Jim Hirschfield

It is with profound sadness that I share the news of the sudden passing of James Hirschfield, Kenan Distinguished Professor of Studio Art – Sculpture, and a member of our faculty since 1988. He was in the final semester of a long and distinguished career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and his loss is felt deeply across our department and our broader community. He passed away on April 21.

Jim joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor in 1988, earned tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in 1994, and was promoted to full Professor in 1998. He served as Chair of the Department of Art and Art History from 2010 to 2017, a period during which his steady leadership shaped the department in lasting ways. In 2011, he was named a Kenan Distinguished Professor, one of the university’s highest honors for faculty excellence.

His scholarly and creative life was rooted in sculpture — not only as a studio practice but as a way of engaging deeply with the world. Jim held a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA from the University of Oregon, and over nearly four decades at UNC, he brought that preparation to bear on generations of students who encountered sculpture through his teaching. His work was recognized by some of the most prestigious funding bodies in the arts, among them the National Endowment for the Arts, the North Carolina Arts Council, the Graham Foundation, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Art Matters, and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Jim’s creative practice extended well beyond the studio. Together with his wife and longtime collaborator, Sonya Ishii, he created public art projects of lasting significance — works ranging from freestanding sculpture to immersive sculptural environments. Their practice was rooted in close attention to site: a search, as they described it, for “an inherent truth that lends itself to becoming visual metaphor.” Their designs engaged viewers first through strong aesthetic presence, and then opened outward into layers of meaning that rewarded sustained attention.

Jim’s commitment to public art reached into the civic life of Chapel Hill as well. He served on the Chapel Hill Public Arts Commission for many years, and his contributions there were foundational. In the words of Steve Wright of the Town of Chapel Hill, Jim and the Commission “were instrumental in the establishment of the Percent for Art Ordinance, and the programs and public art staff that grew into what we have today.” The public art infrastructure he helped build remains part of Chapel Hill’s cultural fabric.

Those who knew Jim as a colleague will remember his reliability, his full engagement with the life of the department, and a quality harder to name but easy to recognize — a genuine curiosity about the world. He traveled widely to see art and hear music. He commuted to campus by bicycle and on foot. These were not incidental facts about him; they were expressions of a person who paid attention, who moved through the world with care and intention.

Jim is survived by his wife and creative partner, Sonya Ishii, and their daughter, Mia Hirschfield, to whom we extend our deepest condolences.

Annette Lawrence

Edna J. Koury Distinguished Professor and Chair

Department of Art and Art History

Funeral arrangements:

Memorial service at Endswell Funeral Home on Tuesday, April 28 at 10 a.m.

Informal gathering at the graveside at Bluestem Conservation Cemetery in Cedar Grove, North Carolina, at 1 p.m.

Hosted by Sonya Ishii and Mia Hirschfield

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Musicologist and John P. Barker Distinguished Professor of Music Mark Katz channels his love for music into initiatives that unite both at UNC-Chapel Hill and around the world. (submitted photo)

When asked what he’s been up to lately, Mark Katz is likely to offer up any number of seemingly unrelated projects. He’s determined to finally publish a coffee table book of photos from his travels. He’s maintaining his sad-furniture Instagram account. He’s had tea with strangers in Taiwan. He’s traveled with hip-hop artists to Uzbekistan or Nigeria.

“It might seem like a random assortment of interests, because it’s not obvious to someone who’s not me how they might connect,” he said.

But the John P. Barker Distinguished Professor of Music traces each of them, as well as his prolific scholarship, innovative programs and varied accolades, back to his love of studying music and technology.

From violins to record scratching, comes hip-hop diplomacy

Katz is a distinguished musicologist, has published several books and numerous articles on music and culture, and has advised a couple dozen doctoral dissertations and master’s theses. He is a trained violinist, but curiosity has led him down unpredictable paths, and to develop unexpected interests.

Today, he is perhaps most widely known for his hip-hop diplomacy.

