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The Iowa Idea: Anne Carter

“It takes work. It takes effort. It takes intentionality.”

In this episode of The Iowa Idea Podcast, I sit down with Anne Harris Carter. Anne has more than twenty-five years of experience in corporate leadership. A graduate of Yale, Anne conceived and created diversity strategy roles at two corporations, including the former May Department Stores. We also discuss her work with Iowa’s Healthiest State initiative, with a focus on the “Make it OK” campaign to reduce the stigma around mental illness, as well as her Bipolar II diagnosis. Anne shares with me her parents’ struggle to buy a home in an all-white Cedar Rapids neighborhood.

I appreciated Anne’s insights on diversity and inclusion, and how we might cultivate more diverse and inclusive teams and organizations.

I really appreciated Anne’s insights. It was an honor to have her on the podcast. Links to Iowa’s Healthiest State’s Make It Ok initiative and more details about the Harris Family can be found in the links in the episode description. I hope you enjoy the episode.

About Anne

Anne Harris Carter has more than twenty-five years of experience in corporate leadership in the retail, banking, and energy sectors. Anne returned to her Iowa hometown, Cedar Rapids, in 2012 and joined Alliant Energy, a Midwest utility with nearly 4000 employees and 1.4 million customers. While at Alliant, she held Director roles in Diversity and Inclusion, Energy Efficiency, and Recruitment, launching a new Diversity, Equity & Inclusion vision in 2020.

A graduate of Yale, Anne conceived and created diversity strategy roles at two corporations, including the former May Department Stores. Prior to serving as Vice President of Diversity at May’s corporate headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri, she held positions in merchandising, stores, and operations, including Vice President of Merchandise Information Systems for the Kaufmann’s operating division, headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Anne is dedicated to community service. She is currently a board member for Orchestra Iowa and Unity Point Health – St. Luke’s Foundation and serves on the Policy Committee for the Creating Safe, Equitable and Thriving (SET) Communities Fund. She has served on the Diversity Committee for the Cedar Rapids Community School District and is a former board member for Waypoint Services. Anne also co-chaired the Leadership and Diversity workgroup for the Madison Region Economic Partnership in Wisconsin and co-chaired the 2017 giving campaign for United Way of East Central Iowa.

Anne plays violin and is exceedingly grateful for her three adult children and granddaughter.

The story of her parents’ search for a place to live and controversy around the property they ultimately purchased begins on page 18.

https://www.unitypoint.org/cedarrapids/article.aspx?id=2bb37e8f-e4d1-4f27-846e-1820c8365f88

Iowa Healthiest State Initiative – Make it Ok: Anne’s Story

http://www.iowahealthieststate.com/blog/make-it-ok/anne-harris-carter-bipolar-type-2-cedar-rapids/

Iowa Healthiest State Initiative – Make it Ok Campaign

http://www.iowahealthieststate.com/resources/individuals/makeitok/

Credits

Episode produce by Spark Consulting Group (www.inspiredbyspark.com) in Iowa City, with support from Executive Podcast Solutions (https://www.executivepodcastsolutions.com/)

The Iowa Idea Podcast music written and performed by Paisley Bible (https://paisleybible.bandcamp.com/).

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The Iowa Idea: Andre Wright

“The foundation of it is creativity and art.”

In this episode of The Iowa Idea Podcast, I sit down with Andre Wright. Andre is a father, husband, creative, fashion activist, author, entrepreneur, and Iowa native. He is the co-founder of Humanize My Hoodie. Along with Jason Sole, the Humanize My Hoodie Movement originated from a demand to end the killing of Black and Indigenous People across the world. Their mission is to debunk stereotypes by designing an elegant and revolutionary campaign for Black and Indigenous People of Color to be HUMANIZED, not criminalized.

Andre and I discuss, his creative journey from Waterloo to creating hip hop comics and the launch of Humanize My Hoodie, and how Andre has embraced creativity throughout his life. We talk about his entrepreneurial approach to developing and scaling Humanize My Hoodie.

I really appreciated Andre’s energy, insight, and helping keep the interview spicy. It was an honor to have him on the show. I’d like to thank Andre for joining me. I hope you enjoy the episode.

About Andre

Andre Wright is an entrepreneur and fashion activist. He has created a number of fashion lines including Born Leaders United (BLU) and Humanize My Hoodie.

Humanize My Ally Workshop: www.humanizemyhoodie.com/allyworkshop

Humanize My Hoodie Documentary: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/hmh

Become an ally by texting Allies to 33777

Credits

Episode produce by Spark Consulting Group (www.inspiredbyspark.com) in Iowa City, with support from Executive Podcast Solutions (https://www.executivepodcastsolutions.com/)

The Iowa Idea Podcast music written and performed by Paisley Bible (https://paisleybible.bandcamp.com/).

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The Iowa Idea: Bob Kasenchak

“In a lot of ways, as soon as you name something and classify it, you’ve ruined it.”

In this, the 25^th episode of The Iowa Idea Podcast, I sit down with Bob Kasenchak, perhaps my favorite taxonomist in the world. Bob is a taxonomist and Senior Manager of Client Solutions at Synaptica, living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. After early training in philosophy and a decade studying and teaching music, Bob spent eight years designing and developing information projects before joining Synaptica in 2019. His current interests include knowledge graphs, gamelan, and soup.

Bob and I discuss the importance of taxonomy and ontology, as they relate to categorizing, organizing, and making sense of the informational world around us. Pushing along the edge of axiology, we talk about the ethics of labeling and categorizing. We also dig into more fun and interesting taxonomy issues such as the categorization and debate of calling hot dog a sandwich. We also try to understand where the hell grocery stores display pine nuts. Finally, we cover humans in the loop, and why the last mile of AI is still a ways away.

