ChangeMakers

The book chronicles Morris’ life and his time in public service, his efforts to promote foreign trade nationally and to bring foreign businesses to Tennessee, his efforts to promote Memphis, and his personal relationship with Elvis Presley. The book also illustrates the foundation of Morris’ success – his devotion to his loving wife, family, and his deep religious roots.

“From the depths of poverty to the heights of state politics, I consider my experience a rich life without riches. I hope my account does not appear to be one of self-pride and ego, but rather a lesson in how to live a great life without the benefit of material wealth,” said Bill Morris in the introduction of his autobiography, “Bill Morris: A Legendary Life.”

As sheriff, Morris took accused Martin Luther King Jr. killer James Earl Ray into custody and is also credited with reforming a once undisciplined and corrupt sheriff’s department. As a four-term mayor, Morris was instrumental in promoting Memphis and Shelby County as America’s Distribution Center as well as the great work of Danny Thomas and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Morris worked to bring foreign trade to the United States and Tennessee with Governors Lamar Alexander and Ned McWherter. His work to promote trade globally earned him a seat on President Ronald Reagan’s International Economic Committee.

As a close friend to Elvis Presley, Morris was one of the few people with personal access to the international superstar and was even gifted a Mercedes 280 SEL from Presley. Morris spent much of his energy promoting Memphis arts and the famous Memphis musical institutions Beale Street and Graceland.

Elected as one the youngest sheriffs in Tennessee history, William N. (Bill) Morris, Jr. transformed the Shelby County Sheriff's Department into one of the most respected law enforcement agencies in the nation. The jail procedures instituted to protect James Earl Ray, after his arrest for the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, brought Morris and his staff national acclaim, including a personal recognition from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.

From 1978 to 1994, Morris served four terms as Shelby County Mayor. Traveling the globe, he promoted tourism with Memphis In May, Beale Street and Elvis' Graceland. He also sold the concept of Memphis as America's Distribution Center.

After an unsuccessful campaign for governor of Tennessee in 1994, Morris retired from politics. Three years later, his wife, Ann, suffered a major stroke, which began his greatest challenge. For the next 19 years he became devoted to his wife's day-to-day care until her death in 2016.

Learn more / purchase his book online here: https://www.billmorrisbook.com

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Chef Logan Guleff has been named one of the Most Influential Teens by Time Magazine and a James Beard Blended Burger Winner. Since becoming the 2014 MasterChef Junior champion he has become a rising star in the culinary world. He was named Southern Living‘s Best New Southern Cook and earned a spot on Fortune Magazine’s 18 Under 18 list; he’s also the youngest certified judge for the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest in Memphis, Tennessee, and the youngest chef to cook at the historic James Beard House in New York City. And just recently finished judging the International Young Chef Olympiad in India.

Logan has gone on to do several Charity Dinners, Countless food Demos, an Initiative for Uncle Ben's Canada, and even flexed his muscles as the ONLY KID Certified BBQ Judge for Memphis in May World Champion BBQ contest.

Other accomplishments include winning the First Kids State Dinner for the State of TN. This took him the White House where he met the First Lady and President as well as touring the famous White House Garden, Age 10.

Logan Guleff recently won the prestigious Best in World Gourmand Award for his first cookbook.

Learn more: https://www.facebook.com/LoganJuniorChef/

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Meg Clarke is an SEO expert and the owner + founder of Clapping Dog Media. After studying marketing and graphic design in college, Meg found herself working in boutique ad agencies where she developed her interest in attracting the ideal customer for her clientele.

Meg left this position when she traveled to Uganda to adopt her eldest sons but found upon her return that she missed the job. She turned then to freelance web design and before long, Clapping Dog Media was born.

At Clapping Dog Media, Meg focuses on creating functional websites using keyword analytics, site simplicity, and her own personal experience to help her clients run successful online businesses. In addition, Meg specializes in communication, ensuring her customers learn and understand the SEO strategies with which she provides them so that they leave Clapping Dog's services feeling empowered in their business. She especially enjoys working with clients in the health and wellness industry.

In addition to her enthusiasm for SEO, Meg believes in the significance of giving back. She has spent extensive time doing humanitarian work in Uganda and is passionate about helping people escape poverty. Meg currently lives in Virginia with her husband, three sons, and her dog, Vader.

Learn more: www.clappingdogmedia.com

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Victor Boutros is the CEO and Founding Director of the Human Trafficking Institute and co-author with Gary Haugen of The Locust Effect: Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence, a book published by Oxford University Press in 2014. Drawing on real-world cases and extensive scholarship, The Locust Effect paints a vivid portrait of the way fractured criminal justice systems in developing countries have spawned a hidden epidemic of modern-day slavery and everyday violence that is undermining vital investments in poverty alleviation, public health, and human rights. A critically acclaimed work of thought-leadership, The Locust Effect is a Washington Post bestseller that has been featured by the New York Times, The Economist, NPR, the Today Show, Forbes, TED, and the BBC, among others. For their work on The Locust Effect, Boutros and Haugen received the 2016 Grawemeyer Prize for Ideas Improving World Order, a literary prize awarded annually to the authors of one book based on originality, feasibility, and potential for global impact.