“At these competitions, people would create these scratch routines, and I was fascinated by that,” he said. “I started doing fieldwork. I would travel to places to observe competitions, I would interview people, I learned to scratch on my own, and that led to teaching classes at Carolina on hip-hop and collaborating with various hip-hop artists.”

In 2013, he launched Next Level, a U.S. Department of State-funded program that sends U.S. hip-hop artists around the world to build community, encourage entrepreneurship and spread American democratic values. Before stepping down as director in 2019, Next Level conducted workshops in 30 countries on six continents — now more than 50 countries — which are of strategic importance to the U.S. government.

“Hip-hop diplomacy is a form of cultural diplomacy… in which nation-states collaborate or communicate or exchange with each other through culture. That can be hip-hop, it could be literature, any number of things,” Katz said.

In addition to showcasing artists’ talents, the program gives participants the opportunity to create art together.

“[Next Level] is a testament to just the power of music… hip-hop doesn’t happen in a vacuum,” said Donovan Livingston, teaching assistant professor of music at UNC-Chapel Hill and Katz’s frequent collaborator. “It’s those habits of democracy that show up when you participate in hip-hop culture that can inform how we move as humans. In a world where we’re compelled to keep our distance and be apart and be individuals, hip-hop turns that idea on its head.”

Cultural diplomacy, according to Katz, is a strategic and critical part of American foreign policy. To make a difference, however, requires people to pay attention.

“It’s really important to connect with young people around the world because they’re the next leaders, they’re the next generation of leaders,” Katz said, marking the 10th anniversary of Next Level in 2024. “To develop good relationships with the young people in a country and to have them think warmly and positively about the U.S. is really helpful for the future because it means having future allies and future friends.”

Cultural diplomacy in everyday life

Katz stepped down as director at Next Level in 2019 to place the project more directly into the hands of hip-hop creators, though he is far from putting hip-hop and cultural diplomacy on the backburner.

More recently, Katz has focused his efforts on the Carolina Prison Music Initiative, a program he launched fall 2025 to bring music lessons to formerly and currently incarcerated individuals at the Orange Correctional Center.

He continues to travel widely, and he always makes sure to bring his camera. He regularly submits photos to the Carolina Global Photography Competition. Several have been selected as finalists. In recent years, he traveled to Japan, for example, and discovered kissas, or listening cafés. A photo he took of Yoshida Masahiro was selected as the UNC Global Affairs spotlight in 2025. In the 2024 exhibition, a photo he took in Nigeria with hip-hop artists was selected as a finalist.

“Multiple times, in different countries, people have just kind of waved me over and asked me who I am, what I’m doing and then say, ‘Would you like some tea?’ and I end up sitting and having tea with people I’ve never met,” Katz said. “There are a lot of friendly, welcoming people all over the world. I like to think that if you just open yourself up to being approachable and friendly, those are the times I feel good about the world.”

This spring, Katz received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar award. He will travel to Korea next year to conduct research.

By Allyson V. Davenport, UNC Global Affairs

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Entwisle joins 252 leaders in academia, the arts, industry, journalism, philanthropy, policy, research and science elected in 2026.

Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences honors excellence and convenes leaders from every field of human endeavor to examine new ideas, address issues of importance to the nation and the world and to work together “to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity and happiness of a free, independent and virtuous people.”

Entwisle is the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Sociology and fellow of the Carolina Population Center. She also holds adjunct and affiliate positions in the geography department and in the environment, energy and ecology program.

Entwisle’s research examines migration processes in relation to the life course, household dynamics, and community contexts. She also leverages linkages between electronic health records and data from the Census Bureau to study population health.

From 2010 to 2016, Entwisle served as the vice chancellor for research at UNC-Chapel Hill, leading the university’s research program. Entwisle has also served as the director and training director of the Carolina Population Center.

“We celebrate the achievement of each new member and the collective breadth and depth of their excellence – this is a fitting commemoration of the nation’s 250th anniversary,” said Academy President Laurie Patton. “The founding of the nation and the Academy are rooted in the inextricable links between a vibrant democracy, the free pursuit of knowledge, and the expansion of the public good.”

