The Inspire Project: Empowering students to become leaders today through innovative mentorship and action.
Shaping the future by harnessing the power of our global youth now for a better world.
Founder and President
Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Keith Bunch is Chief Financial Officer of The Inspire Project. Mr. Bunch is also Senior Vice President and Treasurer of Headington Companies, a Dallas-based private investment firm, and Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Headco Exploration, an oil and gas company based in Calgary, Alberta. Bunch is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in Texas, member of the AICPA, and graduated magna cum laude with honors with a B.B.A. from Texas Christian University. In addition to his work with The Inspire Project, Bunch sits on the Advisory Board for the Neeley School of Business Accounting Department.
Dr. Pardis Sabeti is a Professor at the Center for Systems Biology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and the Department of Immunology and Infectious Disease at the Harvard School of Public Health. She is an Institute Member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, and a Howard Hughes Investigator.
Dr. Sabeti is a computational geneticist with expertise developing algorithms to detect genetic signatures of adaption in humans and the microbial organisms that infect humans. Her lab’s key research areas include: (1) Developing analytical methods to detect and investigate evolution in the genomes of humans and other species (2) Examining host and viral genetic factors driving disease susceptibility to the devastating and deadly diseases in West Africa, Ebola Virus Disease and Lassa hemorrhagic fever. (3) Investigating the genomes of microbes, including Lassa virus, Ebola virus, Plasmodium falciparum malaria, Vibrio cholera, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis to help in the development of intervention strategies. (4) Determining the microbial cause of undiagnosed acute febrile illness.
Dr. Sabeti completed her undergraduate degree at MIT, her graduate work at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and her medical degree summa cum laude from Harvard Medical School as a Soros Fellow. Dr. Sabeti is a World Economic Forum (WEF) Young Global Leader and a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, and was named a TIME magazine ‘Person of the Year’ as one of the Ebola fighters. Her awards included the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award for Natural Science, the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise, the NIH Innovator Award, the Packard Fellowship, and an Ellis Island Medal of Honor. She has served on the MIT Board of Trustees and the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Women in Science, Medicine, and Engineering. Dr. Sabeti is also the lead singer and co-song writer of the rock band Thousand Days.
Dr. Sabeti provides scientific guidance as a board member and investor of NextGen Jane, a women’s health company launched by two lab alumni.
Dr. Ngumbi is a distinguished post-doctoral researcher at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. She has received three U.S. patents for her research directed at basic and applied aspects of using microbial inoculants to promote growth and enhance tolerance to drought stress in multiple crops. She was also inducted to the National Academy of Inventors. She has published 11 peer-reviewed articles in journals like Applied Soil Ecology, Journal of Chemical Ecology and Bulletin of Entomological Research. She is a Food Security Fellow with The Aspen Institute New Voices and has penned scores of articles for newspapers and online outlets like CNN, Scientific American, Time Magazine, NPR, Aljazeera, Los Angeles Times, SciDev. Net and World Policy Institute.
In 2012 she founded Spring Break Kenya, an organization that mobilizes young university students into public service. She and her parents co-founded The Dr. Ndumi Faulu Academy in early 2012 to ensure that all children in Kenya can have a quality education. In 2014, she founded Oyeska Greens, an agriculture focused start-up that empowers farmers at the Kenyan Coast. Through it, she mobilizes farmers in her community and leads efforts to make the Kenyan Coast the next hub where agriculture, green house technology, entrepreneurship and smart marketing using cell phone technology can intersect to produce an everlasting change.
She has mentored over 5,000 students through her organization Spring Break Kenya. She has also served as a mentor for girls and African students through President Obama’s Young African Leadership program, Clinton Global University Initiative, and Akili Dada, among many other organizations. She is an advisory mentor to organizations including Soil4Climate and Development in Gardening.
She was the recipient of 2018 Society of Experimental Biology Presidents Medal. The award was awarded in Florence, Italy.
