First in Future: Where Emerging Ideas Take Flight

Leslie Boney, Director of the Institute for Emerging Issues, hosts a series of virtual conversations discussing the impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19) and some of the ways our state is responding. Join us for this episode (The Way Back from Unemployment: Jobs, School and Service) with guests US Rep. David Price (NC 4th District), Jeff Frederick (President, NC Association of Workforce Development Boards) and Dr. Laura Leatherwood (President, Blue Ridge Community College).

First in Future Remembers Andrea Harris North Carolina lost a really good citizen on May 20. Andrea Harris died in her home in Vance County at the age of 72. Andrea spent 50 years standing up for the elderly, fighting for affordable housing, helping minorities in our state get businesses started, and advocating for the essential role of historically black colleges and universities. As we re-air our July 10, 2018, with IEI National Advisory Board member Andrea Harris, we pause to remember her life long commitment to serving our state and communities. #LegacyOfMsAndreaHarris

This First in Future episode features Jonathan Feldman, CIO of the City of Asheville, columnist for InformationWeek, author of "Beyond Transparency" and technology speaker with a sense of humor. We learn why technology is easy and people are hard, especially during the mass conversion to the WFH model we have experienced, and why in technology we laugh so we don't cry over the complexity.

Leslie Boney, Director of the Institute for Emerging Issues, hosts a series of virtual conversations discussing the impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19) and some of the ways our state is responding. Join us for this episode (COVID-19 and Mental Health) with guests Dr. Carrie Brown, M.D., MPH (CMO, Behavioral Health and IDD, DHHS), Dr. Kate Hobbs Knutson, M.D., MPH (Chief of Behavioral Health, Blue Cross Blue Shield NC) and Marc Grimmett, Ph.D. (Associate Professor of Counselor Education, College of Education at NC State University and Co-Director, NC State Community Counseling, Education, and Research Center).

This episode of First in Future is the second part of our conversation with Carl Ryden, a business innovator of some amazing companies. Carl is a native of Lenoir County with a humble background, who went on to the NC School of Science and Math and then MIT and onto Bain Consulting before founding PrecisionLender. We divided his interview into two parts—in the first part, we learned where he came from and how it shaped his ideas on the education system. This episode we explore his companies and career and hear about the most fascinating teaching assistant.

Leslie Boney, Director of the Institute for Emerging Issues, hosts a series of virtual conversations discussing the impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19) and some of the ways our state is responding. Join us for this episode (COVID-19 impact on law enforcement and the courts) with guests Cheri Beasley (Chief Justice, NC Supreme Court), Col. Glenn McNeill (Commander, State Highway Patrol) and Fred Forrer (Vice President for Technology, Public Consulting Group).

This episode of First in Future, our guest is Carl Ryden, a business innovator of some amazing companies. Carl is a native of Lenoir County with a humble background. It was a fluke of luck that he made it to the NC School of Science and Math, which launched him into his career. We have divided his interview into two parts, starting with where he came from and how it shaped his ideas on the education system. The second part of the episode explores his companies and career.

Leslie Boney, Director of the Institute for Emerging Issues, hosts a series of virtual conversations discussing the impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19) and some of the ways our state is responding. Join us on this episode of the series with guests Thom Ruhe (President and CEO, NC IDEA), Noah Wilson (Program Director of Growing Outdoors Partnership, Mountain BizWorks), and Donald Thompson (CEO, Walk West) as they discuss entrepreneurship in the time of COVID-19.

On this First in Future episode, we talk with Scott Hamilton, president of the Golden LEAF Foundation. They have been in the news lately, working with the North Carolina Rural Center to jumpstart what they call the "Rapid Recovery Loan Program" to react to the needs of small businesses in the wake of the pandemic. Scott was in economic development for decades with a group called Advantage West of Western North Carolina. Then he led the Appalachian Regional Commission from DC, and now he is back in North Carolina.

Leslie Boney, Director of the Institute for Emerging Issues, hosts a series of virtual conversations discussing the impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19) and some of the ways our state is responding. Join us for the next episode of the series with guests US Rep. G.K. Butterfield (NC 1st District), NC Rep. Josh Dobson (District 85), Angela Siefer (Executive Director, National Digital Inclusion Alliance) and Amy Huffman (Digital Inclusion and Policy Manager, NC Broadband Infrastructure Office) as they discuss how to close the homework (and work) gap during the crisis.

This week's First in Future guest is NC Representative Rev. James Gailliard, and with all that is going on, a message of faith and hope might be welcomed. We hear his advice about when we get overwhelmed— "just start with one thing and take it from there." We also discuss how churches are coping with being the church when they can't be together physically.

Join us for part five of the series with guests Mike Darrow (Executive Director, Feeding the Carolinas) Tessa Thraves (Farm to School Coordinator, NC State University Center for Environmental Farming Systems) and Sarah Blacklin (Program Director for NC Choices, NC State University Center for Environmental Farming Systems) as we discuss food and hunger in North Carolina during the crisis.

In August, the New York Times Magazine launched a project designed to try to understand the consequences of a system they traced back to 1619. That’s when the first group of people enslaved by British merchants were unloaded from a boat in Point Comfort, Virginia. The “1619 Project” looks at how that decision impacts health care, housing, jobs, wealth and music today. That is why we need historians like NC State’s Dr. Blair Kelley, this week's First in Future guest. Dr. Kelley helps us understand what happened, the extent to which the consequences of slavery still plague us, and the progress we’ve made.

First in Future: Connecting in Crisis (Who's not getting the message?) Join us for part four of the series with Juvencio Rocha-Peralta (Executive Director, AMEXCAN), Jeanne Tedrow (President and CEO of the NC Center for Nonprofits) and Doug Urland (North Carolina Institute for Public Health at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at UNC-Chapel Hill) as they discuss who may not be getting the message.

Leslie Boney, Director of the Institute for Emerging Issues, hosts a series of virtual conversations discussing the impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19) and some of the ways our state is responding. Joining us for part three of the series with State Sen. Jay Chaudhuri (D-Wake), State Rep. Stephen Ross (R-Alamance), Kevin Price (President/CEO of The Institute NC), and Kit Cramer (President/CEO of Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce) as they discuss the impact of COVID-19 on small businesses around the state.