bigcitysmalltown with Bob Rivard

This week’s guest is Meredith Walker, executive director of the Texas Business Hall of Fame, a position she has held for nearly seven years. The TBHF was founded in 1982 to celebrate the state’s most successful and community-minded business leaders. Bottom line success is not enough for someone to gain entry. Philanthropy, giving back, and community engagement are essential factors in each year’s...

In this very special episode of bigcitysmalltown, we share a panel recorded live in front of an audience at Texas Public Radio for CityFest San Antonio 2024.  Host Bob Rivard moderated a panel of city leaders discussing how San Antonio's downtown has navigated the past decade and what's ahead. The panel included Veronica Salazar of UTSA, David Robinson, Jr. of Weston Urban, Trish DeBerry...

This week’s guest is JC Clapsaddle, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and medical administration officer with a background in Pentagon assignments involving human rights and humanitarian efforts. Listen as JC discusses his multiple missions to aid Ukraine in its defense against Valdimir Putin and Russia, whose forces invaded Ukraine in 2022, eight years after that country’s invasion and occupation...

This week’s guest is Jessica Conrad, a San Antonio realtor, Air Force veteran, and now, the emcee of the semi-annual PechaKucha creative presentations, the latest edition of which was recently staged at the Carver Cultural Center. Listen as Jessica discusses how she works to help first-time home buyers and others find their dream homes in San Antonio.   

This week’s guest is Grant Pinkerton, the man, the chef, the impresario behind Pinkerton’s BBQ, located right in the heart of downtown San Antonio on Legacy Park across from Frost Tower. Listen as Grant discusses his choice to expand to San Antonio instead of Austin, how he got started in BBQ, and more.    

This week’s guest is Dr. Lisa Campos, the Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics and Athletic Director, at the University of Texas at San Antonio, a position she has held since Nov. 17, 2017. Listen as she discusses the extraordinary growth of UTSA Athletics since 2017 and looks forward to what's ahead.  

This week’s guests are part of the bigcitysmalltown family. First, Monika Maeckle, founder of the San Antonio Monarch Butterfly and Pollinator Festival, and the author of the newly released book, “The Monarch Butterfly Migration, Its Rise and Fall,” published in August by the University of Oklahoma Press; and Ashley Bird, who now serves as the festival’s director in its 9th year and also is the fo...

This week’s guest is Ray Cantu, founder of a company called SIMMIE that until recently was known as ColdCALR. By either name Cantu, the consummate salesman, says his company is revolutionizing the world of sales with what he describes as an “AI-powered platform designed to train sales professionals faster, smarter, and more effectively.”   

This week we welcome a returning guest: Trish DeBerry, CEO and president of Centro San Antonio, the nonprofit organization dedicated to building and maintaining a better downtown for locals, businesses and visitors. Trish was a bigcitysmalltown guest last December, and in this episode she offers an update on exciting projects  on the drawing board, including the relocation of the San Antonio Missi...

Have you heard of NukuDo, the cybersecurity training program located at Geekdom? Today’s guest is Michael Blair, an entrepreneur and NukuDo’s Managing Director. NukuDo pays its enrolled students $4,000 a month during their half year or so of training. Blair is joined by Jose Herrera, a member of NukuDo's first cohort.  Listen as we discuss how NukuDo came to be, and how their training program...

This week’s guests are Vicki Yuan, an architect with Lake/Flato, and Libby Morris, a leader in  San Antonio’s design community and the principal of Morris Design. Vicki and Libby are with us to talk about their roles as leading organizers of PechaKucha San Antonio, the local chapter of a global entertainment and education stage production that was started by two Tokyo-based architects in 2003. The...

This week’s guest is Dawn White-Fosdick, the longtime president and CEO of Christian Assistance Ministry, widely known as CAM, which serves both the city's homeless as well as families who have housing but are experiencing crisis in their lives. For the month of August, the Wade Richmond Foundation is matching every dollar raised up to $100,000, so now is a great time to learn how you can hel...

This week’s guest is Krissy Salinas, the director of Let’s Go Texas, a nonprofit that helps people with disabilities in South Texas and the San Antonio metro area find gainful employment. Let’s Go Texas partners with the Texas Workforce Vocational Programs, and also has launched innovative programs in area public high schools where Krissy and her team work with students with disabilities to prepar...

