Meet the 2019 Class of 40 Under Forty

Protiviti 2018 Working Mother of the Year Ana Amato 07MBA credits her success to working with the right people and finding the perfect partner, in this case her husband Greg, with whom she has a true 50/50 partnership. An expert in her field of internal audit and financial consulting, Amato advises women to be confident: “There’s often a fear of admitting that you don’t know something,” she says. “Don’t let someone else eat your cake because you’re worried about speaking up.” She also recommends taking time to find an organization with the right culture fit where you feel comfortable and able to grow.

Amato oversees the Protiviti Atlanta Community scholarship program which offers college scholarships to under-resourced local high school students, funded by donations from Protiviti Atlanta employees. She also serves on the alumni board of the Goizueta Business School, Emory University. Originally from Honduras, Amato lives in Atlanta with her husband and two young daughters.

For five years, Robbie Brown 07C was an Atlanta-based journalist for the New York Times covering national news. Through the combination of his time in the newsroom and his year as Editor-in-Chief at the Emory Wheel, he realized his passion was really in what happened “on the other side" of news organizations—the business side. He began to ask himself some interesting questions like “how do we compete with Google and Facebook? And how do you build a business model around quality journalism?” Brown’s search for answers led him to leave the New York Times and enroll in business school at Columbia University to study the media and technology industries. After working as the Chief of Staff to the CEO and Head of Corporate Strategy for Bloomberg Media, Brown now serves as General Manager of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum, a special initiative launched by Mike Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor, that focuses on the countries, technologies, and industries reshaping the 21st century economy. Over the past few months, he’s been instrumental in working to gather the world’s business leaders at a three-day economic summit in Beijing to discuss the rise of China and other major shifts in the global economy. Brown is recently married and is training to take on another challenge, the New York City Marathon.

Roshani Chokshi 13C had always dreamed of being a journalist, but when she found herself as the news editor of the Emory Wheel, she realized that she hated the newspaper-writing style. “It was important because in finding what you love you have to do stuff that you don't love,” says Chokshi, who credits that experience with helping her find her own voice.

In her youth, Chokshi never saw books with people who looked like her on the cover or characters with a unique or ethnic name. When she began to write, she started to fill that void and focused on stories and characters reflecting her Filipino and Indian heritage, especially the retelling of “myths where you can reinterpret the power dynamic,” says Chokshi. Now a New York Times best-selling author of fiction for young adults and middle-school-aged readers, Chokshi says, “You can find a version of Cinderella across every cultural spectrum. They are stories of shared human experience and just because you are showing it with a different lens doesn’t exclude anyone from that magic.”

Read more about Roshani Chokshi on EmoryWire.

Michael Curry 02B is a serial entrepreneur who credits Emory University for exposing him to the ethos of leaving things better than you found them, as well as the value of being open to new ideas and experiences. Curry works with partners, including Keith Burns 01B, to acquire companies and grow them with a special focus on making sure that there are senior leadership opportunities for diverse candidates. Curry says, “We strive to make sure that we demonstrate our support for all team members while stressing that diverse voices being heard is really important for us.” He’s found continual support along the way through his brotherhood in the Mu Alpha chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated. “Emory exposes you to such a rich and diverse set of scholars, the likes of which you are unlikely to replicate in the ‘real world'” according to Curry.

EmoryWire talked to Michael Curry about the connections he made. Read his thoughts and other similar stories, and how you can sign up for Emory Connects, our exclusive virtual network.

Reshma Dalia 01B was named as a Business Insurance's Woman to Watch in 2012 and with good reason. She was recently promoted to Chief Financial Officer of Alliant Specialty and was previously named a co-Chair of the Diversity & Inclusion Committee at Alliant Insurance Services, Inc. In 24 months, since assuming the CFO role, Alliant Specialty revenues have grown by almost 50% and there are now over 50 offices nationwide. Needless to say, Dalia has changed the game for Alliant Specialty. Key in exponentially growing Alliant’s business, Dalia says success comes from taking initiative, self-motivation, and hard work. “Once you combine those three things, you have to surround yourself with mentors you respect and a manager who will support you in cultivating your career,” says Dalia. Overseeing eleven industry verticals and more than 1000 employees, she prides herself in continuously developing the younger generation and being an advocate and champion for women in the insurance industry.

The core belief that classical music does good for the community has been a driving force for John Devlin 08C, since he graduated from Emory. The newly appointed Music Director of the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra, Devlin is only the ninth conductor in its 90-year history to hold that title and, at 33, is one of the nation’s youngest music directors to lead a professional symphony orchestra.

Prior to his appointment in Wheeling, Devlin held posts with the National Symphony Orchestra and the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, and co-founded Gourmet Symphony, an organization that combined the experience of listening to classical music with enjoying fine food and socializing. A passionate educator, Devlin has served on the faculty of the University of Maryland School of Music and as Music Director of the youth orchestras in Honolulu, Hawaii; McLean, Virginia; and Prince William, Virginia.

Devlin, who earned a double major in both music and Latin, says he does not have an occasion to speak Latin often, “but the skills that I developed in learning how to write and translate the language feed into the job of a music director in many different ways.” He adds that after a concert, audience members always remark “about the storytelling that I deliver as a speaker from the stage, just as much as anything else. And I think that's something that my time at Emory helped developed in so many different ways. I might not have developed such a wide variety of ways to connect with audiences at Juilliard!”

Read more about John Devlin and Gourmet Symphony on EmoryWire.

During her senior year at Emory, Sarah Dingivan 05C 09L won an internship with Georgia CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), which represents the interests of abused and neglected children in court. That experience sparked her interest in public service. “It was inspiring to watch a volunteer-driven program ensure that each child had a voice,” Dingivan says. After graduation, Dingivan worked in policy in Washington, DC, where it soon became clear that she couldn’t make the kind of difference she hoped for without legal training. After returning to Emory for law school, she served on Active Duty in the Air Force Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAG) for six years before becoming the Managing Attorney for the Community Justice Program, the pro bono project of the San Antonio Bar Association. In this role, Dingivan worked to connect indigent, at-risk and vulnerable community members with limited access to the legal system with meaningful pro bono legal assistance, and was instrumental in creating opportunities for critical legal support available for members of the Sutherland Springs community impacted by the November 2017 shooting.

In JD Doughney’s world, change is a constant. “Change is something that you can train yourself to appreciate, to focus on the opportunities change presents, and to approach change in a positive way to make the most of it,” says Doughney, a managing director of global client partnerships for Facebook. A member of the team that introduced Red Bull to the United States and a part of the startup team for Vitaminwater and Smartwater, Doughney understands entrepreneurial, fast-moving environments, as well as the more traditional corporate atmosphere from his time at the Coca-Cola Company. Those two cultures “work at very different speeds to drive growth, but each one helped me collect experiences and grow,” says Doughney who now uses both skillsets to drive business in the automotive space. Earning an MBA at Emory helped him to augment his strong marketing skills with a more holistic mindset towards business management. He says that his real asset is authenticity, adding “Show up in life everyday as your true self, play to your strengths, treat others well, and take a positive attitude to learning and improving every day, then you vastly improve the odds that you end up in the places that you belong, surrounded by great people and with the opportunities and options that you find rewarding.”