Read more about Entwisle and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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From left, history faculty members John Wood Sweet and Andrew Walker recently won prestigious awards.

Two faculty members in the history department have recently been awarded prestigious fellowships in support of their upcoming books.  

Professor John Wood Sweet was named a Guggenheim Fellow by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.  

Sweet is one of 223 individuals selected out of a pool of nearly 5,000 applications to the 101st class of Guggenheim Fellows.The applicants were chosen based on their prior career achievements and exceptional promise.    

The fellowship will support Sweet’s work on his next major book, The Captive’s Tale: Venture Smith and the African Roots of the American Republic. The biography traces the life of Venture Smith from enslavement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade to his emergence as an entrepreneur in early America. By situating Smith’s experiences within the broader histories of commerce, slavery and freedom, the biography illuminates the economic and human dimensions of the 18th century Atlantic world.  

Assistant Professor Andrew Walker has been awarded a highly competitive fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies. Walker is one of 63 scholars who were selected from more than 2,000 applicants.  

The fellowship will support the completion of Walker’s book manuscript, Haitian Santo Domingo: From Emancipation to Separation, 1822-1844. The book tells the story of the Unification of Hispaniola (1822-1844), during which the former Spanish colony of Santo Domingo (modern Dominican Republic) was governed by Haiti. The book reinterprets the unification a far-reaching process of emancipation and nation-building that depended on the active participation of citizens from Santo Domingo, who struggled to give meaning to Haiti’s founding principles of antislavery and racial equality.

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From left, Lindsey Ioos and Grace White go through selected artworks at the Ackland Art Museum’s conservation studio. (photo by Donn Young)

Chemistry major Lindsey Ioos is using portable X-ray fluorescence technology to examine pigments in Japanese artworks in partnership with the Ackland Art Museum and the Research Laboratories of Archaeology.

Senior Lindsey Ioos has enjoyed exploring her passions for both science and art at Carolina.

Lindsey Ioos is working with an interdisciplinary team to examine pigments in artworks using portable X-ray fluorescence technology. (photo by Donn Young)

Ioos, a chemistry major from Raleigh, is also pursuing double minors in art history and classical humanities. Her interdisciplinary studies made the senior chemistry capstone course, Chem 550L: “Chemistry, Conservation and CURE: Pigments and Dyes of Antiquity” all the more appealing. The class, which was created by teaching assistant professor Jade Fostvedt in collaboration with chemistry colleagues Michel Gagné, Kathleen Nevins and Tyler Motley, combines chemistry and conservation with around 70 students synthesizing historical and contemporary pigments for analysis in collaboration with the Ackland Art Museum. (The course was featured on WRAL-TV last spring.)

Gagné, the Mary Ann Smith Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, was Ioos’ instructor for the spring 2026 class and invited her to pursue a parallel independent study project with the Ackland Art Museum. Through a literature review, Ioos discovered the use of portable X-ray fluorescence technology (pXRF) by art conservators — a device that utilizes an X-ray power source to screen for inorganic elements in pigments, metals and ceramics.

Gagné and Carolina geologist Drew Coleman helped Ioos make a connection with the Research Laboratories of Archaeology, which fortunately had a pXRF device she could borrow and the experts who were willing to operate it.

“A lot of the papers that I was reading were using pXRF to supplement the use of infrared photography,” Ioos said. “It’s a quantitative, non-destructive and portable method for examining artworks, so I thought it would be a cool opportunity to use it to analyze pigments.”

Collaboration in the conservation studio

On March 30, Ioos met Grace White, paper conservator at the Ackland Art Museum, along with anthropology doctoral student Regina Lowe and research archaeologist Mary Beth Fitts of the Research Laboratories of Archaeology at the museum’s second floor conservation studio.

Fitts and Lowe used the pXRF device to scan selected artworks. Lowe has used the technology, for instance, to test 18th and 19th century ceramics for her research.

For White, it was the first time using this particular technology in analyzing works on paper at the Ackland.

