Kay Milam
It is a mysterious phenomenon: A delicate monarch butterfly weighing less than half a gram flies up to 3,000 miles to sp/files/storyimages/the winter months in a place it has never been, a spot in Mexico where neither its parents nor grandparents wintered. Studying how the monarch gets there — as well as complex environmental issues that threaten this butterfly’s existence —has become Kay Milam’s passion for the past four years.
Milam, 44, a freelance producer, is filming The Butterfly Trees, a one-hour documentary on the migration of the monarch. She initially got the bug in 2002 when she was contacted by the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity in Gainesville, Fla., to do cost estimates for a media exhibit on the migration of monarchs to Mexico. The exhibit never came to be, but Milam was hooked. "I thought it was one of the greatest stories that had never been told, or at least never been told well," she says.
So in May 2005 Milam set out on a journey of her own. She called together a group of friends and colleagues to unveil her dream project. "I figured if I announced it, it would become real," says Milam. The gathering was not intended to be a fund-raising event, but at the /files/storyimages/of the night Milam had a basket full of donations. She raised $150,000 in a little over a year’s time.
Armed with her high-definition camera, and assisted by entomologists and translators, Milam has five on-location "shoots" under her belt. This month, she’ll be traveling back to northern Mexico with the intention of capturing for the first time on film the monarch "magic carpet"— a description for the mass convergence of migrating butterflies en route to their winter destinations. The "carpets" can be one to two miles long and 20 feet wide. "We’ve had great butterfly karma so far," says Milam. "You research it as best you can and align yourself with the experts, but at some point you just have to book your crew and go for it."
The documentary should be complete next July, adds Milam, who is still fund-raising to support shooting more footage. Eventually, Milam would like to sign a deal with PBS for a national broadcast of the documentary.
— Melissa Duley
Marilyn Cordova-Winchell
As a person who speaks three languages, Marilyn Cordova-Winchell’s specialty is, not surprisingly, communications. What’s more surprising is what she has accomplished in her two years as editor of the combined English- and Spanish-language periodical Hoy en las Americas. Since she assumed the editorship, the publication has gone from being an insert in Shelbyville’s Sentinel-News to its current distribution in over 300 locations in nine Kentucky counties and in parts of Southern Indiana. She attributes a large part of the paper’s success to the fact that it is the only bilingual free publication in the area. "From the beginning," the 36-year-old says, "I insisted it would be bilingual because it would be a way to bridge both communities, and give us distinctiveness as far as who we serve."
The paper, which concentrates about 60 percent of its content on local stories and 40 percent on national or international news, plays an important role in keeping Hispanics informed about community happenings — and even offers free legal advice. Under Cordova-Winchell’s watch, Hoy has added a section in which immigrants write letters on legal issues and lawyers respond in print, allowing readers to save some money in legal fees. She wants to give a face to the immigrant community, too, and be their voice for the English-speaking readers. "Hispanics are valuable members of the community," she says.
Cordova-Winchell was born in Puerto Rico and lived there until attending graduate school at Salem State College in Massachusettes. Almost immediately upon graduating, she moved with her husband to Croatia and did social work for the New England European Mission, where she learned her third language. After the birth of their first child they returned to America in 2003 and Cordova-Winchell found work in her original area of interest — journalism. "I want to really put Hoy in the face of the community — both Anglo and international — in Louisville, and continue being the bridge between them," she says.
— Katie Brown
Kenny Boyd
In 1999, Nashville, Tenn., native Kenny Boyd founded Youth Alive!, a nonprofit youth organization designed to help young inner-city Louisvillians succeed in life. Boyd is well qualified for this mission because he knows their struggles. "In order to reach youth, you have to have been where they are to be able to identify with them," says Boyd, 42, whose own experience was framed by poverty, drugs, crime and violence. By the time he was 15 he had been shot, expelled from high school and kicked out of his mother’s house. He lived on the Nashville streets, became a drug addict and engaged in criminal activity.
