AboutOur Advisory Board

Alan Chen is an Engineering Manager at Rent the Runway's e-commerce and subscription teams. He joined the company as an intern in 2017 and rose through the ranks to become a manager overseeing multiple teams and mentoring engineers from interns (including one from CUNY Tech Prep!) to seniors.

Alan graduated from Macaulay Honors College through the CUNY BA program where he created his own degree, Technology Entrepreneurship, and selectively attended computer science classes at City College and business classes at Baruch College. He was part of the 2nd cohort of CUNY Tech Prep and over the years has been involved with the organization at varying levels from mock interviews, panels, company workshops, and eventually joining the advisory board.

As a first-generation student from a low-income background, he understood the immense value that financial literacy can provide to CUNY students who will likely be the first in their families to build generational wealth. During his free time, you can find Alan hosting Financial Literacy workshops for students and recent graduates across CUNY.

Arber Ruci is a Director at the CUNY Central Office of Research, overseeing the CUNY iHub and the NYC Innovation Hot Spot in addition to serving as EiR at New York I-Corps Hub, one of the nations premier high-tech innovation pipeline and economic development engine. As a researcher and collaborator based at the City College of New York Visual Computing Lab with a special focus on AI, Mixed Reality and Quantum Computing, Arber has received over $1M in research commercialization funding from the National Science Foundation since 2018. He is a national faculty of the NSF Innovation Corps — having taught hundreds of faculty, post docs, Ph.D. and graduate students throughout CUNY, New York State and nationwide, in spinning out companies from their academic research labs. As an innovation ecosystem builder, Arber works closely with NYSTAR, Empire State Development Division of Science, Technology & Innovation. Prior to relocating back to New York in 2017 Arber spent 5 years at Stanford University as a student, vendor and consultant, additionally he served as a CEO of a tech startup for 8 years.

Danielle James leads talent marketing at Asana. In this role, she focuses on connecting top talent to career opportunities. Prior to joining Asana, she spent eight years at MongoDB, where she launched the company's diversity initiatives. She received the 2017 Diversity in Tech Award for her work to amplify the voices of underrepresented communities in technology. Danielle is a first-generation American and first-generation college graduate (Baruch, CUNY). She is passionate about Muay Thai, writing creative nonfiction, and traveling to places where she can find family, sun, and warmth.

Elaine Montilla is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for US School Assessment at Pearson, driving new digital solutions for internal and external customers and leading their product development strategy and governance while driving growth across the business. Elaine is also a TEDx speaker, and the founder of 5xminority, Inc., a company and social media brand dedicated to empowering and elevating the voices of women and marginalized groups in the Technology field and beyond.

As a passionate advocate for diversity, Elaine champions various minority communities and persistently promotes inclusion in the tech sector. Her commitment to expanding equal STEM learning opportunities for all underscores her dedication to fostering inclusivity. As a trailblazing Latina professional, Elaine defies stereotypes and embodies diversity within the traditionally male-dominated tech industry. Honored as a Top 100 Outstanding LGBTQ+ Executive Role Model by Yahoo Finance in 2021, recognized as one of the Top 100 Women in Tech by Technology Magazine in 2023, and awarded HITEC 100 Hispanic Technology Leaders for 2024.

Erik K. Grimmelmann is currently a full-time faculty member in the Computer Science Department at The City College of New York where he specializes in scientific programming and machine learning. He has over 40 years of experience in tech, including twelve years at Bell Labs. Erik has held executive positions at AT&T, where he served as Internet Strategist starting in 1991, and Dun & Bradstreet, where he was responsible for its global technology infrastructure. Erik was also Chief Technology Officer of three startups, the third of which (SendWordNow) had a very successful exit in 2017. He served as the President and CEO of the New York Technology Council and the NY Tech Alliance, the latter of which produces the New York Tech Meetup, the largest meetup in the world. He has served as a White House technology advisor and on a panel of the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council. Over the past twenty-five years he has served on the boards of numerous national and local technology-related nonprofit organizations.

Fernando Montejo is Assistant Vice President for Emerging Technology Initiatives at the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC). In this role, Fernando manages programs that support emerging technology sectors, as well as building a more inclusive tech ecosystem for the city. Fernando was previously at MIT SOLVE, a tech incubator for social impact innovation, where he supported entrepreneurs from around the world committed to solving economic opportunity challenges. Before SOLVE, Fernando was at the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), where he helped implement initiatives to improve the quality of life for more than 400,000 public housing residents. He has also served as a researcher at the MIT Center for Advanced Urbanism, and was a Global Policy Fellow at the Institute of Technology & Society in Brazil, where he investigated the challenges and innovation opportunities of staging the Rio Olympic Games. Fernando holds a Master in City Planning from MIT and a Bachelor of Science in Urban & Regional Studies from Cornell University.

John Blaho has been the Director for Academic-Industrial Research at the CUNY Central Office of Research since 2010 where he provides experiential education to CUNY research students and faculty to evaluate how their discoveries can benefit their local communities and society as a whole. For the past several years, he has leveraged his $15M+ initial seed funding from federal and state resources to expand innovation and applied science activities throughout CUNY. These activities include, but are not limited to, the NYC Regional Innovation Node, the PowerBridge NY Clean Tech Proof of Concept Center, the CUNY Innovation Corps (I-Corps) that developed the Community College Innovation Challenge, the NYC Innovation Hot Spot, the NSF I-Corps Inclusion Summit for Broadening Participation, and the Culturally Relevant Enterprise Development program. John Blaho is NYC-based academic-industrialist trained as a chemical engineer who received his Ph.D. in biochemistry.