From left, Linsey Ioos, Grace White, Mary Beth Fitts and Regina Lowe. (photo by Donn Young)

The collaborative team analyzed pigments in a number of artworks, including 19th century Japanese prints that were donated to the chemistry department along with 19th century Japanese and Persian paintings and a 17th century Dutch print from the Ackland’s collection. The colorful artworks were spread across a large table in the studio.

Ioos explained that identifying pigments in paintings can help place them more accurately in a certain time period or region. She added that using the pXRF device allows conservators to examine artworks safely without removing them from a museum.

Ph.D. student Regina Lowe shares how to use the pXRF device. (photo by Donn Young)

“For example, Indian yellow, one of the pigments we examined, was pretty much used around India and Southeast Asia and we found it in a Persian painting, which makes sense,” Ioos said. “You can also examine pigments to find cross-cultural connections. If you look at Japanese prints from the late1850s or 1860s, for example, you start to see aniline dyes, which were the first synthetic dyes and were invented in 1856 in Europe. Their use rises up in Japan because of trade that was happening. The use of pigments is also related to commerce and culture.”

Using a pXRF device can allow conservators to examine artworks safely without removing them from a museum. (photo by Donn Young)

Ioos will present her findings from the art analysis, contributing to the broader knowledge about historical painting techniques and conservation science, at the annual Ackland Symposium on May 1 from 2 to 4 p.m.

“It’s nice to see how UNC supports interdisciplinary work, and it was wonderful that everyone was so willing to collaborate and to help me with my project,” she said.

A career in chemistry, a lifelong love of art

Ioos will graduate in May and will attend The Ohio State University in the fall to pursue a Ph.D. in inorganic materials chemistry. After finishing her doctorate degree, Ioos said she’s leaning toward a research and development chemist job but added that she will always find time to pursue art as a hobby.

Ioos said that her favorite art history class at Carolina focused on ancient Egyptian art and was taught by associate professor Jennifer Gates-Foster in classics.

“Art and art history is a passion of mine, and a way in which I’ve enjoyed life outside of the lab,” she said. “I plan to keep my love of art with me in whatever way I can while I’m navigating graduate school and my career.”

By Kim Spurr, College of Arts and Sciences, photos by Donn Young

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ROTC students, local firefighters, police, UNC student athletes and local community members climb 2,071 steps at Kenan Memorial Stadium. The same number of steps that were in each of the World Trade Center Towers. Sept. 11, 2025. (photo by Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill)

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Army ROTC program has been named a recipient of the prestigious General Douglas MacArthur Award for the fifth time in its history, recognizing it as one of the top ROTC programs in the nation for excellence in leadership, training and overall performance. 

Established in 1989 by the General Douglas MacArthur Foundation in partnership with U.S. Army Cadet Command, the MacArthur Award is a hallmark of excellence within the ROTC community. It honors the top eight programs in the country that best exemplify General MacArthur’s enduring ideals of duty, honor and country. 

“This award is far more than a simple recognition; it is a testament to the unyielding grit, character, and drive of our UNC Army ROTC Cadets,” said Lisa Klekowski, lieutenant colonel and chair of the UNC department of military science. “These men and women don’t just chase excellence—they live it, embodying the ‘Duty-Honor-Country’ ideal in every mission they undertake. While we are humbled to stand among the nation’s premier programs, this honor belongs to our cadets. Their commitment to being elite teammates and selfless community leaders defines our culture. They represent the very best of the United States Army and the enduring standard of excellence at UNC-Chapel Hill. I am immensely proud of these cadets.” 

The award recognizes not only the program’s institutional excellence but also the individual and collective achievements of its cadets across academics, physical fitness, leadership and service. 

“The Army ROTC program is an integral part of the College, and this recognition underscores the extraordinary caliber of our cadets and the faculty and staff who support them,” said Jim White, dean of the UNC College of Arts and Sciences. “The MacArthur Award reflects not only excellence in training and leadership, but also a deep commitment to service, scholarship and community. We are proud to see our students recognized at the highest level and grateful for the role this program plays in preparing principled leaders for the future.” 

