Hart & Hustle Podcast

Jamie Merrill — President & CEO of Boys & Girls Club of Central Florida — walked across her college graduation stage six months pregnant, on Medicaid, living paycheck to paycheck. Today she leads 15,500 kids across 40 clubs in five counties and was just named Orlando Magazine's Woman of the Year. In this conversation, you'll learn: ✅ How Jamie built a leadership identity rooted in calling...

Chris Thomas, VP for Student Affairs at West Texas A&M University, shares how he built a culture of mentorship, belonging, and authentic leadership — sustaining 26 years of mission-driven service without burning out. In this conversation, you'll learn: ✅ How the internal vs. external locus of control framework develops accountable, resilient teams ✅ Why authentic leadership — not programs or...

Katie Condon, VP of Enrollment Management at Eastern Michigan University, shares how a first-generation college student with no family roadmap climbed from temp admissions counselor to vice president — and built a division focused on access, belonging, and saying yes to students others overlook. In this conversation, you'll learn: ✅ How to advocate for yourself so leaders can actually coach and s...

Meaghan Arena, VP of Enrollment Management at the University of Southern Maine, shares how she grew enrollment year-over-year while institutions nationally are losing ground — and the leadership philosophy that made it possible. In this conversation, you'll learn: ✅ How to build a culture where frontline staff drive strategic improvement — not just leadership ✅ Why meeting people where they are...

Pete Vernig, VP of Mental Health Services at Recovery Centers of America,  breaks down how his team maintains a unified clinical culture across 12  inpatient programs and 14 outpatient locations — and what every mission  leader can learn about scaling care without losing their soul. In this conversation, you'll learn: ✅ How RCA built a unified clinical model across 8 states — and what it     took...

David Barron, VP of Enrollment Management at the University of Texas at Tyler, has spent 26 years doing what every mission-driven leader is trying to figure out: how do you reach the people who need you most, remove the barriers standing between them and opportunity, and scale that impact — without unlimited resources? In this conversation, you'll learn: ✅ How a peer mentor model expanded from 4...

Is your institution — or organization — measuring the wrong definition of success? Dean Kahler, enrollment leader at the University of Idaho, has spent his career challenging one uncomfortable truth: most institutions celebrate outcomes they should be ashamed of. In this episode of the Hart & Hustle Podcast, Dean joins Efrain Lozada for a  candid conversation about what it actually takes to le...

What if the key to retaining your best people wasn't a better benefits package — but whether they feel truly seen? Javier Flores has spent 30+ years in higher education investing in students others overlooked. As VP of Enrollment Management at Texas Woman's University, he's built a people-first philosophy that nonprofit HR and People Ops leaders need to hear. In this conversation, you'll learn: ✅...

David Harris, CEO of Pro-PT Physical Therapy, built a 20-clinic healthcare organization across California's Central Valley — and he'll tell you the growth almost never happened. In this conversation, David shares the leadership philosophy, communication systems, and people-first culture that took him from PT technician to CEO across a 27-year career — including the moment he almost walked away fro...

VP of Marketing at a nonprofit that didn't believe in marketing — here's what he built. Christopher Lloyd is the Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Aspire Indiana Health, one of Indiana's largest nonprofit health systems serving 40,000+ patients annually across behavioral health, primary care, addiction recovery, housing, and crisis services. But when Christopher joined in 2019, the...

Dennis Carradin has been on the ground at 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, Sandy Hook, and post-Columbine for 30 years — as a trauma therapist specializing in first responders and healthcare workers. In this conversation, he shares how a single encounter at a Dunkin' Donuts after Sandy Hook became the foundation of the Trauma Survivors Foundation: a national network now spanning 41 states, 2,800 trained t...

Dianna Huddleston, VP of Community Partnerships at Aspire Indiana Health, breaks down how their organization serves 40,000 clients across 8 clinics—offering primary care, behavioral health, pharmacy, housing, and employment services all under one roof. In this conversation, you'll learn: ✅ How Aspire's "no wrong door" same-day access model works in practice ✅ Why they opened pharmacies inside th...

