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Paths Less Taken
Meet seven alumni who have forged unusual career paths by following their fire and, in some cases, leaving their day jobs in the dust. With the new year approaching, we hope you find inspiration in these tales of entrepreneurial courage, purpose-driven professions and midcareer switch-ups.
BY NICOLE MARANHAS, ELIZABETH RAU, ELLEN LIBERMAN AND PIPPA JACK
In the Swim
On vacations, George “Hopper” McDonough ’93 could never completely take it easy. “I would find it hard to relax unless I was doing something active,” he says. As a former member of the URI swim team, he was in the British Virgin Islands in 2007 to assist a writer for Outside Magazine in swimming the full length of the island chain over the course of the week. They alternated between staying at resorts and sleeping on beaches—one night, he took shelter from the rain under a fish crate with a hole in it. “I fell asleep with my finger in the hole to keep the water from dripping on my head,” he says. “I realized that there had to be a better way to do this.”
Eight years later, the Bath, Maine-based SwimVacation hosts six trips a year to the British Virgin Islands, Hawaii, and the Turkish Coast. The leaking fish crate got an upgrade: The British Virgin Islands and Turkish Coast trips are based on sailing yachts. Travelers to Kona, Hawaii, meanwhile, stay in a luxe oceanfront home with a private chef and masseuse. McDonough organizes two guided ocean swims per day, varied among the coral reefs and beaches, and hosts optional swim clinics for those who want to improve their technique.
“Swimmers tend to be like other swimmers,” says McDonough. “Everyone is laid-back; it’s not a super intense sport, so we get groups of people who have a lot in common.” Beyond the low-impact health benefits of swimming, the ocean is famously therapeutic—McDonough notes that the trips are often life changing, remembering the day one group swam with pods of dolphins, or the night tripgoers watched a meteor shower from the bow of the boat. “I’ve seen people transform out in the water,” he says. “The ocean is very big, and it tends to be a cathartic place. It draws something out in people.”
He knows this from experience: During that fateful night under the fish crate on his island-chain swim, he was a landscape architect who had been contemplating a career change. As he recalls, “I wrote my business plan on the flight home.” •
Sky's the Limit
Sky’s the Limit
In a way, it began with picking up trash on a movie set. Chris Walsh ’05 had been taking a break from his work in communications when he was offered a job helping out on a film crew. Bored and curious, he treated it as an opportunity: “You always try to do your job well, even if it’s just picking up trash,” he says. The interim gig led to more work on film sets; soon he was on the construction crew for Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island and working his way into special effects, where he met Judson Bell, a 20-year film industry veteran. “We handled smoke, rain, snow, wind, high explosives, robotics, hydraulics—anything that wasn’t computer-generated,” Walsh says. “We started getting asked for interesting ways to mount cameras for unique shots; shortly after that, we discovered software for flying drones.”
As Bell and Walsh continued working together (they were special effects coordinator and technician respectively on the blockbuster Ted), they discussed ideas for potential projects, eventually teaming up with Walsh’s longtime friend Thomas Webb to form Elevated Perspective Media in Rhode Island. Using state-of-the-art drones (Bell has built his own customized systems as well), the trio shoots video and photography for the film and television industry—for starters.
“We try to provide any type of solution,” says Walsh. “You can do overhead captures for 3D mapping, or things like inspections for commercial construction or bridges, where you don’t want to put people at risk.” Some state police departments have expressed interest in working with drones for search-and-rescue operations in the future. “It comes down to the same basic equipment and understanding how to use it,” Walsh says. With their combined expertise—Webb has a background in art and photography, in addition to handling the business and legal aspects of their work—Elevated Perspective Media has quickly distinguished itself in the field, becoming one of the first and only commercial drone operators to receive FAA exemption. Recently, they have filmed work for NBC and the Travel Channel, as well as reteaming for Ted 2, filmed in Massachusetts.
