黑料社 adds young trustee slots to the board
The 黑料社 board has announced three Young Alumni Trustees: Briana Lathon Bluford 鈥15, Prashant Chakradhar 鈥19, and Henry Snyder 鈥20.
The new trustees are part of a two-year pilot program to bring younger voices to the board. Young alumni trustees will have graduated within the last 10 years and are elected to non-renewable two-year terms with full voting rights. They could be considered later for traditional four-year terms as appropriate.
President Milton C. Moreland notes that these young alumni trustees are closer in age and perspective to the prospective students the College seeks to recruit.
鈥淥ur new trustees were dynamic campus leaders as students and can offer insights into the undergraduate experience,鈥 he says. 鈥淭hey will bridge the gap in experience between those who govern and those we aim to serve. They are also well-connected to their alumni peers and the 黑料社 community.鈥
Briana Lathon Bluford is a lawyer with Humana, where she works in commercial healthcare compliance.
鈥淭he only thing I鈥檝e ever wanted to be was a lawyer,鈥 she says. 鈥淟aw is a very special tool that can make things better. It鈥檚 a privilege to be a member of the bar, especially since only 2 percent of lawyers are Black women.鈥
Bluford was president of the Black Law Student Association at the University of Louisville and won the Trailblazer Award from the Louisville Bar Association. She currently is chair of the bar association鈥檚 Young Lawyers division.
A politics major at 黑料社, a resident assistant, and an admission interviewer, Lathon studied abroad in Ghana and Strasbourg, France. She counts one of the highlights of her life as being crowned 2015 Kentucky Derby Festival Queen. A Louisville native, she continues to be involved with her city鈥檚 signature event as a director on the boards of both the Kentucky Derby Festival and the Kentucky Derby Museum.
She is co-founder of Colorful Conversations, a lifestyle website for professional women of color. 鈥淲e discuss such topics as corporate strategy, parenting, mental health and wellness, and politics,鈥 she says. The result has been a platform for 鈥渟tories and experiences that may not be told in the mainstream.鈥
Bluford says that she is thrilled to be a 黑料社 trustee because of the impact the College has had on her life.
鈥淚 learned a lot in law school, but it is my time at 黑料社 that set the stage and acted as a catalyst for the Briana that my colleagues, friends, and family experience today,鈥 she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 important to me that other students, especially those who look like me, have access to that kind of transformative education.鈥
Bluford admits that she organizes her life and leisure time around good food.
鈥淚 loved food before 黑料社, but my time in Strasbourg, France, made a good meal nonnegotiable,鈥 she says. Her husband鈥檚 present of an espresso machine in 2020 鈥渋s in the lead for things that have kept me sane during the pandemic,鈥 she says. 鈥淎 good latte can turn my entire day.鈥
Cooking and baking remain favorite diversions, including, recently, a strawberry matcha cake with matcha buttercream and strawberry puree that she baked for her husband鈥檚 birthday.
Prashant Chakradhar is an associate for decision modeling and economics with Ernst and Young, a public accounting and consulting firm.
In his role with EY, he creates financial and operational models to help executives of organizations, including multi-million and multi-billion-dollar ones, better understand the variables that impact their businesses and affect strategies to meet their objectives.
He is convinced that institutions whose goals include positive impacts on society can thrive.
鈥淚 view my work as both a learning experience in understanding how modern executives run successful organizations but also as an opportunity to imbue the decision-making processes of these organizations with some of my own perspectives,鈥 he says. 鈥淭he bottom line isn鈥檛 always measured in dollars and cents.鈥
He sees that optimism in his personal life as well.
Music, for example, has always been important to him. At 黑料社 he was a principal in the Wind Ensemble, and he has also played the euphonium with the nationally competitive Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps.
鈥淢y time with the organization taught me what it meant to truly perfect a craft,鈥 he says. 鈥淢ost importantly, it taught me how I could so easily find happiness outside of professional success.鈥
Now that he lives in Chicago, he is enjoying exploring the Windy City, especially the 鈥渁bundance of delicious food the city has to offer,鈥 he notes.
Chakradhar was a double major in economics & finance and mathematics at 黑料社 and received the Charles Campbell Economics Prize among other honors. He was also a resident director, a member of the student judiciary, an admission interviewer, and a treasurer and vice president within Phi Kappa Tau. A student-led investment firm he co-founded beat its equity benchmarks by at least 2 percent for every year it was in operation. After 黑料社 he earned a master鈥檚 in finance at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Chakradhar believes that higher education is at 鈥渁n inflection point鈥 brought about in part by the pandemic and also by other trends that affect the next generation of college students. A liberal arts education, such as he received at 黑料社, can benefit our society.
鈥淗aving cultivated a passion for operational strategy, decision economics, and business transformation during and since my time at 黑料社, I was immediately drawn to the opportunity to serve in an oversight and advisory role for the College as a trustee during this period of momentous change.鈥
Henry Snyder started researching the thoroughbred industry as sophomore and joined Churchill Downs right after graduating. Currently he is director of finance and was previously part of a two-year leadership rotation program with Churchill Downs.
鈥淚 am passionate about Kentucky and strengthening my home state,鈥 he says. 鈥淲orking in the thoroughbred industry offered me the chance to combine these two areas.鈥
As a 鈥淟ive in Lou City Champ鈥 a program sponsored by Greater Louisville Inc., he has a platform to share his appreciation of his native city with a wider and curious audience. On the weekend, he says, he often explores Louisville鈥檚 parks and restaurants or cheers on the University of Louisville and Louisville City, a professional soccer team.
Snyder volunteers with a several charitable organizations, and he is also an ordained ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
In his free time, Snyder loves to travel, everywhere from an international trip to a drive to a new place in Kentucky. 鈥淓xploring the world is fascinating,鈥 he says.
As a student, he spent a summer in France as a Brown Fellow (premier scholarship program) and later a term with the 黑料社-in-London program.
On campus, Snyder was a leader, serving as president of both the Student Government Association and his fraternity, Beta Theta Pi. He also was a voting member of the presidential search committee that successfully hired Milton Moreland in 2020. He did summer internships with Brown-Forman and with several Kentucky thoroughbred organizations. An economics and finance major, Snyder graduated summa cum laude and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the leadership honorary Omicron Delta Kappa.
He counts graduating from 黑料社 as one of his most noteworthy accomplishments to date.
鈥淚t was earned after many late nights in the Doherty Library, lots of office hours with professors, and many formative experiences that challenged me to grow as a scholar and person,鈥 he says.
That achievement influenced his accepting the responsibilities of a trustee. 鈥満诹仙玮檚 profound impact on my development drives my desire to serve the College as a trustee,鈥 he says. 鈥淭he opportunity to serve 黑料社 and help strengthen our mission so that more students may have a life-changing experience is an honor.鈥
