ChangeMakers

There is more than one way for a child to come up missing, at least in the eyes of Ret. Memphis Police Sgt. Len Edwards. As executive director of Memphis-based Commission on Missing and Exploited Children (COMEC), he works not only with parents to find children who go missing physically, but also children who might be sitting with the family every evening but somehow are missing mentally or emotionally.

Learn more about COMEC here: http://www.comec.org/

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Moira Forbes is the President and Publisher of ForbesWoman, a multi-media platform dedicated to successful women in business and leadership. She is also the Executive Vice President of Forbes Media where she is responsible for programming and branding Forbes events worldwide and driving new business initiatives across the company’s diverse media platforms.

She is currently the host of Success with Moira Forbes, a video series on the Forbes Video Network featuring candid, one-on-one interviews with today’s top women leaders.

Launched by Forbes Media in 2008, ForbesWoman includes a robust website, a global digital community and a variety of content-rich live forums and events. Across these diverse media, ForbesWoman examines the unique experiences of professionally successful women, affirms their ambitions and achievements, and sets the agenda for purposeful discourse on the topics that matter most to them.

She came to the New York office and was named Associate Publisher of Forbes’ dedicated lifestyle magazine, ForbesLife, in February of 2004, and President and Publisher, ForbesWoman, in 2008. In 2010, Moira founded the Forbes Executive Women’s Board, an organization dedicated to harnessing the collective power of women in business to drive sustainable change. In 2013 and 2014, Moira hosted the Forbes Women’s Summit in New York City. This annual gathering brings together 250 of the world’s female leaders to discuss and solve the world’s most intractable issues. Moira was also named Forbes Media’s Executive Vice President in 2014.

Moira graduated cum laude with a BA in Art History from Princeton University, and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School program for Leadership Development.

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Life for Nick & Giles English changed significantly one clear day in March 1995. Nick was practicing for an air display with their father Euan. But the 1942 WWII Harvard aircraft they were flying was involved in an accident. Giles, waiting to take off for the next sortie was told that his father had been killed. His brother had broken over 30 bones and probably wouldn't make it.

Six months later, however, Nick was back in the air and being flown by Giles. But things would never be the same again. Life was too short to waste. The two brothers decided to pursue what they enjoyed most: a life crafting beautifully engineered mechanical devices.

When they weren't flying old aircraft, Nick & Giles had spent most of their childhood making things in the workshop of their gifted father - an ex-RAF pilot with a PHD in Aeronautical Engineering. Models. Restored cars. They even helped him to build an aircraft they still fly to this day. Euan was also passionate about mechanical timepieces. He would often bring home an old clock from an auction for the brothers to try and get going again. The passion lives on in the classic curve of a Bremont timepiece.

In the late 1990s, Nick & Giles were flying across France in their 1930's biplane. The weather was closing in. A rough-running engine forced them to make an emergency landing. Keen to avoid the French authorities, the brothers were more than happy to accept the gracious help of the farmer whose field they had landed in. They stayed in his home, the aircraft took cover in the barn. It transpired their host had flown aircraft during the war, as well as being a gifted engineer. Half-restored wall clocks lay everywhere, together with numerous engine parts. The farmer still even wore his own father's wristwatch. The brothers promised that his warm hospitality would never be forgotten. His name? Antoine Bremont.

Learn more: https://www.bremont.com

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In June 2014, Jason Little became only the fifth person since 1912 to serve as Baptist Memorial Health Care Corporation's president and CEO. Since joining Baptist in 2002, Little has held a number of leadership positions, including administrator and CEO of three Baptist Memorial hospitals, vice president and head of metro-Memphis operations and executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Little received his bachelor's degree in health administration from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and master's degrees in business administration and health care administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Little was an operations administrator for the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, before joining Baptist.

A recipient of the Early Career Healthcare Executive Award from the American College of Healthcare Executives, Little serves on the boards of the Tennessee Hospital Association, Memphis Regional Chamber of Commerce, Memphis Tomorrow, the New Memphis Institute and the Industry Council for the Federal Reserve Branch at St. Louis.

Learn more about Baptist here: https://www.baptistonline.org

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Dorothy Gunther Pugh is the CEO and Founding Artistic Director of Ballet Memphis, which she founded in 1986 with two dancers and a budget of $75,000. Today, the Company has 25 dancers, a budget of more than $4.4 million, and is opening a new multi-million dollar administrative and studio space in the heart of Memphis’ arts and theatre district in August of this year. Under Dorothy’s direction, Ballet Memphis has been lauded by the Ford Foundation, the Hearst Foundations, and the Mellon Foundation, among others. Dorothy has appeared on several national dance panels, including PBS NewsHour, the National Endowment for the Arts Dance Panel and the Glass Slipper Ceiling Symposium. A member of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, she has received the Women of Achievement Award for Initiative and the Gordon Holl Outstanding Arts Administrator’s Award, and is a recipient of a fellowship from the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford University Graduate School of Business. She is a fellow in the National Arts Strategies’ Chief Executive Program™ and was named a 2012 Legends Award winner from the Women’s Foundation for a Greater Memphis. In 2013, she received the Briggs’ Foundation Community Service Award. She has chaired the Artistic Directors’ Council for Dance/USA, the nation’s largest dance service organization for professional dance companies, and also serves on its panel for diversity and inclusion. Dorothy is a native Memphian who began her ballet training with Edith Royal of Orlando, Florida and later studied with Louise Rooke and Memphis Ballet. After graduating cum laude from Vanderbilt University, she studied with Raymond Clay and Donna Carver, and performed with Dance Concert Theatre. She completed teacher-training courses at the Royal Academy of Dance in London and with New York ballet master David Howard. Dorothy appeared in many roles with Ballet Memphis before leaving the stage.

