ALUMNA

Courtney Banatoski (’03, ’06 M.S.)

If she’d been at any other university, Courtney Banatoski (’03, ’06 M.S.) might never have raised her hand.

It was nearly 20 years ago that the then-undergrad sat amongst her fellow business majors in an entrepreneurship course, listening skeptically as the professor discussed how a business’ lack of growth means that it’s dying. Though the rest of the class seemed onboard with the concept, Banatoski didn’t try to quash the niggling voice in her head. In just her first few semesters at UNT, she’d already internalized the idea that she didn’t have to think like everyone else.

So up her hand went.

“Uncontrolled growth,” she said, “is also a cancer.”

The classroom fell silent. The professor chuckled. “I think you might be in the wrong program," he told her.

“He was right,” Banatoski says. “I thought that was my tribe, but it wasn’t.”

Because while she had an undeniable knack for numbers and technical writing and spreadsheets, she also had an insatiable desire to use those skills to serve the larger community. “I realized in that moment that I’m the champion of the underdog,” says Banatoski, who ultimately earned a B.B.A. in organizational behavior and an M.S. in economic and community development. After more than a decade spent in nonprofit management, she’s now putting her hard-earned skills to use as president and CEO of Denton-based Cumberland Presbyterian Children’s Home, which aims to help vulnerable children and families through its children’s residential program, family residential program, and counseling and treatment services.

Her realization came prior to UNT launching its nonprofit leadership studies program — now offered through the College of Health and Public Service — which meant Banatoski had to blaze her own trail. And in a place where traveling off the beaten path was not only supported but encouraged, she didn’t undertake her academic journey alone.

“The path to nonprofit management was illuminated for me by professors like Grant Miles, Donna Ledgerwood, Paul Leung, Terry Clower, Bud Weinstein and Don Lewis,” says Banatoski, who served as adjunct faculty in UNT’s nonprofit leadership studies program from 2008-2015. “When I would go check in with them, they would say, ‘This is where I see your strengths, and this is where I think you should do some exploration.’ They were willing to not only discuss the challenges I faced, but help me find solutions.”

Lewis, for example, helped her land a post-graduate internship at  Children’s Advocacy Center for Denton County, where she assisted with the organization’s capital campaign. That led to her first full-time position as a grant writer with Communities in Schools of North Texas, where she worked her way up to director of research development and grants. In 2010, Banatoski returned to UNT as director of research development, before becoming director of innovation and strategic partnerships.

But all of her previous work had been in child-related nonprofits, and she knew she eventually wanted to return to the frontlines of helping kids. After her 5-year-old daughter’s best friend lost her battle with leukemia, she realized it was time.

“Life is so short,” Banatoski says, “and I felt called to live very authentically and use my talents in ways that I thought they would be best employed.”

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Published by Erin Cristales in UNT North Texan Summer 2020

ALUMNUS

Blake Ibanez ('16)

For the Dallas-based band Power Trip, 2020 started off great. They had performed in Asia and were about to cut a new album.

But the coronavirus pandemic forced them to postpone their tour to Europe. Then lead singer Riley Gale ('10) died suddenly in August of unspecified causes.

So, when the band was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance for their song, Executioner's Tax (Swing of the Axe) (Live), it was bittersweet -- but a big, and welcome, surprise.

"It was pretty exciting," says guitarist Blake Ibanez ('16). "With this whole year, it was a much-needed shot in the arm to get excited about something."

Power Trip began when Ibanez, then 16, frequently attended shows in Dallas-Fort Worth and ran into Gale, then 21, who had an idea for a band, in late 2007. Ibanez, who lived in Fort Worth, drove up to Richardson, and they recorded a demo. Soon, they began playing around the metroplex.

Power Trip worked slowly and steadily, playing gigs for 10 years. Ibanez combined performing with the band with completing his education, majoring in marketing in the G. Brint Ryan College of Business.

"There are definitely things from my classwork I can apply to being in a band," he says. "It's essentially a business."

Although Ibanez was attending one of the nation's best music schools, he didn't see his guitar playing from an academic perspective. He took lessons as a kid, but mostly taught himself how to play and developed an ear for music.

But Gale's UNT education did show in his writing. Although metal has a reputation for its anti-mainstream attitude, Gale was an English major who read authors such as philosopher Michel Foucault.

"He was very intelligent when it came to writing," Ibanez says. "He represented a lot of things that are missing in the metal scene."

Ibanez noted that Gale didn't lecture people in his songs.

"There was a punk-ness and attitude in there, but a friend once described it as 'smart anger,'" Ibanez says. "He was able to convey those messages in a way average people could understand."

The band began to take off around Ibanez's senior year. But he was determined to earn his degree, and skipped a U.S. tour that spring.

Power Trip's 2017 album, Nightmare Logic, won them attention. They were touring with Trivium, Lamb of God, Anthrax, Exodus, Obituary and Cannibal Corpse, and those bands' fans were discovering them. Gale even worked with rapper Ice-T, who has his own metal band, Body Count.

Although the pandemic and Gale's death have changed things, the band still wants to stick together.

"For the four of us, this is all we know," Ibanez says. "We love doing what we do."

And now the band has earned the Grammy nomination.

"We're very honored and grateful to be nominated," Ibanez says. "It makes all of us proud to put DFW and UNT on the map. Even if we don't win, we get to say 'Grammy nominated' and that's cool."

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Published by Jessica DeLeón in UNT North Texan Fall 2020