Stroud has appeared in and/or produced numerous television specials including hosting the 20th Anniversary of Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, I Shouldn’t Be Alive, The Science of Survival, Surviving Sharks, Expedition Everest, Surviving Urban Disasters, The Mad Trapper, Surviving Alaska, The True Story of Robinson Crusoe, Shark Feeding Frenzy, After the Experiment, Deadly Waters and the documentary feature Off the Grid with Les Stroud. He was also featured in the series Extraordinary Lives. In 2010 and 2011, Les was Executive Producer/Host of the hit kids’ TV series Survive This (YTV, Cartoon Network) and made celebrity guest appearances on Extreme Makeover Home Edition, Top Chef and MTV Cribs. He Executive Produced/Hosted the NHL celebrity survival series Survival Challenge (OLN/Rogers), and the Discovery Channel series, Les Stroud; Beyond Survival earned top ratings on both Discovery Channel US and OLN in Canada and on at least one occasion during prime-time viewing was the highest rated show among men 24 to 59 in all categories on TV. He is currently signed for many new productions with Rogers Canada, The Science Channel US and Discovery International.
A celebrated keynote speaker, musician and author, both his books Survive! – Essential Skills and Tactics to Get You Out of Anywhere–Alive! (Harper Collins) and Will to Livehave made the New York Times bestseller list. Nominated for Best Travel Writer at the Canadian National Magazine awards, Les’s third book Beyond Survivorman launched into stores Jan 2014. Les took home Best Writer in Non-Fiction at the 2013 Canadian Screen Awards as well as the Executive Producers Award for Excellence at the Lewiston Film Festival.
Musically, Stroud has shared the stage with the top in the business, including Slash, Journey, Jonny Lang, James Cotton, Steve Stevens, Alice Cooper, Steven Stills, Tommy Shaw, Robbie Krieger, Blues Traveler, Tesla, Jakob Dylan, Randy Bachman, Chicago, Montgomery Gentry, Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Roots. Revered worldwide for his iconic harmonica playing, Les’s songwriting style runs an eclectic gambit, from art-folk-roots rock to contemporary art rock. He has written all the theme songs for his TV series and scored several independent films. He has won numerous regional music festivals, recorded four CDs (one in collaboration with the Canadian hit makers the Northern Pikes). His third CD, Wonderful Things, and fourth CD, Off The Grid, include feature documentary films entitled The Barn Sessions, produced by long-time collaborator Barry Farrell. He is currently recording his fifth and sixth albums. Mother Earth is an art rock genre album and is being produced by none other than rock legend Mike Clink and includes a solo from Slash of Guns N’ Roses fame on the lead single “One Giant Farm” as well as a feature solo from Steve Vai on the song “Mother Earth”. In 2013, he performed at the prestigious Green Ball in Washington, DC where he met Vice President Joe Biden and was the MC for the inaugural Oceana Ball in New York with Susan Rockefeller.
Stroud has made numerous talk show appearances including The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The View, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Craig Ferguson, Larry King Live, The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos (CBC), and Q with Jian Ghomeshi to name a few. Stroud was featured in the now famous Geico Gecko commercial and referred to by David Letterman, Howard Stern and numerous other media personalities. He has been parodied on the hit TV sitcoms The Office (segment officially titled, “Survivorman”), King of the Hill and most recently Modern Family. During their 2010 Royal Tour of Canada, Les was invited by the Prime Minister of Canada to meet the Queen of England and the Duke of Edinburgh.
A proud member of the prestigious Explorers Club, Les received Fellow (highest rank) of the Royal Canadian Geographic Society. Les has received both the Distinguished Alumni award and was nominated for the Premieres award for excellence for work in his field. He contributes to dozens of charities and benefits, is an ambassador for Shelterbox, and is an advanced survival trainer for the Canadian Military Armed Forces as well as sits on the board of advisors for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Organization.