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Sam Ford | WKU Spirit | Winter 2024 Issue
In addition to Suspenders of Disbelief, in 2023, San Francisco Bay-area augmented reality and engagement software company MyXR Inc. selected the Innovation Campus as its new regional headquarters; Dallas-based entrepreneur Amanda Havard chose the Innovation Campus as the home for her new innovation management service company, Luna; and Hong Kong start-up beingAl, founded by former Hanson Robotics CEO Jeanne Lim, announced establishment of its U.S. headquarters there.
These announcements come alongside innovative companies of national consequence like Eyeconic and Eezy that have grown up at the Innovation Campus, R&D and leadership operations for companies like Holley and StuppFiber, and innovation entities like the Metals Innovation Initiative and AccelerateKY.
The Lane Report | Feb. 8, 2024
Sam Ford works with organizations on innovation, audience engagement, and storytelling strategies. As executive director of AccelerateKY, Sam works on various initiatives to connect, inform, and inspire others in support of Kentucky’s capacity for innovation. He also serves as an Innovation and Culture Fellow for WKU.
Timothy C. Caboni | WKU News | Jan. 29, 2024
In partnership with the University of Southern California, AccelerateKY hosted the ‘Civic Imagination and Worldbuilding’ conference at the Innovation Campus
Stephen P. Schmidt | KY Inno | Dec. 28, 2023
Sam Ford, Executive Director, AccelerateKY: “As we move beyond the ‘Web 2.0’ paradigm into the next phase of tech development, the models for investment and for scaling new ventures will require a new era of approaches and infrastructure. We’ll need systems that prioritize patient capital, slow innovation, and ‘tough tech,’ that values distributing innovation via nodes throughout the country.”
MIT REAP Newsletter | December 2023
In a year marked by innovation, collaboration, and transformative impact, MIT REAP reflects on a successful journey in advancing regional innovation and entrepreneurship…As MIT REAP looks ahead, the achievements of the past year serve as a testament to its dedication to nurturing innovation ecosystems and driving positive change on a global scale (such as) Logan Aluminum wins Canopy ‘Good Business’ award, 3 others honored (MIT REAP, C6).
Merijke Coenraad, Emi Iwatani, and Quinn Burke | National Network of Education Research-Practice Partnerships | Fall 2023
The University of Southern California’s Civic Imagination Project defines civic imagination as a way of shaping a vision for the future through the uniquely human capacity for storytelling. Sam Ford, Executive Director of AccelerateKY who led our civic imagination workshop, works with the Civic Imagination Project and summarizes civic imagination as:
- People can’t work toward a future if they can’t see it first
- People don’t want to design a future that they aren’t in
- People need to feel a sense of agency or permission to help shape that future
Stephanie Smith | Building Kentucky | Sept. 27, 2023
Whittle, the university’s first user experience (UX) bachelor of fine arts major, says, “I was the only student in the multi-disciplinary group that specifically honed in on Appalachian creators and the majority are working on their respective projects independently. There were six of us who gathered regularly to discuss all kinds of creative endeavors such as pop culture, transmedia and design thinking.”
Michael J. Collins | Bowling Green Daily News | Sept. 24, 2023
Whittle graduated in May and, with some help from her “Civic Imagination Team,” used her skills to put together Muser — an app that tracks willing museum attendees to map how they move about exhibits. The team was comprised of six multidisciplinary members who met regularly, each seeking guidance and feedback on a personal project of some kind. They met Friday at the Capitol Arts Center to present their projects and reflect on the last year together.
Sky Arts Film Festival | Sept. 22, 2023
Civic Imagination and World building Masterclass event organized by Western Kentucky University, the University of Southern California, and AccelerateKY. The Civic Imagination Project taps the civic imagination (our collective vision for what a better tomorrow might look like) to bridge perceived cultural gaps between diverse communities.
Civic Imagination & Worldbuilding Confernece | Sept. 21-22, 2023
The Civic Imagination & Worldbuilding Conference is presented by AccelerateKY; the Western Kentucky University Innovation Campus; WKU Potter College of Arts & Letters, the Central Region Ecosystem for Arts, Technology, and Entrepreneurship (CREATE); and the University of Southern California Civic Imagination Project.
