federal courts alike—including multiple cases that made national headlines and live on in courtroom lore.

Welcome to the third episode of Catalyze, a podcast from the Morehead-Cain Foundation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Becca Frucht discovered her passion for the entertainment industry—specifically the intersection between pop culture, politics and social awareness—as a college intern in MTV's London office. After UNC, her career ranged from advertising to sustainability to pop culture writing and on-camera reporting.

While working for MTV Act and Rock The Vote, Becca covered the Democratic National Convention and interviewed artists at Lollapalooza. With media outlet PopSugar, Becca co-hosted live coverage of the Grammys and SAG Awards. Then, she gave up her glamorous and thriving Hollywood lifestyle to live and work on an isolated ranch in Colorado.