 HBCU Digest, welcome back. Today, we are privileged to have a conversation about an extraordinary gift, another one, to the Mecca Howard University, this one in the form of a $1 million donation from our guest today, Howard University trustee and philanthropist, Jim Muran, his wife and fellow philanthropist, Heather Muran, who have gifted this $1 million to help Howard establish an extraordinary research and development center on women in leadership, that will be global in scope and domestic in reach and opportunity. Also joining us today will be the director of that center, Howard University professor of political science, Dr. Jarper D'Uni Esquire, who will talk about that said scope. So folks, thank you so much for making time today. This is a historic gift. Jim, we will start with you as the trustee who sits on the Howard board. Can you talk to us about what kind of a moment this is for Howard of a recent stretch of great runs, recent stretch of great moments and philanthropic outreach. This is something that's unique because it's a gift that establishes a center that the eyes of the world will be upon in terms of creating opportunities for women and specifically women of color. What does that mean for you as a leader and a stakeholder of the institution? Well, first, thank you for having us. And I want to first express how incredibly proud I am to be a trustee of Howard and part of a small part of Howard's rich history over a century and a half of educating scholars. It has been my honor to be on the board trustees now for a number of years and to serve Dr. Frederick who I believe is the most inspirational, most impactful leader I've ever met in any field, whether it's in corporate America or in higher education. Howard is a perfect home for what Heather and I are trying to accomplish here because of what it already accomplished in the form of producing scholars in the field of medicine and education and in law and in media and what it does particularly to lift up and provide access to those of lower incomes to get that higher education, to graduate, to start their professional careers early, to have that sense of purpose and opportunity is really second to no institution that I know. For my part, I grew up in a fairly privileged background. My dad was in the seminary, luckily for me he bailed and but he raised his family in a largely white town that I grew up in. And I went to Wall Street and found a tremendous amount of opportunity for me, but a tremendous amount of discrimination of all forms, gender discrimination, discrimination against people with different backgrounds. And of course, that's where I met my wife, Heather, who faced a lot of that adversity and through adversity became one of the leading experts on consumer products in New York and on Wall Street. And so for me to be a part of Howard is a privilege. The fact that my wife and I have a shared purpose here in a view that she will articulate in terms of why this center particularly is important. And for me as a corporate citizen and someone who ran a large company, I recently retired from MGM Resorts, a company of over 70,000 employees, the majority of which are minorities. I really tried in my career to find ways to create pathways for success for minorities, for women, create support systems and mechanisms so that people can succeed. And I recognize that there's so much more we can and should do and Howard is a perfect place to do it. And Heather, you in your own right, you're a philanthropist and you've served on a number of boards of powerful companies. You serve currently on Johns Hopkins board and have helped them to raise in excess of $6 million for academic and research interests. What is it about Howard and this center that you believe will have the kind of impact not just domestically but globally on the subject of women in leadership across a variety of industries and across a variety of social concerns? Well, Jim has shared with me over the years how impressed he is with Dr. Fredrick and of course Howard University and its storied history. I think though that the spark that really ignited my excitement and also that cemented my confidence in the fact that this center could really be influential in developing our future generations of female leaders and especially black women female leaders was Dr. DiWani. And to be able to create a body of knowledge that it pertains directly to women not only in the US but around the world was something that was very near and dear to my heart somewhat differently than my husband. I actually grew up in a single parent household. My mom was the head of our household and a school teacher in Baltimore city and also in Baltimore County. And I went to school at an all girls school as a scholarship student and ended up from there going off to college one at the time that actually did not have a lot of female representation that's changed but at the time that's the way it was. And then off to Wall Street where more often than not I was the only woman in the room. So I got a chance to see sort of both ends of the spectrum which is the potential and the power of women in their settings and in their schools and to be in a school where I was, you were told you could be anything that you wanted to be if you could dream big enough but then the realities of getting out into the world and realizing that there were a lot of barriers in the way led me to really have a commitment early on towards advancing women in general. And when I was a student it was really more advocacy and volunteering and then as my career progressed working on things like mentorships and then philanthropy giving to scholarships that pertain to women. And then ultimately over these last several years working really directly on making sure that women have access to capital. And so my vantage point has always been largely women broadly written. And then I think Jim's perspective as a trustee at Howard and then of course the moment in time that we're in which brings to light a lot of social injustice issues and sort of considering from my perspective how it must be for someone to not only have all the challenges of being female but that at the same time to be faced with systemic racism and inequities that come