Commitment to American values and the rule of law is why Ben Farley 11L, accepted the job of defending Ammar al Baluchi, one of the accused co-conspirators in the attacks of September 11. “It was a question of who we are as a country,” says Farley. “Are we the country that engages in victors’ justice and vengeance? Or are we a country that believes in the rule of law?” Knowing that his choice might be an unpopular one in the court of public opinion, Farley thought about the United States’ values and the principles embodied in the country’s founding documents—and then he took the job.

Because the trial is happening in a military court, though the events did not happen in wartime, Farley is spending years working through legal precedents and determining what of the Constitution may even apply to his client. A long-time proponent of justice and due process, Farley negotiated—or participated in negotiations leading to—the release of 125 men held at Guantanamo without trial, and served as a Presidential Management Fellow with the U.S. Department of State. “I had to decide if I was going to abide by my convictions or would I let someone else do the hard work,” says Farley. “I decided that I had to do it, that I couldn’t live with myself if I didn't live up to my values.” Farley credits his time spent studying law at Emory, where he was editor-in-chief of the Emory International Law Review and twice participated in Emory’s International Humanitarian Law Clinic, for enabling him to take on a series of unusual national security legal and policy jobs.

With a firm belief that the creative process requires as much rigorous thinking as the scientific process, Marcel Foster 17PH combines their background in professional theater/dance with public health to empower communities on a local and a global scale. Foster drew from their cross-disciplinary training to investigate behavior with a scientific lens as a researcher with the Jane Goodall Institute, studying chimpanzees in Tanzania. The resulting published papers and diverse experiences caught the attention of professors at University of Pennsylvania and Harvard, which led to a long collaboration and a “wonderfully realized integration of dance and technology” (Merilyn Jackson, Philadelphia Inquirer) performance with ballet dancers and robots sharing the stage.

While studying at Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health, Foster deepened their understanding of how to apply quantitative analysis to community interventions and engagement, and was an ally to all through their work for global HIV and efforts to create awareness and safety for the queer/trans community as Emory’s 2017 Chestnut LGBT Person of the Year. Now a global health consultant, Foster continues to use interdisciplinary methods to make an impact with clients from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as the US Agency for International Development. And what would Foster say to someone hoping to follow in their footsteps? “Be brave and take the classes that you think you'll fail to gain the skill sets you need,” says Foster. “It’s a period of time where resources are endless, so play to your strengths but also disrupt your norms.”

Lauren Giles 03C believes in saying yes to every opportunity, and if she didn’t follow that motto, she might not be where she is right now. The attorney with a focus in payment systems law took a winding path in developing her career. After she graduated from Emory, she went to Panama to study Spanish. Her two years studies led to a stint on a Panama-based Smithsonian research project and a two-year deferment of law school. She worked on a sustainable development project, traveled, and became fluent in Spanish. That experience took her to an internship at the White House. She now serves as part of her firm’s diversity committee and mentors younger attorneys, with a particular focus on lawyers who are first generation college graduates. “It can be difficult when you don't have that kind of inherited privilege in that respect,” says Giles. When she is not practicing law, she races gravel bikes with Team Sorella Cycling, an all-female club named USA Cycling’s 2019 Women’s Club of the Year and is dedicated to getting more women and girls on bikes. Growing up near campus, Giles would often find herself in the Carlos Museum. In her engagement with Emory, Giles has generously supported the Carlos Museum in both donation and service.

At the University of Alabama School of Law, Allyson Gold 11L teaches an intensive and challenging Elder Law Clinic on the fundamentals of legal practice through direct client representation and advocacy. Allyson’s students work to promote access to justice and improve quality of life for west Alabama residents. Under her direction, law students also collaborate with medical, social work, pharmacy, and geriatric-psychiatry students to develop multi-faceted strategies to achieve patient-clients’ complex goals. In addition, Allyson works across disciplines to develop public policy to advance health equity and social justice.

Previously, as a Rodin Visiting Clinical Professor of Law at Loyola University Chicago, Allyson supervised students engaged in transformative interprofessional policy work. Together with stakeholders from law, healthcare, government, and affected communities, Allyson worked to eliminate lead-hazard exposure in federally subsidized housing. This work resulted in the US Department of Housing and Urban Development changing its regulations to align with blood-lead level standards set by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. Her time studying at Emory—particularly the time spent in specialized seminars focusing on complex property and housing law—has made a lasting impact on Allyson’s career. Participating in the “teaching fellow program as a 3L exposed me to legal teaching in a way that I had not previously considered.” Reflecting on her professional trajectory after Emory, Allyson says “Clinical teaching gives me the opportunity to equip the next generation of legal advocates with the skills necessary to promote access to justice. At the same time, we are working to create holistic, multifaceted strategies to address clients’ immediate needs.”

If you have enabled the two-factor authentication on your online accounts to safekeep your privacy, you have Jonathan Gonen 04C to thank. He is a founding member of the tech incubator Curious Minds, which incubated TeleSign, a mobile identity company that currently provides two-factor authentication for 21 of the largest 25 companies in the world and grossed $90M in revenue in 2015. Jonathan is also a winner of the 2017 Emory Entrepreneur Award. “Right after graduating from Emory, I drove across the country in my ‘96 Honda Civic with my father, Sam,” says Gonen. “On that drive, we spoke of our dreams and aspirations, on a personal and business level, and we decided to open an office together.” And that is how Curious Minds came to be. “We would serve as the middle man, not the originator and not the CEO,” says Gonen.

After selling off the companies for multi-millions, Gonen is on a bit of a hiatus, but always an entrepreneur at heart, he’s planning his next industry disruption. How does he follow in his own footsteps? “Have the broad strokes of a business plan, but there is really nothing like jumping in and learning as you go,” says Gonen. “The world moves too fast for formal business plans.”

She began thinking about the ministry as a child, but Rev. Alisha Gordon 15T grew up in the kind of church that was not forward-thinking about the roles of women. “Women didn’t preach, wear pants, or lipstick,” says Rev. Gordon. “There were these very patriarchal, misogynistic ideals about women, their bodies, and their sense of agency.” Now the Executive Minister of Programs at The Riverside Church in the City of New York, a church with a long history of social justice and being ahead of the curve with affirming LGBTQ+ people, Gordon oversees all program ministries, as well as a food pantry, a shower ministry for the homeless, and a distribution program for people in need of clothing for interviews. “It’s free and a very dignified experience,” says Gordon, whose staff also offers programs focused on education and social justice.

