Higher Ed Episodes

Since she was a young girl, Denise Young Smith has had a love for music and singing. Her career, though, took her into the world of Human Resources including executive roles at Apple. Did this mean she left the arts behind? Certainly not! Music and performing have always been in her life and are taking center stage now as she becomes Chair of the Board at SFJAZZ. In this episode, Denise shares her journey including how she developed her love for the arts, why it was important to her to attend Gr...

A few weeks before COVID-19 swept across the world, we had a chance to sit down with Dr. Arpana Vidyarthi, to capture her career story. She specializes in hospital medicine and now is on the frontline of the pandemic, making this episode especially timely. The focus of the interview was on how she built a career that pulls together her passions and interests in internal medicine, quality and safety, teaching, and leadership. Because the interview was done just before the pandemic began, she wasn...

Many people assume that to work in a particular field, you have to have a degree in that field. Well, sometimes this is true but not always. On this episode, we’re joined by Burak Cakmak who became Dean of Fashion at Parsons School of Design even though he didn't study fashion or have experience as a fashion designer. What he did have was a rich background in other aspects of the fashion business, especially supply chain and sustainability. Burak shares the deliberate actions he took to develop ...

When you hear that someone makes a list of top most influential leaders, it's easy to assume they were driven by a clear vision for their career since they were young. The truth is that success like this can be had even by people who start out not knowing what they want to do. In the premier episode of Career Curves, guest Kellie McElhaney shares how she went from not knowing what she wanted to do to becoming passionate about corporate social responsibility and equity fluent leadership, and how ...