with that. And so I think that it was really a convergence of the two things that we really love and care about that led us to this moment in time and feeling like if ever there was a time for this it's now. And Dr. Duwani, your career has spanned continents. You've written books, you are a Fulbright scholar a Carnegie scholar with emphasis in the law. As you look to direct this new center will the law be at the core of all that or most of what you do in terms of women in economics women in public policy women in social opportunity and social engineering is legal training or at least legal awareness a core part of that or just a small part of a broader scope of how women have impact and hold impact. Well, thank you, Jared for having me here. And I must say I'm excited to be on a panel or discussion again with the Marines who I happened to meet virtually the first time we had a discussion. And before I answer your question I must say that I am grateful to the Marines just like Howard University is but I am impressed by the Marines because when the first time I met with them we had a meeting over the phone, sorry over Zoom. I was really touched by the story you just had that these are two people who had different upbringing but they came together and they shared this passion for women and for minority issues. And I was drawn to them by what Mrs. Marin said that they're just not looking to open the door by this donation, but they are going to walk with us throughout the journey by helping with the fundraising helping with other programs that we run to make this center a reality. So these are the kind of people we really want to work with and I'm hoping that this partnership will be for generations as we build up on the foundation that they are laying. So to answer your question about if this center is going to be focused on law as much as academics, we want to believe that we are very objective and scientific in everything we do. There's definitely the bias of us being human. So the subjectivity of my training and I have what I call a multidisciplinary background is that I have a degree in law but then I'm also a political scientist. So as you know, politics and law it's found in everything in economics, in the sciences, in the arts, you name it. So I will definitely try not to be so focused on the law as my background shows I've been able to find myself in different spaces and work to the best of my ability. This center is going to be what we call an interdisciplinary center. So it's going to focus on the law it's going to focus economics, the sciences, the arts and also about women in industry. So it's really going to be spread across different ranges and not just on law or politics. Let me stick with you for a second because as an international scholar yourself and Howard is an international institution that already recruits students from all over the world. Do you think that this gives a new opportunity or a new pig in Howard's ability to reach different nations different people from all kinds of different backgrounds with the notion of, hey, come to Howard and you'll be a part of something powerful that will be transformational for the way that we view women we elevate women and promote women in these different industries and sections. Definitely, that is going to be a drawing one of the drawing boards for Howard University going forward in terms of not only for students but also the scholars and educators we engage around the world. As you know, Howard University has done a good job and is continuing to build up on not just drawing students and faculty from around the world but we are also sending our students abroad. So part of the mission of Howard University is to prepare students who are globally aware and globally connected. So in as much as we will be looking to draw people in through the center, through the work we do in terms of the research, in terms of the students and programming, in terms of the global leadership and global engagement we are also going to be preparing Howard students to go outside to the world and to be leaders, global leaders of the world. So those two will work together and I think it will be one good and positive way to heighten Howard University's presence globally. And then Jim and Heather, I would ask you this because no matter how well you're doing life a million dollars is still a whole lot of money and a lot of careful consideration goes into where we're going to spend or to donate one million dollars. So if you could, if it's not too intrusive can you talk about the conversation between within your family and within the Howard University community that starts to set in motion, hey, this is something that we could do and this is how we meet mutual objectives in a certain way. I'll let Jim start cause I know that he had spent a lot of time early on thinking about getting engaged with Howard and I think that I sort of came in towards the later end of that process and maybe Jim, you wanna start? Well, I believe very strongly in investing in people and investing in excellence and you just heard an incredible example of that with Dr. Dewany and the ability to invest in people, invest in leadership is the most important thing that I believe we can do. Heather and I have been fortunate, we didn't start out that way but we've done well since but we are investors at heart and so the idea of the return on investment to invest in a center such as this to invest these dollars in a center of excellence at a center of excellence like Howard is a very, very high return on investment and so from our standpoint it's something that I think it's been instilled upon us as children. My father talked about the concept of servant leadership when I was quite young. Heather has done so in her entire life and for us, what a great harmony between what my passion is for Howard, what Heather's experience and passions have been and I'll turn it over to Heather to talk specifically around this but for me it's an honor to do so and it's a beginning. The fact that the gift is just a starting point. I intend as a trustee to devote a substantial amount of my time to help Dr. Dwani to help Howard to make this center a center of excellence and perpetuity and the opportunities I