Every Last Word

Dallas Innovates’ signature series capturing what leaders across North Texas are saying — in their own words — about innovation, impact, and what’s next.

The Last Word: DeSoto Mayor Rachel Proctor on Asking Residents To Take Part in City’s Video Campaign

by | Jul 26, 2023
“By taking the time to look at our residents up close, and showing who they are and how they make a difference in the fabric of our city, everyone will be able to see the DeSoto that I see," Mayor Proctor said in a statement. "And they’ll know exactly why there's so much to love about DeSoto.”
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The Last Word: Dale Sheehan on the Newly Opened Meow Wolf Grapevine
Sheehan, who joined the experiential art collective Meow Wolf in 2019 after working at Walt Disney Imagineering for a decade, spoke with ArtNet about the collective's recently opened permanent exhibition at Grapevine Mills mall in Grapevine.
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The Last Word: HiFAB’s Brent Jackson on How Prefab Homes Are Built in His Grand Prairie Factory
by | Jul 24, 2023
Now, instead of building its prefab houses on home sites, HiFAB is putting them together at the plant in three or four Lake|Flato-designed "modules." Later, they'll be put together like Lego blocks once they arrive at their permanent addresses.
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The Last Word: Solo Brands’ John Merris on How His Brands Stretch the Idea of Home
by | Jul 21, 2023
"What we've built is a family of brands that try to make it feel like you’re at home anywhere you go," Merris says on the podcast. "Our focus is really around good moments and lasting memories, helping people put smiles on their faces with friends and family and people they love."
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The Last Word: Akorbi’s Claudia Mirza on the Impact of AI on Artistic Expression

by | Jul 19, 2023
Since co-founding it in 2002, Mirza has led Akorbi, a provider of translation, interpretation, staffing, call centers, learning services, and localization. Writing in LinkedIn, she discusses a different kind of translation: asking generative AI tool Bing to create an image of a woman fighting robots. Bing refused, saying it couldn't display violence.
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The Last Word: ORCA AG’s Charmaine Tang on Her Wall Street Beginnings
by | Jul 18, 2023
The daughter of Filipino immigrants took a long, winding road to get to her office at Old Parkland, from a coveted spot at New York City's public Stuyvesant High School to a $5-an-hour job at JPMorgan Chase tugging bond trades out of pneumatic tubes to a finance and accounting degree at New York University.
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The Last Word: Dallas AI’s Aamer Charania on the Promise—and Perils—of Artificial Intelligence
by | Jul 17, 2023
Sunday was national AI Appreciation Day, so to mark it, the Dallas Regional Chamber did a Q&A with Charania and Babar Bhatti, co-founder and EVP of DallasAI, a nonprofit forum to accelerate learning and adoption of artificial intelligence.
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The Last Word: Macrocyclics Founder Dr. A. Dean Sherry on His Company’s Impact on Nuclear Medicine
A holder of 34 patents, Sherry was a pioneer in designing molecular materials for use in medical imaging. His work on chemicals called macrocyclic ligands led to their use in carrying "a payload of metallic radiotherapeutic compounds that can kill cancer cells on contact, while the outside molecular structure can be designed to bind to a specific protein that ensures precise delivery to only diseased tissue," Amanda Siegfried writes in UT Dallas Magazine.
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The Last Word: Robert Sturns on MP Materials’ Rare Earth Magnet Plant at AllianceTexas

by | Jul 11, 2023
Through a long-term agreement with General Motors, MP Materials is bringing its MP Magnets division to AllianceTexas in Fort Worth. The company is building a new, 200,000-square-foot rare earth magnetics and materials manufacturing facility which will "re-shore" critical components for America's EV batteries, robots, drones, defense systems, and other tech.
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The Last Word: The DSO’s Kim Notelmy On a Symphony of Outreach, Education, and Unforgettable Acoustics
A former chief operation and communications officer for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Noltemy joined the Dallas Symphony Association in 2018. Since then she's learned a lot about the city—and a lot about what orchestral music can do for its citizens.
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The Last Word: Brinc’s Mark Lang On Why Suspects Surrender to His Company’s Drones
by | Jun 29, 2023
On Tuesday, Dallas County held a Drone & Robotics Demo Day featuring presentations by 10 trailblazing companies. The event showcased a range of high-tech solutions—from surveillance drones to cleaning robots—that were both practical and, at times, awe-inspiring.
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The Last Word: Susan G. Komen’s Paula Schneider on Nearly $20M in 2023 Breast Cancer Research Grants
by | Jun 28, 2023
Dallas-based Susan G. Komen said the $19.3 million in grants will support its mission to end breast cancer through funding two focus areas: advancing precision medicine and eliminating disparities in breast cancer outcomes, while continuing the organization's commitment to supporting the next generation of diverse leaders in breast cancer research.
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The Last Word: UTSW’s Brad Phelan on the Rise of North Texas’ Biotech-Plus Ecosystem

by | Jun 22, 2023
The Health Supernova conference at Dallas' Pegasus Park gave the stage to innovators in Texas (and beyond) who are shaking up the status quo in biotech. From neurotechnology to mental health therapies, AI to robotics, the conference highlighted how these fields are intersecting and pushing boundaries.
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The Last Word: Akorbi’s Claudia Mirza on How To Lead with Empathy and Wisdom
by | Jun 21, 2023
As Mirza built Akorbi into one of the fastest-growing woman-owned business in the world, she learned a lot about leadership. She shared some of those lessons in a recent LInkedIn post titled "Leading with Empathy and Wisdom: A Leader's Dilemma." 
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The Last Word: Joshua Ingram on His 12-Hour Wednesday Concert for Alzheimer’s Research

“Playing for 12 hours straight wears on the body, and before it’s over I’ll have to superglue my fingers in order to keep playing.”

Joshua Ingram
Fort Worth Performing Artist
.…on
...

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The Last Word: RecNation’s Gary Wojtaszek Drops a Hint About Things to Come
by | Jun 15, 2023
In the wake of Dallas-based RecNation's securing a $500M debt facility to supercharge its national expansion of its recreational storage and rental service, founder and CEO Gary Wojtaszek gave a playful hint of things to come on LinkedIn. 
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