This week’s episode was recorded live at the recent innovateUM conference. InnovateUM brings together community leaders, entrepreneurs, policy makers, researchers, students and more for an annual celebration of the incredible innovation happening within the University of Montana orbit. A New Angle recorded in front of a live audience for the first time, capturing two micro-panel conversations. The first features previous podcast guest Brigitta Miranda-Freer of the Montana World Trade Center and MonTEC, along with Nicole Rush of the Missoula Economic Partnership in a discussion of the Montana Bioscience Cluster. The second features another previous guest – Erin Switalski, now at the Headwaters Foundation – along with UM Professor of Social Work Ryan Tolleson-Knee in a conversation about early childhood education.

Doug Mitchell is the Executive Director of the Glacier National Park Conservancy. The Conservancy is dedicated preserving the park, educating current and future stewards of the park, and supporting world-class research that explores the park’s amazing ecosystems. In this conversation, we discuss why organizations like the Glacier National Park Conservancy are vital and how they fill critical gaps in funding for some of our most precious national treasures. We also explore how the organization sets priorities and makes decisions that affect the resource and all of our experiences with it.

In this fourth edition of the S.E.A. Change series we feature Susan Hay Patrick, CEO of United Way of Missoula. Susan is a renowned leader in Western Montana and she has a lot to say about many of the challenges facing our region, especially when it comes to the pillars of her organization – education, income, and health. We discuss how these issues affect women and mothers and the persistent challenge of hidden homelessness.

Dave Franke is a Principal at Franke & Company and the son of Bill Franke, founder of Indigo Partners. In 2016 the Franke family made the single largest gift in University of Montana history, naming both the WA Franke College of Forestry and Conservation as well as the Franke Global Leadership initiative.

Dave’s work involves finding places where the family can invest to create both impact and access and you’ll hear those two themes throughout the conversation. We discuss the concept of philanthropic investing and how it differs from the traditional charitable giving model. Dave cites some compelling reasons to invest in higher education, reasons that certainly resonate with me and likely many of you.