Virtual Spring 2021 Dinner and a Forum

Exploring Women's Leadership Within the Stevens Community

Join us as we take a closer look at women's leadership through the eyes of four trailblazers within the Stevens community. Moderated by Associate Provost Cindy Chin '05, the program will examine the major factors that have influenced each panelist in their professional ascent and explore their future aspirations.

Moderator: Cindy Chin '05, Associate Provost at Stevens Institute of Technology

Panelists:
Clarelle DeGraffe '84, Director and General Manager of the PATH rail transit system
Sabrina Henry ’09, Manager, Research and Development (R&D)
Joan Tubungbanua '22, Junior majoring in software engineering and minoring in computer science
Dr. Antonia Zaferiou, Assistant Professor, Schaefer School of Engineering & Science

Tuesday March 30,
7:00 PM - 8:00 p.m.

Register at https://connect.stevens.edu/rsvp/dinnerandaforum

Cindy Chin ’05
Associate Provost at Stevens Institute of Technology

Cindy Chin ’05 is the Associate Provost at Stevens Institute of Technology. She is responsible for the Office of the Registrar, and the strategic, administrative and financial operations for the Office of the Provost and the Division of Academic Affairs. Cindy also serves as chief of staff to the Provost and Chief Academic Officer.

Cindy started her career in the financial services industry at Citigroup and J.P. Morgan Chase where she held a number of positions in the cash management and global private banking businesses. She later moved into the non-profit sector working for the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy as a senior research analyst and eventually joined Stevens in 2012 in the Undergraduate Admissions office. Cindy held several roles in Undergraduate Admissions including admissions counselor, associate director of operations and interim director. She later joined Technolutions, a company that provides software for managing higher education admissions processes, before returning to Stevens in 2017 in the Office of the Provost.

Cindy graduated from Stevens in 2005 with high honors, earning a Bachelor of Science in Business and Technology with a minor in economics and a Master of Science in Management. Cindy is currently pursuing her Doctor of Education from the Johns Hopkins University in Entrepreneurial Leadership in Education. Cindy is the 2010 recipient of the Harold R. Fee 1920 Alumni Achievement Award from Stevens and is currently the President of the Class of 2005 for the Stevens Alumni Association. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees at the Hoboken Dual Language Charter School.

Cindy is an avid distance runner and has run 10 marathons and 15 half marathons, in support of various Alzheimer’s disease non-profit organizations. Cindy and her husband, Joshua Levine ’05 M.S. ’05 live in Hoboken with their young daughter who already has many memories of coming to Stevens for parties and alumni weekend.

Clarelle DeGraffe ’84
Director and General Manager of the PATH rail transit system

Clarelle DeGraffe ’84 is the Director and General Manager of the PATH rail transit system and is responsible to carry out PATH’s critical mission of moving people across the Hudson by safely and effectively. With the help of over 1,100 employees, she oversees the daily operation of the railroad as well as the department’s ambitious capital program to upgrade a legacy system including the rebuilding of tunnels severely damaged during Superstorm Sandy, and completing the remaining phases of a signal modernization project. In addition, Clarelle has spearheaded PATH’s Improvement Plan which was rolled out in June 2019 and is aimed at system capacity growth, reliability, and enhanced customer experience.

Clarelle has served at the Port Authority for 30 years, most recently as the Deputy Director of Rail Transit since 2015. In this role, she oversaw day-to-day operations and supported the Director in delivering a safe, reliable and dependable trans-Hudson transportation service for the New York and New Jersey region. Prior to being named Deputy Director, Clarelle oversaw PATH’s $3.5 billion capital program and was responsible for the development, funding, and delivery of PATH’s Sandy Recovery Capital Program. She has also held project management roles in World Trade Center Construction and the Priority Capital Programs Department, and was a driving force in delivering major projects including the Vehicle Security Center and several packages in the redevelopment of the WTC Transportation Hub.

Clarelle is a recipient of the 2008 Harlem Black Achievers in Industry Award; 2013 Honoree at Professional Women in Construction Dinner Dance Gala and recipient of the 2016 Port Authority Network of Black Employees Executive Leadership Award and 2018 recipient of the Congressional Certificate of Merit from Southeast Queens Chamber of Commerce. Clarelle was also recently named in Fall 2020 as the Greater NY area WTS Chapter’s Woman of the Year as well as received a Transportation Award from the Newark Regional Business Partnership.

