Meet the 2022 Movers & Shakers

By Dena Daw
Photography By Jonathan Fredin May 2, 2022

This year we are excited to recognize 23 movers and shakers who are making a considerable impact in our community. Many of these young professionals have made their mark by opening businesses, taking risks, championing causes, or simply thinking outside the box.

After receiving dozens of nominations, all were chosen for their impact, influence and their ability to shape the future of Western Wake County. Whether they be volunteers, artists or seasoned entrepreneurs, they have all overcome obstacles, seized opportunities and made a name for themselves.

Watch out, Wake County — they’re just getting started.

Andrea Gatt & Laura Bartoli

Members of the Green Hope Elementary PTA Board and Co-Founders of Falcon’s Nest Outdoor Classroom

Origin Story: Both of us are Triangle transplants — Andrea (on left) from New York and Laura from San Francisco — who met through the Green Hope Elementary (GHE) PTA Board. In response to Covid, and inspired by our children (we each have three), we put together a team of volunteers to fundraise and plan Falcon’s Nest, a 12,000-square-foot STEM outdoor classroom. The space is used by students and faculty as a learning space/classroom during the day, and at night, we hold concerts, events and meetings under the 28-foot covered shelter.

Motivation: When the pandemic hit, we realized how critical it was for our children to have access to an outdoor learning space. Public schools do not have the resources to develop these spaces, so we jumped into action. We worked with architects to turn our vision into a master design plan with input from WCPSS and the Town of Cary. We then had something we could take to local businesses to help us fund this truly meaningful initiative that would be used for generations of students.

Biggest Challenge: Funding options available to us from WCPSS were limited, so we put our heads together to figure out how we could raise the funds ourselves. We formed a Capital Fundraising Committee and immediately went after every option to raise money, including sponsorships from local businesses (in the form of money or materials), grants and PTA-sponsored fundraisers. We were determined and would stop at nothing to get this project off the ground within the year.

Favorite Accomplishments: It was exciting to collaborate with other GHE parents and community members. As there was no blueprint to follow, we educated ourselves on the process with permits, hiring the proper firms, and reaching out to environmental and academic advisors. We figured out sustainable solutions like using solar panels, drip irrigation and rain barrels to give the space electricity and water the plants. We want to teach our children that they can build a future world sustainably.

Goals: To grow as leaders and help guide other schools in creating similar outdoor spaces through our SOAR program (Sustainable Outdoor Academic Rooms). By sharing our process and knowledge, we can help bring these spaces to life efficiently.

Adam Bell

Festivals and Events Supervisor for the Town of Cary

Origin Story: I originally went to undergraduate school to become a cardiologist, but during that path a member of the university program board invited me to join this really fun club that planned events for the entire campus. I showed up and became a committee member and then a member of the executive board, which is how I started to fall in love with events and planning festivals. That was really my jumpstart to get me where I am now.

Recent Challenge: In July of 2021, I was told by my cardiologist that I had to get my second open heart surgery. On Sept. 15, I had the surgery, something that I was not ready or prepared for at 34. The recovery had been challenging — getting back on my feet, really processing that whole experience and that whole healing journey. I’m still recovering and healing from it now, but it has totally changed my outlook.

On Fostering a Positive Work Environment: I couldn’t and wouldn’t be here without the people I work with. Collaboration is so key when it comes to planning the smallest event to the largest event. Encouraging and providing people with the opportunity to grow, giving people ownership over projects and giving people the affirmations that they need is crucial to building a positive environment, and it has been a staple in my success.

Fun Fact: I own over 50 pairs of fun socks, so I am a fun socks enthusiast. I always have fun socks on — right now I’m wearing cheetah print!

Courtney Bowman

Owner of Raleigh Cheesy

Origin Story: I made my first cheeseboard in July of 2019 for my daughter’s 2nd birthday and fell in love with the entire process of getting to create art out of food. A few months later, I started Raleigh Cheesy as a creative outlet while I was a full-time middle school teacher, and it took off immediately. I had been a teacher for seven years and was beginning to feel burned out, so after three months of filling my weekends with making cheeseboards, I knew it was time to risk this and take it full time. I quit my teaching job at the beginning of the pandemic and have never looked back.

