This is a regular feature in our print newsletter, IMPACT. We often have more good news to report than we have room for in print, however, so we’re posting the full list of alumni updates here. These items appeared in the Fall 2019 issue.
Rebecca Baas ‘17 is a senior operations analyst at the Center for Child Health and Policy, Rainbow Babies, and Children’s Hospital, in Cleveland, OH.
Samantha Bauer ’18 is community education coordinator for the Town of Chapel Hill’s Public Works Stormwater Management Division.
Elizabeth Self Biser ’17 is vice president for public affairs at The Recycling Partnership in Raleigh, NC.
Ann Bowen ’08 is assistant director of donor relations at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, VA.
Patricia Bradley ‘16 is assistant vice president at the Office of Inclusion and Institutional Equity of Towson University in MD.
Jane Brasier ‘80 is vice president for Business Development at Clark Nexsen in Raleigh.
Kevin Bryant ‘09 is principal at Edgility Consulting in New York City.
Cheryl Bryant-Shanks ‘82 is chief human resources officer at Guilford Technical Community College in Jamestown, NC.
Maria Chiochios ‘16 is assistant librarian at the University of Texas at Austin.
Brittany Clark ‘15 works for Dude Solutions in Cary, NC.
Philip Cordero ‘15 is administrator for the Town of Youngsville, NC.
Carla Davis-Castro ‘14 is research librarian for the Congressional Research Service in Washington, DC.
Alison Rae Dean ‘02 is volunteer coordinator at Audio-Reader at the University of Kansas.
Max Dickson ‘19 is assistant professor of military science at the University of Kentucky’s U.S. Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps in Lexington.
Lawrence DiRe ‘99 is the manager of the Town of Cape Charles, VA.
Nicholas Dula ‘06 is a program development administrator for the City of Raleigh’s Housing and Neighborhoods Department.
Benjamin Durant ‘88 is senior policy advisor for the Office of the President at Guilford College in Greensboro, NC.
Sabrina Willard Ferguson ’17 is a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Los Angeles Division.
Joshua Fernandez ‘19 is a budget analyst in the Alamance County Finance Department in Graham, NC.
Lena Geraghty ‘15 is director for innovation and performance management for the City of Portland, ME.
Matthew Gladdek ’12 is executive director of the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership.
Deborah Goldberg ’02 is a management analyst for the Office of Management and Budget of Mecklenburg County, NC.
William Hagerty ‘17 is an airport operations specialist at Paine Field- Snohomish County Airport in Everett, WA.
Anna Hawksworth ’18 is a budget analyst for the Town of Chapel Hill.
Laura Hogshead ‘00 is chief operating officer at the North Carolina Department of Public Safety’s Office of Recovery and Resiliency in Raleigh.
Katherine Hughes ’16 is emergency management coordinator for Guilford County Emergency Services.
Matthew Hughes ‘18 is accounting and human resources manager with Forward Cities in Durham, NC.
Allison Hutchins ’13 is an organizational development manager for the Town of Cary.
Jason Hyatt ‘18 is director of York County Library in NC.
Jennifer Jones ‘02 is a business support specialist for customer experience at Colorado Springs Utilities in CO.
Ashley Kazouh ’19 is a policy analyst at Public School Forum of North Carolina in Raleigh.
Minal Khan ’12 is PFAS program assistant at the UNC-Chapel Hill Gillings School of Public Health Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering.
Kelly Kleinkort ’15 is director of corporate engagement at Catalyst Inc., in Houston, TX.
Mira Kline ‘07 is a consular affairs associate for the U.S. Department of State in Tel Aviv, Israel.
James Klingler ‘19 is finance chief at the North Carolina Department of Public Safety’s Office of Recovery and Resiliency in Raleigh.
Erin Schwie Langston ‘03 is executive director of strategic initiatives at Academic Benchmarking Consortium in Chapel Hill.
Lee Anne Lawrence ‘18 is an attorney at the North Carolina Department of Public Safety’s Office of Recovery and Resiliency in Raleigh.
Henrietta Locklear ‘02 is vice president at Raftelis Financial Consultants in Memphis, TN.
Claire Long ’12 is an employee/labor relations specialist at National Institutes of Health in Research Triangle Park, NC; she also married Nick Haynes.
Gregory Mavraganis ‘07 is a solution strategist at Cerner Corporation in Malvern, PA.
Peggy Merriss ‘82 is principal at Merriss Management and Leadership Consulting in Decatur, GA.
Barron Monroe ‘09 is manager of Anson County, NC.
Tara Nattress ’18 is an associate at Fountain Works in Raleigh.
Caley Trujillo Patten ‘16 is a business analyst for the Gwinnett County Office of Strategy and Performance in GA.
Ebony Perkins ’13 is manager of investor and community relations at Self-Help in Durham.
Corey Petersohn ‘16 is a budget and management analyst for the Town of Holly Springs, NC.
Joseph Pierce ‘18 is assistant manager of Iredell County, NC.
Camilla Posthill ’18 is grant and administrative and communications coordinator for the National Farmers Union in Washington, DC.
Justin Powell ‘01 is deputy secretary for finance and administration with the South Carolina Department of Transportation.
Timothy Reavis ‘13 is assistant planning director for the City of Little Rock, AK.
Ryan Regan ’14 is director of business and economic development for the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce in NC.
Catherine Renbarger ‘08 is manager at Withers Ravenel in Cary.
Timothy Shober ‘19 is community engagement and outreach coordinator at Latino Community Credit Union in Durham.
Audrey Shore ’16 is membership manager at the Carolina Theatre in Durham.