“We get some pretty interesting and fun calls,” says Walsh. “Drones really do have a use almost anywhere. There’s such an opportunity if you have a good crew and it’s done in a safe way.”•
Video Vocation
Since childhood, the arts and sciences have been twin leitmotifs in the life of Ayla Fox ’11. And just as she graduated URI with a double major in film media and wildlife conservation biology, she twisted the two strands together. Today, Fox’s Shed Light Productions counts Sailors for the Sea, The Nature Conservancy, NOAA, Sea Grant, Coastal Institute, Coastal Resources Center and Metcalf Institute for Marine Environmental Reporting among its clients—all seeking to use film to communicate their messages about climate change, coastal resiliency and other environmental topics.
“I enjoy working with organizations that have a specific message they want to get across, with research and a company narrative,” she says. “I ask myself: is it really working? Is it getting to the audience? What does this do to help the call to action?”
Fox, 27, honed her film-making skills on SEARCHDOG, a documentary released this year featuring Rhode Island State Police Sergeant Matthew Zarella’s work rehabilitating abandoned dogs to become search and rescue police canines. In 2010, Mary Healy Jamiel, associate professor of film at URI’s Harrington School of Communication and Media, invited Fox to do some camera work on the production. Fox’s contributions to the project—searching archival footage, logging film, strategizing and helping with Jamiel’s Kickstarter campaign—diversified and grew until she earned an associate producer credit.
When Fox graduated, Jamiel referred her to Judith Swift, director of the Coastal Institute, to produce a film on climate change for its Waves of Change website. For a while, Fox worked as a freelance science communicator, but to continue as a vendor to the University, she would have to form a company. She named it Shed Light to brand her specialty—making science understandable and meaningful to a more general audience.
“I’m trying to shed light on why it matters to the target audience,” she says. “A lot of the time, the science and data would be confusing to a person in a different industry. If we craft stories around these data, we have a better chance of getting across the importance of it, especially if you are trying to get a behavior change. People connect with people. They don’t connect with data points.”
The daughter of Rhode Island entrepreneurs—her father owns Fox Construction, her mother is co-owner of the popular Charlestown ice cream shop, Holy Cow—Fox knew she would need to know a lot more than visual storytelling.
“I had to learn as I went—about taxes, about banking, about QuickBooks, managing clients, managing projects,” she recalls. “It was all new to me.”
Fox works out of her Wyoming, R.I. home, bringing in sub-contractors as needed to help with tasks like sound mixing or writing. For about three years, she worked for her family’s businesses while juggling assignments for Shed Light. Her company is now a full-time enterprise and she credits URI with teaching her the fundamentals of her craft and with getting her business going.
“I’ve probably developed a deeper, richer relationship with URI since I graduated,” she reflects. “It’s a different relationship: much more hands-on, with real stakes, real people and real deliver-ables. URI has taught me a tremendous amount, and it continues.” •
Starting with Parties
Gregory Brunson Jr. ’08 loved snowstorms as a kid. The sledding was great, but it was really the dollar signs that kicked off his winter blanket. He’d race out the door of his Middletown, R.I. house to shovel. He liked putting money in his pocket and being his own boss or, as he puts it, “a budding businessman.’’ Fast forward to 2015: As founder and co-owner of Newport Bachelorette, Brunson organizes prewedding fests for the bride-to-be and her friends.
He has to pinch himself: “I can’t believe I’m a young, successful entrepreneur. I’m very thankful. I’ve been through so much.’’ A decade or so ago, the 29-year-old was a homeless high school senior on the verge of dropping out. A friend provided shelter and advice, directing him to the Talent Development Program at URI, where tutoring, mentoring and kind words guided him to a bachelor’s degree in communication studies.
After a stint as an intern at Atlantic Records in New York, he moved back home, this time to Newport, R.I., working four jobs—cook, car washer, title specialist and bouncer—to pay the rent. The bouncer job would prove to be the most lucrative. At the clubs, bachelorettes partying before the big day would grill him about where to go next.
“A light bulb went off,’’ he says. “I realized there’s a market there. If I organized everything, that would free them up to have fun.’’ He teamed up with a friend, Jabreche Taylor, and a few months later they closed their first deal.