Seeking a change in his life, he hitchhiked from Nashville to Louisville in 1989 and then joined Elim Baptist Church (where he is currently a deacon), sought drug treatment and completed his high school-equivalency education. He earned an associate degree in human science from Jefferson Community College in 1999 and presently is working on a bachelor’s in social work at Spalding University.
The seven-year-old Youth Alive! initiative continues to expand its reach. An after-school educational tutoring and mentoring program located at 1351 Catalpa St., it focuses on seven principles — integrity, self-respect, discipline, leadership, empathy, academic performance and community involvement. Over 1,500 underprivileged teens have participated in the program. It offers reading, sex education, Junior Achievement, college tours, museum trips, horseback riding and other enrichment activities. Added to this year’s summer programming was a male retreat held at Otter Creek Park for ages 13-18. Separate retreats for males and females are planned for February.
Boyd wants to expand his efforts in Louisville and beyond. "I’m working on establishing locations in the Newburg and Manslick areas," he says. "My goal is to develop sites in other cities like Atlanta, Cincinnati and Indianapolis."
And, he adds, "I’d really like to take it to Nashville."
— Angela Partee
Robert Evans
Earlier this year, Churchill Downs chairman Carl Pollard was on his way to Keeneland when he decided to stop at the Tenlane horse farm in Versailles to speak with its founder and owner, one of the 30-plus candidates suggested by a recruiting firm to take over Tom Meeker’s job as president and CEO at Louisville’s landmark track. "I thought he was a strong enough candidate to introduce him to the other members of the committee," Pollard remembers.
Robert Evans got that introduction, and when it came time to choose the next CEO and president of Churchill Downs Inc., the consensus was that he had the reputation, experience and charisma to lead Kentucky’s goliath in the racing industry, with six race tracks in five states, off-track betting sites and television and production assets that help simulcast races across the country.
The MacMurray College (Jacksonville, Ill.) graduate’s business career spans three decades, half of which were spent at Caterpillar Inc., and the other half spent working for companies that dealt with technology and private equity. His ability to take advantage of opportunities is why Evans, 53, was picked to lead Churchill Downs Inc.
For now, his plan is to listen and learn. "I’m not here with a specific agenda that says do these things and the world will be a different and better place," Evans says. But he does know that public interest in horse racing is on a downward slope and he hopes to use his versatile background, especially with technology, to help an old sport make up lost ground in a fast-paced world.
— J.L. Frank
Karen Scott
Airports are often stigmatized as noisy, uncomfortable places that emit too much pollution and operate like obstacle courses. Karen Scott, however, as deputy executive director of planning and engineering for the Louisville Regional Airport Authority, is taking measures to help Louisville International avoid that stereotype.
Raised in Rochester, N.Y., the 41-year-old arrived here in 1984 to study civil engineering at the University of Louisville. From there, she worked for the Louisville Water Co., LG&E and TARC before signing on at the nation’s fourth-largest cargo hub in October 2004. Her entire career has been spent among Louisville’s municipal giants, which is exactly how she likes it, saying, "I get a thrill out of serving the community."
Scott should have plenty of opportunities to experience that thrill because the airport is loaded with projects. She has already overseen the construction of a maintenance hangar leased by Chautauqua Airlines that was completed in January, as well as the lengthening of the airport’s runways. Scott also supervised the airport’s first ever baseline air emissions inventory for the purpose of pollution control. By next spring, she hopes to implement an in-line baggage screening process that will make use of two new outside "additions" that store large Transportation Safety Administration scanners, replacing those that have been in the ticketing areas. "It will be like the good old days," Scott says. "It will restore a lot of space and look nicer because you get rid of those clunky machines" near the ticket lines.
She’s also making plans for flights of the biggest plane ever to use Louisville International, the Airbus A380, which has roughly the same body width as a Boeing 747 but is taller, with a larger wingspan. The craft can seat more than 500 people and could fly directly from, say, China to Louisville. To accommodate them, the 150-foot-wide runways will need to be expanded to 200 feet. A $30 million project is in the works to land the A380s, 10 of which UPS has purchased, in Louisville by 2009.