Metals Innovation Initiative | Sept. 5-6, 2023
Keynote – Ecosystems of Innovation – Maria Zuber, VP for Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Keynote – The Power of Building a Cross-Stakeholder Innovation Ecosystem around Metals and Advanced Manufacturing – Alex Day, Managing Partner, Sheltowee Network & Sam Ford, Executive Director, AccelerateKY
Traci Tackett, Markayla Stevens, and Mary Dotson | Digital Promise | Aug. 22, 2023
The thought of teaching computational thinking (CT) to primary age students was overwhelming to teachers in Eastern Kentucky (East KY) just a few years ago, but now two teachers are leading trainings that make the daunting responsibility of developing those skills manageable and fun! Since fall 2019, Mary Dotson (Floyd County Schools) and Markayla Stevens (Pikeville Independent High School) have participated in the Tough as Nails initiative through a National Science Foundation grant where distinguished STEAM teachers from South Fayette Township (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) conduct a series of summer institutes to show East KY teachers how CT concepts can be integrated into the content areas.
WKU Center for Gifted Studies | The Challenge | Summer 2023
“I am Rusty Justice, and I’m an unapologetic hillbilly. I’m probably the oldest person in the building, and I’m here to talk to you about innovation.” With those words, Rusty had his audience’s attention…Minds-on, hands-on activities were presented by…AccelerateKY.
Lane Report | June 16, 2023
Logan Aluminum was selected for this award based on its non-profit support, sponsorship of cultural events in the region, and significant involvement in the launch of two new statewide nonprofit organizations headquartered at the Western Kentucky University Innovation Campus (including) AccelerateKY, formed in September 2021 coming out of Kentucky’s participation as the first U.S. state/region of a state to go through a prestigious international program called the MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program (MIT REAP). Logan Aluminum was the corporate organization on the Kentucky MIT REAP team, alongside entrepreneurs, funders, higher education institutions, and the state government.
Alice Morgensztern | MIT Sloan School of Management | June 2023
Team Kentucky’s accelerator, Accelerate Kentucky, would in itself be a BBO, a nonprofit neutral cross-stakeholder gathering place that would spread the MIT REAP thinking across the state independently of any stakeholder’s specific agenda…In particular, they implemented the Metals Innovation Initiative, whose CEO is the former chair of Accelerate KY, with the support of the Governor of Kentucky.
Kami Ahrens | It Still Lives | May 23, 2023
This series of podcasts is an outcome of the Civic Imagination Incubator; a partnership among AccelerateKY; Western Kentucky University Innovation Campus; WKU Potter College of Arts & Letters; the Central Region Ecosystem of Arts, Technology, and Entrepreneurship (CREATE); and University of Southern California Civic Imagination Project…Our final podcast episode features a conversation with director, writer, producer, AND teacher Evelyn Pollard of Louisville, Kentucky. Evelyn works with diverse student groups to capture their stories and experiences through filmmaking. She has also been working a documentary highlighting the Cleveland Buckeyes – a Negro League baseball team who took home the championship in 1945.
Kami Ahrens | It Still Lives | May 16, 2023
This series of podcasts is an outcome of the Civic Imagination Incubator; a partnership among AccelerateKY; Western Kentucky University Innovation Campus; WKU Potter College of Arts & Letters; the Central Region Ecosystem of Arts, Technology, and Entrepreneurship (CREATE); and University of Southern California Civic Imagination Project…Have you ever thought about what a superhero from Appalachia would look like? Coder and developer Justin Hall blends his love of art and storytelling with tech to create interactive comic book characters that retell the story of coal mining counties.
Kami Ahrens | It Still Lives | May 9, 2023
This series of podcasts is an outcome of the Civic Imagination Incubator; a partnership among AccelerateKY; Western Kentucky University Innovation Campus; WKU Potter College of Arts & Letters; the Central Region Ecosystem of Arts, Technology, and Entrepreneurship (CREATE); and University of Southern California Civic Imagination Project…Madison Whittle, a senior at Western Kentucky University, shares her work in User Experience and design this week as part of continuing miniseries on creatives in Appalachia as part of the Civic Imagination Incubator.