On Maintaining a Work/Life Balance: As a small-business owner, maintaining a healthy work/life balance is difficult, but I try to involve my family in the business as much as possible. I want my daughter to grow up feeling like Raleigh Cheesy is hers and to learn responsibility and hard work through helping run our small business. I try to keep as much open communication between my husband and daughter as well about when they feel they need more time with me or feel like I’m not being as present as I need to be.

Core Values: One of our biggest values at Raleigh Cheesy is authenticity. We always want to be authentic amongst our staff and with our customers. We want to constantly be in a place of growing and improving our services, being open to feedback and being excellent at what we do. We don’t have anything to hide, and we want to show our customers our real, authentic selves while providing them a product that we hope they’ll love because we love it too.

Heather Brewer

M.A., LCMHCS (Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor Supervisor), Program Director at CORRAL Riding Academy

Inspiration: Seeing our youth who have experienced so much adversity in life be able to overcome obstacles and actually look forward to the future, when many of them had little to no hope that they could be successful (especially with school)!

Thoughts on Mentorship: I can’t imagine going through life without having all of the mentors who have shaped me. My parents, family, friends, neighbors, teachers, church leaders, clinical supervisors and colleagues all play a role in being a listening ear and offering words of wisdom. I often complete interviews with college students in psychology and counseling classes, wanting to know how I got where I am. I always encourage them to find mentors along the way to help guide them!

Recent Challenge: Accessing mental health services for our youth and families has been even more difficult in the current environment. We are finding that they have to be on even longer waitlists due to the increase in need for services, which further compounds their struggles.

Fun Fact: I grew up riding horses and always had a dream as a teenager of working with people and horses together! Little did I know that dream would come to fruition 20 years later!

Heather Chandler

Video Game Producer, Consultant, Author and Small-Business Owner

Current Goals: After 25 years of producing video games, including the wildly popular Fortnite, I decided to try something new! I’m now the owner of Whole Brain Escape, an escape room in the heart of Apex. I run the business, and my husband creates the puzzles. Now, I’m looking forward to a new challenge: an escape room in a box, more elaborate than any such game we’ve created in the past. This new project contains a game within a game, which is something I haven’t seen before. I’m really excited about this one!

Biggest Challenge: The biggest challenge of my career was working as a senior producer on the hit game Fortnite. I was responsible for leading the production team in developing and launching the game on PC, console and mobile platforms. Prior to that game, I had a great deal of project management experience, but spending three years managing a team of 200 game developers is another matter.

A Proud Moment: Recently, I traveled to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC, where I was featured in two different exhibits. The first exhibit was for Never Alone, a video game that I worked on as a producer. Never Alone was noteworthy because it was one of the first games to be developed in partnership with an Indigneous people, the Iñupiat. Then I was thrilled beyond words to see my statue displayed at the Smithsonian. IF/THEN Initiative, an organization focused on inspiring the next generation of women in STEM, created an exhibit called #IfThenSheCan. This collection of 120 statues celebrates women innovators in STEM and features the most statues of real women ever assembled together. It was a true honor to be included in the exhibit.

Kelly McHugh Chtcheprov

Chief of Staff at Labcorp and Co-Founder/Owner of Bottle Theory

Origin Story: My third and final year of college at UNC, I skipped every Friday class to drive my mom to chemotherapy treatment at Duke. After graduation, I stayed in the Triangle to be close to my mom and my new fiancé, Pavel, who was finishing grad school at UNC. I landed a job at a market research firm in downtown Cary that introduced me to the drug development sector, which I was simultaneously navigating as my mom enrolled in clinical trials.

At the same time, Pavel and I started a side business. I designed personalized jewelry and cutting boards, and Pavel would engrave them on a laser cutter. But when my mom died, I wanted to do something more meaningful. I quit my job, sold the business, and enrolled at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business to study health sector management and marketing. I landed at Labcorp, where I led the Pixel by Labcorp product launch in 2019. With my new master’s degree, I also began teaching as an adjunct professor at UNC. In January 2020, I started a new role at Labcorp as Chief of Staff to our CEO, Adam Schechter.

