September 2020
Cooke Scholar Alumni Buzz
Hello Cooke Scholars and Alumni!
We hope you are enjoying the start to the autumn season and the new academic year, and we continue to wish you and your loved ones the best health and safety during these times. Here’s an update on what’s going on at the Foundation and the great things some of your fellow Cooke Scholars are doing. Alums, we’d love to feature you and your work, so please reach out and let us know what you’re up to - send us your updates at alumni@jkcf.org.
Foundation Buzz
Get Involved with Your Regional Chapter!
Want to connect and (virtually) hang out with other Cooke Scholar Alumni in your city or region? We currently have more than a dozen regional chapters, including the Bay Area, CA; Boston-Cambridge, MA; and the United Kingdom. Find out who your chapter leaders are and get involved with your local Cooke Scholar Alumni community today!
One Scholar, One Book: Social Justice Reading Recommendations
In the September Alumni Buzz, we asked our readers to help us curate a list of books on the topic of social justice. We’ve compiled this list from those recommendations, so check it out to see what opened your fellow scholars’ eyes or gave them a deeper understanding about an issue that inspired them to take action. Many thanks to everyone who contributed. We hope you are able to find one (or more!) title that will help enlighten you on these important issues.
Help Discover the Next Cohort of Cooke Scholars
As you may already know, applications are currently open for the Jack Kent Foundation's College and Undergraduate Transfer Scholarships. We invite your help in recruiting the next generation of Cooke Scholars by becoming a part of the Cooke Outreach Representative Program (CORP). We believe that no one can speak more authentically than Cooke Scholars and Alumni about the impact of our scholarship programs. Currently, we are thrilled to have more than 80 scholars and alumni serving as CORP members. Find out more about how you can join them and start supporting our outreach efforts today!
Alumni Buzz
Denis Vega Tapia
2010 Undergraduate Transfer Scholar, University of California at Riverside; 2016 Graduate Scholar, California Baptist University
This past summer, Denis began his new role of Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Community Health Systems, Inc (CHSI). As COO, Denis provides leadership and strategic direction to CHSI. He guides the organization’s development and enhances the delivery of high-quality health care services. Denis has graciously assumed this new role during a global public health crisis, where it’s more important than ever to provide access to critical and necessary health services to the communities of Riverside, San Bernardino, and North County San Diego in California. You can read more about Denis’ work and experience here.
Ezekiel Adigun
2005 Young Scholar; 2010 College Scholar, Harvard University; 2016 Graduate Scholar, University of California, San Francisco
Dr. Adigun recently graduated from UCSF School of Medicine and deferred his family medicine residency in Harlem, New York to start a company in the Bay Area called Dancing with your Doctor. It’s a virtual wellness program that combines Ezekiel’s medical and dance backgrounds along with stretching, mindfulness, and practical tips on maintaining a healthy lifestyle in these unprecedented times. Check out and follow Dancing with your Doctor on Instagram or visit their website to find out more.
Kindra Mohr
2006 Graduate Scholar, Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) & Boston College Law School
Building on her foundation of working to empower vulnerable communities within the context of international development and finance, Kindra has joined friends, family, and colleagues in Philadelphia to advance a just, green, and thriving economy at the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia (SBN). Kindra is leading SBN’s Government Relations Department where she advocates for local, state, and federal policies that nurture the recovery and growth of local independent businesses adhering to a triple-bottom-line approach in their operations.
Michael Uy
2008 Graduate Scholar, Harvard University
Dr. Uy recently published “Ask the Experts: How Ford, Rockefeller, and the NEA Changed American Music.” From the end of the Second World War through the U.S. Bicentennial, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Ford Foundation granted close to $300 million (approximately $2.3 billion in 2017 dollars) in the field of music alone. The book goes on to describe how what seemed like an objective plan to “ask the experts” ultimately led to the exclusion of artists and musicians of color and women from the funding process. You can read more about the book here.
Katie (Field) Johnson
2001 Young Scholar; 2003 College Scholar, College of William and Mary
After graduating with her PhD in mathematics in 2012, Dr. Johnson began working at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, FL that same year. Dr. Johnson is now an associate professor and serves as the lead Principal Investigator on a grant from the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program that provides scholarships to STEM majors who plan to teach in local, high-need, public schools. She also directs the Learning Assistant Program which hires students to help support other students in their classes. Both of these programs mean a lot to Dr. Johnson, because she remembers what it was like to be a student working part-time who was from a family that was not as well-off as her classmates’, and also to be an underrepresented (female) person in her upper-level math classes. Student success and equity in the classroom are two of her passions, and hearing about everything her fellow Cooke Scholar Alumni are up to always inspires Dr. Johnson to keep doing the work!
Jessica Harris
2012 Graduate Arts Scholar, New York University
During her graduate studies, Jessica Harris studied how art and business were merging in the experience economy. She has gone on to create a business performing as a dancing Oracle at parties and events. Since the pandemic hit, she has moved online, performing a monthly Oracle show and also entertaining for Zoom parties and other virtual events. For each show she dresses from a different time period, wears a handmade light-up hat, and not only writes the answer but also dances the answer to each question. The show is on the 7th day of each month from 9-9:30pm EST. Think of a good question and join her October show! Check out the Oracle Acts’ website to find out more and watch some of the previous online shows.
Throwback Photo of the Month
College Scholars at Scholars Weekend 2011