Kami Ahrens | It Still Lives | May 2, 2023
This series of podcasts is an outcome of the Civic Imagination Incubator; a partnership among AccelerateKY; Western Kentucky University Innovation Campus; WKU Potter College of Arts & Letters; the Central Region Ecosystem of Arts, Technology, and Entrepreneurship (CREATE); and University of Southern California Civic Imagination Project…Our next installment in the Civic Imagination mini series features Assistant Professor of Broadcasting at WKU, Ryan Dearbone. Ryan is active in his community as a leader in DEI practices. He shares his current project with us, which is examining the impact of covid and post-pandemic trends on regional churches in and around Appalachia.
Metals Innovation Initiative | May 2023
Ruthie Caldwell serves as MI2’s Grants and Funding Consultant, where she will share funding opportunities and help partners develop competitive grant applications…Ruthie is a graduate of the 2019 BRIGHT Kentucky leadership program, a Regional Partner and Steering Committee member for What’s Next EKY?!, and a Fellow for AccelerateKY…Sam Ford is Director of Strategic Communications for MI2…Currently, Sam also serves as Executive Director of the nonprofit AccelerateKY, which launched in 2021 as a result of Kentucky becoming the first U.S. state to go through the MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program and which took on as one of its first major projects supporting the concept, formation, and launch of MI2.
Kami Ahrens | It Still Lives | April 18, 2023
This series of podcasts is an outcome of the Civic Imagination Incubator; a partnership among AccelerateKY; Western Kentucky University Innovation Campus; WKU Potter College of Arts & Letters; the Central Region Ecosystem of Arts, Technology, and Entrepreneurship (CREATE); and University of Southern California Civic Imagination Project…We are continuing our mini series on the Civic Imagination Incubator! Join us as we sit down with sci-fi author and storyteller Clinton W. Waters. They share with us their vision for a utopic Kentucky known as the Commonwealth.
Kami Ahrens | It Still Lives | April 4, 2023
This series of podcasts is an outcome of the Civic Imagination Incubator; a partnership among AccelerateKY; Western Kentucky University Innovation Campus; WKU Potter College of Arts & Letters; the Central Region Ecosystem of Arts, Technology, and Entrepreneurship (CREATE); and University of Southern California Civic Imagination Project…We’re joined this month by the leaders of the Civic Imagination Project, an initiative started by a small team at the University of Southern California. We’ll be talking about how imagination and storytelling can bring communities together in our region.
Timothy C. Caboni | WKU News | April 4, 2023
Businesses and organizations, such as Holley Performance Products, the Metals Innovation Initiative (MI2), Logan Aluminum, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Kentucky to the World, AccelerateKY and the University of Southern California, all established a presence at our Innovation Campus during the past two years. These partnerships with state, national and international industry leaders provide collaborative research and learning opportunities that enable our students, faculty and staff to participate in real-world inquiry and problem-solving initiatives.
Mary Slone | Digital Promise | March 29, 2023
Whether you have been teaching for three years or 30, the combination of societal strains with the challenges of trying to deliver quality instruction in the shifting sands of education can have you feeling like a pedagogical Dorothy. While I don’t have a twister to carry me over the education rainbow, I do have AccelerateKY’s Executive Director Sam Ford and the Civic Imagination Project teacher training. This one-day event took place in Eastern Kentucky in February 2023 as part of the Drawing on Kinship Project.
Garrett Wymer | WKYT | March 22, 2023
“There’s not an industry in Kentucky that won’t be changed over time by AI,” said Sam Ford, executive director of Accelerate Kentucky. The Bowling Green-based nonprofit is focused on connecting, informing and inspiring Kentuckians about innovation opportunities…Kentucky has some comparative advantages, said Executive Director Sam Ford, including a tradition of pragmatic, applied work on the ground; its central location; being a leader in automotive, metals and bourbon industries; and its people having a history of pragmatic innovation and problem solving.
MIT Open Documentary Lab | March 13, 2023
“I can’t imagine a better inaugural recipient for this fellowship than Lamont,” wrote Sarah Wolozin, director of the MIT Open Documentary Lab. “His work across multiple media formats and with emerging technologies, and his commitment to co-creation approaches with the communities whose stories he’s documenting, is deeply aligned with our focus and work at MIT.”