This week’s guests are Naphtali Bryant, the Childcare Scholarship Coordinator at United Way of San Antonio, and Raylynn Hampton, a United Way Scholarship recipient. Raylynn is a 27-year-old student pursuing an online undergraduate degree in education at Southern New Hampshire University with the goal of becoming a teacher and starting her own nonprofit. While she pursues that degree, she is workin...

This week’s guest is Lea Rosenauer, president and CEO of Girls Inc. of San Antonio, an affiliate of the national Girls Incorporated organization that was established locally 20 years ago this November. Its mission is to inspire all girls ages 6-18 to be strong, smart, and bold, and to overcome barriers that prohibit them from achieving their personal, educational, and career goals.

This week’s guests are San Antonio artist Kathy Sosa and Antonio Arelle Barquet, the director of the Museum of Art in Queretaro, a city of more than 1 million people in Central Mexico and a UNESCO World Heritage site celebrated for its Historic Monument Zone. Kathy Sosa, together with her husband and fellow artist Lionel Sosa, have embarked on an exciting project that will bring new attention in M...

This week’s guest is George Hernandez, who retires as the longtime CEO of the University Health System, officially known as the Bexar County Hospital District, the only locally owned hospital and outpatient clinic network. Hernandez has led the district for 19 years, a period time that saw remarkable growth in both facilities and services beyond the south Texas Medical Center. 

This week's guest is Mario Lopez, a wounded warrior who served deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan. He survived critical injuries from a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, which brought him to The Burn Center at the San Antonio Military Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston. After years of surgeries and recuperation, Mario has gone on to write a book about his experiences, and he is a self-taugh...

This week’s guests are Erika Borrego, the CEO of Corazón Ministries, and her colleague Brittney Ackerson, the Day Center Director and recovering addict who experienced homelessness in her own life before finding her way back to good health and a purpose-driven life. Their work serving the hardcore homeless population in San Antonio is transforming lives.   Listener discretion is advised; this epis...

This week’s guest is Victor Reyna, vice president for business banking at Amegy Bank in San Antonio, who also serves as president of the Asociación de Empresarios Mexicanos in San Antonio. AEM, or The US – MX Business Association, as it is known in English,  helps Mexican business professionals achieve success in the United States, and assists U.S. citizens interested in doing business in Mexico....

Belinda Román, Ph. D., is an Associate Professor of Economics at St. Mary’s University. Locally, Dr. Román is also Secretary/Treasurer of the San Antonio Business and Economics Society, and has conducted impact studies for the SABÉR Research Institute, an economic development think tank dedicated to researching regional economies and their development, with a focus on assisting the San Antonio His...

How did the South Texas Medical Center become San Antonio's leading smart jobs engine over the last 25 years? This week’s guest is Jim Reed, the recently retired longtime chief executive of the San Antonio Medical Foundation, which led that extraordinary growth in the medical, health care and biscoences sectors. During his tenure managing the development of hundreds of acres to the growing me...

This week’s guest is Mary Thorsby, the CEO of the nonprofit ABODE, whose mantra is contemplative care for the dying. ABODE operates end-of-life care in a single home on San Antonio’s near-Northside, caring for terminally ill individuals in the last weeks and months of life. It’s one of only three such programs in Texas.  As it prepares to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its founding, listen as w...

This week, two perspectives on innovation in San Antonio. We revisit our conversations with Jenna Saucedo-Herrera of Greater: SATX as she discusses how San Antonio is winning on workforce development, and Emily Royall of Smart Cities San Antonio on how her team is using data to improve the quality of life for San Antonians.    Listen in full to both conversations:  Jenna Saucedo-Herrera's epi...

We have Garrett T. Capps in the studio this week with guest hosts Kory Cook of KRTU 91.7 and Nicholas Frank of the San Antonio Report. Garrett T. Capps tours internationally with his band, Nasa Country, and has been a longtime curator of unique musical events in our city. Listen as we discuss how Capps has created space for other touring musicians at the bar he co-owns, The Lonesome Rose, how they...