His company takes on those stressful details, from booking hotels to ensuring that the ladies don’t have to wait in line at Newport’s hot spots. Bachelorettes can dine in a fine restaurant or partake in more adventurous packages: a dance class that requires heels; a facial on sea-whipped Ocean Drive; a trip to Newport Vineyards for a touch of the grape. Everyone gets a goodie bag with inappropriate items and a last-hurrah T-shirt: “Becky’s last sail before the veil!’’
Two years ago, Brunson’s father, a retired Navy officer working as a merchant marine, died of a stroke at 51 on a ship in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Brunson flew to Dubai to bring him home. When he was a kid, his father would say, first softly then as loudly as a drill sergeant: “Are you a follower or a leader?’’ The little boy knew, even back then, what he was. “I can’t wait,’’ says Brunson, “for my future.’’ •
Volcanic Barista
Jimmy Lappin ’84 spent decades as a computer engineer designing microchips. Now he’s a bean counter, and loving it. As founder of Vanuatu Coffee Roasters in Providence, R.I., he’s the grower and sole importer of a rare coffee from a tiny jungle island tucked away in the South Pacific. From his café on Federal Hill in Providence, he tantalizes customers with cups of joe that blend chocolate, ginger and nuts. “Plus, it has a good boost in the caffeine,’’ says Lappin. “It’s definitely catching on.’’
That’s an understatement. PAIR, an online food and wine magazine, singled out Vanuatu as one of the hottest cafés in Providence, and Town and Country recently gave the shop a five-star review: “This coffee shop offers up a brew that can’t be found anywhere else in the U.S.’’ The locals are indulging too, with lots of door rattling on Monday, the only day the café is closed. One of Lappin’s specialties is the best-selling Rhody, an iced coffee whose ingredients shall remain a secret.
Math was his first love. After graduating from Providence Country Day, Lappin studied math and computer engineering at URI, landing in Silicon Valley to work for Steve Jobs and high-tech companies. The money was excellent, but the hours were long. “I burned out,’’ says Lappin. One day, he flipped on the TV to the reality show “Survivor,’’ where the host was standing at the edge of a volcano on Tanna, one of 82 islands in the Republic of Vanuatu, a string of islands between Australia and Fiji. “Wow,’’ thought Lappin, a world traveler, mostly to exotic countries. “I’m going there.’’ Off he went. After a hard night partying with islanders and the psychotropic kava root, Lappin awoke with a vicious hangover. His lifesaver: coffee with no bitterness, thanks to Mount Yasur, an active volcano on Tanna that spews soil-nourishing ash.
Lappin was so impressed he bought the company—well, sort of. He moved back to his hometown of Rumford, R.I. from San Francisco and launched a social venture with the INIK Co-op and Tanna coffee farmers that benefits everyone: the farmers make enough money to support their families, young people stay on the island to work instead of leaving for jobs in Australia, and Lappin gets to introduce his one-of-a-kind coffee to America.
“We have a great product, we have a great backstory, we have great clients—and we’re helping people,’’ says Lappin, 52, who runs the business with his sister, Martha Soderlund. “Life presents us with a lot of opportunities. You just have to know when to grab one.’’
Bags of coffee are available at the shop, or you can order online. And of course, adventurous souls can travel 8,585 miles to Tanna to find out for themselves what all the fuss is about. A word of advice from Lappin: Don’t be afraid to wear a grass skirt. •
Casting Call
Brooke Thomas ’87 knows that auditions can be nerve-racking. After earning her B.F.A. in theater, she was working in New York City as an actress and waitress, brainstorming how she could parlay her experience into a steadier gig. “I loved acting, but I was frustrated by the unpredictability,” she says. “I wanted something that wasn’t up in the air all the time.” She took an internship at a casting agency, working her way up to the role of casting director at several well-known companies. But after nearly 18 years in the industry, she became increasingly eager to run the show. “I felt like I was part of a machine,” she says, recalling the high-pressure focus on generating new business. “I was starting to lose what I loved about casting, which was working with actors and taking risks on fun and interesting projects.”