This new fellowship reflects the Lab’s commitment to expanding access to our community for artists and scholars who aren’t able to relocate to Cambridge and include under-represented geographic areas. Pearley is one of several current Fellows whose community-focused projects benefit from their physical presence in their home cities and towns.
Jake Moore | Bowling Green Daily News | March 10, 2023
Western Kentucky University folk studies graduate student Lamont “Jack” Pearley was named the first recipient of the MIT OpenDocLab Kentucky-based fellowship last week. “It’s a game-changer,” he said…The fellowship was established thanks to a collaborative partnership between AccelerateKY, a non-profit housed within WKU’s Innovation Campus, and MIT.
“From our first innovation tours to their partnership in establishing this Kentucky-based virtual fellowship with their lab, the MIT team’s work on the process of co-creating stories has helped significantly shape our efforts in supporting Kentucky’s innovation ecosystem,” AccelerateKY Board President Rusty Justice said in a release.
WKU News | March 2, 2023
“The MIT OpenDocLab has been a true partner in helping us think through the future of Kentucky’s economy,” said AccelerateKY board president Rusty Justice. “From our first innovation tours to their partnership in establishing this Kentucky-based virtual fellowship with their lab, the MIT team’s work on the process of co-creating stories has helped significantly shape our efforts in supporting Kentucky’s innovation ecosystem.”
Tom Ballard | Teknovation.biz | Feb. 1, 2023
During several conversations with (Buddy) Steen and Sam Ford, Executive Director of AccelerateKY as well as a consultant, it was difficult to tell which hat they might be wearing during various parts of the conversation. What was clear, however, was the alignment of resources that is providing the momentum to move the region forward, and much of the progress is tied directly to the space available in the former mall.
Metals Innovation Initiative | February 2023
In July, Kamineni and Sam Ford with AccelerateKY put together a white paper expressing the vision for a metals industry innovation cluster organization, with dedicated interest established from Wieland and Logan Aluminum, as well as a host of additional strategic partners in the ecosystem: KY Innovation, the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, Western Kentucky University, the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Louisville Healthcare CEO Council (CEOc).
Don Sergent | Bowling Green Daily News | Dec. 7, 2022
KTW has the tools to attract that talent, according to Sam Ford, executive director of the AccelerateKY nonprofit that focuses on tapping into the potential of Kentucky’s innovators and entrepreneurs. “From Paducah to Pikeville, Kentucky is filled with inspiring stories of innovation and resilience,” Ford, also a member of the KTW board of directors, said in a news release. “In our communities, we know we need to invest in economic development, workforce development and community development.
WKU News | Dec. 1, 2022
Bowling Green-based nonprofit AccelerateKY partnered with KTW on that series, which includes a digital video series and forthcoming KET television special produced by KTW recorded from AccelerateKY’s “Connect. Inform. Inspire.” conference hosted last October by the Innovation Campus at WKU.
Don Sergent | Bowling Green Daily News | Nov. 2, 2022
Sam Ford, executive director of the AccelerateKY nonprofit that focuses on tapping into the potential of Kentucky’s innovators and entrepreneurs, worked with Kamineni to put together a white paper that spelled out the vision for MI2. That led to a March meeting of industry leaders, higher education professionals and Gov. Andy Beshear.
Sam Ford | WKU Spirit | Fall 2022
A set of WKU-supported visits between researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Kentucky innovators in 2017 led to Kentucky becoming the first U.S. state accepted to MIT’s Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program (MIT REAP) the following year. AccelerateKY was established in its wake and is now headquartered at the Innovation Campus.
Shannon Holbrook | Mountain Spirit | Fall/Winter 2022
An example is Sam Ford, executive director of AccelerateKY. The Ohio County native, MIT graduate, media innovator, and strategist is a catalyst for economic and workforce development here in Kentucky. He collaborated with KTW to develop “Kentucky: Resilience in the Face of Economic Change,” a series that shares stories of Kentucky innovators and discusses the realities of and opportunities for its evolving economy.
WKU News | Oct. 26, 2022
In addition to WKU the formation of MI2 was supported by…AccelerateKY a nonprofit organization also headquartered at the Innovation Campus at WKU and focused on unleashing the potential of Kentucky’s innovators and entrepreneurs developed in partnership with the MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program (MIT REAP).