— JLF
Wes Snyder
Nerds and proud of it, members of the Geek Squad, a Best Buy-owned computer support task force that provides on-site help at stores and in homes, are recognizable in their white shirts with black ties and black pants. Each technician bears a Geek Squad badge and Wes Snyder describes his colleagues as "unexpectedly personable."
Snyder, 40, is the official "mayor of Geek Squad City," which makes him roughly equivalent to a director of facility in more conventional corporate settings. He’s the leader of the company’s repair service center, which fixes computers from all over the country. The "city," which opened in late August, is actually a 165,000-square-foot building in Hillview in Bullitt County that expects to employ 550 people by the /files/storyimages/of 2006 at an average annual salary of $44,000. "There are lots of people fixing computers, but there aren’t many fixing all brands, no matter which one it is or where it was purchased," says Snyder, an Ohio native who joined Best Buy in 1996 after serving in the Navy, where he specialized, naturally, in computers.
The Geek Squad aims to alter the way technical support services are provided to consumers. The building features receiving and shipping facilities and stations for computer diagnostics and repair, but the mission is larger. "We’re not just going to fix computers. We’re going to drive new business in data information and privacy and backup and recovery services," Snyder says. The facility also has a lab where agents develop and test new products and — get this — a museum dedicated to early Geek Squad history.
In addition to being the biggest promoter of Geek Squad corporate culture, Snyder seems to be adjusting well to life in Louisville. While he’s been in the area since the spring, his wife Diane moved here in the summer with their son. "The first thing I was taught was how to say ‘Lou-a-vul,’" he says. "We have felt very welcome here."
— Beth Newberry
Shiping Hua
With a $6 million grant from the U.S. State Department and $1 million in matching funds from the University of Louisville, the recently created Center for Asian Democracy and its director, Shiping (pronounced "shipping") Hua, are embarking on an ambitious course to place U of L at the forefront of academic programs focused on a region of rapidly increasing international interest. Hua, 50, an associate professor of political science, was recruited to U of L in 2003 from Eckerd College in Florida and will lead the center’s efforts to promote research and scholarly activities on Asia.
A native of Beijing who came to the U.S. in 1988 and received his Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii, Hua has written books and numerous articles on modern China and teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses at U of L that concentrate on his home nation and region. He wants to see the center — and his own research — contribute to better relations between the U.S. and China. "As a scholar, I’d like to bridge the gap in understanding between the two peoples," Hua says.
Sen. Mitch McConnell’s office was instrumental in securing the $6 million federal grant, according to Charles Ziegler, chair of U of L’s political science department. Most of it will be used to establish an endowment to host visiting scholars and fill an endowed chair with a top-notch academician, who could be in place as early as 2008. Another $1 million is being used for studies of the democratization process by U of L professors in Asian countries. Hua, for example, will be researching Chinese legislative reforms.
This month the center is hosting a workshop on Korea that will be attended by scholars as well as the U.S. ambassador to Korea. Hua also recently signed on with the University Press of Kentucky as the series editor for a sequence of books under the title Asia in the New Millennium. In this role, he will be soliciting manuscripts and recommending the best for publication. On a wider scale, Hua says, "We believe democracy is good and that’s why we want to study it and to make more countries become democratic."
As examples, Taiwan has made great progress toward democracy, he says, and Japan’s unique parliamentary-style political system suits the needs of its people. On China, he stresses the need for the U.S. to look beyond its threat as a possible military rival. "It’s not only about power," says Hua. "It’s also about economics and cultural exchanges."
— Bruce Allar
Randall Toups
He seems awfully young to already have had a few twists in his career, but then how many of today’s jockeys were exercising racehorses at age nine? Louisiana-born Randall Toups, 17, who recently rented an apartment in the Dupont area for the 2006-07 Kentucky circuit racing season, landed at Churchill Downs last November after his first meet as an apprentice jockey at Evangeline Downs in Lafayette, La. He had fans here buzzing when, at 16, he won his first Churchill race aboard long-shot Yesterdays Wine for a $49.60 payoff, following that up with six more wins in the meet and earning praise from such trainers as D. Wayne Lukas.
