Ask NKU

Yacoub Sidya is the founder and CEO of MSS Security. He founded MSS Security in 2003 at the age of 24. MSS is one of the largest employers in Mauritania, which is in West Africa. The company has multiple locations spread across the globe. Yacoub also runs Phoenix Precious metals, a Dubai-based gold trading, and mining company. Yacoub was recruited to NKU on a soccer scholarship, and he graduated with a degree in Business Administration.

Dr. Stephanie Hughes is the Co-Founder of The Chapel Hill North Group and CHN Analytics, LLC, a predictive big data market intelligence firm that leverages and extends nearly 20 years worth of big market competitive intelligence expertise. At NKU, Hughes leads strategy capstone courses in the Haile/U.S. Bank College of Business.

Crawford is the Owner and Artistic Director of Rapture Dance Company.  She began dancing at the age of five and has been teaching and choreographing throughout the Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati area for the past thirteen years. Crawford grew up dancing in the Northern Kentucky area in many different genres as a competitive dancer, traveling to competitions and conventions within the tristate. Opening her dance studio has been a dream since she was ten, and it's been surreal to see her dream become a reality.

Kristin previously was a sales manager focusing on customer service. Wanting something different, she has spent the past ten years as a restaurant owner—Twin Bistro & Catering and now local favorite The Gruff.

Tim Metzner has been around startups his entire career. From early employee to founder to investor, Tim works with what he loves and with people who make him better. Now, he's focused on building APIs that power distribution for the $200B+ commercial insurance industry.   

Norm Desmarais serves as Chairman of TiER1 Performance Solutions and CEO of Entrep. Since 1989, Norm has founded several high tech companies serving industries including Fortune 500, Government, Department of Defense, and Healthcare.  Prior to starting companies, Norm worked in the aerospace industry for General Electric and Raytheon.

Crystal has more than 25 years of global and domestic marketing experience. She is the founder and CEO of the award-winning The Voice of Your Customer. The certified minority-owned marketing firm assists clients with penetrating hard to reach, niche and underserved markets using survey research, focus groups, secret shopping, business training and media campaigns. Crystal is also the founder of the Voice of Black Cincinnati website.

Dave Knox is a leading consultant, speaker, and coach who closes the gap between Fortune 500 and entrepreneurship through innovation, marketing, and digital transformation. Dave blends classical brand marketing acumen with entrepreneurial instinct to navigate a changing corporate landscape.

Isaiah started customizing shoes in 2017 as a hobby which turned into a way to earn extra money. He was accepted into The INKUBATOR program in Spring 2019. In The INKUBATOR, Isaiah launched Smoove Creations LLC, recruited a team, attended SneakerCon, and generated over $10,000 in revenue since May. After graduating from The INKUBATOR, Isaiah won the Entrepreneurs’ Organization’s Global Student Entrepreneurship Award (GSEA) Cincinnati Regional Competition, and will now compete in the National Competition in Silicon Valley. Isaiah continues to focus on his academics, building his start-up, competing in pitch competitions and plans to pursue his MBA.

Sit down with Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship to learn more about the greatest entrepreneurs to come from NKU. Episode kicks off with Dr. David Schneider.  Spanning a 30-year career, he discusses a wide variety of business experience, from launching startups to guiding established public and private companies as the president/CEO. 

Dr. John Metz, associate professor of geology in the NKU's Department of History & Geography, studies local and international environments—namely how people interact with both their bio-physical and socio-economic environments. Recently, his interests have led him to take a deeper look at farmers markets in and around our region. In this podcast, Dr. Metz tells us how he came to this research interest, why it matters and how we can (and should) find a local market to acquire some of our own sustenance.

Earth Day episode! Cities are wonders of the modern world, but as a concept they're still very much a work in progress as we evaluate the impact of urban areas on population and environmental health. Dr. Kirsten Schwarz, an urban ecologist at Northern Kentucky University, tackles issues like rainwater runoff, lead contamination and more, and she stopped by to talk about her love for both cities and her work to make them work better.