While I was working crazy hours, Pavel was brewing beer in our kitchen and building furniture in the garage. We had long dreamed of opening our own brewery, but that dream morphed into a bottle shop, where we could celebrate the great breweries from across North Carolina and wine from around the world.

Thoughts on Mentorship: I think the best mentorships balance personal chemistry between the mentor/mentee with the skills and knowledge that each brings to the table. My college professor Terence Oliver and former employer Andrew Schafer have been great mentors. They invested time in my development, looked for opportunities for me to grow and helped make sure I was successful when I took on a big new project.

One of my mentors is a match made by my good friend Charlotte Buchanan. When she started a women’s group at Labcorp, Charlotte volunteered me to build the website and that led to a number of stretch assignments that ultimately led to my job today.

Pro tip: Finding a mentor is like finding a mate. If you have the right matchmaker, blind dates can work. Otherwise, you’re better off asking someone to coffee than blurting out a proposal.

Fun Fact: When we got married, I was a craft beer drinker and Pavel was not. I added a home brew beer kit to our wedding registry and unknowingly launched a lifetime hobby for both of us. Today, even our dog is named after a beer — Vienna Lager Chtcheprov!

Catherine Crosby

Town Manager for the Town of Apex

Origin Story: I am originally from Cleveland, Ohio. I have three brothers and three sisters. I was raised by a single mother. She is strong and instilled a strong work ethic and family values that I see in all of my brothers and sisters. The one lesson she taught me that sticks with me today is once one succeeds, come back and help the other. I keep this at the forefront of my mind in all my work.

Education: I have an undergraduate degree in accounting from Wilberforce University, the first private HBCU in the United States. I have a MPA from Wright State University. I started my career as an internal auditor for a short stint before entering public administration, a career I’ve found very rewarding.

On Leadership Qualities: I believe that a leader should be compassionate, vulnerable and unafraid to hold people accountable. A leader should inspire others by supporting them in accomplishing their goals. One should understand that people need different things to be productive and allow space and grace to offer those options to get the best effort out of each employee, volunteer or anyone else they encounter. I try to be this type of leader.

Impactful Lessons You Have Learned: One of the most impactful lessons that I’ve learned was from a very challenging boss. While it was the worst work experience, it helped shape my leadership philosophy, which is to treat people with respect and understand what each person needs to perform at their highest potential and meet that need.

Todd Dent

Chiropractor and Owner of Doc’s Spine and Sports Medicine

Guiding Philosophy: My guiding philosophy is to treat others the same way I would want my family treated. I ensure my patients don’t walk away with an impersonal and transactional experience. My goal is to understand what my patients need, what they expect, how their lives would be different if they weren’t in pain, and how I can help. I love what I do. Pain can take away your hobbies and things you truly love. I get to be a part of that road back. That is rewarding in ways I can’t describe.

On Overcoming Adversity: Every successful person has had to overcome something. My something was cancer. In 2015, I was diagnosed with stage 3B melanoma, all while in private practice and raising a young family. There were a lot of questions with no good answers, so you have to go with your best bad idea. You have to choose to be happy. I decided to put one foot in front of the other, move forward and take on each day as a gift.

Thoughts on Mentorship: Mentorship is one of the greatest gifts known to man. Your time, attention and guidance matter more than you know.

On Overcoming Fear: What if you knew that your hopes and dreams resided on the other side of your fear? It just requires a leap of faith and facing your fears head-on. After the surgery, my face and neck were healing, and I had difficulty speaking on my right side. I had to retrain myself how to speak and overcome the embarrassment of facial scarring. During that time, I learned that my appearance matters very little, and the only thing that mattered was my ability and my willingness to help my patients. Fear kills more dreams than failure ever will.

Justin Keishing

Local Artist

Origin Story: I was born in India. My father passed away when I was 3 years old, and our mother had no income and raised me and my five siblings alone. Somehow she sent us all to college. She passed away from breast cancer when I was 19. I taught myself English, how to manage travel, and how to do art. I’ve now worked for a U.S.-based nonprofit since 2015. When my flight back to India was canceled due to Covid, I taught myself art by watching Bob Ross videos. I’ve been doing art ever since. I was shocked when the public began paying for my art. It’s now turned into a big business. I’m so thankful.