The award was formally presented on April 17, 2026, by Major General (Ret.) Joseph Reynes, executive director of the General Douglas MacArthur Foundation. Reynes, a veteran fighter pilot with more than 3,800 flight hours and a distinguished 35-year career in the U.S. Air Force, has held senior leadership roles at the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command, including serving as Senior Air Commander in Iraq. 

“Winning the MacArthur Award is really a testament to the teamwork that is at the heart of the Tar Heel Battalion. Everyone looks to take care of each other- whether that is pushing each other at PT, giving feedback to help someone grow, or being willing to listen when a cadet is having a rough day,” said Oren Rosen, captain and assistant professor of military science. “As a cadre member, it is rewarding to see the hard work of our cadets pay off with this type of recognition. I could not be more proud of how much time and effort the cadets dedicate to improving themselves and their teammates.” 

University Communications and Marketing

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Adam Cook ’00 and Dolly Parton. Cook led the partnership that created the Dolly Parton Children’s Hospital. (Photo by Ash Summerford.)

Even for Dolly Parton, the attention was staggering.

When the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital changed its name to the Dolly Parton Children’s Hospital in February, the announcement debuted on the “Today” show and generated more than 2,000 media stories and 9.4 billion impressions.

Adam Cook ’00 led the work to partner with the country music icon and to promote the name change through a multiplatform communications strategy. Cook, the hospital’s chief development and public affairs officer, earned a bachelor’s degree in communication studies from Carolina.

As a student, Cook delved into interpersonal communication in classes with Patricia Parker, a professor in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences’ communication department and the Ruel W. Tyson Jr. Distinguished Professor of Humanities. He also took organizational communications and debating classes.

“There wasn’t a communications studies class that I didn’t gravitate toward. I enjoyed the technical side of communication — the breakdown between verbal and nonverbal communications, how best to meet someone where they are, instead of trying to pull them into your sphere of influence,” Cook said.

With Parton, he found common ground in her love for children and the region in which she was born and raised when he approached her staff with a partnership proposal. Then he listened to their reaction. He continued listening as more Parton team members became interested. Three years later, the result will continue the hospital’s policy of caring for children, regardless of their race, religion or ability to pay medical bills.

From for-profit to nonprofit

Cook’s professional career began with working in banks during summers between college years. After graduation, Cook took a banking job in Charlotte. “I thought that, as a communications major, I’d take the educational piece, match that with the experience piece I was getting in investment banking and create a super business communicator role.”

He was good at retail banking and investment lending. He began transitioning from a sales role to a management role in which he could persuade, influence and encourage a team to do well.

After three years of work, Adam Cook’s project culminated in one of the most-covered healthcare stories of the year. (Submitted photo)

But he wasn’t completely fulfilled. His wife, Amy, a hospital social worker who often talked about workdays filled with helping people, recognized that he needed to help people in a similar way. She encouraged him to find a job in the same hospital, saying “You need to find a job that fits you.”

“She’s a wise woman,” he said.

Cook applied for an opening in the hospital’s foundation to secure funding for a children’s hospital. Through business relationships and a growing skill set in communication, he contacted two board members and the foundation’s executive director. After a few weeks, he was hired.

“That was fall 2004. I made the career shift from for-profit banking to nonprofit fundraising,” he said.

His boss, Jim Monroe, told Cook that if he followed his guidance, he could possibly succeed him. Cook embraced the mentorship, built relationships and earned fundraising certification, which he renews annually. When Monroe retired in 2009, Cook became foundation director, accelerating his career.

After working in philanthropy and communications at six health care institutions, Cook views his college classes as key to his professional development. But his time at Carolina wasn’t all academics. He cheered on the Tar Heels and rushed Franklin Street after beating Duke. He and friends hit Time-Out for chicken and played intramural sports. As a senior, he became a judge on Carolina’s honor court.

“Remembering what I learned at Chapel Hill, communication really begins with trying to share a message effectively, then finding and aligning values with everyone involved,” Cook said.