J.K. Rowling's boy wizard first appeared on bookshelves 21 years ago, and in the time since Harry Potter has blossomed into a cultural phenomenon. From films to fan fiction to gifs and memes, Hogwarts is no longer limited to the page, existing across myriad media outlets. In their book, "Transforming Harry: The Adaptation of Harry Potter in the Transmedia Age," Dr. John Alberti and P. Andrew Miller compiled essays exploring the various ways Harry Potter fans engage with the wizarding world, and they joined us in the studio for a lively chat about the boy who lived.

John Gibson is a lecturer in NKU's Electronic Media and Broadcasting program, as well as a producer at Norsemedia, a collective of students, faculty and staff from the department of communication. Gibson is also a filmmaker in his own right, with a feature film, 2013's indie western-horror "Revelation Trail," available for viewing on a number of streaming platforms. He stopped by the Ask NKU studio to share some stories about himself, lessons he learned making a film from scratch and the value of vintage toys to adult creativity. (bumper music courtesy of bensound.com)

This July, 2017, Tyra Patterson, also known as prisoner number 037737 in the Dayton Correctional Institute in Dayton, Ohio, will go before a parole board to argue for her release. Tyra’s been imprisoned for 23 years for a murder that, according to overwhelming evidence that includes a statement by the women who actually fired the fatal shot in this case, Tyra did not commit. Her participation in other crimes that occurred that night, September 20, 1994, is less clear. But those secondary crimes, according to her lawyer, David Singleton, as well as many other advocates that include Republicans and Democrats in the Ohio House and Senate, do not justify Tyra’s decades-long prison sentence. Singleton, who also serves as the executive director of the Ohio Justice and Policy Center as well as a law professor at Northern Kentucky University’s Chase College of Law, joins us to talk about Tyra’s case, our overwhelmed criminal justice system, and the Constitutional Litigation Clinic he started at NKU more than a decade ago.

Welcome to the final episode of our special Ask NKU series, where we’re breaking with tradition to help you: the undecideds — the student who has been admitted to NKU but hasn’t yet confirmed, or the high school upperclassman who is completely freaking out about making that big college decision. Maybe you even watched the Norse men's basketball team play in their first NCAA D-I Tournament and want to know more about this amazing university. So just for you we’re presenting three dynamic NKU students, as well as the Admissions Director and the Communications Coordinator, to tackle these topics head on. This, the third and final episode in this three-part series, is dedicated life outside the classroom. That includes Greek life, cool things to do and places to go around the region, as well as advice and tips for how to get to those places. And for parents, it includes a message about how NKU is going to help your child not only graduate successfully, but also build a network of support and become a leader. Go Norse!

Welcome to part two of our special Ask NKU series, where we’re breaking with tradition to help you: the undecideds — the student who has been admitted to NKU but hasn’t yet confirmed, or the high school upperclassman who is completely freaking out about making that big college decision. Maybe you even watched the Norse men's basketball team play in their first NCAA D-I Tournament and want to know more about this amazing university. So just for you we’re presenting three dynamic NKU students, as well as the Admissions Director and the Communications Coordinator, to tackle these topics head on. This episode is dedicated to all-things campus life. We do a bit of mythbusting about the commuter experience here (and yes, you can be as involved as anyone else on campus) as well as student organizations, campus housing, and meal plans. We even offer tips and advice for parking and how to navigate the roundabouts!

Welcome to our special edition of Ask NKU, where we’re breaking with tradition for this three-part series to help you: the undecideds — the student who has been admitted to NKU but hasn’t yet confirmed, or the high school upperclassman who is completely freaking out about making that big college decision. Maybe you even watched the Norse men's basketball team play in their first NCAA D-I Tournament and want to know more about this amazing university. So just for you we’re presenting three dynamic NKU students, as well as the Admissions Director and the Communications Coordinator, to tackle these topics head on. In this first episode, we get right into the nitty gritty of the registration and orientation process. We tell you how to make sure you get the classes you want, point you toward resources to help you decide on a major, and we even talk about what to do with the early scheduling survey that some of you may have recently received.  Hopefully by the end of this episode you’ll feel much more informed and comfortable with your decision to attend NKU — and how to get started!

Since joining NKU in 2008, Dr. Cecile Marczinski has established herself as a leading authority in the field of psychopharmacology. Dr. Marczinski first made the national news in 2013, when her research found that diet soda cocktail mixers increase blood-alcohol concentration (and thus, intoxication) much faster than alcohol mixed with sugar-sweetened mixers. Her follow-up research on the combined effects of alcohol and energy drinks has been cited in Food and Drug Administration investigations into the safety of caffeinated alcoholic beverages. Dr. Marczinski’s recent studies center on using alcohol related social media content to predict risky alcohol use in college students.  