Learn more about Ballet Memphis here: http://www.balletmemphis.org/

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Ephie Ballard-Johnson was born in Memphis, TN. After graduating from Treadwell High School, she attended the University of Memphis where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English with a concentration in technical writing. She then worked as an educator in the Memphis City School System for a number of years before serving as the Administrative Director of Neighborhood Christian Centers, Inc., a nonprofit Christian organization that employs over 60 staff members and provides many programs and assistance for 50,000 neighbors in need annually.

After ten years as Administrative Director, she seceded her mother and NCC founding director, JoeAnn Ballard, as President/CEO of theNeighborhood Christian Centers (NCC) in 2008. Since that time, Mrs. Johnson has spearheaded the creation of the Early Childhood Brain Development program- Operation Smart Child- in partnership with The Urban Childhood Institute, organized the First Ladies for Healthy Babies Network with the support of Tennessee First Lady Crissy Haslam. Along with a committed staff, Ephie has a heart for the Memphis community, she is committed to the plight of the elimination of poverty through her service at NCC.

Mrs. Johnson is the host of FOX 13 WHBQ’s “Faith Forum” and also serves on the Advisory Council at Memphis Light Gas & Water, is a Board Member of On the Grove Music, and is a CAB Board Member of the Department of Human Services.

In addition to her work with NCC, Ephie works as a professional vocalist and songwriter, as well as a noted inspirational speaker. Her love for the Lord has inspired Ephie to write beautiful Christian Music, including her single The King is Here. She has been a keynote speaker for various faith-based, community service, and women’s focused conferences throughout the country and around the world, most recently traveling to Japan, Guyana, Kenya, and Argentina.

Ephie is married to Rodney, her husband of 20 years, and has two beautiful children, Andre and Jonathan. They attend Hope Presbyterian Church She and Rodney have been members of Hope Presbyterian Church’s worship team for 16 years, under the leadership of Grammy and Dove award winner Bruce Carroll.

Learn more: http://ephiejohnsonlive.com

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Dr. Justin Lawhead is the Dean of Students at The University of Memphis. A Pittsburgh native, Dr. Lawhead's twenty year higher education experience is across five institutions across the nation and is on a mission to create an integrity based class of young professionals who support innovate change in Memphis or their community of choice. Dr. Lawhead is also Director and visionary behind the expansion of the Leadership Education and Development Program (LEAD) program at University of Memphis that includes the creation of a four level cohort training series, professional mentoring initiatives, local leader lunch series, and hosting a campus version of LeaderShape. The LEAD Program engagement grew from 150 students to 1,000 students under Justin's leadership.

You can learn more about Dr. Lawhead by following him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/justinlawhead

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Sally Jones Heinz came to MIFA in 2007 as Vice President of Development. In February of 2011, she became executive director, only the sixth person to hold that position in MIFA’s 43-year history. In 2016, her title was changed to President & CEO.

Sally’s roots are in Memphis—she grew up in Midtown, went to Evergreen Presbyterian Church, attended Snowden School, Central High, and Rhodes College (’81), and settled down with her husband Brad a few blocks from her childhood home. And service is in her genes. Her father, Jameson Jones, was dean of Rhodes College and president of Memphis College of Art; and her uncle, Dr. Paul Tudor Jones, was pastor of Idlewild Presbyterian Church and a founder of MIFA. She received an M.A. in American Studies from The University of Texas in Austin before returning to Memphis in 1983. Before coming to MIFA, Sally worked with Memphis Heritage, Robert F. Sharpe and Co., Rhodes College, and Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.

Learn more about Sally here: https://www.mifa.org/

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Mauricio Calvo serves as the Executive Director of Latino Memphis but his story begins in the bustling Mexico City, Mexico where he grew up among the 25 million residents who also call Mexico City home.

Learn more about Latino Memphis and his story here: https://www.latinomemphis.org/hola

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Dr. Isaac Rodriguez is the SweetBio CEO and Chief Science Officer responsible for the overall vision of the company as well as the lab and clinical research, publication, regulatory and product development segments of the business.

Kayla Rodriguez Graff earned her MBA in 2014 from Hult International in San Francisco, CA and New York City, NY. Her forward thinking business mindset is unique and her overall knowledge of business development, marketing, operations, organizational effectiveness, and front-­end web development in Fortune 40 experience made her a fit for the COO role. She responsible for operational efficiency, manufacturing, Quality and logistics.

They are both siblings and Co-Founders of SweetBio: www.sweetbio.com

The ChangeMakers Podcast is produced by cityCURRENT and powered by Higginbotham Insurance and Financial Services.

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