In her late 20s, Gordon was a single mother, teaching high school English, when she felt the call to ministry. She left her teaching job and moved back home with her then four-year-old daughter. “I identify with marginalized people because not only am I a Black woman, I’ve experienced food insecurity, poverty, and much more, but I also recognize there are privileges that come with my education at Emory,” says Gordon, who enrolled in Candler School of Theology after a dinner for prospective students. It was at this dinner where Rev. Gordon would first hear about faith, justice, and Liberation Theology. Her time at Candler was instrumental in shaping her identity as a faith leader, preparing her for ministry both in the U.S. and abroad. Rev. Gordon, the inaugural recipient of the Burt H. Masters Scholarship for second-career students, forged a path for other people with similar stories to follow. “As Toni Morrison said, ‘The function of freedom is to free someone else.’ I hope my path has done just that.”

Gery Guy 06PH 10G was honored at the beginning of his career with a 2014 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), which recognizes outstanding potential for leadership in the years and decades ahead of their independent research careers. And to think, he almost was a dentist. With big plans to get graduate degrees in public health before dental school, Dr. Guy’s focus changed when he realized how much he enjoyed research. He began his public health career examining the economic burden faced by cancer survivors and the impact of cancer prevention polices. He has since moved into work addressing the opioid overdose epidemic in the United States, examining opioid prescribing and the impact of policies and interventions on reducing opioid overdoses. His advice for students wanting to follow in his footsteps? “Capitalize on everything that Emory has to offer,” says Guy.

At Jackson Healthcare, Matthew Harrison 04C does what you might expect a human resources professional to do: employee relations, performance management, succession planning, and compensation benchmarking, but his passion is diversity and inclusion. In his role, Dr. Harrison created associate network groups. “I've structured them to be a value add for the business, because sometimes these groups are looked at solely as just social outlets for people of color, for women, or for people who may be in the LGBT community, which is great,” says Harrison. “But, I’ve also structured them to highlight the value diversity and inclusion brings to the organization, both from a recruitment and retention perspective for future associates as well as making our company more innovative in the way we think about doing work.” In his classes at The University of Georgia, Harrison focuses on talent development, the art of training and facilitation, and, of course, the importance of diversity and inclusion. He came to Emory with the intention of being an anesthesiologist, but a second year Intro to Psychology class changed his whole trajectory. “The professor talked for just 10 or 15 seconds about the field of industrial/organizational psychology and how it combines the business world and psychology,” says Harrison. “When I heard that, I thought, ‘That just sounds like me.’”

A graduate of the second class of the Emergency Nurse Practitioner (ENP) program at Emory, April Turner Hill’s 05N experience has propelled her to the forefront of the ENP movement. “My time at Emory has been a catalyst for my career,” says Dr. Hill. This fall, she’ll become the program director for the emergency nurse practitioner program at Arizona State University, after years of advocating for and influencing state boards of nursing, national practice standards, and corporate policies. “Emory prepared me to pioneer the ENP role at Arizona State University, within my own hospital and the physician group I work for,” says Hill. “I have a legitimate seat at the table because of my Emory degree.” She loves the high excitement, the variety of the work days, and the team atmosphere of the emergency department. She is excited to help train the next generation of ENPs with the ASU program.

The first black, LGBTQ+ person ordained as a priest in the Episcopal diocese of Atlanta, Kim Jackson 09T has served as the chaplain at Absalom Jones Episcopal Center and Chapel at the Atlanta University Center, which serves the students and faculty of Clark Atlanta, Morehouse, Morris Brown and Spelman. Serving now as the Interim Vicar at the Church of the Common Ground, Episcopal church, Jackson co-creates Church with people who are unhoused in downtown Atlanta. Common Ground is a church without walls that intentionally strives to build community and care for the spiritual needs of people who live on the streets and under bridges. Recently announcing her candidacy for the Georgia State Senate, of passing legislation that makes Georgia a cleaner, healthier, and more just Georgia, Jackson doesn’t believe political life is disconnected from her work as a minister citing a clear intersection between faith and justice. “Jesus came and exemplified the importance of creating major change in the world through addressing issues like hunger and sickness and trying to dismantle the structures that oppress people,” says Jackson. “So to follow in the way of Jesus, I feel called to address these issues and to dismantle systems of oppression.”

His family taught him the value of education. Growing up poor without a high school diploma, Mark Johnson’s 06C grandfather worked to provide his family with a better life. “All the opportunities I had growing up were because of him,” says Johnson. “He said the effort you put into your education really determines what you will be doing for the next 40 or 50 years of your life and the kind of work you will have the opportunity to do.”

Now balancing a successful legal career with work for educational reform in North Carolina, Johnson has put his grandfather’s advice to the test. Immediately after graduating from Emory, he joined Teach for America Corps and served in West Charlotte High School in Charlotte, NC, a neighborhood struggling with systemic poverty. It was there that Johnson learned first-hand the struggles many students and teachers face every day. When his stint was completed, Johnson went to law school and began his practice, but always had his eye on education. When a school board position came open he ran, and won, and became the elected leader of one of the largest school districts in the state. A few years later, he ran and won the position of NC Superintendent of Public Instruction and during his tenure, helped to raise North Carolina teacher salaries from 41st in the nation to 29th and, second in the South. He found money to send reading supplies and technology to every elementary school and is working to raise the profile of the teaching profession. And never think that a vote doesn’t count. In the first election for Winston-Salem School Board, more than 100,000 votes were cast. Johnson won by 300.

During Harshita Mruthinti Kamath's 04C 12G undergraduate experience at Emory, one of her favorite professors put the idea of academic study into her mind. Although she had finished all the requirements for medical school, she decided to pursue a degree in religious studies instead. “I realized that I loved the engagement of a college classroom,” says Dr. Kamath, who went on to pursue her Master’s in Theological Studies at Harvard Divinity School and Ph.D. at Emory University’s Graduate Division of Religion. Dr. Kamath is now the Visweswara Rao and Sita Koppaka Assistant Professor in Telugu Culture, Literature and History at Emory University's Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies. Funded through the Koppaka Family Foundation, the Koppaka Professorship is the only endowed chair in the South Indian language of Telugu in the United States. Born in Hyderabad, India and inspired by her own background as the child of South Asian immigrants, Dr. Kamath’s research and teaching focuses on Telugu literature and performance. She has recently published a book, Impersonations: The Artifice of Brahmin Masculinity in South Indian Dance (University of California Press, 2019) on the South Indian dance form of Kuchipudi. An award winning professor, Dr. Kamath also advocates for and connects with other women of color scholars. “It’s important for women of color to be active voices in the academy,” says Kamath. “Emory is a great place to do that, while also pursuing research and teaching to further the field.”

Just a few weeks after the events of September 11, Heval Kelli 15MR and his family arrived in the small town of Clarkston, Georgia. More than six years before, the Kurdish refugees left their home in Syria and spent six years in a German refugee camp before heading to the United States. Kelli’s father, once a prominent Syrian lawyer, was injured, so Kelli took on the burden of taking care of the family. Every day, the 18-year-old would work on learning English and the American culture, then walk six miles to his job washing dishes at a Mediterranean restaurant right across the street from the Emory campus.

