Joe Kronner
Joe@Must-Innov8.com
@JoeKronner

Through middle school and high school Joe’s primary passion was sports and football was his favorite. Then in his senior year at high school he happened to take a “new” class called computer programming. In that class the final project was to write your own program and Joe chose to create a Football Game on the computer long before this existed in the marketplace. With that project Joe found that programming was great fun.  That inspired Joe to pursue computer science classes in college. He found a real passion for computer programming and the motivation to take the tough classes he needed to get a Computer Science degree.

During his career Joe always enjoyed problem solving and using critical thinking skills to analyze complex challenges and find workable solutions. This first began with programming and project management efforts and then with executive management and complex business challenges.

Throughout his career Joe has been involved in recruiting and has seen firsthand how the number of students pursuing STEM (in particular Computer Science) degrees has not kept pace with demands of the business community. From that realization has come a passion to pursue a solution to motivate our students to value learning and pursue an education that will have a positive impact on their careers and the world we live in.

Mack McCary
Mack@Must-Innov8.com
@MackMcCary

At the age of 12, Mack wrote off for a Harvard catalog after concluding he was never going to make it as a professional athlete.  Since he was good in school (to the surprise of his mother, who thought all boys were dumb in school), why not go to the only school he knew as the best?  He remembers being agonizingly bored in most of his high school classes and yearning for more interesting ways to learn, which he found more in drama club productions, creative writing, Yale summer high school, and integrating his local church youth group than in school.  He grew up with the sound of rocket engines shaking the dishes and dinner table tales from his “engineer without a degree” father of working as a foreman with Werner Von Braun and German “scientists” (most of whom had 2 year technical degrees) racing to launch the first satellite after Sputnik.  While he did not inherit his dad’s amazing mechanical aptitudes (or fortunately, his absolute lack of spelling ability!), he developed a love for innovative technology and an abiding respect for technical and creative skills, especially for students whose talents lie outside the classroom.

He also discovered along the way a love for children of all ages, which led to a 30 year+ career as an educator, from first grade teacher to higher ed. professor, principal, assistant superintendent and superintendent.  He’s also had two stints in business, first as a starving entrepreneur in a start-up microcomputer company, and then as a VP of training for a data warehouse start-up.   Throughout these career shifts he has developed a passion for innovation that unlocks the creative potential of people, whether employees or students.  In his recent work as a School Design Coach with NC New Schools, he supported the development of several innovative schools, and developed new respect for how businesses and educators have so much to learn from each other, and how with students and parents they can create a whole new sense of community around their schools and children.   He counts Sam, Joe and Ashley among his favorite “partners in crime” in bringing career readiness and STEM workforce development as crucial goals not just for all students and their families, but employers and communities.

From his experience, innovation is crucial but not an easy path to the future we are helping our children create.  Most creative ideas are killed in their infancy.   It takes not just commitment but teamwork among community leaders to bring these ideas into fruition.  His new work with Must-Innov8 is the latest step in a career to inspire transformations in our educational system that will prepare students for their future, not our past.

For as long as he can remember, Sam has had a passion for marketing and developing new products.  As an 11th grader Sam had his first paying gig as a marketer.  Sam and a friend developed a tag line for an acquaintance who owned a cafeteria chain.  They were paid $500 for a tag line that is still in use.  That engagement ignited his life-long passion for being an innovator and problem solver.

Along the way Sam has had the opportunity to do marketing and new product development work for and with some of the largest global consumer product companies. He has worked for Sara Lee, Hanes, and Kayser-Roth.  He has consulted on new product development with Planters LifeSavers, Tyson Foods and numerous other companies.

In 2001, Sam and a partner founded SLAM, Inc., an advertising and marketing communications company.  The Agency’s clients have included Sara Lee Corporation, Blue Rhino, Sealy, Forsyth Tech Community College, NC Biotechnology Center and the National Center for the Biotechnology Workforce to name a few

Sam’s passion is problem detection to identify voids/opportunities in the marketplace.  Then his teams developed and tested product solutions to fill the consumers’ un-met needs.  He has conducted over $20 million of consumer research to understand what motivates a consumer to purchase and repurchase.

Dr. Ashley Hinson

Ashley@Must-Innov8.com

As a principal, Dr. Ashley Hinson saw many capable students for whom traditional high school just wasn’t the right fit. “Some students got their diplomas, but they were destined for an entry-level job in the fast food industry,” he says. “And I knew they could accomplish more.”

Later as superintendent of Surry County Schools in the foothills of North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, Hinson was thrilled that his team’s work with the North Carolina New Schools Project resulted in his district offering a different opportunity for those students through Surry Early College. “An early college high school diploma gives them a more meaningful diploma because they graduate with a jump-start on a college education that many of them thought they could never achieve,” he says. “Whether it ends with a two-year degree or a Ph.D., it’s an unbelievable opportunity for these students to have college as a part of the normal high school experience. To be able to connect these students with the community college is one of the best things I’ve been part of in my 35-year career.” Some graduates apply the transfer credits toward a four-year degree while others take the two-year degree into a career. Either way, Hinson says, it’s not likely to be the end of their formal education.

“I see this as a huge part of economic development,” he says. “If this county can produce students who have technology skills and Tony Wagner’s 7 Survival Skills, all the skills businesses are looking for, that helps our entire community.”

Hinson offers this advice for education leaders interested in bringing innovation to their schools: “If you believe that a particular program is going to benefit children the way this early college has helped us, be passionate about it. Don’t be deterred by political issues. Work with your board of education about their concerns, work with all the constituents in your community to make sure that everyone sees what you can create for students’ futures. Be professional, but take it on like a cause and give a voice to your students’ needs.”