Then two things happened to mar the youngster’s momentum. While a fellow "bug boy" (apprentice) seven years his senior, Frenchman Julien Leparoux, moved on to the Turfway meet, Toups and his agent — cousin and former rider Randy Romero — ambitiously decided to take on the New York circuit. Leparoux became the winningest jockey in the country, racking up meet titles at Turfway, Keeneland and Churchill. Toups never got rolling at Aqueduct and ended up having to convalesce after breaking two vertebrae in a rough February spill.
At Churchill Downs’ 2006 spring-summer meet, Toups signaled he’s back, finishing fourth in the jockey standings with 39 wins and an in-the-money percentage of 38.5. Now, says Toups’ new agent, Julio Espinoza, "we’re getting ready to do some serious riding at Turfway (which started Sept. 6), Keeneland and Churchill." The plan, Espinoza’s anyway, is to keep his charge in the Kentucky circuit for a few years before trying New York again. "There’s no racing like Kentucky racing," says Toups, but he’s not sure that he has the patience to hold his inner horses for more than a year before packing up for the brighter lights of Saratoga. "I’m just a Cajun boy," he says, "tryin’ to make it big."
— Jack Welch
Derrick Caracter
Of recent high profile University of Louisville recruits, Derrick Caracter may stand out most for one simple reason: unlike recent signees Sebastian Telfair and Donta Smith, who proceeded directly to their first pro paycheck, he’ll actually don a Cardinals uniform for the 2006-07 season. (Exactly when he’ll start playing became an issue in early September when Caracter did not suit up for pre-season games in Canada due to what coach Rick Pitino described as an "amateurism issue." Pitino said at that time that if there is any action by the NCAA as a result, "it will be very minor.")
With 20 years separating U of L from its last NCAA basketball title and one disappointing season intervening after a 2005 Final Four appearance, Cards fans are hoping for big things from the highly touted freshman — and Caracter may have the stature to deliver them.
Rival schools such as Memphis and Villanova tempted Caracter, but the Elizabeth, N.J., native felt Louisville was a better fit. "Coach Pitino’s the reason I’m in Louisville," Caracter (who was not made available for an interview) said in an e-mail response to Louisville Magazine’s questions. "He’s the coach I feel can get me to the next level. He’s going to push me and not give me a day off. He’s going to treat me like everyone else on the court."
Caracter, however, isn’t like everyone else on the court. At 14, national buzz surrounded him when he was one of the first middle-schoolers ever invited to the Nike All-America camp. Back then, he was 6-foot-9, 286 pounds. This fall, U of L listed him at 275, but the freshman still plans on slimming down to a more ideal playing weight. "It’s a challenge that I wanted," he wrote, "and I’ve got about 15 more pounds to go."
The real weight, though, is on the team performing well in the Big East — and Caracter is expected to shoulder much of the burden under the basket, where the Cards were manhandled last year. Three U of L freshmen — Character, Earl Clark and Edgar Sosa — grew up in the New York area and they’d like to erase bad memories of blown ball games at Madison Square Garden. Another freshman, Jerry Smith of Wauwatosa, Wis., is also expected to contribute in the run to the Big East Conference Tournament at the Garden. "I want to go out there and play my hardest once I’m on the court," Caracter said in his e-mail. "I want to wipe the image away that people have thought about me in that I was lazy or don’t play hard."
— JLF
Bud Schardein
As executive director of the Metropolitan Sewer District, Bud Schardein is knee-deep in a massive effort to reduce the overflow of untreated sewage that follows heavy rains in Jefferson County. The 58-year-old, who’s been MSD’s chief since 2002, says Louisville Metro will sp/files/storyimages/$800-$900 million over the next 20 years to comply with demands by the EPA and the Kentucky Division of Water that it find ways to mitigate the polluting effects of storm runoff water mixing with untreated sewage and then overflowing into the Ohio River and Beargrass Creek.
