First in Future: Where Emerging Ideas Take Flight

In this First in Future episode, we focus on the return to school resembling something normal, and how do we get our kids back on track and recover from what they lost? Our guests are Michael Maher, Executive Director of the Office of Learning Recovery and Acceleration at the state Department of Public Instruction, and Rev. Dr. Dawn Baldwin Gibson, Superintendent of the Peletah Center for Academic Excellence in eastern NC.

The Institute for Emerging Issues, in a four part series, will be focusing on the state’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities – a group of 10 colleges and universities stretching across the state formed to ensure that African Americans had access to higher education. This episode is with Dr. Johnson Akinleye and Dr. Deepak Kumar of North Carolina Central University.

The Institute for Emerging Issues, in a four part series, will be focusing on the state’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities – a group of 10 colleges and universities stretching across the state formed to ensure that African Americans had access to higher education. This episode is with Dr. Paulette Dillard, President of Shaw University and Suzanne Walsh, President of Bennett College.

The Institute for Emerging Issues, in a four part series, will be focusing on the state’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities – a group of 10 colleges and universities stretching across the state formed to ensure that African Americans had access to higher education. This episode is with Dr. Karrie Dixon and Dr. Kuldeep Rawat of Elizabeth City State University.

The Institute for Emerging Issues, in a four part series, will be focusing on the state’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities – a group of 10 colleges and universities stretching across the state formed to ensure that African Americans had access to higher education. This episode is with Dr. Harold L. Martin Sr., Chancellor of NC A&T State University.

In this First in Future episode, our guests represent two different groups that have been looking at reforms to make our justice systems work better. First the co-chairs of a task force appointed by the Governor, the “Task Force on Racial Equity in Criminal Justice,” Associate Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls and Attorney General Josh Stein, and next the co-chair of the House Select Committee on Community Relations, Law Enforcement and Justice, Rep. John Szoka.

Twenty years ago, three Latino couples, made up of an engineer, a scientist, an IT professional and three teachers, took a look at what was going on with Latino education in the state, and didn’t like what they saw. About half of the students were dropping out of high school and they saw that was going to cause big problems for them, and the state. That is when this episode’s First in Future guest Marco Zarate, his wife and others stepped up and assisted in forming the North Carolina Society of Hispanic Professionals, a nonprofit focused on “promoting education among Hispanic youth,” with a special focus on increasing high school graduation rates. North Carolina Society of Hispanic Professionals have raised corporate contributions, brought in members and volunteers, and through it all Marco has stayed with the organization, as president on a voluntary basis.

Last year, we did a two part First in Future series called “the lost speeches of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr,” focusing on two speeches Dr. King gave in North Carolina. Both stories involve NC State Professor of English Dr. Jason Miller, to whom we revisit the conversation. This First in Future episode we hear a different story about the second speech, which is remarkable, because we know almost nothing about what he said. Coming up soon we are going to convert First in Future to a live format show featured on YouTube and Facebook live!

A year ago we did a two part First in Future series called “the lost speeches of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr,” focusing on two speeches Dr. King gave in North Carolina. The first was remarkable because we only recently discovered what he said, the other was remarkable because we know almost nothing about what he said. Both stories involve NC State Professor of English Dr. Jason Miller, to whom we revisit the conversation. This First in Future episode, “King’s first dream”, tells the story of the first time Dr. King used the phrase I have a dream – in Rocky Mount in 1962. We now know exactly what he said that day because, believe it or not, of Dr. Millers long time obsession with African American poet Langston Hughes.

February is Black History Month, a month where you hear more than you normally do about some of the bridgebuilders in the African American community, people you may not know enough about. This episode of First in Future, we revisit our conversation with Dr. Rupert Nacoste. He is the author of several books and his latest is "To Live Woke: Thoughts to Carry in our struggle to Save the Soul of America". Dr. Nacoste is retiring this year after 32 years as a professor of psychology at NC State, but he has also lived some important parts of Black History.

The pandemic is affecting everyone in our country. Almost any indicator you look at, the impacts have been greater on people of color in the state. The infection rates are 3x higher among African Americans than whites, and death rates are 6x higher. According to CDC data, COVID hospitalization rates are 5 x higher for American Indians and African Americans and 4x higher in the LatinX community. So you would think that when it comes to vaccinations, people of color might be receiving priority treatment. Not initially, says our First in Future guest, Dr. Jim Johnson. He looked at data from six states that are reporting COVID vaccination rates by race, and found that North Carolina has the widest gap in race and ethnic disparity.

In this episode of First in Future, we have the first five time guest, Sarah Langer Hall, the Institute for Emerging Issues Senior Policy and Program Manager. We talk with her about the 35th Emerging Issues Forum, which happens virtual over four days with a range of exciting guests. We learn how she pulls it all together, what she has learned along the way and attending this forum, what will we come away with.

The percentage of people showing “empathy” has nosedived over the past 40 years – down 48%. Four years ago, a group in Transylvania County decided to do something about it. Project Empathy has led to tough conversations about guns, racial equity, rural urban divides and other topics. Two years ago, IEI lifted up the program as one of five state examples of how to “connect rural and urban.” Project manager Mark Burrows talks with us about what he has learned, and is learning, about the power of empathy.

A little more than a year ago a report that was in many ways 25 years in the making came out. Over the course of 287 pages, it recommends a series of changes that the state of North Carolina needs to make to ensure that it meets its constitutional obligation to provide each child a sound basic education. In this episode of First in Future, we are joined by two members of the Governor's Commission on access to sound basic education, Patrick Miller and Brad Wilson, to discuss the report and actions needed going forward.

This episode of First in Future features Paula Henderson of SAS. We get to hear about growing up on a farm in rural eastern North Carolina and how it has shaped her approach to working with people. She talks about make the world a better place through analytics and how it is solving healthcare finance issues and her thoughts on developing more woman in technology.