Julie Samuels is Executive Director of Tech:NYC, an organization representing New York's fast growing, entrepreneurial tech industry. Before that she was Executive Director at Engine, a nation-wide nonprofit focused on technology entrepreneurship and advocacy, where she remains a member of the Board. Julie is a frequent commentator on technology and policy issues for national media—particularly in the intellectual property space—and she has filed briefs with the Supreme Court and testified before Congressional Committees. She previously worked at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, where she was a senior staff attorney and the Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents. Before joining EFF, Julie litigated IP and entertainment cases. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Julie spent time as a legislative assistant at the Media Coalition in New York, as an assistant editor at the National Journal in D.C., and she worked at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) in Champaign, IL. Julie earned her J.D. from Vanderbilt University and her B.S. in journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She serves on the Boards of Engine, TechCongress, and the Internet Education Foundation, on ABNY's Steering Committee, on the Innovation Council of the Partnership for New York City, and on Comptroller Scott Stringer's Red Tape Commission, as well as on various Advisory Boards, such as of the Defensive Patent License and the License on Transfer Network. She lives in New York City with her family.

Nakisha "Nikki" Evans is BNY's Senior Vice President for Workforce Development and Education. She has over 15 years of experience in workforce development in both the public and private sectors, including work in higher education, strategic partnerships, adult training programs, and employer and industry engagement.

Prior to joining the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Nikki was the Executive Director for the Jeremiah Program's Brooklyn office, where she led the organization's work with college-going single mothers and their children in Brooklyn. Before JP, Nikki spent over seven years at the CUNY Central Office as the Director of Workforce Partnerships. There, she oversaw a portfolio of industry-driven career readiness, training, and experiential learning initiatives that prepared students for opportunities in NYC's high-growth sectors such as life sciences, tech, and data analytics. Nikki developed her love for advanced manufacturing and technical training and education while working for Siemens Germany. There, she managed education and training partnerships for the Siemens Technik Akademie's international mechatronics program for over four years.

Nikki holds a Bachelor's degree in African and Afro-American Studies from Brandeis University and Master's degree in Government and Politics from St. John's University. Originally from Florida, she currently calls Flatbush "home" and considers herself a "Brooklynite by choice, not circumstance."

Noam is the Senior Director of Engineering overseeing Google Ad Manager and Funding Choices. His teams are in NYC, Cambridge MA and Chicago. While he mostly focuses on management, strategy and vision Noam is extremely passionate about organizational health and structure, management best practices, calisthenics and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

Samantha Auerbach is currently a Data Science Manager at Yelp, joining the company in 2018. She leads a DS team that provides solutions through analytics, experimentation, data tooling and research. Prior to entering the data science field, Sam worked in healthcare consulting. She holds a BA in Economics and Mathematics from Emory University in Atlanta, GA.

Sam loves working with students; along with recently joining the advisory board at CUNY Tech Prep, Sam supports first-generation students at ScholarMatch. In her free time, she enjoys painting, running throughout NYC, and playing tennis.

Steven Rosenbaum is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Sustainable Media Center. (SustainableMedia.Center). The Center is focused on exploring and activating tools and actions that can empower a new generation of media-centric young people to take control of media in their digital lives. Rosenbaum was New York City's first Entrepreneur at Large, for NYCEDC. He has started five companies, all in the video platform and digital storytelling space. In 2016 he purchased Waywire from US Senator Cory Booker and merged the consumer video platform with his Magnify Networks video curation platform. He has two patents in video technology and has written two books - Curation Nation (McGraw-Hill) and Curate This (Amazon). He has given two TED talks and was based at the TED headquartered as a TED resident. Rosenbaum created and executive produced MTV UnFiltered, widely regarded as the first commercial implementation of User Generated Content - UGC. He holds two EMMY awards and was honored with the Science Journalism Laureates at Purdue University. Rosenbaum is a journalist, podcaster, and filmmaker. His film “7 Days In September” chronicled the attacks on the World Trade Center and extraordinary resilience of New York City. He is a Senior Advisor to Oaklins, Desilva+Phillips. He holds a BA in English from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY.

Zachary Feder is the Open Data Program Manager at the Mayor's Office of Data Analytics (MODA), where he co-leads NYC's Open Data program. NYC Open Data is one of the world's leading municipal data sharing efforts, with billions of rows of data in thousands of datasets that are used by more than a million people each year. Beyond working with staff from every City agency to publish high-quality data, the Open Data program also promotes the usage of this free data repository through resources like the Open Data project gallery and events like the annual Open Data Week festival. Prior to joining MODA, Zachary spent more than a decade at NYC Parks, where he held roles in operations, analytics, communications, and project management. During his time at Parks, Zachary helped to build Parks' innovation team and establish its open data team, led media relations for the boroughs of Queens and the Bronx, and shepherded projects to improve the tracking and analysis of park cleaning and maintenance.