Emi Iwatani, Quinn Burke, Traci Tackett, and Aileen Owens | Digital Promise | Oct. 4, 2022
The initiative has been inspired by–and connects with–a range of interventions in KY to imagine the future of work in the state and build a stronger ecosystem for fostering innovation, through the support of Kentucky-based nonprofit AccelerateKY. See more about the genesis of these efforts from our 2018 and 2022 SXSW sessions.
Sarah Michels | Bowling Green Daily News | Sept. 16, 2022
A museum curator, a former multi-media journalist, a web developer, a cinematography and video production editor, a comics writer and a WKU user experience major from the region will collaborate in a series of mostly-virtual meetups over the next eight months to develop cross-medium story worlds and media projects.
Sarah Foote | MIT News | Sept. 8, 2022
Michael Blanding | MIT Technology Review | August 24, 2022
When people think about Kentucky, they often picture bluegrass, horses, and bourbon—not necessarily a vibrant ecosystem of entrepreneurs and startups. As executive director of the nonprofit AccelerateKY, Sam Ford is aiming to change that. “Everyone’s always excited to talk about bourbon, but Kentucky’s also a major leader in electric batteries,” says Ford, a graduate of MIT’s Comparative Media Studies (CMS) program. “We have advanced manufacturing, metals, software development, ag tech.” (republished/slightly expanded at Slice of MIT)
Michael Phillips | Kentucky to the World | July 25, 2022
Kentucky to the World | July 15, 2022
On June 29 KTW’s Board of Directors took its first road trip to Bowling Green for an event-filled day arranged by our projects collaborator Sam Ford AccelerateKY Executive Director & MIT Comparative Studies Researcher.
Maxwell Yun | MIT Spokes | June 25, 2022
Simone Lassar | MIT Spokes | June 24, 2022
Maxwell Yun | MIT Spokes | June 24, 2022
Robert Henning | MIT Spokes | June 23, 2022
We pass by abandoned businesses and declining towns, and I admire their efforts to persevere. Small businesses we ride by take on giants like Walmart and hope to challenge the status quo. Kentucky has countless success stories, though escapism is rampant here.
Lexi Schweinert | WNKY | June 22, 2022
Some of the activities they learn include 3D printing, circuit breaking, solar cell energy, and the physics of music…MIT Spokes partnered with AccelerateKY to make the Bowling Green stop happen.
William Battle | WBKO | June 22, 2022
MIT Spokes stopped in Bowling Green this morning to host a Learning Festival at the WKU Innovation Campus on Nashville Rd. The Innovation Campus provided classrooms, lunch, and snacks. AccelerateKY, the statewide nonprofit headquartered in Bowling Green and formed through a partnership with MIT, is helping the Spokes team with their journey across the state and helped line up today’s event.
Mariela Perez-Cabarcas | MIT Spokes | June 21, 2022
Liberty is about 15 miles from the border between the EDT and CDT time zones, so the former is colloquially known as fast time, and the latter as slow time. We learned that there is much mental math to be done when you live in fast time and work in slow time just to make it to work on time.
Franklin Zhang | MIT Spokes | June 19, 2022
After lunch, we headed towards Lexington, the first major city we are passing through on our trip besides DC. The scenery slowly changed from rural farms to suburban homes.
Sophia Fang | MIT Spokes | June 17, 2022
After breakfast, we headed over to the Challenger Center for our third learning festival since the start of the trip. Just for quick background, these learning centers were established in memory of the 1986 Challenger space shuttle explosion. The Hazard Challenger Center is in fact the first one in a rural area!
A group of seven MIT students are bicycling 3000 miles across the United States to host workshops for middle school students with Bowling Green as one of their stops. It is open to incoming sixth seventh and eighth graders in the region and will include modules on 3D printing material science electrical engineering and the physics of music. AccelerateKY a nonprofit organization based at WKU’s Innovation Campus supported the MIT Spokes’ initiative.
Simone Lassar | MIT Spokes | June 16, 2022
Robert Henning | MIT Spokes | June 16, 2022
Like a perfectly roasted marshmallow, this region on the border of Western Virginia and Eastern Kentucky has a timeless charm. And as the campfire’s shadows danced on the nearby trees, fireflies traced their arcs as they cycled in and out of bioluminescence. Spokes, too, will end someday to shine again down the road.