During the next decade, Kelli graduated high school, college, and medical school—and found himself back, just one block from that very same Mediterranean restaurant, but this time as a cardiologist at the Emory School of Medicine. Kelli pursued cardiology, with a research focus on prevention, including access to food and the impact of poverty on cardiovascular disease. “I stood in the back washing the dishes for the salads and thought, one day I will be at that school,” says Kelli and as he moved forward in his life and career, Kelli has been thinking about the American Dream. “People tell me that I am proof of the American Dream, but I tell everyone my American Dream is recreating the dream for everyone else who wants it.” Thus Kelli found himself back in the town where his American Dream began and that is where the Young Physicians’ Initiative (YPI) was born, with the goal of mentoring refugee high school students and inspiring them to go into medicine. He partnered with Emory, recruited medical students to mentor, and created a premedical after school program for high schoolers. The program has exploded. What began as one class in one after school meeting in one high school has expanded to four high schools and four colleges and it continues on. There is an ancient saying among Kurds, "Whoever taught you an alphabet, you owe them a book,” says Kelli. “America and fellow Americans believed and invested in people like me and it is my duty to give back and serve my country, America.”

The Fourth Estate is a passion for Suzanne Kianpour 07Ox 09C. “We give a voice to the voiceless,” says the lauded BBC journalist. “Information is incredibly powerful and that power is the reason why it is regulated in authoritarian regimes.” Now based in Washington, DC, Kianpour's reporting has taken her around the world to over 50 countries, and she's spent long term assignments covering the Middle East. With Beirut as a home base, she reported from across the region during the time period that the Gaza War broke out, ISIS was making advances in Iraq and Syria, and suicide bombs were not uncommon. Saying it made her a better and better-rounded journalist, she advises young and aspiring journalists to go somewhere and pick a specialty. “The more difficult to get to, the better,” says Kianpour.

While the information about the documentary she is working on right now is confidential, since her career began, she has been nominated for an Emmy and built her career up through several major news outlets. Also, she’s been a firsthand witness and scribe to history. She was in the press corps for the 2016 Clinton campaign, including on election night, covered the first official U.S. Delegation to Cuba, and she missed her own 27th birthday party because she was in Geneva with then Secretary of State, John Kerry, during the Iran Nuclear negotiations, witnessing diplomatic history. Not bad for a woman who didn’t get into Emory’s Journalism School.

An international relations major, she did get to take a news reporting and writing class as well as a class in news video in the school. Concentrating on conflict and security in the Middle East and war theory, the major has served her well. As a result she advises students to find an area of expertise, along with the basics in journalism. Crediting her academic experience at Emory for informing a lot in her career, she often shares that she didn’t get into the journalism school. “It’s an important lesson,” says Kianpour. “Just because one person rejects you doesn’t mean that’s it.”

Prominent in both worlds of sports and law, Sydnee Mack 15L launched her career in sports business as a competitive golfer. Picking up her first club at the age of 5, Mack played at the highest levels of athletic competition in Women’s Golf, playing 3 years as a member of the Tiger Woods’ national team and eventually earning a full-ride to college on a golf scholarship at Hampton University. During law school, she parlayed her golf connections into internships at the American Junior Golf Association, the PGA Tour, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and the Atlanta Hawks.

Referring to herself as a “millennial lawyer,” the 29-year-old is redefining how sports figures and small business owners view the word “attorney” and maintains a variety of social media pages designed to encourage followers to follow their dreams and get serious about their businesses. In addition to the impressive golf career, Sydnee is the founder of Sydnee Mack Attorney at Law LLC, a boutique law firm in Atlanta that specializes in helping small businesses and sports businesses navigate the legal challenges of starting and running a business. She is also founder of Formally, an online business form and contract template shop for small business owners and entrepreneurs. In addition to her entrepreneurial pursuits, Mack has also published a book, 10 Steps to StartUP, which became a #1 new release on Amazon for the first two weeks of its release. Finally, Sydnee is an adjunct law professor at Georgia State University, with a focus on helping law students understand the business and legal aspects of sports.

Whether it was serving as president of his college fraternity or co-founding and becoming the first editor-in-chief of a new law journal during his time at Emory Law School, leadership has always been a way of life for Christian Miele 14L. It's not surprising at all, then, that immediately after his graduation from Emory, he put off taking the bar exam to successfully run for an open seat in the Maryland House of Delegates. During his tenure in the House, Miele was responsible for passing major animal welfare legislation, a veterans’ jobs bill to promote the hiring of unemployed military veterans, and legislation to reform medical malpractice insurance laws to better protect Maryland patients and consumers. After his term ended, Governor Larry Hogan appointed Miele to his current post as deputy secretary for the state's Department of Disabilities. The youngest deputy cabinet secretary in the Hogan Administration, Miele manages the legislative portfolio for the department and leads its policy team. Miele says his experience at Emory was instrumental in preparing him to become a public servant, lawyer, and government leader. “The faculty and administration went above and beyond to support my goals, both inside and outside the classroom," he said. "They were truly invested in my future and inspired me to dream big dreams."

The idea that individuals are driven either by their left brain (logical) or right brain (creative) is completely against Samyukta Mullangi’s 10C sensibilities. This has been true from the start, as she pursued both the humanities by way of a creative writing major, and the sciences through a biology major during her time at Emory University. Now, she is a physician and health policy researcher at Weill Cornell Medicine / New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, studying technology adoption and the growth of innovation ecosystems in large health care systems. One of her major projects is in understanding and evaluating telemedicine’s offerings in health care delivery systems. That includes all levels, from remote monitoring via Apple Watch, video conferencing with far-off physicians or even a primary care doctor uploading a patient’s information to send off for a second opinion. Comparing it to the first days of banking digital apps, when there was a distinction between “banking” and “online banking” which has evolved into just “banking,” she believes telemedicine is not far behind. “In healthcare there's still this huge distinction between being face-to-face with your physician in the hospital, and everything else,” says Mullangi. “But in order to make the system sustainable for the future, we need to be just as comfortable with other types of care.”

She also serves as the director of the health policy program at Weill Cornell Medical College, and academic director for Cornell’s Executive MBA-MS in healthcare leadership, where she introduces students both to salient concepts in the academic literature and novel innovation in private industry. Most recently, Mullangi edited and published The Soul of a Patient, a collection of essays by her classmates at Harvard Medical School detailing their experiences taking care of patients during their very first year of school.

“It’s been a slow process of evolving to this point,” says Mullangi, acknowledging the diversity of her work products. Emory was the perfect place for her 18-year-old self with its nurturing environment, supportive faculty and academically challenging coursework. Noting the difference between her college studies and her professional life, Mullangi adds that “being a liberal arts person at Emory helped me grow into a thinker, who can read broadly, look at different concepts, and marry them together.”

After gaining experience in the corporate world, at Office Depot and then as an exec at retail giant Amazon, Fahim Naim 05B decided to go out on his own. He had managed one of Amazon's largest P&Ls, growing it nearly 50% despite a flat retail market for his categories. While he was rising in the ranks and enjoyed what he was doing, he decided it was time to test the waters and go out on his own. After leaving Amazon and unsure of exactly what he wanted to do, he launched both a live dating app and an e-commerce consulting business.

