Name: Rick Gaskins
Leadership Charlotte (LC) Class: 22
Title/Company: Executive Director, Catawba Riverkeeper Foundation
Hometown: born in Norfolk, VA, but after 30 years in Charlotte, Charlotte is definitely home
Education: Duke (B.S. Mechanical Engineering); Harvard Law School (J.D.)
Favorite Leader: Teddy Roosevelt
Person you would most like to meet: lots of people, but Ben Franklin for a start
Favorite Book: A River Runs Through It by Norman MacLean
Favorite Place to Volunteer: Sometimes my job feels like volunteering, but outside of my job, I enjoy volunteering in river cleanup events, Room at the Inn (MPUMC), Habitat houses, and the Salvation Army (homeless shelter, Christmas programs, Boys & Girls Clubs)
Personal leadership goal: Help others find their passion and harness that energy to change the world
Hottest news topic that fires you up: Pollution
“Theme song” or words you live by: “This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning god, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.”
– Walt Whitman
Favorite Charlotte Activities: paddling or sailing on the Catawba River
Favorite LC Memory: Police ride along (we had an abundance of excitement)
Hot leadership idea for Charlotte: Encourage businesses to loan managers and other professionals to non-profits for a week or month or even a year.
Twitter account: @EnvtlGeek