On Overcoming Adversity: After the challenge of my father dying when I was 3 years old, growing up poor, and my mom dying when I was a teenager, one of my biggest adversities to overcome was getting a US visa. On my fourth application, the woman at the US Embassy not only denied my application but added, “Sir, you will never see the USA in your lifetime.” I was devastated. I flew back home and applied again. On my fifth application I was granted a 10-year US visa — it was a miracle.

Advice: My most popular canvas painting series is the “Chase Your Dreams” series. It was born out of my own ambition to chase my dreams, no matter what happens. In school I told my teacher that when I grew up, I wanted to travel. This dream of traveling has now brought me over 8,000 miles away from my tiny village in northeast India. I encourage everyone to have dreams and to chase them. Even as a poor orphan boy from India, I’m living proof dreams really do come true.

Arvind K. Mahajan

Serial Entrepreneur

Origin Story: My wife, Neha, and I are the owners of Safesplash Swimlabs Swim School, Sharkey’s Cuts for Kids, MyGym, Children’s Fitness Center, AKM Investments-Consultants & Brokers, Livespectrum Entertainment and School’s Village Plaza in Morrisville. I launched AKM Investments-Consultant & Brokers in 2006 and since then have helped hundreds of investor clients in commercial and residential real estate.

Fun Fact: I love to travel, play table tennis and spend time with my family. I have two children — Arnav, 16, and Anvi, 12.

Guiding Philosophy: Wherever we live, we try to contribute to the community in positive ways. We create and build facilities to fulfill the needs of the community and enjoy meeting lots of people and learning from all of them.

On Success: There is no such thing as a ladder of success. It’s a greased pole. You have to continuously work hard and give your best to remain at the top. You can’t have success without taking risks and thinking outside of the box. Your best is achieved when you come out of your comfort zone.

Proud Moments: When I see the families of the children we took care of at the Goddard School (from infants to pre-K) coming back to our swim school, gym and salon. It’s like a homecoming. I also love to see the smile on the faces of new home or business owners.

Karen Manganillo

Owner and Creative Director of Little Friday Design and KLP Designs

Origin Story: For 20 years, I’ve worked as a trained art director, first at NYC advertising agencies, then as lead brand consultant and designer for an NC-based furniture company, and then at my own company, KLP Designs. I was raised in a family where furniture was the focus — my father worked in the industry — and for years my side projects have all been in home design. I opened Little Friday Design because I was getting so much fulfillment from helping people reimagine their interiors.

Motivation: As a creator, I’m constantly motivated by the idea of what’s possible and how I can be the person to deliver the perfect solution for a client, something that brings their dreams to life. The excitement on their faces during and after a project means everything to me.

Inspiration: I like soaking up scenery and interesting, beautiful objects, whether it’s on travels, in books and magazines, online, or in local stores. If I’m feeling creatively stuck, spending an afternoon with a coffee and a stack of my favorite design magazines always gets me unstuck.

On Maintaining a Work/Life Balance: I’ve honed all of my design, project management and relationship-building skills from my time as an art director, but what I appreciate most about interior design is that it gets me away from my computer and into the world. I love meeting with clients and hearing what makes them happy. I love taking my kids along to antique shops or for a walk through the neighborhood to gather inspiration from what we see. Having my creative process intertwined with my day-to-day life is where I thrive most.

Javier Mendoza-Diek

Owner and Head Trainer at Proactive Dog Training, LLC

Origin Story: I was born and raised in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and I have always been passionate about animals, especially dogs. My first dog I spoiled, and due to my permissiveness and the dog’s inherent qualities, he was a 10-pound menace. My mom’s attempts to manage and control him were thwarted by my silly philosophy of letting him just do what he wanted. This led to a painful loss, as we had to give him away.

With my second dog, I worked on disciplining and training early on since I had learned the consequences of not being responsible. This dog turned out to be amazing, and we communicated so well. She provided me with such great experiences and memories that it drives me to help owners build beautiful memories with their own dogs.

Core Values: Hard work and taking responsibility go hand in hand. You can only become the best you can be if you work hard on your craft, work hard on yourself and always show up.