For a lot of college students, participating in a study abroad program completely changes their perspective. It can influence their selection of a major, alter their career path, or change their outlook on life in general. When a student spends a semester in another country—or when students from other countries here for their education—they get to experience a new culture, make new friends, learn another system of government and perhaps a new language. But did you know that this international approach in higher education—including study abroad programs and international students—is vital to nothing less than the national security of the United States.  How? Find out on this episode of Ask NKU.

Northern Kentucky University’s Nurse Advocacy Center for the Underserved, or NACU, actually does more than its name implies. The program not only advocates for poor and underserved populations throughout Cincinnati and northern Kentucky, but each year it also provides vaccines, direct aid, and nursing care to hundreds of people who desperately need it. Here our guests discuss the dramatic impact that NACU has on people like Keisha Owens and others in the Brighton Recovery Center for Women, as well as homeless and underprivileged people across the region. As we approach the holidays, this is truly an episode you don’t want to miss—an amazing story of sacrifice, compassion, and the emotional bonds that are formed between nurses, students, and the populations they serve.

Last September, a toxic bloom of cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, covered a 636-mile stretch of the Ohio River like a rancid, reeking green carpet. With toxic blue-green algae seeming to appear with greater and greater frequency both regionally and across the country, we invited Dr. Miriam Kannan, Regents professor of NKU in the Department of Biological Sciences, as well as Dr. Michael Waters, assistant professor in NKU’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics, to teach us about cyanobacteria—when it’s dangerous, why it’s becoming more common around the region and across the planet, how can to identify it using a new mobile app they are creating.

Episode Four: Stress and Leadership George Manning - Psychological Science Faculty We work long hours, take short vacations, and yield to never-ending obligations as well as constant notifications from our smartphones. All along the way, stress is piling up around us like so much toxic trash. We need the tools to dispose of it before it overtakes our lives. Thankfully, Dr. George Manning is here to help. Recognized internationally as an expert in the fields of stress and leadership, Dr. Manning has been a professor of psychology and business at Northern Kentucky University for 45 years. He’s also beloved by scores of his former students and the countless friends he’s made at NKU since 1970. Stress, the art of leadership, a stroll through NKU’s formative years, and the reality-bending recipe for philosopher’s pie—all here on this episode of Ask NKU.

For this episode we’re breaking from our usual format to bring you an interview with reporter and author Sam Quinones, whose latest book, Dreamland, the True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic, lays out the entire history of modern heroin addiction. From the pharmaceutical marketing techniques and increased prescription of opioid painkillers, to the small town in Nayarit, Mexico where black tar heroin is produced, to the drivers who carry small balloons filled with heroin in their mouths and deliver them a focus on customer service. Dreamland has that rare quality of being both exhaustively detailed and utterly fascinating, and comes highly recommended by every major book review in the country. One note: the interview with Sam Quinones was conducted over Skype, and the sound quality, while decent, has a slightly "underwater" quality. Sam Quinones will be speaking at NKU on Monday, April 18 in Greaves Hall, so make sure to register here for this free event. hicinfo.nku.edu/events.html

Our guest for this episode is Dr. Michael Baranowski, political scientist and associate professor in NKU’s Department of Political Science, Criminal Justice, and Organizational Leadership. Dr. Baranowski has taught at NKU since 2001, specializing in American politics and public policy. He’s also an author and a recognized political expert whose insights are sought out by local and national media for all manner of political reporting. Dr. Baranowski takes us behind the scenes into the political process for the heated primary contests, and talks about how it all plays out in a modern university classroom.

Our guest is Dr. Joe cobbs, associate professor for Sports Business in the Haile/US Bank College of Business at Northern Kentucky University. Joe is in his sixth year teaching at NKU, and he has presented his research on rivalry in sports at conferences around the world in North America, South America, Europe, and Australia. In this episode, Joe shares his expertise on rivalries—the art of rivalries, the deep emotions that people invest in them, and the big business behind the biggest rivalries in sports.