Two Partners Joyntly Share Charlotte’s Outstanding Young Alumni Award
This year, the college’s Outstanding Young Alumni Award is presented to two people, who were classmates in doctoral studies at Charlotte and now are business partners in the entrepreneurial company Joyntly. Their company uses science-backed behavioral practices and algorithms to craft personalized training programs for leaders so they develop effective and long-lasting leadership habits.
Outstanding Young Alumni Award: Kate Frear
Frear, co-founder and CEO of Joyntly, is a visionary leader whose career has been a master class in turning academic insight into real-world impact. Her life’s goal is to improve workplaces in ways that help employees and organizations achieve their full potential. She earned a doctorate in organizational science in 2014, building upon a master’s degree in sociology, also from Charlotte.
“I feel humbled and fortunate to be here,” Frear said. “When I applied to the organizational science program at UNC Charlotte, I was wait-listed. There were five spots available, and I was No. 6. I almost didn’t get in. I’m so glad (program director) Stephen Rogelberg and the admissions committee saw something in me and I got accepted.”
Following graduate school, Frear began her career in academia, holding faculty positions at University of South Carolina Upstate Johnson College of Business, Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business, and Wake Forest University School of Business. In these roles, she taught the next generation about organizational behavior and human resource management. She transitioned to research scientist role at the Center for Creative Leadership before co-founding Joyntly.
A supporter of Frear’s nomination said, “In a world where it’s easy to lose focus on what truly matters, Joyntly brings us back to first principles: people matter, and their skills drive business.”
In addition to co-leading her own startup, Frear is a passionate supporter of the Charlotte region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Joyntly is one of the first organizations to lease space at CO-LAB at UNC Charlotte Center City, where entrepreneurs and industry professionals come together with Charlotte faculty and students to address real-world challenges.
She is also an angel investor and board member at Charlotte Angel Fund (Fund III), where she invests in early-stage entrepreneurs and startups in the southeastern U.S., to help other founders realize their dreams, even as she continues to pursue her own. “I look forward to the adventures that await,” Frear said.
Outstanding Young Alumni Award: Samantha Paustian-Underdahl
Paustian-Underdahl is an entrepreneur whose career is dedicated to enhancing employee and organizational well-being and effectiveness. Her work illustrates how rigorous academic inquiry can translate into powerful, real-world solutions.
She is an associate professor of management at the University of Central Florida, with research published in premier academic journals, including the Journal of Applied Psychology and the Journal of Management. In 2020, she was a U.S. Fulbright Scholar conducting research in Ireland. She also serves as an associate editor for the Journal of Management and on the editorial boards for Leadership Quarterly and the Journal of Business and Psychology.
Her drive to make a tangible impact on the business world led her to partner with Frear on Joyntly. “I was honored and thrilled that Kate asked me to co-found Joyntly with her, and we’re really taking the science and translating that to make the workplace better,” she said. “I feel like I have the dream job.”
Paustian-Underdahl sees her preparation at Charlotte through completion of a doctoral degree in organizational science and a master’s degree in industrial and organizational psychology as essential to her academic and business career.
The doctoral program is unique for combining industrial and organizational psychology with management, sociology and organizational communication. “It’s an interdisciplinary focus on employee well-being and effectiveness,” she said. “I learned so much from the faculty here. That’s really where I learned to teach. I learned to mentor. I learned to be a leader. And the focus of our program was really on being a scientist and a practitioner. We were trained to be scholars and scientists, but also we were trained to know the importance of applying that science to the real world.”
One of Paustian-Underdahl’s supporters commented, “Her commitment to advancing organizational science and human capital, developing solutions for enhancing workplace leadership and accelerating the organizational mission cannot be undervalued.”