Sabrina Henry ’09
Manager, Research and Development (R&D)

In her role of Manager, Research and Development (R&D), Sabrina Henry ’09 leads the North America Skin Health Life Cycle Management activities for Aveeno ® and Lubriderm ® brands.

Sabrina joined Johnson & Johnson Consumer Personal Products Worldwide in 2009 as a Research and Development Scientist. Over the span of her career, she has developed, launched, and set the formulation and claims strategy for new and innovative skin care products across various brands, such as, Johnson’s Baby®, Aveeno®, Neutrogena®, and Clean & Clear®. Today in her role, Sabrina leads a team of scientists who manage the day to day product life cycle activities for Aveeno ® and Lubriderm ® brands end to end from compliance updates to value creation opportunities.

In addition, to her role as a technical leader, she proudly serves as the brand ambassador for Aveeno® elevating the science behind the brand to consumers and healthcare professionals. She has been featured by ESSENCE Magazine, USA Today, Media Planet, and other media outlets for live interviews and discussions. Sabrina is most recently featured on Aveeno’s 2020 TV commercial “Healthy. Its Our Nature”.

Overall, Sabrina is a dynamic leader committed to creativity, authenticity, and is driven by collaboration. She holds a Master of Engineering in Engineering Management and Bachelor of Engineering in Chemical Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology.

Sabrina, her husband, and their two young daughters live in NJ.

Joan Tubungbanua ’22
Junior majoring in software engineering and minoring in computer science

Joan Tubungbanua ’22 is currently a junior majoring in software engineering and minoring in computer science. She discovered her true passion for computer science during her sophomore year in high school. The following summer, she was accepted to the Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program at the American International Group (AIG) headquarters in New York City. There, she spent seven weeks learning the foundation of game development with Python, robotics with Arduino, and web development using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. A project she worked on during her summer program was “Untitled”, a platform that encouraged reading and the frequenting of local libraries. Her long-term goal is to continue creating impactful things using code.

In addition to her at AIG, Joan also served as a part-time intern during the summer and fall for IBM, where her work focused on mixing the idea of gamification and cloud technology.

As part of the Stevens’ 150th Anniversary, Joan is co-leading the “150for150” student service project, which will bring 150 hands-on STEM workshops to local K-12 students.

During her spare time, Joan enjoys working as a freelance graphic designer for a local dance studio in Hoboken. Additionally, she has a passion for singing and has had notable performances at Guitar Center Times Square’s flagship store opening and Carnegie Hall. This summer, she will be interning at NASA JPL in California.

Dr. Antonia Zaferiou
Assistant Professor, Schaefer School of Engineering & Science

Dr. Antonia Zaferiou earned her B.E. in Mechanical Engineering at The Cooper Union and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Southern California. After her doctoral studies, she joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan as a Postdoctoral Fellow. Prior to joining Stevens Institute of Technology, she was an Assistant Professor and director of a biomechanics lab in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Rush University Medical Center. Dr. Zaferiou is also a dedicated educator and mentor in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) education activities.

Dr. Zaferiou has studied a wide-spectrum of movements performed by individuals spanning across clinical populations (e.g., older adult fallers, pre-and-post-operative shoulder patients, etc.) to elite athletes (e.g., professional dancers, professional pitchers, etc.).

In 2020, Dr. Zaferiou was awarded the prestigious NSF CAREER Award. Her project, entitled “Adaptive Sonification to Improve Balance During Everyday Mobility,” will use machine learning and wearable technology to identify balance and gait deficits in fall-prone older adults and to deliver personalized auditory biofeedback ("sonified biofeedback") designed to improve dynamic balance while walking.

Her project will identify relationships between person-specific balance strategies used during turning and other factors including physiological and cognitive capabilities—such as strength and capacity for spatial reasoning—as well as environmental factors such as the presence or absence of obstacles. This information will be used to design personalized auditory biofeedback tuned to convey information about kinematics and ground contact forces in a way that facilitates dynamic balance during walking.