Speakers

Zack Kucharski is the Executive News Editor for The Gazette, a media company within the ESOP corporation Folience. Zack started at The Gazette in 2000 as a freelance reporter and has been with the company ever since. Now part of our leadership team, Zack oversees the operation of all of The Gazette's news reporting and content and is leading the company’s statewide initiative Iowa Ideas. The Gazette’s recent purchase of five-day dailies in Washington, Mt. Pleasant and Fairfield has also added to his list of strategic responsibilities.

Zack serves on several councils and committees, including the Iowa Newspaper Association, the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, the University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communications and is a steering committee member on Iowa’s Creative Corridor’s regional task force.

Zack grew up in Chicago and upon enrolling at The University of Iowa, decided to make the corridor his home.  He lived in Iowa City from 1997 to 2008 and currently lives in Cedar Rapids with his two daughters Claire and Adelyn.  

The Mandela Washington Fellow Program has been hosted at the University of Iowa for three years and will have 25 Fellows again this summer.  

The program was started four years ago to identify entrepreneurs and leaders in Sub-Saharan Africa and bring them to the US for six weeks.  This is a very competitive program with over 40,000 applicants for 700 positions at 25 Universities. It is also quite competitive for the Universities so we are very proud to be selected year after year.

This is allowing the Fellows to learn from us and Iowa based companies and individuals developing opportunities in Africa.

• Jeff Quint founded Cedar Ridge in 2005, following a long family tradition of Iowa farmers and distillers back from when his grandfather, Nicolas Quint, produced locally made brandy.
• Cedar Ridge is the first licensed distillery in Iowa since Prohibition, and is located in Swisher, Iowa, a small town close to Cedar Rapids in the heart of America’s Corn Belt.
• Frustrated by the fact that Iowa is the number one corn producing state in USA, yet no Bourbon Whiskey was produced here, Jeff Quint launched Iowa’s first Bourbon Whiskey in 2010.
• Fine craftsmanship is a true reflection of Iowa’s mentality of doing the best with what nature gives them. No temperature control aging, minimal waste, and that Midwest resourcefulness put production first, favoring quality over quantity.

Greg Edwards has been a serial tech entrepreneur in Cedar Rapids since 1998.

His last startup was an offsite backup and disaster recovery company called Axis Backup. Axis was sold to publicly traded J2 Global in 2015, enabling Greg to start WatchPoint, a deception technology cybersecurity business. Greg has a passion for working with privately owned businesses to secure their technology investment. WatchPoint works with clients globally and with prominent local companies like The Accel Group.

Hiawatha is a growing, evolving community—its residents and businesses need access to attainable, attractive spaces where they can live and work, raise a family and be a part of something bigger than themselves. By creating a walkable residential, retail and entertainment district that represents the shared ambitions of local residents and businesses, Hiawatha Midtown offers a rare opportunity for the city to build its culture from the ground up.

The result will be a vibrant, welcoming neighborhood featuring a mix of housing types, businesses and green spaces that beautify the city. 

Lisa is a volunteer with Friends of International Students CR; the organizations goal is to connect international students studying at Coe College with community members in CR/Marion/Hiawatha for cross-cultural connection. 

Students are matched up with with a community member (family, couples, singles) with the idea that they'd get together on a regular basis (about once a month is the average - some end up getting together more, some less, just depending upon the student and hosts schedules). Sharing a meal or coffee out, cooking dinner together in the community members home, doing "American" things like visiting a pumpkin patch, having Thanksgiving dinner, or taking in a baseball game are some of the activities our students have enjoyed.

Currently the organizaion is working with students at Coe College, and are looking to expand the programs to Kirkwood and Mt. Mercy in the future.