I really appreciated Bob’s advice “let the example generate the prose.” It was an honor having Bob on the podcast. I’d like to thank him for joining me. I hope you enjoy the episode.

About Bob

Bob Kasenchak is a taxonomist and Senior Manager of Client Solutions at Synaptica living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. After early training in philosophy and a decade studying and teaching music, Bob spent 8 years designing and developing information projects at a leading taxonomy firm before joining Synaptica in 2019. His current interests include knowledge graphs, gamelan, and soup.

Recent and Upcoming Talks:

• Taxonomy Boot Camp 2019, “Strategies for Scoping Taxonomy Projects”
• Taxonomy Boot Camp London 2019, “I’m a Taxonomist – and So Can You!”
• Text Analytics Forum 2018
• Taxonomy Boot Camp 2018, “Ethics of Naming”
• Taxonomy Boot Camp London 2018, “Is a Hot Dog a Sandwich?”
• SLA 2018: All-day Taxonomy Fundamentals Workshop
• IA Summit 2018: “Is a Hot Dog a Sandwich? The Ethics of Appellomancy”
• Taxonomy Boot Camp 2017: “Taxonomy 101”
• Text Analytics Forum 2017, “Leveraging Text Analytics for Taxonomy Construction”
• Taxonomy Boot Camp London 2017, “Practical Strategies and Techniques for Taxonomy Development”
• ISKO UK 2017, “Beyond Search: Novel Implementations of Taxonomies”
• IA Summit 2017, “Taxonomic Irony”
• NFAIS 2017, “Scholarly Triage: Advances in Peer Review”
• Taxonomy Boot Camp 2016, “Discover Thousands of Terms Using This One Weird Trick!”
• Taxonomy Boot Camp London 2016, “Care and Feeding of Your Controlled Vocabulary”
• SLA 2016, All-day Taxonomy Fundamentals Workshop
• STM 2016, “Text Mining for Term Discovery for Taxonomy Construction”
• Enterprise Data World 2016, “Investing in Semantics”
• Data Harmony User Group 2016, “Linked Data and Taxonomies”
• Taxonomy Boot Camp 2015, “Linked Data Case Study”
• Library of Congress FEDLINK series 2015, “Make Your Thesaurus Smart!”
• Taxonomy Boot Camp 2014, “Taxonomy-Based Disambiguation Processes”
• Taxonomy Boot Camp 2013, “Indexing Images”

Credits

Episode produce by Spark Consulting Group (www.inspiredbyspark.com) in Iowa City, with support from Executive Podcast Solutions (https://www.executivepodcastsolutions.com/)

The Iowa Idea Podcast music written and performed by Paisley Bible (https://paisleybible.bandcamp.com/).

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The Iowa Idea: Chris Bernat

“Let’s make art!”

In this episode of The Iowa Idea Podcast, I sit down with Chris Bernat. Chris is the lead singer and sometimes rhythm guitarist for the bands Tripmaster Monkey and Chrash. Over the past 20-plus years, I’ve been able to catch Tripmaster Monkey – Chris, Jamie Toal, Wes Haas, and Marty Reyhons. They’ve always put on great shows and have been fun guys to hangout with off stage. So, it was a joy to have Chris talk about creativity and collaboration.

Chris and I discuss his journey from high school talent show – saying he had a band, before he had a band; to being signed to a major label, to creating and collaborating and finding joy in creating music and art for over 30 years. We discussed how the music industry has changed along the way and how that impacts the creative process. I appreciated Chris highlighting the power of collaboration as an essential part of the creative process.

It was an honor having Chris on the podcast. I’d like to thank him for joining me.  I hope you enjoy the episode.

About Chris

Lead singer & sometimes rhythm guitarist Chris Bernat took what he gleaned from the 10 years spent in TM — and what equipment he had acquired in the amicable dissolution — and began doing experimental recordings under the ever-changing moniker “Chrash.” His first release, the 1999 EP The Comedian, featured contributions from ex-Monkeys Jamie Toal and Marty Reyhons. During this time, Bernat created a performance art character/mockery, the legendary straw comic (and literally made-of-straw), Fiesta Dummy.

Chrash continued, releasing The Party LP in 2003 (once again featuring Jamie and Marty), with TM bassist Wes Haas co-arranging, producing, and appearing on nearly every track.  Audio Feng Shui followed in 2006 — the first record with the current lineup of Paul Blomquist (The Winter Blanket) on drums and Kim Murray (Darling, The Winter Blanket) on bass.

The band remained prolific, releasing the EP See Through Music* in 2011, and LPs The Name They Change in 2013, Things My Friends Say in 2015, and 2017: The Music on the night of the 2019 Primary Elections.

“I’ve always kept at my pursuit — to write the perfect song and album — while maintaining a full-time sales job. Chrash performs regularly and is always working on new material. It’s an extremely satisfying endeavor of three friends who love to work on and perform weird art rock, but Tripmaster Monkey will always be my first musical romance.”

*The 2011 EP See Through Music, saw Eric Stone (The Multiple Cat) join the lineup on guitars, keys, and backing vocals, a role he reprised on the following release The Name They Change. Eric departed Chrash in 2012, but lent guitar, keyboard, and backing vocals to several TM reunion shows in the ensuing years. He officially joined the TM lineup in the same capacity in early 2018 for My East Is Your West.

Credits

Episode produce by Spark Consulting Group (www.inspiredbyspark.com) in Iowa City, with support from Executive Podcast Solutions (https://www.executivepodcastsolutions.com/)

The Iowa Idea Podcast music written and performed by Paisley Bible (https://paisleybible.bandcamp.com/).