By Scott Jared, UNC Communications and Marketing

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(courtesy of Adobe Stock)

Abbie Smith-Ryan, a professor of exercise and sport science in the College of Arts and Sciences, is partnering with U.S. Soccer‘s Kang Women’s Institute on landmark research initiatives designed to transform how female soccer athletes are supported — advancing health, performance and long-term participation in the game.

Smith-Ryan, a professor of exercise physiology and an adjunct associate professor of nutrition, studies the junction between exercise physiology and sports nutrition, with a passion for applying these insights to women’s health. She is the director of the Applied Physiology Laboratory and co-director of the Human Performance Center. Smith-Ryan and her research team translate the latest women’s health research into practical strategies to support women’s well-being.

Abbie Smith-Ryan

In partnership with UNC-Chapel Hill, the Kang Women’s Institute “From Lab to Pitch: Turning Menstrual Cycle & Performance Data into Better Soccer Decisions” is a first-of-its-kind study examining how menstrual cycle tracking can be effectively integrated into real-world performance environments.

Led by globally recognized experts in female physiology — Jessica Freemas, Ph.D., KWI research manager, Georgie Bruinvels, Ph.D., KWI senior director of research, and Abbie Smith-Ryan, Ph.D., KWI adviser and UNC professor — the research will evaluate whether widely used, low-cost, non-invasive tools can accurately identify menstrual cycle phases and inform training, recovery and performance decisions.

“Bridging the gap between research and real-world application is critical,” Smith-Ryan said. “This study is designed to evaluate practical tools that teams are already using combined with lab-based techniques, in order to directly translate and support female health tracking in real time. By establishing evidence-based standards, we can help ensure that menstrual cycle data is used in ways that are accurate, accessible and meaningful for performance, recovery and overall health and well-being of our female athletes.”

In parallel, the Kang Women’s Institute has announced the “Hers to Play – Drop Out Study,” a research initiative led by KWI that focuses on understanding why girls leave soccer and how to keep them in the game.

In collaboration with Biostatistician Carly Brantner, Ph.D., the study will examine key predictors of dropout and retention across age groups, demographics and player pathways, helping to inform targeted, evidence-based interventions and support systems.

Together, these efforts address a critical challenge in the women’s game: girls are leaving soccer at higher rates than boys at predictable developmental stages, yet the underlying causes — ranging from physiological changes to social and structural barriers — remain insufficiently understood, particularly in the United States.

The studies’ findings, along with the Kang Women’s Institute’s Operational best Practice Framework, being led by Dr. Amal Hassan, will inform evidence-based and easy-to-access resources and education that will be available this fall for coaches, administrators and players across all levels of the game.

The Kang Women’s Institute’s work, currently being implemented in the U.S. Soccer Women’s National Team, will draw on these learnings and best practices to support the sport’s entire community. As momentum builds toward the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the Kang Women’s Institute and the Soccer Forward Foundation remain committed to advancing research, innovation and investment that strengthen the future of the women’s game.

Founded in 1913, U.S. Soccer, a nonprofit, is the official governing body of the sport in the United States.

The Kang Women’s Institute, a core initiative of the Soccer Forward Foundation and U.S. Soccer, is focused on advancing research, innovation and education to improve the health, performance and long-term participation of women and girls in soccer.

The Soccer Forward Foundation supports U.S. Soccer’s efforts to expand access to the sport, helping the game reach more people and create lasting change.

Learn more about the new research from U.S. Soccer’s Kang Women’s Institute.

Learn more about Abbie Smith-Ryan.

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Freeman was nominated, reviewed and elected by peers and members of the College of Fellows “for innovative and creative contributions to the supramolecular engineering of biomimetic materials for biosensing and synthetic biology.”

Election to the AIMBE College of Fellows is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to medical and biological engineers, comprised of the top two percent of engineers in these fields. College membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering and medicine research, practice, or education” and to “the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of medical and biological engineering or developing/implementing innovative approaches to bioengineering education.”

Freeman was nominated, reviewed, and elected by peers and members of the College of Fellows “for innovative and creative contributions to the supramolecular engineering of biomimetic materials for biosensing and synthetic biology.”