As both ventures became more and more successful, Naim found himself at a crossroads. “Was I going to raise money and fully invest into the dating app, which was a fun project but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to dedicate 100% of my time to, or should I embrace that I enjoyed consulting a little bit more?” says Naim. “So, I decided to double down on the consulting and built eShopportunity, what I deemed is the McKinsey of Amazon Consulting”

In just a few short years, Naim has established himself as a leading expert on Amazon and his startup has empowered hundreds of brands to succeed. Now he’s a regular keynote speaker at leading conferences, is a go-to source for major publications needing insight into Amazon, and brands from Fortune 500s to Kickstarter hopefuls seek out his expertise. “I enjoy the high-risk/high-reward atmosphere,” says Naim. “Every year we've been able to continue to scale our business and impact, and I love living at the intersection of retail and high tech.”

Saying there is no “secret sauce” to his success, Naim believes it’s all about focusing all your energy and full attention to your goal. “When I go home and I'm not working, playing with my kids, or sleeping, I'm reading articles about e-commerce and looking for ways to improve our offering,” says Naim. “Emory inspired that kind of all or nothing mentality, and the network/connections I made at Emory have been invaluable.”

During his undergraduate years at Emory prepping for law school with degrees in History and Music Performance, Alex Page 08C worked for the Department of Music booking gigs for his fellow musicians at weddings and parties. It was in this job that Alex ended up meeting an up-and-coming musician named Janelle Monae. She had just signed with Bad Boy Records in the preceding weeks and had contacted Alex to hire an orchestra for her first full length studio album, as well as develop a hip-hop ballet alongside Big Boi and John McFall of the Atlanta Ballet.

However, the logistics and cost were far beyond the scope of the project; ultimately, well over a million dollars. Fearing that the prohibitive cost might risk the opportunity to work with Janelle, Alex made a last minute pitch to keep the project alive: “I’ve played and recorded with bands for years, and I play multiple string instruments. Let me over-dub myself on the recording and save you a million dollars.”

Talking about that moment now, Alex recalls that “it’s the most cringeworthy thing I have ever said in my life”. Now, that cringeworthy moment has turned into a decade-long partnership with Janelle Monae, one of the most innovative and popular artists in modern times. Four albums, an upcoming movie, multiple Grammy nominations including Album of the Year, worldwide tours, and performing with Bruno Mars, Katy Perry, Prince, and Stevie Wonder (just to name a few), Alex has no regrets of bucking the family tradition of practicing law.

Along the way, Alex has worked as for CourtTV, which he helped rebrand into In Session at HLN and eventually landed at CNN, developing new programming and on-air talent. From there he became a TV censor for Conan and other programming on tbs, TNT, and truTV, editing out all the bits not appropriate for cable. Now, Alex leads the marketing initiatives for CONAN on tbs, as well as other shows produced by Steve Carrell, Lorne Michaels, Greg Garcia, Michael Showalter, and Nasim Pedrad.

With a daughter expected this fall with his wife Meghan (also an 08C Emory grad, whom he met in his freshman orientation group), Page’s touring days are behind him—at least for the time being. “Atlanta is kind of a hub right now,” says Page. “In the next year, I'll have some records with Rick Ross, Jeezy, and Penny & Sparrow. I’m also working on a Bieber song, fingers crossed, and some songs with John Legend and Lil Wayne.”

In addition to his work in television and music, Alex also runs a small design studio in Atlanta, Tonewood Design, which specializes in custom furniture, lighting, and home goods found in numerous restaurants and stores throughout Atlanta.

Just a few years ago, as President Obama was leaving office, NPR released his official summer playlist. “At the top of the list was one of the first songs I recorded with Janelle,” says Page. “It was a moment of realization that ‘[the President] hypes himself up and disconnects from being the leader of the free world with a song that I recorded.’ It’s been a wild ride.” To say the least.

With a past full of Cuban ancestors who were all self-starters, Héctor Pagés 06B believes that his sales and marketing skills and entrepreneurial spirit are naturally in his blood. “People wonder if being a self starter is nature or nurture, if you're born with it or learn it,” says Pagés. “I was born with it.” The community leader and start up expert, based out of Charleston, has tied much of his career to the social impact space, most recently helping launch a charitable fundraising platform GoodCoin and their non-profit arm The GoodCoin Foundation 501(c)(3).

Pagés, who grew up in Puerto Rico, found himself pondering the abundance of American schools there were to choose from when his mom insisted he give a serious look at the “Harvard of the South.” Emory has been a major force in his life ever since, both professionally and personally. “I entered Emory with an interest in business and eagerness to find my exact career path, I left with a wonderful impression of its people and values as well as clear opportunities for my own growth,” says Pagés. A few years into his schooling, as he sat in an investment banking class, he was distraught. His initial plan was to go into that very field, as finance was one if his interests, but he was barely hanging on in the course. In that same semester, he made the best grade in a class covering Entrepreneurship and Go-To-Market Strategy, and that is where he found his passion. While still serving as an advisor and board member to multiple startups within the tech space, Pagés works as the consulting practice lead for Cognizant's Banking and Financial Service Advisory unit advising financial institutions on how to partner and work with startups and fintechs.

A few years ago, he and his wife found themselves in love with Charleston and decided to move. When they settled in, they decided to look towards the Emory community for some familiar connections and found there was no organized chapter. So Pagés took it upon himself and launched one, inviting area alumni personally one by one and serving as the initial chapter president. Throughout his career and business endeavors, Pagés has had a goal of helping clarify the strategy and purpose for each business or experience that he has touched. Finally business trends are catching up to what Pagés has been doing all along. Social enterprise and purpose-driven brands, brands that want to “do good while doing well,” are the emerging trends. “Whether they are doing that at their inception like Aspiration Financial,” says Pagés, “or if they are doing that 50 years later, like MasterCard, it’s never too late to find your purpose.”

Other than a brief sojourn working for the National Institute of Health immediately after graduation, Ateet Patel 04C 09M 17FM spent almost two decades on Emory’s campus beginning with his first undergraduate year. In between those years, Patel completed his medical residency at UCSF and his cardiology fellowship at Northwestern. In 2015 he returned to Emory for his interventional and strucutral fellowships. Now Patel serves on staff as a cardiologist of interventional cardiology at Wellstar Interventional Cardiology. "Every day is different between monitoring valve work, performing cardiac procedures, or manning shifts in general cardiology."