Stephanie Vranich, VP of Outreach & Development at Volunteers of America Florida, breaks down how a $30M nonprofit serving 5,000+ Floridians each year raises funds, tells impact stories that actually move donors, and navigates the uncertainty of federal funding cuts—without losing momentum. In this conversation, you'll learn: ✅ Why direct mail still drives donations (and how to make it imposs...

🔗 Connect with October: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/october 🏥 Central Health: centralhealth.net Community Care Clinic: communitycare.texas.org October Ambrose went from certified nursing assistant to System VP of People Partnerships & Engagement at Central Health — the Travis County Hospital District serving uninsured and underinsured residents across Central Texas. In this convers...

Najla Wortham started at Rock Creek Foundation in 2007 as an employment consultant — boots on the ground, carving out jobs for individuals with disabilities. Eighteen years later, she's the President and CEO, making her the first African American woman to lead the organization in its 52-year history. In this conversation, Najla breaks down exactly how Rock Creek builds leaders from within, how she...

Chrystina Russell flew from Burundi to tell us what nonprofit leaders need to hear right now: how Village Health Works absorbed a $1.4 million USAID funding gap — and didn't blink. In this conversation, you'll learn: ✅ How mission-driven organizations survive sudden federal funding cuts ✅ Why love alone isn't enough — you need love AND skill to serve vulnerable communities ✅ What leading from a...

Josh Goldberg, CEO of Boulder Crest Foundation, shares his journey from corporate executive to suicidal crisis to leading an organization that served 43,000 people last year through post-traumatic growth programs. In this raw conversation, you'll learn: ✅ The exact moment Josh realized he'd built "a false existence" despite external success ✅ How helping others became the path out of his own sui...

What happens when a clinical mental health professional trades direct patient care for executive leadership—and discovers she can make an even bigger impact? In this powerful conversation, Caitlin Summers-Motta, VP of Business Development at First Children's Services, reveals the raw truth about mission-driven leadership in behavioral health. In This Episode: Why waking up at 5:30 AM became Caitli...

Kevin Martone, President and CEO of Bay Cove Human Services, shares what he's learned leading a mental health organization serving 25,000 people annually with 2,000 employees and a $190 million budget—from navigating federal funding cuts to changing how communities think about mental illness. In this conversation, you'll learn: ✅ How to scale mental health services from 300 to 25,000 people witho...

Meredith Johnston from Family Health Centers of San Diego shares how her organization serves over 230,000 individuals annually through innovative community health solutions—from street medicine teams partnering with police to mobile mammography units reaching underserved neighborhoods. In this conversation, you'll learn: ✅ How to build nonprofit culture that prioritizes authenticity and mission o...

Liz Matthews from Covenant House Alaska shares how leading with a "staff-first" philosophy allows her team to serve over 1,200 homeless youth annually—and why treating your staff as your primary client changes everything. As Director of Housing overseeing five programs across Anchorage, Liz has learned that sustainable impact starts with taking care of your team. In this conversation, she breaks d...

Dr. Patrick McGrath reveals the massive misconceptions about OCD and how one chance meeting at a conference led him to help thousands escape years of suffering. In this powerful conversation, the Chief Clinical Officer of NOCD shares how OCD actually works, why saying "I'm so OCD" minimizes a devastating condition, and how technology is finally making evidence-based treatment accessible to million...

From Homeless at 20 to Leading Chicago's Largest Youth Homeless Organization In this powerful episode, Efrain sits down with Jose M. Muñoz, CEO of La Casa Norte, who shares his remarkable journey from experiencing homelessness as a young father to leading an organization that serves over 20,000 people annually across Chicago.

Ann Marie Cook, President & CEO of Lifespan of Greater Rochester, reveals why America's aging population crisis is bigger than most people realize, and what needs to change now. In this powerful conversation, Ann Marie shares insights from leading a $22 million organization serving older adults for nearly three decades. She discusses the uncomfortable truth about elder abuse, the explosion of...

Foster care alumni to nonprofit CEO leading 16,000 lives toward healing. In this powerful episode, Efrain sits down with Merideth Rose, President and CEO of Cornerstones of Care, to discuss her transformation from a foster kid expelled from school to a leader revolutionizing trauma-informed care across Missouri and Kansas.