On Overcoming Adversity: Right before I started the business, I had two jobs — a dog training/manager job and veterinary technician. I left one job, as I was offered a great opportunity, but one week later I had to leave the other job due to circumstances outside my control. This left me with nothing but a tough decision. Should I apply to work elsewhere, go to grad school, or follow my dream of training dogs for a living?

Thanks to the support of many and all the preparation I had done, I took the leap and followed my dream. I gave myself two years to give this a shot — six years later, I’m still in business and enjoy it every day.

Yoana Nin

CEO and Broker in Charge of the Prosperous Agency

Fun Fact: I am originally from Transylvania, Romania and came to the US after winning the green card lottery. After moving to Los Angeles, I worked for several years as an actress in Hollywood and at one point I was Madonna’s personal stand-in. After moving to Cary in December 2011, I became a top agent with Keller Williams Realty Cary and decided to go independent in 2018 as the broker in charge of The Prosperous Agency/Yoana Nin Realty.

On Overcoming Adversity: It was a challenging thing for me to come to the US and leave my family behind, especially when we have a great relationship and everyone is still in Romania. For me, overcoming the cultural challenges of being new to the US and the whole system and starting a new life was hard. I was an actress, so I had to reinvent myself, and so did my husband. We had to find something completely different to do with our lives.

Recent Challenge: I just wrote my second book. It’s hard to write a love/poetry book in English, so it was definitely the biggest challenge in the second part of last year.

Proudest Moment: When I had my children without an epidural after being induced!

On Success: Life, work, family, motherhood, health and mindset can be success, not necessarily money. There’s a saying that goes, “I’d rather smile and laugh in a Toyota than cry in a Maserati,” so success is relative.

Jessica Norwood

Global Sales Content Strategist/Author and Founder of Knotty Girl Publishing, LLC

Guiding Philosophy: Many of my proudest moments started with one question: “What’s the worst that can happen?” My first children’s book was featured on “LIVE with Kelly and Ryan” on ABC in 2021 because I asked myself that question. I recently got into a prestigious Harvard Business School leadership development program, on full scholarship, because I asked myself that question. I have coached many teams to have this same mindset, and they have also found success. Go for it. Give it a try. What’s the worst that can happen?

On Continuing to Grow as a Leader: Personal and professional growth are always on the forefront of my mind. I love listening to podcasts about entrepreneurship, reading books about “having it all” and parenting, and taking development courses that will challenge me and push me to be better. Right now, I am in a leadership development program called The Leadership Consortium, founded by Harvard Business School professors. It is challenging the way I think and lead, and I am grateful for the opportunity to be part of this 2022 cohort. I am also in the process of completing my Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification, which will help me succeed and lead with data in my current role at Cisco. I have always challenged my teams to get 1% better every day, and I pride myself in leading by example and ensuring that I am also showing up and getting better every day.

Thoughts on Mentorship: I believe mentorship and sponsorship are critical to personal growth and professional success. Having people to look up to and learn from is crucial in growing personally and professionally. Sponsorship is equally important. Having people who will center your name in a room when you are not present is invaluable. I have a few sponsors that I am incredibly grateful for — there is something so special about knowing that people are rooting for you, publicly.

Tarkisha Poole

Transforming Leader/Manager of Community Engagement at Coastal Credit Union

Origin Story: For the last 10 years, I have been actively engaged in the community. I began my journey with Coastal Credit Union having a strong sales background and a heart to serve. Over the years, I have worked with 150+ nonprofits on developing and implementing strategic plans and collaborated with business owners and companies to provide funding and programming that support the work they are doing — all the while leaning on the credit union’s philosophy of “People Helping People.”

On Maintaining a Work/Life Balance: Ha! Is there such a thing? My ability to maintain a work/life balance depends on the day. If I am intentional with the time I allot for each task, I am balanced. If I am distracted by every element of life, I am unbalanced. I can assure you that I am consistently striving to maintain work/life balance, but let’s just say I am taking it one day at a time.

Life Lesson: One of the impactful lessons I learned in life came from running track and field. I served on the 4×100 and 4×200 relay teams. In a relay, each person with the baton is responsible for how far the team goes. The baton symbolizes that they are the leader during that moment. As we lead, our only requirement is to take all of the resources, abilities and options that we have in front of us and strive to lead the team and others towards the main goal. The impactful lesson in this is that when you have the baton, exhaust every possible option, maximize your full potential, and do everything that you can to lead the team to do the same.

