Joe and Karalyn originally hail from Northeast Ohio and Northern New Jersey. In the tail end of the twentieth century 🙂, they met while studying at Harvard.

After college, Joe joined the US Peace Corps and served as a teacher in the Seychelles Islands, in the Indian Ocean, and Karalyn did a master’s in environmental science at the Yale School of Forestry. After completing his service and her degree, they began a short stint as middle school teachers in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Unfortunately, their adventure became a little adventurous, and they needed to return to the United States. While brainstorming their next landing spot, they picked Durham on the map because of its warmer weather, rich university culture, and up-and-coming economy. They somewhere remember thinking — “eh, what’s the worst that can happen.”

Later that year, in 1996, they found themselves hauling down south from New Jersey, in an old minivan, landing for the first time in Durham. After hustling through some jobs and Joe earning a business graduate degree from UNC, they set deep roots in Durham and have come to call it home.

Over the subsequent twenty years, they raised (and are still raising!) four children, who all were educated through Durham Public Schools. In the early 2000s, Joe started and built a technology company called Bronto Software. In 2015, he sold it, and now they use the proceeds to fund their philanthropic interests.

Their story is still being written, and hopefully, their entrepreneurial and philanthropic vision will continue beyond them through their family.