Originally contracted by Logan Aluminum to work in their IT department temporarily, Vijay Kamineni has steadily advanced the ranks, earning titles like Development Team Leader and Business Transformation Leader. He now heads the company as a Chief Innovation and Technology Leader. And as he’s ascended to lead the company forward in its digital future, his focus has remained the same: to seek out and identify ways that new technologies can improve processes for both the worker and the work.
Vicki Phillips has charted the course for the future of education. Now as the Chief Education Officer and Vice President of National Geographic, she has developed a plan to modernize the organization’s efforts in expanding children’s access to education.
In celebration of Black History Month 2021, Kentucky to the World and the Muhammad Ali Center have collaborated to bring you the stories of five amazing Black Kentuckians who have forever shaped the reputation of our state with their work and talents. These people have had a positive “butterfly effect” that has created ripples to the story of Black history in Kentucky.
Everett McCorvey has since managed to reach the apex of two fields in tandem: music performance and teaching. As Professor of Voice and Director of Opera at the University of Kentucky, he has toured the world and received critical accolades as a leading tenor soloist.
Dana Canedy has received a Pulitzer Prize for reporting, written a celebrated memoir, become the first African American, first woman and youngest person to be elected administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes, and, most recently, taken the position as Publisher and Vice President at Simon & Schuster.
Shelly Zegart founded Kentucky to the World but she’s more widely known for her work to elevate the art of quilts, a passion that ended up defining over three decades of her life.
Michael Wines has used his tools as a journalist to shine a light on structural disenfranchisement at publications that include the Louisville Times, National Journal, the LA Times, and The New York Times.
Cassie Chambers Armstrong’s Hill Women reads as a faux-response to Vance’s polemic against the region: coming from Berea and growing up in Owsley County, she understands that poverty has largely been a policy problem, and that the people struggling in this region deserve community-level support rather than nationwide castigation.
In 2011, the groundwork began coming together for an ambitious project at The University of Louisville to archive Louisville’s underground music culture from the 1970’s to present day. At the helm of the project were people who lived it; zine makers, musicians, photographers, and fans.