Patel says that he landed on cardiology because it is fascinating from a physiology standpoint with a mix of interesting diagnostic and procedures. “A lot of what we take for granted in cardiology these days was pioneered at Emory,” says Patel mentioning the work of Dr. Andreas Gruentzig, a German born physician recruited by Emory in the early 1980s. “The history and lore of Emory cardiology is well-known, and some big names in the field are associated with the department. Emory has always had a unique place in the cardiology world.” Even with a thriving practice and a newborn daughter, Patel makes time for Emory, serving on the alumni board of the medical school and on the Emory Alpha Tau Omega Board of Trustees, coming to campus every month or so. Though medicine is his professional choice, Patel says he could find happiness and satisfaction in politics, economics, and finance, even earning his MBA while on a cardiology fellowship. “I don’t think of healthcare and healthcare finances as separate things,” says Patel. “Right now I am more focused on the clinic, but there is innovation and technology happening. Venture capital development and healthcare business are dovetailing.” What advice does he have for an aspiring med student? “Take the bare minimum you need to go to med school and find something that interests you,” says Patel, suggesting a class on Greek history or travel abroad. “Rethink the traditional path to med school. The unconventional path will still make you an amazing doctor, just a bit more well-rounded.”

Though she has retaken her job in the Washington, DC office of the Solicitor General, Elizabeth Prelogar 02C recently spent almost two years on detail, working on what is colloquially known as The Mueller Investigation, the Special Counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and the possibility of obstruction of justice offenses by the current presidential administration. Prohibited from commenting on the investigation, Prelogar studied Russian language at Emory and began her law career by clerking for Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan, as well as one-time nominee Merrick Garland.

With a spot on the Emory Wheel editorial staff, Prelogar thought she might be a journalist and write about the law, but law school changed that. “I was one of those people who had such a fantastic experience in law school,” says Prelogar. “I loved every aspect of it and it really whet my appetite for the practice of law.” Her Russian studies beginning as her major at Emory continued on with an intensive and immersive summer during undergrad and a year in St. Petersburg, Russia on a Fulbright Scholarship to study media and censorship.

The three time Miss Idaho (Teen, USA, and America), Prelogar used her winnings to pay for educational expenses, including Harvard Law School, not covered by the Emory University Scholar Program or the Bobby Jones Scholarship in St. Andrews, Scotland. “The Scholar Program really opened up possibilities for me and when I visited I just fell in love with the school and the people,” says Prelogar. “My time at Emory really fortified my love of learning which remains a theme in my current career.”

Recently, Prelogar has gone back to the practice of appellate law, preparing for her seventh argument in front of the Supreme Court on October 7. “After I finished my clerkships, I was drawn to appellate law and wanted to have the experience of crafting the legal arguments and standing up in court and presenting them," she says. After a few years in a private law firm, she joined the Solicitor General’s office to represent the federal government’s interests, where she has been for more than five years.

“In appellate law, you’re a generalist,” says Prelogar. “You are a specialist in the practice of appellate law, so every day for me is different in that I'm learning about a different industry or digging into a different statute or trying to figure out a different constitutional principle. And, it's thrilling.”

At Emory, Christopher Richardson 03C was a member of both the College Republicans and the Young Democrats, and served as President of the student body. “I joined as many different groups as possible, even ones that didn’t necessarily agree with my own beliefs, because I wanted to learn.” Those are the experiences that led him to his work as an attorney, then the State Department and a highly decorated diplomatic service career in Nigeria, Nicaragua, Pakistan, and Spain.

In early 2019, when the current presidential administration tried to invoke a sweeping travel ban, Richardson resigned his post. “When I was with the State Department, I was primarily involved in immigration rules and procedures,” he says. “Basically I was tasked with enforcing the travel ban, but ethically and morally I just couldn't do it.” So he left, but not before writing an affidavit against the ban, which was cited by the Supreme Court by Justice Stevens and Justice Breyer on the Supreme Court.

He returned to Atlanta and has resumed practicing law with a focus on immigration counsel and reform, including pro bono cases representing unaccompanied minors and advising non-profit groups. He is currently in the process of launching an immigration consulting company with some of his former colleagues who also left their posts at about the same time, for the same reasons, albeit with slightly quieter exits.

Richardson’s path has been guided by his moral compass and quest to use his life well. In his last years of high school, Richardson survived a particularly vicious form of cancer. When the chemotherapy was finished and the cancer was gone, he thought, “What am going to do with this life?” Then he got to Emory where he found “an incredibly wide variety of people and experiences all lending it itself to innovative thinking,” says Richardson. “Emory helped shape what I was going to do with this survival.”

What can you do if you want to get involved with immigration issues? Richardson says “First, learn. Read about what’s going on in your country and what’s being done in your name as an American. Second, look for groups to help. Find refugee organizations and offer your assistance. Third, witness. Go to immigration court to watch what is going on and see detention centers for yourself.”

If Arezoo Risman 08Ox 10C hadn’t run into the counselors from Rollins on that particular day as they were creating a presentation for potential students, her career trajectory could have been so much different. But on that one summer afternoon as she was reading books on public health in the Emory Career Center library, Risman walked over to the counselors, warmly introduced herself, and said, “You know, I am interested in public health, too.” Originally of Iranian descent and a first-generation immigrant, Risman, a one-time pre-med student who turned her sights to psychology and unofficially minored in global health, saw public health as an opportunity to apply skills from all those science classes.

Within 24 hours, Risman was meeting with a counselor from Rollins who helped shape her resume. Just a few days later, she was interviewing at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). From then on, other than a few weeks to study at the Sorbonne Business School, she’s been on staff at the CDC, working and going to school full time through a Master’s in Public Health and a Master’s in Business Administration. What began as an internship position in CDC’s National Center for Emerging Zoonotic and Infectious Diseases helping write press releases and talking points, became so much more. Over the years as Risman earned her graduate degrees, she continued her work in communications, moving into the CDC Newsroom handling international press and major media outlets. As the speed of news ramped up, so did the need for readily available information. Risman and a few colleagues set up CDC digital press kits for the agency, which serves as a media one-stop-shop for talking points, quotes, multimedia, and other resources a reporter would need on a tight deadline. These kits resulted in an exponential increase in CDC press coverage in volume, spreading important public health prevention messages worldwide. Now the office lead for internal emergency communications in her current position within the Office of the Chief Operating Officer, Risman is one to thank for keeping staff safe and protected in the event of a life-threatening emergency or operational issue across CDC’s metro-Atlanta campuses. On call 24/7, 365, Risman is dedicated to keeping CDC staff safe and in the know through multiple communications outlets. As a millennial, Risman also knows how critical it is to get news instantly; which was her driving force in establishing CDC Emergency Alert with her colleagues, CDC’s first mass text-message notification system in metro-Atlanta.

Not content to leave her education within CDC walls, Risman is also a co-author and founder of a children’s book series, Helping Kids Heal. Targeted to young children and their concerned adults, this book series hopes to be the conversation starter between children and concerned adults who want to help their child recover from various kinds of trauma, such as racism, immigration, or a parent’s PTSD. Each book dives deep into a different trauma topic. A combination of semi-autobiographical stories and scriptotherapy journaling resources, Risman’s first published book was “Sometimes People Treat Newcomers Badly: How to Talk to Kids about Immigrants and Refugees.” Risman is currently working on her second book, set to be published in 2020.