Schardein spent much of the past few years negotiating a consent decree outlining steps for how MSD will handle the problem. He points out that Louisville’s woes aren’t as severe as some other cities in the region — specifically Cincinnati, Birmingham and Atlanta — which will be spending $2.5 billion or more each to comply with the federal Clean Water Act. The carefully negotiated consent decree gives MSD some options for sewage-polluted runoff reduction, and Schardein will be supervising efforts to meet agreed-upon conditions — including an 85 percent reduction in sanitary sewer overflows by 2013.
"We have four or five alternatives to accomplish this," Schardein says, "and one may be less expensive. . . . You can also do it with the best science and the best techniques that minimize the costs to your customers."
MSD’s director calls the directive related to the Clean Water Act an "unfunded mandate" because Louisville hasn’t received any federal funding for dealing with water quality regulations since 1988. Some of the options Schardein and MSD will explore in coming months include methods for precipitating out solids and "floatables" in the pipeline before they’re discharged to waterways; the use of ultraviolet light to disinfect bacteria that passes through screening systems; a basin system for storing storm water until it can be safely passed through once runoff levels drop; and the use of "inflatable dams" in major pipe arteries to trap millions of gallons of runoff until overflow conditions subsist.
"Without exaggeration, it’s going to be the single largest public-works project this city has ever undertaken," Schardein says of the 20-year cleanup campaign.
— BA
Jennifer Bielstein
Two at-times incompatible interests are translating into a successful career for Jennifer Bielstein — her love of the arts and her sensibilities as a good businesswoman. "My life’s work is to support theater artists," she says. "It’s so gratifying to find a way to support an artist’s vision, and see their work completed."
Bielstein’s track record in Chicago theater circles suggests that she will help artists achieve in her new role as managing director of Actors Theatre of Louisville, replacing longtime ATL fixture Sandy Speer. After graduating from the University of North Carolina with degrees in business administration and theater, Bielstein moved to the Windy City, where she spent 11 of 15 years working as director of marketing at Steppenwolf Theatre Company. More recently, she was executive director at Writers’ Theatre, where she more than doubled programming, audiences and revenues. She also led the development of a Chicago-wide program known as "Theatre Thursdays," designed to bring theater to new audiences.
That is exactly the kind of work Bielstein, 37, thinks can apply to her new position with ATL, where she will be working in collaboration with artistic director Marc Masterson. Her role focuses on generating increased interest — and increased revenue — so that ATL can expand its scope. She also wants to introduce the stage art to new patrons. "People are spending more time on the Internet, at home, having more passive experiences," she laments. "But theater is so vital as a shared experience between audiences and performers each night. I want to convey that message more aggressively."
— KB
Tawanda Lewis
Though she will turn just 28 this month, Tawanda Lewis looks and acts the part of a seasoned professional in her Ann Taylor business suit — until her contagious laugh and lighthearted personality betray her youth. You can sense her enthusiasm whether she’s discussing her work as the director of major gifts for the Norton Healthcare Foundation or her other pursuits, including a position as president of the Louisville Urban League Young Professionals (LULYP).
The University of Louisville graduate started her career by raising money for Metro United Way. At the foundation, her efforts are focused most directly on securing funding for hospital projects such as an expansion of the neonatal intensive care units at Norton Suburban and Kosair Children’s hospitals, as well as the remodeling of the Women’s Pavilion at Norton Downtown.
"Obstetrics needs for women will be available at improved quality at our downtown campus," Lewis says about the Women’s Pavilion work. "It’s bringing the whole urban hospital feel back. It’s going to look new; it’s going to be really innovative. Our campus is going to look totally different, and if we can get individuals and corporations behind it, it’s going to be pretty cool."