Fun Fact: I am a gospel singer on a nationally recorded album! If you google “Tarkisha Poole gospel singer,” you will find a single entitled “God’s Favor” that I recorded in 2011. Album: CoCo Brother Presents Gospel Mix, Vol. V 2011.

Alison Rogers

Co-Founder at Blush Cowork, A Women-Focused Coworking Space

Favorite Accomplishments: Opening Blush Cowork in Cary!

Biggest Challenge: Finding a place, time and support for a business that doesn’t neatly fit into most folks’ boxes. There were so many points where it would have been much easier to give up (and I am sure more to come), but staying the course feels like a huge hurdle that we overcame.

Core Values: I believe that you must take care of certain concerns if you want folks to be their most dedicated, productive and creative selves — the best work is NOT done when you are worried about childcare or not being heard when you speak up.

A Proud Moment: Every time someone tells me that something like Blush has been needed, or was what they have been looking for, or solves a problem for them, it’s a new proud moment for me and really provides the motivation to keep going.

Fun Fact: I have done a bit of everything over the course of my working life, from being a smoothie jerk to an advice columnist to advertising executive, and every experience serves me every day!

Sheena Scruggs, Ph.D.

Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Solid Roots

Origin Story: Back in 2018, while working at the National Institutes of Health as a science writer, I had the opportunity to write a fact sheet for the general public about the various ways that certain ingredients in our cosmetics and personal care products might be harmful to our health. Needless to say, this concerned me, and so I started looking for ways to detox my personal care routine. I started creating my own products, such as lotion, deodorant and makeup.

Around the same time, I was also getting really interested in becoming more eco-conscious by finding different alternatives to single-use plastics in my daily life. I launched Solid Roots to not only provide premium products that are better for your hair, your health and the planet, but also to be a force for positive change in our world. 1% of total sales goes directly to nonprofits or organizations that focus on programs that give back, impact social change, or help heal the planet.

Motivation: My main motivation for starting Solid Roots is to leave the world a better place for future generations. When I launched the company, my husband got me a sign with a Warren Buffett quote that reads, “Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” I have this sign hanging in my formulation lab where I hand-make all our products as a reminder for why I do what I do. The work that I am doing now by helping others eliminate single-use plastics will contribute to making sure that our future generations have a planet to enjoy.

Justin Senkbeil

Co-Founder and CEO at CompostNow Inc.

Origin Story: I’m a passionate social and environmental entrepreneur with 10+ years of experience in startups and business management. Dedicated to supporting people and organizations that regenerate and invigorate. My early years were in Texas helping my mom run a ranch. We found ourselves back in North Carolina with family during my high school years, and I went to NC State University. I co-founded CompostNow when I was 20.

Impact: Since 2011, our subscribers have diverted 42,422,156 pounds of compostable material from landfills and created 13,999,311 pounds of nutrient-rich compost for homes, gardens and farms. One little bin at a time.

Motivation: I am motivated by how such a simple act can have such an incredible impact (and how many people truly want to do good in the world).

Fun Fact: Jay Bond, of Bond Brothers Beer Co., was our first employee at CompostNow.

Life Lesson: Take your work seriously, but not yourself. Tend to your closest relationships, and remember to have fun!

Sarah Seward

Owner/Operator at Drybar Raleigh at Midtown East and Drybar Cary at Waverly Place

Company Culture: At Drybar, we are focused on giving each and every client the premier blowout experience, with a goal to bring confidence and happiness to women! Drybar has 10 amazing core values which we use to hire, train and coach our employees. My favorite right now is “Always Be Growing.” No matter where you are in your life or career, there is always something new to learn, and keeping your mind open to growth is essential!

On Overcoming Adversity: The best piece of advice I have received is to keep going. Pain is temporary, and even when the worst seems to have happened, get up, put your makeup on and push through it. If you are honest, work hard and are a good person, great things lie ahead for you.

Recent Challenge: Hiring! We are having to get creative and adjust to the changing times in a post-Covid world. Send amazing stylists our way!