Risman considers Emory one of the best decisions she’s made both personally and professionally. After working very hard in high school as an International Baccalaureate graduate, Risman was the first in her family to go to college in America so she had to teach herself the ways and apply to schools and scholarships all on her own. The universe, however, noticed her determination and kindhearted spirit. If her Green Card hadn’t come in time after submitting her Emory application, she would have been considered an international student at a prohibitive price. But it did arrive in time. A few years later as she began her first position as a student at the CDC in the height of the Recession, one of the requirements to be converted into a full-time employee was to be a U.S. citizen. She was sworn in as a U.S. citizen just days before her internship ended and she was converted into a full-time employee. “Everything just worked out,” says Risman with a smile. “I believed I could, continued to pay things forward by spreading positivity and kindness everywhere I went, and never gave up. The universe always knows best, I'm a firm believer.”

For Ryan Roche 03Ox 05C, Emory was the place where he discovered who he was through the personal growth and development that happened on campus. “It transformed me into who I am today and allowed me to evolve in such a way to lead me to my professional career here at Oxford and successful engagements within the LGBTQ and human rights space where my passions lie,” says Roche.

Between his time at Oxford and Emory, with the exception of a few years in graduate school, once Roche stepped foot on the Oxford campus, he never left. Coming out in his senior year radically expanded his friend group and world view, and a graduate school internship with Georgia Equality cemented his identity and his passion for LGBTQ and human rights. That experience propelled him to get more engaged, volunteering with Atlanta Pride and joining the board of directors, while concurrently working with the Human Right Campaign in roles ranging from national leadership to chairing the annual fundraiser bringing in more than $100,000 in one night. “We focus on every individual who might come our way because that's how we create a safe space,” says Roche. “If we can't create a safe space for ourselves, how are we going to hold each other's hands and move this process for equal rights forward?”

In his professional work at Oxford and Emory, Roche focused mainly on the first-year student experience, spending a decade in Residence Life. But now as he serves in development and fundraising, Roche describes his position as a facilitator. “When you hear from a development officer, often the first reaction is ‘Well, they’re going to ask me for money,’ and of course that is the final goal, but once we engage, I’m not doing all the talking,” says Roche. “Through our conversation, I get to see someone fall in love again with Oxford and Emory, sharing the stories of people who love this place and why it's so unique.”

In India, sourcing clean water and avoiding mosquito-borne diseases are daily challenges. Every day Rohini Swamy 12C works to alleviate the challenges that mosquito-borne diseases cause the Godrej community. Starting her career in her family’s business, Swamy worked to produce and expand the market of Livinguard, a permanent disinfector, to low-income households and schools, where the availability of clean drinking water was a luxury only few could afford. Through strong ground-level partnerships, she introduced low cost water filters to these target groups to reduce the burden of water-borne diseases and promote healthier lives. With applications as far-ranging as industrial laundry, performance apparel, surface disinfection, water purification, and sanitation , the Livinguard-treated textiles inactivate microorganisms while remaining gentle and safe for humans and the environment.

In her current role as the deputy general manager of Godrej Consumer Products Limited, Swamy leads their malaria prevention and control program, EMBED (Elimination of Mosquito Borne Endemic Diseases).By employing a shared value approach to program implementation, she hopes to prove that building awareness around personal protection strategies against mosquitos and gaining insights from vulnerable population groups, can both improve mosquito repellent product penetration and innovation for those who need it the most. As a start, those efforts resulted in a Porter Prize for Creating Shared Value for the EMBED program and their line of “Good and Green” products, specifically, 'Fast Card'—a low-cost, paper-based insecticide for its role in protecting vulnerable population groups from mosquito borne diseases.

During her personal time, Swamy is a leader in the Mumbai Chapter of Emory Alumni, plays tennis, and works with children and sports in her hometown. She is an avid supporter of Magic Bus, a community service organization that works with street children in Mumbai to enhance life skills. Because of these personal interests, her next idea is to marry sports with global health. “In remote and rural parts of India, so many children play cricket or football, but don't have the opportunity to play these sports competitively due to lack of access, coaching, training, and nutrition,” says Swamy. “Through public health programs, we could not only improve health outcomes of young children but also provide a platform for a potential career in competitive sports.”

Like a kid in a beer store, Adam Teeter 05C gets giddy when he talks about his work. The CEO and co-founder (with fellow Emory alumnus Joshua Malin 05C) of VinePair, the leading site focusing on wine, beer, and spirits, Teeter loves what he does. In just five years, with the help of venture capital funding, the start-up is profitable, and more than five million unique readers come to the site every month to learn about alcoholic drinks while delving into the worlds of culture, business, and politics.

After graduating from Emory University, Teeter worked in the non-profit, music business, and media worlds for ten years, all with the goal of creating and promoting cultural programs for the next generation. This eventually led him to get his MBA where the initial sparks developed for the media company that would become VinePair. In 2015, Teeter began to teach a course in digital media at Columbia's School of Journalism based on his successes with VinePair and with the growth of the media company Tablet Magazine.

With a deep understanding of the markets, VinePair is currently a three-pronged company with revenue coming in through advertising, commerce, and a predictive data product that allows the alcohol industry and investors to understand and market and consumer interest. In the coming months, they will also be going “retro” with a print publication. Their audience is about 70 percent consumers with the remaining self-identified as working in hospitality, hotel, or the beverage industry, and almost 80 percent are GenX or Millennials.

Teeter recalls his first experience with the hospitality industry. “It was my sophomore year at Emory and I went to work on the Sweetwater packaging line,” he says, adding that by the time he graduated, the Atlanta-based brewery was sponsoring his house parties. VinePair is a cultural entryway and intended to be accessible to the younger generations who have embraced it. “We want to talk about gender issues,” says Teeter. “We want to highlight underserved communities, all through the lens of drinks as a way to open people's minds and perceptions to what's going on in the world.”

“It’s also lots of fun,” says Teeter, adding he was sitting in a conference room in his office in Manhattan and was about to join one of the wine directors to taste fifty rosé wines. And every day is different. “We come at things from a really accessible perspective,” says Teeter. “And then we get to throw really fun parties.”

Working seven days on and seven days off as a hospitalist in Central Florida, Dr. Onameyore Utuama 10PH on her off days “gets bored” and the world is better for it. When she is working on staff at the hospital, she walks the halls, managing patients with her colleagues, whether on the floors or the emergency room, putting her medical degree to work. When she is “off” on the alternate weeks, she pulls out her Rollins degree and dives into the world of public health, volunteering her free time.

Utuama, along with tending to her clinical knowledge also values mentoring, academic writing, and research. A former fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, she has written chapters in a textbook for family medicine providers, through an opportunity during her family medicine residency at Morehouse. In this role, for the past five years, she has served as a lead author of the Dyspnea algorithm, part of the Wolters Kluwer 5-Minute Clinical Consult, which explains what to do when a patient is experiencing shortness of breath.

Though thousands of miles away from her home country of Nigeria, Utuama keeps in close contact with physicians still there and globally via a Facebook networking group she created. “Clinical cases can occasionally be challenging if one has little to no specialist help within the vicinity, but there are hundreds of thousands of Nigerian doctors of different specialties worldwide and awake at different times of the day,” she says. The thousand-member-strong group has discussed disease outbreaks, difficult medical cases, specialists, and connects for employment or research opportunities.