Boutros previously served as a federal prosecutor who investigated and tried international human trafficking cases of national significance around the country on behalf of the United States Department of Justice’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit. He has taught human trafficking at the FBI Academy in Quantico, trained law enforcement professionals in the United States and other countries on how to investigate and prosecute human trafficking, and taught trial advocacy to lawyers from Latin America, South and Southeast Asia, and Africa.

Prior to his work with the Justice Department, Boutros spent time on similar issues in the developing world. He has worked on improving prison conditions in Ecuador, documented bonded slaves in India, and worked on human trafficking issues as a visiting lawyer with the National Prosecuting Authority of South Africa.

Boutros is a graduate of Baylor University, Harvard University, Oxford University, and the University of Chicago Law School, where he was as an editor of the University of Chicago Law Review and received a grant to research human trafficking as a Human Rights Research Fellow. He has written on foreign affairs and human rights, including a feature article in Foreign Affairs and a piece co-authored with US Trafficking in Persons Ambassador John Richmond in the AntiTrafficking Review, and developed and taught a course on human rights, human trafficking, and rule of law in the developing world at the University of Chicago Law School.

Boutros speaks to corporate leaders, universities, and think tanks on human trafficking, and has provided briefings to senior government leaders on human trafficking, including legislators, congressional committees, and the President of the United States.

Learn more: https://www.traffickinginstitute.org

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We are entering the greatest period of global transformation the world has ever known. These tectonic changes are enabled by rapidly evolving technology and destabilizing demographic changes. This constant state of disruption mandates a new level of professional courage and influence in order to effectively impact our organizations and those around us.

Seth Mattison challenges conventional leadership thinking while introducing the super trends shaping the Future of Work. Supported with cutting edge research and category leading case studies Seth discusses how listeners can compete and thrive in the changing landscape of work.

In this episode, you'll learn:

Deep insights into what’s coming next in the new world of work for leaders at all levels.

A new framework to see beyond the fades and more clearly understand the trends certain to impact the business landscape over the coming

Practical and actionable tips and techniques that can immediately impact business today

Seth Mattison is an Internationally renowned expert and author on workforce trends, generational dynamics, and business strategy. As Co-Founder and Chief Movement Officer of Luminate Labs, Seth advises many of the world’s leading brand and organizations on the key shifts happening around talent management, change and innovation, leadership, and the future of work.

Learn more at https://www.sethmattison.com and by following him @sethmattison

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David French is the President and Chief Marketing Officer of the newly formed nonprofit The Memphis Brand Initiative. The organization has been launched to lead Memphis brand stakeholders in well-coordinated, best-in-class brand, marketing and communications practices, which spark civic pride and attract talent, tourists and business investment to Memphis.

Prior to this role, Mr. French was Senior Vice President, Marketing, Communications and Corporate Partnerships at the National Park Foundation where he was responsible for overseeing the strategic brand development and key fundraising businesses. This included the Foundation's corporate partnerships and direct marketing programs, which generated millions of dollars in support, as well as leading the Foundation’s overall marketing and communications strategic planning and operations. In 2015, Mr. French also served as the Foundation’s Interim President & CEO, leading the National Park Foundation through a successful leadership transition.

Mr. French joined the Foundation in May of 2009, and was responsible for growing the National Park Foundation community into the millions, introducing new audiences to the work of the organization through strategic brand initiatives, multi-channel marketing campaigns, nationally televised events, new online platforms and social media campaigns. He created several formidable partnerships across media, corporate, government and non-profit institutions to strengthen America’s national parks through collaboration. Notably, Mr. French lead the “Find Your Park/Encuentra Tu Parque” public engagement campaign for the National Park Service Centennial, credited with driving park visitation to all-time records of more than 305 million in 2015 and 325 million in 2016.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Mr. French was Vice President of Communications for MTV: Music Television, where he directed the network’s day-to-day communications operations, spanning programming, events, public affairs, ad sales, partnerships, social media, digital, research and more. During his tenure Mr. French oversaw successful communications strategies for landmark programming such as “TRL,” “Punk’d” and “Pimp My Ride,” along with global media events including the “MTV Video Music Awards” and “MTV Movie Awards.” Mr. French also oversaw the launch of mtvU, MTV’s college network, and was responsible for communicating key pro-social initiatives including “Choose or Lose,” “Fight for Your Rights” and “Break the Addiction” among others.

French graduated cum laude from Villanova University. He is an instrument-rated private pilot and a drummer, having recorded two albums. He loves to travel with his wife Melanie, daughter Josephine, and their dog Jackie, especially to America’s national parks! His family now proudly calls Memphis home.

WeAreMemphis is powered by the Memphis Brand Initiative, a collection of organizations and individuals – people from every background and every aspect of our community excited to tell our story – together. Working as one, we utilize best-in-class marketing and communications strategies and tools to have a catalytic positive impact on our entire community.