In 2012, she opened the Brooke Thomas Casting agency in New York, where she books actors for commercial work with companies such as Huggies, Pizza Hut, and Red Lobster, in addition to roles in film and television. Her combined experience as a casting director and performer, along with having worked in regional theater—she is a former member of the ImprovBoston comedy troupe—gives her an insightful edge into finding and coaching new talent. “Auditioning is a tense situation—actors want jobs, and they’re hard to get,” she says. “I enjoy putting them at ease and helping them give their best performance.” For the past 14 years, she has also run a well-known series of monthly “Brooke and Mary” auditioning workshops with longtime associate (and fellow URI alumna) Mary Egan Callahan’95, where she regularly helps students book new work—such as the role of the baby voiceover in an E-Trade spot that was voted among the top Super Bowl ads of 2012. Other former students have included actor and comedian Ed Helms (best known for The Daily Show and The Office) and Parks and Recreation actress Aubrey Plaza. “The workshops are a great way to give back and find new talent,” she says.
Alongside her casting agency, she founded castingloop.com to keep actors updated on casting notices, classes, and industry news. Perhaps it’s her training in improvisation that allows her to balance multiple roles (she is also a mother, living with her high school sweetheart), but she lives by the advice she gives her actors. “It’s scary for anybody to take that leap and believe in yourself,” she says. “You think, ‘What if I fail?’ But everything is always changing. You can always pick yourself up.”
Maybe there is one thing that doesn’t change. “When I get to call someone and say you booked the job, that’s the best part of what I do,” she says. “It’s a great moment.” •
Nutrition Play
On a long car ride from the Grand Canyon to Los Angeles during a family vacation, Julie and Andy Nicoletti ’93 were talking about how they wanted to spend their eventual retirement. A pharmacist at the time, Julie knew her answer. “I thought a flower shop or the front desk at a gym,” she says. “I wanted to be somewhere where people are glad to see you.”
The opportunity arose earlier than expected while Julie was working with her trainer, who mentioned he was thinking of hiring a nutritionist to consult with his clients. The idea struck a chord with the couple, who proposed that Julie could earn her credentials while working as a pharmacist. “He loved the idea,” says Andy. “She went back to school and became certified, and we launched Kinetic Fuel in 2008.”
The trainer was Brian McDonough, a Massachusetts strength and conditioning coach, well-known for his work with some of the most elite athletes in the NFL, NHL, and college sports. Through word-of-mouth referrals from McDonough and his clients, Kinetic Fuel took off. Julie now works as the nutritionist for the Boston Bruins—as well as the Boston Cannons lacrosse team, student athletes such as URI football captain Tyler Catalina, and numerous non-pro triathletes and corporate clients—providing customized nutrition plans and guidance. While some players are looking to reduce injury or fuel recovery, others want to maximize their performance or change their body composition. “We talk about their goals, lifestyle, and schedule, and write a plan,” says Julie. Her comprehensive programs take into account every detail, from the long bus rides of a pro lacrosse team to the culture shock of a Czech hockey player unfamiliar with American foods. “I’ll ask them to text me pictures in real time of what they’re eating, so I can coach them around their choices,” says Julie, who also draws from her pharmacy background to accommodate for special health issues or medications.
Non-athletes respond equally well to her goal-oriented approach, with sky-high participation rates in her corporate wellness programs. “Julie is great at creating fun challenges and initiatives to get people working together,” says Andy. “She is very strong at understanding what the client is looking for from a nutritional perspective.”
The couple, who met in college and recently celebrated their 20th anniversary by competing in an IronMan, attribute their success to teamwork and commitment. While Andy praises his wife’s expertise and positivity, Julie credits her husband (“he’s the idea person”) for his business acumen. “I truly believe any business can be successful if you’re passionate and willing to work for it,” says Andy.
The same perseverance goes for nutrition. “Much of the challenge is confusion or lack of time,” says Julie. “They may not always have time to pack a healthy lunch or know how to reduce stress. It’s rewarding to come up with creative solutions to common issues.” •
