George mentors the entrepreneur community in Asheville, NC, in his role as founding board member and Chair of the Board of Hatch AVL, an Asheville-based startup incubator. During his 35 year career at Procter & Gamble, George led teams innovation efforts on major brands including Pampers, Tide and Pantene. He also led efforts to create organic new businesses for the company, and created a new business creation playbook for P&G. George is a graduate of MIT and has extensive experience in products research, product development and new business creation, and is the co-inventor of 19 patents.
Advisors
Community Advisors
Justin Belleme
Founder and Director of Strategy at JB Media Group
Justin is a graduate of the University of North Carolina Asheville who has been an Ideas to Action team mentor and a UNC Asheville Social Entrepreneurship competition judge. He is the founder of the JB Media Group, a digital marketing agency that provides marketing for a number of socially and environmentally responsible businesses and organizations including the SOCAP conference in San Francisco, the largest conference on the topic of impact investing and social entrepreneurship. As a successful entrepreneur, Justin was named the 2014 Entrepreneur of the Year by the Asheville Area of Chamber of Commerce, is a member of Asheville’s 40 Under Forty and a recipient of The Order of the Pisgah from the University of North Carolina Asheville which recognizes exemplary service to the community and university.
Bradley Cain
COO of Education and Research Consortium of the Western Carolinas
Bradley has been a dedicated judge in the UNC Asheville Social Entrepreneurship competition for three years. Even though most of his career has been as a turnaround / restructuring manager, he now spends his time running a not-for-profit regional fiber network (ERC Broadband), enhancing sustainability of an organization supporting the social, healthcare, education, economic development, and government sectors across WNC. Over the past five years, he has started four businesses. Three have been solidly bootstrapped to self-sufficiency, while one died an expensive death. Early in his career, he spent time in the capital markets and, briefly, as a mechanical engineer designing satellite / aerospace components.
Sandra Dennison
Regional Director, SBTDC at WCU
Sandra has attented Ideas to Action class to provide feedback on student pitches. She has spent most of her life around family entrepreneurship. From 2002-2012, she owned two small businesses and was recognized as the “Young Entrepreneur of the Year” by the Western Carolina University College of Business. In 2015, she began her SBTDC service as a General Business Counselor in the WCU Center.
Sandra has also served as a Community Outreach Manager with the American Cancer Society. She is on the events committee with the Asheville Downtown Association and co-chairs a group called SparkTank made up of a collaborative group of service providers in the region who aim to provide a cohesive environment that fosters entrepreneurship; she also serves on the board for NC Natural Product Association and MEDWeek (Minority Business Week). Sandra has a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Entrepreneurship and Communications and a Masters of Project Management, both from WCU. Sandra is excited to be helping businesses grow and thrive in the WNC region.
Sara Sanders
Director and Collaborative Co-founder of STEAM Studio
Phone: 450-9870
Email: sjsander@unca.edu
Advisory Committee
Jonathan Toby King
Associate Professor and Chair
Office: 221D Lipinsky Hall
Phone: (828) 251-6431
Email: jking6@unca.edu
Bio
Jonathan T. King holds a B.A. from Amherst College, a M.S. in Geology from the University of Montana – Missoula, and an M.A., M. Phil., and Ph.D. in Music from Columbia University. He wrote his dissertation on improvisatory bluegrass music performance. Other areas of interest include include American vernacular musics, North American popular music, East and West African musical traditions, music and language, critical genre studies, and creative improvisatory practice. He has taught classes examining the relationship of music with language, social identity, modernism, cosmopolitanism, orientalism, and political power. He has directed ensemble classes with Nyoman Saptanyana (Balinese Gamelan), Andy Algire (Afropop), and Famoro Dioubate (Guinean Balafon), among others.
Education
- B.A., Amherst College (Geology)
- M.S., University of Montana – Missoula (Geology)
- M.A., Columbia University (Music Theory)
- Ph.D., Columbia University (Ethnomusicology)
Courses Taught
- Modernity and World Music: the Middle East, and Eastern Africa (Sarah Lawrence College)
- World Music, Cosmopolitanism, and “the West”: Europe, the Mediterranean, and West Asia (SLC)
- Music, Language & Identity: Ethnomusicology of the Americas (SLC)
- Structures of Music / Structures of Power: Africa, Asia & the Middle East (SLC)
- “Non-Western” Western Musics in Europe and Asia (SLC)
- Music, Circulation, and Appropriation (SLC)
- Studies in Music and Culture (SLC)
- The Anthropology of Sound (SLC)
- First-Year Studies: Music as World Culture (SLC)
- Masterpieces of Western Music (Columbia University)
- Classical Music History Introduction (Fordham University)
- 20th Century Composers (Purchase College (SUNY)
- Scales in World Music (Purchase College (SUNY)
Ensembles Directed
- Old Time (Country) Ensemble
- AfroPop Ensemble
- Traditional Bluegrass Ensemble
- Guinean Balafon Ensemble
- Balinese Gamelan Ensemble
Becky Sanft, Ph.D.
Chair & Associate Professor of Mathematics & Statistics
Office: 304 Rhoades/Robinson Hall
Phone: (828) 232-5190
Email: bsanft@unca.edu
Ellen Holmes Pearson, Ph.D.
Professor of History and Roy Carroll Professor of Arts & Sciences
Office: 219 Whitesides Hall
Phone: 251-6651
Email: epearson@unca.edu
Office Hours:
Tuesdays 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Thursdays 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Ashley Moraguez, Ph.D.
Chair and Associate Professor of Political Science
Office: 208A Zageir Hall
Phone: (828) 251-6984
Email: amorague@unca.edu
Grace Campbell, M.L.A., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Political Science
Office: 220 Zagier Hall
Phone: (828) 251-6312
Email: gcampbel@unca.edu
R. Graham Reynolds, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology
Office: 311 Zeis Hall
Email: greynold@unca.edu
Office Hours:
Office Hours by Appointment
Student Mentors
Mary Grace Blake
Student Mentor
Mary Grace is a junior studying Arts management and entrepreneurship with a minor in music. She enjoys discovering new music, creating Pinterest boards, and attending live music shows. Graduating 2022.
Christie Kunich
Student Mentor
Christie is in her final year as an UNCA student, finishing up her last courses for the Arts Management major. She also holds down a part-time management position with Hot Topic and has for the past seven years, soon to be eight. She can’t wait to see what awesome ideas my fellow underclassmen come up with and to help them in their journey. Graduating 2021.
Caroline Tadych
Student Mentor
Caroline Tadych is a UNC Asheville senior majoring in Arts Management and Entrepreneurship. Graduating 2020.
Past Student Mentors
Anna DaSilva: Applied Mathematics with minors in Environmental Studies and Neuroscience. Graduated 2018.
Kelly Early: Management major with a concentration in Leadership and a Political Science minor. Graduated 2018.
Madison Eddings: Cellular Molecular Biology. Graduated 2017.
Ben Eisdorfer: Management with an emphasis in Entrepreneurship and a minor in Economics.
Tia Foster: Sociology with Africana Studies minor.
Katherine Franks: Economics with a focus on International Studies.
Logan Lueck: Management with an emphasis in Global Business. Graduated 2018.
Michael Luney: Computer Science. Graduated 2018.
Quinn McKearney: Arts Management & Entrepreneurship. Graduated 2020.
Darby McKnight: Economics with a minor in Management.
Jordan Miller: Mechatronics Engineering.
Contact Us
For more information, watch the video above or contact Professor Laura Bond (lbond@unca.edu).