Inspiration: The collection of strong women entrepreneurs and friends in my life who have lifted me up and encouraged me when times were tough, have celebrated with me during the great times and have been there for all the times in between.

Scott Stein

Director of Endless Sports

Favorite Accomplishments: Without a doubt, my greatest accomplishment has been my children. They are two of the most caring, loving, loyal and intelligent people that a parent could ask for. Family aside, some of my favorite achievements include creating a few community traditions. We held a touch football game on Thanksgiving morning and would often have in excess of 75-80 people playing. Not only was this a great family bonding experience, but it also served as a fundraiser for ALS. We also held an annual holiday gift-wrapping/toy drive party that would benefit a local children’s hospital. Currently, Endless Sports’ mission to provide athletic opportunities to members of the special needs community has been extremely gratifying!

Current Goals: While Endless Sports is currently a local nonprofit, our goal is to spread the love. We’ve clearly identified a need for a program like ours and would love to offer it to as many people as possible. I’d like to partner with similar-minded people and organizations and develop a systematic approach to growing our program. We’ve already established relationships with the lacrosse programs at UNC Chapel Hill and Duke, and I’d like to partner with more universities and offer one-day clinics. Long-term? I’d love for there to be Endless Sports chapters throughout the country.

Advice: I would encourage everyone to find their passion, whatever that might be! Once you do, there’s a newfound energy and clarity. It’s amazing how when you’re passionate about something, doors suddenly open and opportunities present themselves. If you can then take that passion and use it to positively impact your community in some small way, then wow, what an amazing thing that would be!

Jean You

Pediatric dentist and practice owner of Little Tooth Co. Children’s Dentistry in Apex

On Fostering a Postive Work Environment: I find it important to focus on communication and team building. I invest heavily in my team, as they are my practice’s greatest asset. When the entire team is focused on the same goals and is highly motivated to provide the best care, that dedication and joy is infectious and leads to an enjoyable atmosphere for everyone, from our littlest patients to the staff to the parents and just about everyone we have the privilege to interact with.

On Company Culture: Our mission at Little Tooth Co. is to help cultivate a generation of children who are motivated to maintain healthy, beautiful smiles. Our success comes from working hand-in-hand with parents who entrust their children to us. We listen to our families’ concerns and place value on efficiency, patience, mutual respect, prevention and education.

Recent Challenge: My most recent challenge to date was having to close my office unexpectedly when I went into labor a few weeks early in the summer of 2021. It is very hard to find maternity leave coverage as a solo practitioner, a specialist and a private practice owner. I searched for the entirety of my pregnancy to find a qualified doctor with great chairside rapport who would be a good fit with our team. Luckily, I did find part-time coverage and was able to have a seasoned pediatric dental colleague help see my patients during this special time. I did go back to seeing a full schedule of patients six weeks after our son was born, which was difficult but necessary. I am fortunate to have had the full support of my team and our patient families. This community is amazing and consistently reminds me what a wonderful decision it was to take our family from the Northeast and call the Triangle our home.

Paul Zarian

Managing Director at Hines, a Real Estate Development and Investment Firm

Biggest Challenge: Professionally, it has been developing Fenton, without a doubt. Fenton is a walkable, mixed-use village with retail, restaurants, entertainment, office space and apartments located on a 92-acre property at Cary Towne Blvd and I-40. A project of this scale would be difficult enough, and Covid was certainly something we didn’t anticipate. I can’t count how many articles suggested that brick-and-mortar retail was dead and that employees would never return to the office. We had to adapt to the circumstances and have been fortunate to find a path to the other side. The project is now 90% pre-leased to a dynamic group of retail and office customers, and we can’t wait to open our doors to the community.

Influences: Besides my family, competitive swimming was the biggest influence on my life. We started practicing twice a day in sixth grade, 50 weeks per year. When I started swimming, I was not very good, but I enjoyed it and decided to keep trying, improving to the point where I was able to swim in college. It was a sport which taught me that hard work really can lead to great things and forced me, in a positive way, to stay disciplined and focused on my goals.

Core Values: Integrity is so important. Real estate is a relationship business and a long-term business. Reputations can be ruined in an instant, so it is so important to be honest with others, even if doing so is difficult.