She wants her life to be more rewarding than just having a medical and public health degree, through volunteering/mentoring in her free time. Saying the most impactful lesson she learned from Emory is that “In life, networking is key,” Utuama works to apply that mantra in all she does. Mentoring Rollins graduate students yearly since 2014, Utuama advises on a variety of subjects, including career guidance, education, and job opportunities, a role she is eternally grateful for.

“Think of the movie you’ve always wanted to see but never have, and then write it yourself." Jeremy David White 07Ox 09C always knew he wanted to be a filmmaker. His time on the Oxford and Atlanta campuses at Emory affirmed White’s passion for writing and journalism. Following graduation, he produced an award-winning anthology docu-series: 'VICE World of Sports.' While working on the show, White added shorts films to his portfolio. “Sometimes it feels like I’m juggling 10-20 projects at once,” says White. His three award-winning films, 'The First Hope,’ ‘Enhanced,' and 'The Modern Age,' are testaments to the diversity of his portfolio, but also the clarity of his voice.

After making his documentary debut with VICE, White was Co-Executive Producer/ Showrunner of Season 2 of the docu-series 'Sole Origins,' a series of stories about sneaker culture around the world. While he's currently at work writing and producing a new feature documentary alongside his former VICE collaborators, White is next poised to direct his narrative feature film debut based on his original script—a movie he’s always wanted to see but never has.

White attributes much of his success to Emory. Surrounded by individuals that challenged his intellect, creativity and talent, White says his four years there were an invaluable part of his development as a filmmaker.

“Going to medical school is something that isn't considered a possibility where I grew up, let alone going to medical school at one of the best universities in the world,” says Williams. The Jacksonville, Florida native joined the United States Air Force immediately following high school graduation. He then graduated summa cum laude from college and entered Emory’s School of Medicine.

Crediting his success to time management, Williams was awarded Resident of the Year for three consecutive years, and, in his senior year, was voted to serve as the Academic Chief Resident. Now, Dr. Williams, the Founder of Interventional Orthopedics of Atlanta, is transforming orthopedic care as a leader in the field of regenerative medicine, publishing nine papers with the National Institutes of Health. In addition to his love for medicine, he is also passionate about health, fitness, and his family. He is writing a textbook on Interventional Orthopedics and is a best selling author on Amazon for his book Exercise 2.0.”

When Sindy Wilson 10MBA first got into consulting, she saw it as “a man’s world” and acted accordingly, with “very direct communication and no emotions, and just stereotypically making sure I had a big presence.” After a while, she shifted. “You have to be authentic to who you are,” says Wilson. “Understand who the person is across the table and connect on a human level.” She admits it was a tough lesson to learn, especially when she was the only woman in the room. “There were times when the mansplaining would happen, and I would just think, ‘I am pretty sure I just said that,’” says Wilson.

While those days are not completely over, they are few and far between these days. In her current role at a construction company with the responsibility of leading significant business transformation, she’s one of the senior leaders in the room. “When you are blazing a trail as one of the few women in an environment, you want to live the ideals,” says Wilson. “You have to understand that you are teaching some of the people around you.” As part of that teaching, Wilson also looked to the women around her for inspiration and models of success and progression within their own careers. “I saw how they worked tirelessly, engaging others in their thinking and decision-making,” says Wilson “It was this learning experience that continued my growth and helped me be extremely successful on the corporate side.”

While she credits Emory for giving her the tools to learn, the network to open doors, and the background to form a successful career, she also gives back, by founding a Career Exploration Day to teach girls, up to the age of 16, about careers in business. And, as part of Executive Women of Goizueta, she helped to establish an award to honor champions of diversity. Wilson believes it’s important to look at where working women in the United States are in history. Women in the era of Wilson’s mother’s age would go to work then leave the workforce when their children were born. For the first time in history, the majority of working women who have children go back to work. “Having a network can teach you and help you balance your work, your struggles, and your needs, and it’s important to help the young women who are entering into this era of history,” says Wilson.

Were it not for the financial crisis in 2008, Taos Wynn 06Ox 09C and his Perfect Love Foundation may never have impacted more than 6000 lives in the past 18 months alone. In fact, Wynn’s philanthropic plans and future may have been greatly thwarted by his original intent to pursue a career on Wall Street; a decision he still contemplated with the financial markets crashing nearly six months before his graduation in 2009.

Wynn, a longtime investor with no formal training purchased his first share of stock in Middle School after casually reading about Warren Buffet in his free time. Wynn’s choice to enter the stock market followed a decision to invest what little monies he had managed to save rather than spending it. Opposed to buying the latest pair of Air Jordan, a request Wynn would frequently make to remain what he calls “academically fashionable”—he instead asked his parents for the same amount of money to instead purchase one share of stock in Nike. After that, slowly and steadily, he built up his portfolio one share at a time. When he graduated college, Wynn was able to pay for and fully furnish his first apartment using an E*Trade account resulting from the stocks he had accumulated since seventh grade.

But as he graduated from college, thoughts of Wall Street and other financial prospects were drying up. As classmates were having their job offers rescinded, Wynn took time off pursuing a secondary passion of music and later joining mission trips to both Haiti and India. While there, the combination of devastation and poverty coupled with his parents’ prior influence of giving back to the community made him reconsider his path in life. When he arrived back in Atlanta, he and a small group of friends gathered in his family’s kitchen with a few loaves of bread, some cold cuts, and a few cases of water. Wynn and his friends used the food items to prepare sack lunches that they would then serve to unsheltered men and women throughout Atlanta. Wynn continued similar efforts of distributing food, blankets and clothing to undeserved citizens. Then in 2013, after filing for non-profit status Wynn officially launched the Perfect Love Foundation. “Originally we just wanted to love people and do good in the community,” says Wynn, a 2017 Millennial of the Year and recipient of the Outstanding Georgia Citizen Award. “Now that intent to do good has evolved into much more including the ability to equip the next generation of leaders and making generational impact.”

The Perfect Love Foundation still distributes meals and resources to those in need, but efforts have expanded exponentially, with an especially strong emphasis on advocacy and education. Under Wynn’s leadership the foundation has recently chosen to focus on catering to the needs of Georgia homeless students. The organization has also focused on providing Title 1 Middle School students with an opportunity to develop their leadership skills through Leading Hope, a program designed by Wynn to promote educational excellence and empower student leaders for community and generational change. Wynn commented on the program stating, “Our goal is to disrupt the cycles of poverty, insecurity, and limited exposure for our students and we are more than proud of the work they are continuing to do.”

Wynn’s plans are now set on a national scale. Through his foundation’s programmatic solutions for students and his organized advocacy efforts promoting unity and love, Wynn continues to strive for greater impact. Whether on panels, speaking engagements or in routine conversation, Wynn seeks to bring people together for meaningful change, reminding us at every turn, of his core principles that, “Everyone matters; everyone deserves respect; and everyone can make a difference.”