What’s also cool is her work with LULYP, which tries to build young people into strong leaders, both professionally and civically, and hosts lectures every month given by seasoned professionals. This month, Lewis will be busy as she leads a recruitment drive at The Summit on Oct. 3 and the group hosts a mayoral candidates’ debate at the Ali Center on the Oct. 10.
The debate moves LULYP closer to what Lewis calls "a voice at the table."
— JLF
Matt Foster and Tim Cooper
It doesn’t fit your image of the typical computer nerd’s office. Matt Foster’s space is stocked with curios from his various pursuits, including a collection of guitars and amps that could rival a Rolling Stones’ recording studio. His partner, Tim Cooper, is a sports fanatic. The two studied English in college, not computers, and one even lived in a rustic log cabin for a year. But these bohemians are also "braniacs."
Foster, 35, launched Interactive Media Lab with Cooper, 36, in 1995. The two were pals in college, began to collaborate after graduating and realized they shared a similar vision. From the start, "the goal was to have a full-service, soup-to-nuts, multimedia production company," Foster says. "Of course," Cooper adds, "that means we need people whose talents are multi-faceted, and we have to be willing to invest in new technology, two things that can be tough to do."
Those ideas have been the key to the business’ success, allowing it to expand as technology grows and keep costs down by attempting to do everything in-house. Being wired to the tech world means that IML has been the first to bring several services to the Kentucky, including high-definition video editing and production as well as the company’s latest triumph, Legalease. This program organizes documents, recordings of depositions, videos and other materials into a single courtroom-ready presentation. Some other IML services include DVD, CD-ROM and video production and 3-D animation. "We can s/files/storyimages/people and equipment anywhere at the drop of a hat. We can do damn near anything," Foster says.
Their list of clients, with names like Chrysler, Toyota and Disney, shows that doing "damn near anything" may be just the right business formula. In 11 years, the company has gone from two founders to 30 employees, with offices in Lexington and Indianapolis — and those numbers are on the rise. Foster and Cooper see their next logical move as Chicago, although they admit location isn’t as important for the types of services IML offers. "There are endless opportunities in the world of technology," Foster says. "You just have to stay on top of things."
— KB
David Caldwell
When Lubbock, Texas, native David Caldwell graduated in 2004 with an economics degree from his home state’s Southwestern University, he may have thought he’d one day return to school — but not to study kindergarten. As the Metro United Way’s point person for Success By 6, a program that aims to help make every child in Louisville schooling-ready, Caldwell, 24, has devoted most of 2006 to reading up on and interviewing experts about the subject of preparation for kindergarten. "It’s a hot-button issue," he says. "There are definitely some different opinions on it."
A main point of contention involves one camp that believes there should be a list of basic skills — such as counting and reading-related tasks — that all children must master prior to kindergarten; another faction stresses social skills, emotional development and approaches to learning over those more measurable abilities. "You just move ahead because there’s always going to be a debate," Caldwell says. "You try to remove as many barriers as possible."
Success By 6 initiatives have been launched in more than 375 communities nationwide. Jefferson County’s program started in 2000, with several surrounding counties coming on board since then. Caldwell arrived at Louisville’s United Way branch on a fellowship in June 2005 and assumed his duties with the school-readiness program this May. For a metro area increasingly united in its need to upgrade education, Success By 6 can play a key role by addressing obstacles to learning early enough to do something about them. Caldwell points out that racial achievement gaps show up as early as the kindergarten level and that they’re more difficult to close in later grades.
"It’s all deep water," he says. He’s finding that more than cognitive skills contribute to being prepared for kindergarten. Social, emotional and health issues also come into play, mandating a broad plan for assisting the most needy students-to-be — whether they come from impoverished homes or affluent ones plagued by broken families or other stresses. Nationally, according to Caldwell, approximately two-thirds of kids are ready for kindergarten when they enroll. Lacking local numbers, he estimates that same percentage here and will be writing a strategic plan by early next year to raise that figure.
"We think the number should be well upward of 90 percent in 10 year’s time," Caldwell says.
— BA