believe are endless. Yeah, I mean, I think that I would echo that and maybe put an even finer point on it. I mean, I do feel like in many ways that I come to this personally in the same way that Jim does which is this is an investment, not so much a charitable gift. And when I look at all kinds of ways that you can slice this up, whether it's the representation that black women have had in the workforce and yet disproportionately they represent 4% of managerial positions yet they are the group of women that are most often represented in the workforce on a sustained basis. And also I do a lot of venture capital investing. If you look at black women in venture capital, they literally represent less than 0.001% of either founders of venture companies or of funders. And it just, there's a huge disconnect there. And I think that it's something that needs to be addressed. And if we address that, the returns on that are myriad because so many households are actually run by single black women. You invest in those households, those people spend money on their children and their families. It makes for better communities. It makes for a growing economy. They participate more robustly in the workforce, which every economist will tell you means that our economy will grow faster. So especially coming out of the situation that we're in, it pertains to not only an economic downturn, but social justice. This is the single best investment anybody can make. And I would remind everyone that a million dollars is a lot, but it's really not enough to get this center where it can be and needs to go. So I think that it's a starting point. We hope to raise at least $5 million for this. And I think the returns on investment in terms of human capital and what will happen in terms of social justice and our economy will be profound. You mentioned the $5 million total. Obviously that goes towards scholarships, that goes towards research and development opportunities that probably goes for faculty, finance and for certain projects. In the end, I would ask all three of you this final question. How will you define that this has been successful at the end of raising $5 million? Actually more than $5 million, we're gonna hope for. But when you've done that, what will you have looked back and said, you know what, this center is all to a good start. This is what tells me that this was a worthy investment and it's working for each of you. What would be that metric? And Dr. Duane, we'll start with you first because you were gonna be there. Yeah. So when I was called by President Frederick to submit a proposal, I had less than 10 hours to do that. The amount he told me to write was really a cut of a million and I literally had to ask people to show me how to spend a cut of a million on a center. So within less than 10 hours. I said this because the Marines moved four times beyond what they had initially or what I was told to write within a short period of time. And when I wrote that proposal, I'll have it here. One statement I did, the first part was that Howard is at a juncture of doing one more than we've always done, which is to be a part breaker. We are possibly at the juncture of producing the first woman vice president in the United States. This also happened before. So the Marines were having this discussion before where we are now with the vice president elect Kamala Harris. And so they took on that even though we didn't know how this was gonna go and they were still committed at that time. So to answer your question, looking back after a couple of years, still working with the Marines in the primary and the foundation, we want to look back and say that Howard University with the support of the Marines in building this foundation, we have produced many more Kamala Harris's in every industry. I don't wanna follow that. I don't know about you. I mean, it's pretty extraordinary to think about what the potential is. I mean, I think from my perspective, I wish I were as academically steeped in academia the way that Dr. Dewany is, but my background is business. And so I hope that we graduate people that choose a myriad of professions that go into, that go to Wall Street, that go become doctors, that go to become elected officials, that become lawyers and sort of looking at a whole diaspora of career choices for young black women. And that they become successful in whatever manner they measure. Meaning is it, they become a multi-millionaire and they come back to this center and they become the founder of the next leg of its success. That would be a huge marker of success. But I think also being an elected official and passing legislation that's really meaningful to people that are out there in similar positions, I think that's an equal measure of success. So I think that the way that I would like to measure it is by whether or not the people that have been touched by this center will have been able to achieve the dreams that they set out with. And I'll go last, and so I'm not allowed to have the last word at home. I cannot overemphasize how impressed I am with Dr. Frederick and Dr. Dewany and how I've seen Dr. Frederick navigate myriad of complex issues on the Howard board. His resolute focus on returns, on student outcomes, on student mobility, social mobility to providing a good business case for the university and its place in the academic world and his ability to recruit and retain professors such as Dr. Dewany. And I would think that if a couple of years from now, if we look back and Dr. Frederick and Dr. Dewany said, you know, we did good, you know, that's gold for me. And there isn't enough that I can do. I believe in the budget, I believe in the vision. I believe in the fact that Dr. Dewany and Dr. Frederick are great stewards of capital. I believe in the return on this capital. And I believe in my wife's ability to raise money, she's done so very successfully. I'm pretty good at it myself and we're gonna dedicate a lot of our energy, our family energy to making this a success. Jim and Heather Muran, Dr. Jarper Dewany, thank you so much for your time today. Congratulations again on this major announcement and we look forward to all the positive news and positive people who will come out of this center. Thank you.