Jake Moore | Bowling Green Daily News | June 1, 2022
Western Kentucky University’s Potter College of Arts and Letters and the university’s Innovation Campus will team up with the University of Southern California for a “Civic Imagination Incubator.” The program which launches in September of 2022, will tap into the “civic imagination” to conceptualize what a better world could look like. The eight-month program will take participants through the processes of planning prototyping devising participatory strategies and exploring funding possibilities for their projects. In 2017, a Civic Imagination Project workshop came to Bowling Green challenging participants to imagine what Kentucky may look like in the year 2040.
Makaio Smith | WKU College Heights Herald | May 31, 2022
The Civic Imagination Project at USC has been researching the concept of civic imagination for years and conducting workshops, said Sam Ford, a PCAL alumnus and executive director of AccelerateKY, a non-profit organization that helped get the pilot program off the ground. AccelerateKY’s relationship with civic imagination started with a workshop that happened in 2017.
Jessica Luna | WKU Potter College News | May 18, 2022
“The City of Bowling Green is rapidly growing not only in population but in diversity of thought,” says Dr. Terrance Brown, Dean of PCAL. “Our ability to be proactive in bridging gaps in civic cultural and economic development will give us a stronger foundation upon which to build. I am ecstatic that the Potter College of Arts and Letters at WKU can partner with USC in bridging divides through the Civic Imagination Incubator.”
The Civic Imagination Project | May 6, 2022
Today, the Civic Imagination Project at the University of Southern California is excited to announce the launch of its Civic Imagination Incubator, with the first iteration of this Incubator having a regional, place-based focus, in partnership with Western Kentucky University’s Potter College of Arts & Letters, and the Innovation Campus at WKU. This partnership was facilitated by the Bowling Green, Kentucky, based nonprofit AccelerateKY.
Michael Phillips | Kentucky to the World | April 12, 2022
Nicole Ziege | Appalachian News-Express | April 6, 2022
Remake Learning Days Across America (RLDAA) will take place in more than 17 regions across the country, including Eastern Kentucky, with family-friendly learning events designed to engage caregivers, parents and children. Traci Tackett, director of digital literacy with BitSource, said that CEDAR, Inc., is the hosting organization for the festival this year, and the word for 2022 is “wonder.”
AccelerateKY | April 1, 2022
Michael Phillips | Kentucky to the World | March 18, 2022
As John Justice, the president and executive director of CEDAR, stated at AcclerateKY’s Connect. Inform. Inspire. Conference said, “We’ve changed the topic from coal to the future of work.” CEDAR has always offered support to students and teachers in the region, but the new scope of their efforts, which involves a number of competition-based academic programs, is structured to promote scholastic excellence as it relates to the future of entrepreneurship and labor.
Daybase | Feb. 16, 2022
The modern workplace hasn’t worked for many of us for a long time. Welcome to the new order in the future of work: hybrid. But there’s more — autonomy, flexibility, intentionality, and productivity are the guiding principles.
Taylor Cochran | Kentucky to the World | Jan. 31, 2022
Michael Phillips | Kentucky to the World | Jan. 10, 2022
KET | Jan. 2, 2022
Nothing shapes the possibilities we dream and the solutions we discover quite like stories. And, who better to help us tell the story of the future of Kentucky than individuals who are working toward building it? These stories will inspire people throughout Kentucky and beyond to see what’s possible and to think about a future here for themselves. Recorded at Waterfront Botanical Gardens in Louisville in front of a live audience on August 11, 2021
Michael Phillips | Kentucky to the World | Nov. 9, 2021
Aaron Mudd | Bowling Green Daily News | October 17, 2021
Haley Cawthon | The Business Journals | October 8, 2021
The nonprofit organization looks to unleash the potential of Kentucky’s innovators and entrepreneurs through generating new stories, relationships and initiatives and, in turn, creating new wealth. It also aims to be a central meeting place where stakeholders from the aforementioned sectors can gather to collaborate on initiatives that strengthen Kentucky’s innovation capacity.