A formal induction ceremony was held during the AIMBE Annual Event at the Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel in Arlington, Virginia on April 13. Freeman was inducted along with 175 colleagues who make up the AIMBE College of Fellows Class of 2026.

While most AIMBE Fellows hail from the United States, the College of Fellows has inducted Fellows representing more than 35 countries. AIMBE Fellows are employed in academia, industry, clinical practice and government.

AIMBE Fellows are among the most distinguished medical and biological engineers including four Nobel Prize laureates and 27 Presidential Medal of Science and/or Technology and Innovation awardees. Additionally, 248 Fellows have been inducted to the National Academy of Engineering, 120 inducted to the National Academy of Medicine, and 56 inducted to the National Academy of Sciences.

About AIMBE
AIMBE is the authoritative voice and advocate for the value of medical and biological engineering to society. AIMBE’s mission is to recognize excellence, advance public understanding and accelerate medical and biological innovation. No other organization brings together academic, industry, government and scientific societies to form a highly influential community advancing medical and biological engineering. AIMBE’s mission drives advocacy initiatives into action on Capitol Hill and beyond.

Learn more at http://www.aimbe.org.

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“What really defined my time at UNC academically was certainly getting to grapple with hard topics and learning to engage with new perspectives, big ideas and challenging problems,” said Carreker. (Submitted photo)

Carolina alumna Marina Carreker used her artificial intelligence background to help bring leading researchers and industry innovators to Chapel Hill for the inaugural AI for Public Good Conference, held April 13.

Carreker ’03 is co-chair of the conference and founder of Galleon Strategies, an advisory firm helping business leaders navigate AI adoption confidently.

“We’ve seen technology waves come and go, but we’ve never seen anything poised to change so many aspects of our lives all at once, and at such an astonishing pace. People are clamoring for opportunities to make sense of what this means for them,” Carreker said. “This is what Carolina does best: bring together researchers, policymakers, business leaders and students to grapple with these hard, important challenges.”

While widespread AI use is new, lessons learned as a Tar Heel guide Carreker’s approach to her current work.

“So much of how I approach my work today traces back to what I learned at Carolina — how to think critically, how to stay open to new ways of thinking, how to tackle problems that don’t have easy answers,” Carreker said. “Bringing this work back to Chapel Hill is incredibly meaningful to me.”

Carreker launched Galleon Strategies two years ago after noticing firsthand the massive gap between AI’s capabilities and business leaders’ ability to harness them for measurable value. She realized the challenge in the earliest days of generative AI was human rather than technological.

The company’s goal is to help leaders and management teams understand how to adopt AI, obtain desired results and manage risk responsibly.

“This technology moves so fast that the way we’re helping clients one month can look completely different the next,” said Carreker. “It’s exhilarating to be at the center of that kind of change, and it certainly keeps us on our toes.”

Carreker, a native of Boone, North Carolina, studied history at Carolina. Coming to Chapel Hill was an easy choice, with a Morehead-Cain scholarship and the opportunity to run track and cross country for the Tar Heels.

“What really defined my time at UNC academically was certainly getting to grapple with hard topics and learning to engage with new perspectives, big ideas and challenging problems,” said Carreker. “That’s so much of what being a student at Carolina is about.”

Carreker’s career took a “zigzagging path” following her graduation. She earned a law degree from the University of Virginia and spent a decade in the legal field, mostly representing technology companies. She then moved to the business side, first in communications software, then in AI.

At Carolina, she also met her husband, Justin, a fellow Morehead-Cain scholar. Another scholar set them up on a blind date six weeks before their graduation. They dated long distance for two years before reuniting for graduate school at UVA.

The two now live in Raleigh with their three kids and visit Chapel Hill as much as possible to watch Carolina sports and visit their favorite spots.

She is delighted to give back to Carolina through her work with the AI Conference and more.

“My hope is that this conference is just the opening chapter of a long and fruitful dialogue about AI for the public good,” said Carreker. “Carolina is uniquely positioned to lead that conversation. I’m proud to be part of it, and I’m excited to see where it goes.”

By Caroline Daly, University Communications and Marketing

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