Mission Forward with Carrie Fox

By title, Karen Wawrzaszek is Principal and Senior Director of Financial Planning at Sullivan Bruyette Speros & Blayney (SBSB). But that’s hardly enough to understand what she does and the impact she’s making in the world. Karen is an expert on socially responsible and impact-oriented investing and financial planning. She’s led impact initiatives for two privately-held family offices. She’s th...

It was his experience in the consumer packaged goods industry that taught our guest this week how to channel his empathy. He found it by way of the institution’s appreciation for Design Thinking in product development. “One of the things that you do in design thinking very explicitly is that you obsess over the problem that you’re solving in people’s lives. ... They name that empathy.” For Ryan Pi...

This week, we invite you into a conversation with someone we admire very much who has taught us a lot this year.  Carolyn Lowry is a racial equity professional with a focus on cultural competence facilitation and relationship-building. We’ve crossed paths many times with Carolyn over the years, but it was this year that we got to learn from her up close. Carolyn has an incredible gift for teaching...

Edgar Villanueva is a southerner. He’s a North Carolinian. He was raised in the church. He’s also a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, and as such, was the only Native American in his K-12 education experience.  “When I got to the University of North Carolina, I was so hungry to connect with other native students. I began to understand there that there were things about my world view an...

Since starting the Mission Forward conversation series in 2014, we’ve had the opportunity to interview some amazing folks: Pulitzer Prize-winning writers, MacArthur Genius grantees, media entrepreneurs, and philanthropists. One of our favorite conversations to date has been with Ed Yong and Liz Neeley. It took place in 2018, shortly after Ed wrote a story in the Atlantic titled: “ I Spent Two Year...

Nabiha Syed is the President of The Markup. Just what is The Markup, you ask? If this is your introduction to The Markup, we stand as both disheartened that you’re not already a regular reader, yet delighted that we may serve as your guide by way of this week’s show.  The Markup, an investigative journalism startup that explores how powerful actors use technology to reshape society, which, if you’...

Anand Giridharadas is a writer who walks headlong into the storm of corporate institutional power. His latest book, “Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World,” is a rebuke of the “unelected upper crust” and their efforts to lobby and influence in the face of our public institutions. It is not a particularly rosy portrayal of the function of our institutions. In so writing, however...

Last week, we introduced you to Natalie Burke, founder of CommonHealth ACTION, by way of a three-year-old interview on health equity. Since then, her advocacy has taken many turns and become more incisive, more aware, more focused on the disruptive journey toward equity, diversity, and inclusion. Natalie is back with us today for a conversation that addresses one central question: how does racism...

This week on Mission Forward, we bring you a conversation from 2017 with two guests who boldly challenge assumptions we hold in our everyday lives. They stand unafraid to say the things many of us think, using their words and ideas as waves cresting in and over us, then receding, laying bare our understanding of ourselves and how we relate to the world around us a little more clearly. We start wit...

We’re exploring the work of the Center for Common Ground this week with founding board member, Andrea Miller. When it comes to racial justice and equity, she’s an incredible fighter, a noted leader in Virginia working to turn the tide on compressed voter access, and a firebrand when it comes to elected leaders working against the will of the people of her state. With the Reclaim our Vote campaign,...