Louisville Future | October 5, 2021
We spoke to Sam Ford, AccelerateKY’s executive director, about his collaboration with Kentucky to the World and how storytelling can help build a new economy for the Commonwealth.
Louisville Future | September 28, 2021
Louisville Future sat down with Rusty Justice to talk about how he is helping facilitate innovation in the heart of Appalachia.
Michael Phillips | Kentucky to the World | September 27, 2021
Michael Phillips | Kentucky to the World | August 13, 2021
It was never a hard decision for Rusty Justice when the coal industry began to show serious signs of sliding. Rather than obsess on the end of an economic, regional and cultural identity, he looked to the future. Always an entrepreneur, he soon found opportunity in a workforce that was highly skilled, disciplined and capable of adapting to new technologies.
Sam Ford | Kentucky to the World | June 17, 2021
Truly collaborative efforts must be forward-looking, cross-region, and cross-sector. They must foster, facilitate, and act as a catalyst for developing a culture and capacity for resilient, deliberate innovation.
MacArthur Foundation | April 28, 2021
The USC Civic Imagination Project helps communities use storytelling and pop culture to come together and find vision when dealing with complicated issues. In 2017, they came to Kentucky to work with us on imagining the Future of Work in Kentucky in 2040.
Gabriel Peters-Lazaro and Sangita Shresthova | Practicing Futures | 2021
Everyone in the room that day cared about the changing nature of work in Kentucky
Kevin Scott with Greg Shaw | Reprogramming the American Dream | 2020
Taking inspiration in Kentucky efforts to bridge both real and perceived divides between rural and urban development interests.
South Central Kentucky Workforce Development Board | October 20, 2020
Discussing the vital importance of bringing innovation to Kentucky’s world of work.
Quinn Burke and Emi Iwatani | Digital Promise | December 2, 2019
While there has been considerable focus on developing K-12 computational thinking pathways in major U.S. cities over the past five years, too often rural school districts receive considerably less attention on the national landscape. Our work with the Tough As Nails, Nimble Fingers project (Tough as Nails), which is funded by the National Science Foundation, aims to change this pattern and draw more attention to the resilience, promise, and potential of rural communities to develop their own computing pathways.
Tom Martin | WEKU | October 3, 2019
With coal revenues and jobs in decline, is there a “Plan B” for the coalfield communities of eastern Kentucky?
SOAR, Inc. | November 5, 2018
“Being able to learn and collaborate with MIT and its partners is a wonderful opportunity.”
Adam Conner-Simons | MIT CSAIL | August 24, 2018
“The goal is to help unemployed and underemployed workers in rural Kentucky learn computational thinking, which is a vital skill for today’s digital economy.”
Carol Lea Spence | University of Kentucky | May 11, 2018
Kentucky is one of nine international regions chosen to be in the sixth cohort of MIT’s Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program.
The Lane Report | May 11, 2018
Kentucky is the first US region to enter thistwo-year program that fosters entrepreneurship and innovation organized by one of the world’s top universities.
Sam Ford, Rusty Justice, and Aileen Owens | SXSW | March 13, 2018
How Kentucky is changing the way MIT thinks about the future of work.
Kevin Douglas Grant | GroundTruth Project | December 12, 2017
The Future of Work in Kentucky initiative is a solutions-focused effort designed to help MIT learn from Kentucky and vice versa.
Schuyler Velasco | CXO Project | December 12, 2017
Kentuckian Rusty Justice was in Boston to speak at MIT’s AI and the Future of Work event, and nearly every academic and industry leader who spoke after him took time to rave about what his company is doing
Robin Young | Here & Now | December 05, 2017
A chance encounter at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology between an alum from Kentucky and an MIT researcher has led to a unique partnership.
Samantha Flanagan | Mass Technology Leadership Council | November 21, 2017
MIT roboticist Daniela Rus, director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) is one of several academics attempting to address these complicated questions through a partnership with Kentucky’s Future of Work Initiative, created by MIT alumnus and former Univision executive, Sam Ford.
Jeff Howe | Boston Globe | November 14, 2017
How Kentucky is changing the way MIT thinks about the future of work.
SOAR, Inc. | September 28, 2017
We were obviously interested in what they were doing, but they [MIT] were equally as interested in the things we are doing.”