Jessie Springer ‘04 is Medicaid technology and business operations unit manager at the Wyoming Department of Health.
Fagan Stackhouse ‘71 is director of human resources for the City of Raleigh.
Emily Stallings ’19 is development associate at Carolina Small Business Development Fund in Raleigh.
Charles Stevens ‘16 is program manager of Amazon’s Global Pathways Program in Seattle, WA.
Ivette Tapia ‘17 is a data analyst and consultant at Arkatecture in Portland, ME.
Katherine Thompson ‘15 is executive director at South Enotah Child Advocacy Center in Cleveland, GA.
Dustin Tripp ’15 is assistant manager for the Town of Knightdale, NC.
Brian Underhill ‘01 is chief legislative analyst for the Florida Senate’s Appropriations Subcommittee on Education.
Tanya Walton ‘05 is access and success initiatives manager for the UNC System Office’s Division of Strategy and Policy in NC.
Paige Waltz ’16 is digital director for the Office of Senator Mitt Romney in Washington, DC.
Kent Wyatt ‘02 is communications manager for the City of Tigard, OR.
This story was written by Kathryn Paquet and appeared in the Summer 2020 edition of the iMPAct Alumni Newsletter
For Carolina MPA students, the professional work experience (PWE) offers an opportunity to gain hands-on experience in the government or nonprofit sectors. Since enrolling in the program, MPA online student Adrienne Augustus ’20 knew she wanted to intern with a nonprofit—she just didn’t realize it would be her own.
In the fall of 2019, Augustus fulfilled her PWE requirement by founding A Beautiful Mind Foundation, a 501(c)(3) grantmaking organization based in Hyattsville, Maryland, that aims to fund mental healthcare initiatives in communities of color.
She came up with the idea for the organization early on in her graduate school career, when she interviewed a few individuals who had started their own private foundation.
“I wanted to create my own organization because I didn’t want to be constrained by pre-established operating structures that didn’t wholly align with my beliefs and goals,” Augustus said. Originally, however, she aimed to achieve this goal after obtaining her MPA.
“I thought I would be working full-time for another organization and be able to set up this nonprofit and run it on the side,” she said. But a time crunch to find a PWE led her to a pivotal conversation with Susan Austin, former Carolina MPA associate director of alumni relations and professional work experience.
“Susan talked with me about my career goals,” Augustus said. “She really listened to my personal and professional needs. I told her I planned to start the foundation after I graduated, but she looked at my situation and thought way outside of the box. She said, ‘Well, why don’t you use your PWE to start the foundation?’”
“At first I thought, ‘What is she talking about?’” Augustus continued. “Now I say, thank God for Susan and her thoughtful wisdom. She could have tried to force me into a role that didn’t fit my years of work experience and long-term goals, but instead she created a wonderful opportunity for me.”
The mission of A Beautiful Mind Foundation is twofold: first, to affect positive change in mental health treatment in racially diverse communities; and second, to narrow the prison pipeline by helping people of color identify the early symptoms of mental illness before they lead to a crisis
The organization’s work is close to Augustus. Around age 11, she began dealing with depression, despite not receiving the diagnosis until a decade later.
“I had to get myself help in my early 20s, because my family didn’t understand,” she explained. As she sought treatment for herself, Augustus began to realize how deep the stigma surrounding mental illness ran in her community.
During her young adult years, Augustus lost two close friends, both young African American men, to struggles with mental illness. These losses, coupled with her own experiences, underscored to her that while mental illness affects individuals across demographic lines, it presents unique struggles for people of color. If they successfully navigate past the stigma to receive the help they need, Augustus said, they often face a second challenge: finding practitioners who understand their experiences.
“It was not easy finding a therapist who looked like me,” she explained. “And it’s not because I have to go to a black female, but because my experience with depression includes living as a black female.”
For these reasons, improving cultural competency in mental healthcare is a central tenet of the foundation.
“African Americans are more likely to be diagnosed with a severe mental illness than their white counterparts with similar symptoms, and part of it is because of how we express ourselves,” Augustus said. “There are distinct cultural differences in the ways people talk about how they’re feeling.”
By disbursing grants to qualifying groups and organizations, A Beautiful Mind Foundation hopes to help fund mental health initiatives within communities of color that will both encourage open conversation about mental health and steer individuals in need toward effective treatment options.
The organization launched its inaugural grant-making cycle in late April. By the end of June 2020, A Beautiful Mind awarded 20 organizations across the country grants totaling $22,300. In July 2020, the organization will receive its first corporate grant of $10,000.
The organization is currently offering four grants, two of which are especially meaningful to Augustus: Friends of Jelani and Ruth’s House.
Friends of Jelani is named for Augustus’ childhood friend Jelani, who died at age 24 during a struggle with police in the midst of a manic episode. The grant is designed to fund programming for men of color aged 25 and younger battling mental illness. Ruth’s House was created in honor of Augustus’ late grandmother and will provide funding for religious groups to implement mental health programming for people of color.
Although Augustus believes that no one should deliberately plan to start a nonprofit while completing a master’s degree—“Why would you do that on purpose?,” she exclaimed—she acknowledged that, without founding it to fulfill her PWE requirement, A Beautiful Mind Foundation may not exist today.
Augustus hopes that the organization will be able to help individuals like herself, her friend Jelani, and her grandmother Ruth, who have the power to fight but need support to do it.
“When we have certain segments that are impacted by mental illness and they’re not being adequately treated, we lose a huge part of our population that could be positively engaged in their communities,” Augustus explained. “There could be fewer people in prison, fewer people out on the street. We could have a better and happier society.”