In 2019, our community will experience a unique moment: celebrating the past through our 200th anniversary while embracing the next 100 years. More than an anniversary, we extend an invitation to people locally and globally to join us as we honor our story, and the powerful next chapter that is about to be written.

That story is profound, yet simple. Memphis has changed the world… and we’re not done yet. We are a city of doers, dreamers and believers. We create, we invent, we experiment. That’s what drives this unstoppable city.

Learn more at https://www.wearememphis.com or https://www.mem200.com

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Steve Hinkley is the President and CEO of Adventure Science Center (ASC) in Nashville, Tennessee. Alongside board members, staff and community leaders and volunteers, ASC is implementing a multi-year transformation to become a premiere hands-on science and innovation center.

Prior to moving to Nashville, Hinkley served as the President and CEO of MOXI, The Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation in Santa Barbara, California, where he completed a $27 million dollar startup capital campaign and the grand opening of a new, 25,000-square foot science center in the heart of Santa Barbara’s waterfront district.

Hinkley began his museum career in 2007 with the Perot Museum of Nature in Science in Dallas, Texas, where he oversaw exhibit and education program development for the highly successful launch of an all new 185,000-square-foot science center in downtown Dallas.

Before joining the science museum field, Hinkley earned his degree in biology from Tufts University and spent 10 years in the classroom teaching middle and high school biology, physics and physiology.

Steve and his wife Morgan enjoy traveling, spending time with family and raising their two young children, Blake and Harper.

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Grace Askew is an incessant songwriter. Each and every day of 2018 she has written a new song and performed it live for her fans on Facebook and Instagram. She maintains this practice while touring, collaborating on projects with Wrangler and Stetson in New Mexico, developing new sounds, and recording. Her mantra “creativity is a muscle; dare to suck” epitomizes her endeavor, as she explores the limits of her muse.

Grace was a contestant on Season 4 of NBC’s The Voice (team Blake). She has won numerous songwriting awards, including Unsigned Only (First Place, Americana, 2017), the International Songwriting Competition (First Place, Americana, 2016), and the John Lennon Songwriting Contest (2014 Grand Prize, Folk). PBS featured her on the show Sun Sessions.

Grace is currently preparing a tour to close out 2018 and end her 365-day songwriting challenge. She will begin in Memphis, Tennessee, and end in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Grace’s influences include Cat Power, Jeff Buckley, and Tom Waits. Grace has joined James McMurtry, Leon Russell, Marty Stuart, T-Model Ford, Jesse Winchester, Lisa Marie Presley, Ray Wiley Hubbard, Colter Wall, and Hayes Carll. She regularly tours the country, with particular emphasis on the Mississippi Delta and the Southwest.

Learn more: www.graceaskew.com

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Carol Coletta is Senior Fellow, American Cities Practice, at The Kresge Foundation. In addition to leading the foundation's initiative, Reimagining the Civic Commons, she is on loan as president and CEO of the Memphis River Parks Partnership.

She previously served as vice president of Community and National Initiatives for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, a national foundation with deep local roots in 26 cities across the U.S. At Knight she managed a portfolio of more than $50 million annually in grants and a team of 18 in 9 cities to drive success in cities. She was recruited to the foundation to lead a new portfolio created from a merger of two departments. Her strategic focus at Knight has been to understand how robust public life can accelerate talent, opportunity and engagement. To do that, she deployed grants, challenges, research, local leadership development, and national and local convenings of academics, policymakers and practitioners (with special emphasis on practitioners). In particular, she has led a national inquiry into the value of economic integration on America’s cities and how to achieve it.

Carol led the two-year start-up of ArtPlace, a unique public-private collaboration to accelerate creative placemaking in communities across the U.S. The collaboration includes 13 of the nation’s leading foundations, eight federal agencies, including the National Endowment for the Arts, and six of the nation’s largest banks.

Prior to being recruited to start ArtPlace, Carol was president and CEO of CEOs for Cities for seven years. The organization under her leadership was a Chicago-based national network of urban leaders in 45 of the nation’s top metro areas. She also led the Mayors' Institute on City Design, had her own public radio show, "Smart City," a popular retail store, "Magazine" and her own consulting firm.

Follow Carol on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ccoletta

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Kurt Heinecke is probably best known as the Music Director for Big Idea Entertainment and their ground-breaking video series' “VeggieTales" and "3-2-1 Penguins”. For over 20 years, Kurt co-wrote, produced, arranged, and scored hits like “The Hairbrush Song” and “His Cheeseburger”, along with two major motion pictures, selling over 70 million audio and video units and garnering 7 Dove Awards. Kurt has also been a touring musician, music teacher, band director, church music director, and freelance composer and musician in Nashville. Oh…and he photographs in his free time (ha!) for clients such as The Nashville Symphony, Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith and other artists. Kurt regularly speaks to college students and business people, sharing what he has learned from 3 decades of working in entertainment.

Learn more: www.khstudios.biz

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