We are pleased to announce the 24th Annual John A. Gibbs Environmental Issues Conference at Medgar Evers College. This conference will provide an exciting platform where stakeholders will address current environmental concerns and emerging entrepreneurial opportunities. We do this while also keeping true to our original Conference mission of disseminating knowledge towards equipping change agents.
Major highlights will include:
1. Job and career placement for Medgar Evers College students
2. Industry, faculty, alumni and student collaboration for research, funding and job placement
3. Opportunities that help our students, faculty and agency/industry representatives yield creative, innovative, and entrepreneurial solutions to business and environmental problems
4. Co-created curriculum: Industry and Faculty collaboration towards a better trained workforce.
5. Expert Speakers: Cannabis industry, US National Labs, NY State Agency Reps, Successful Entrepreneurs & Policymakers.
6. Pop-up-Shop
Thank you for visiting our page, and we hope you will join us.
Dr. Alicia R. Reid
Conference Planning Chair
Dr. Monds is Professor of Management Information Systems and Founding Director of the Center for Educational Opportunity (CEO) at Albany State University in 2018. The CEO is a $3M, five-year grant funded by the TMCF and CKF/CKI and provides support for research on educational innovations, opportunities, access,etc to students living in fragile communities.
Taiwo is a Co-founder and Lead Engineer at Relay, a new startup with more than 12 million customer interactions and counting. Taiwo's primary responsibilities include engineering and product development. Prior to Relay, he worked as a senior software engineer at the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and as an analyst at Goldman Sachs covering proxies and class actions.
Edwin is a Co-founder at Relay, a new startup with more than 12 million customer interactions and counting. Edwin’s primary responsibilities include product design/front-end development and customer acquisition. Prior to Relay, he worked as a consultant with Navigant Capital Advisors, the dedicated corporate finance business unit of Navigant Consulting, Inc. (NYSE: NCI).
Associate Professor and Chair of Department of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences at Medgar Evers College
Dr. Alicia Reid earned her BSc. from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine and her PhD from the University of Wales in Swansea. Dr. Reid worked as a post-doctoral fellow in the Positron Emission Tomography Imaging Group at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). Her time at BNL was followed by a brief stint as a National Institute of Health Research Scientist before transitioning to Medgar Evers College.
Dr. Jin Y. Shin received his Ph. D. degree in Environmental Science at Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey at New Brunswick, in 2000. After obtaining his Ph.D. degree, he worked at the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI) in New Jersey and Department of Environmental Engineering at the University of Connecticut as a Post-Doctoral Fellow.
Paul Saunders is a graduate of Hampton University and comes from a background in marketing and entrepreneurship. As the Co-Founder for Mezz, Paul Saunders has engaged the cannabis community and provided them a safe and effective way to enjoy Mezz products. Mezz Brands originated in one of the largest legal cannabis distribution states, Denver, CO.
Mr Sakairi received his B.A. in Social Science from International Christian University and MBA from Harvard Business School. Masatomo “Masa” Sakairi joined Paygevity as Chief Operating Office in October 2017. Mr. Sakairi has had a long career in investment banking, mergers & acquisitions, private equity, investment management, turnaround management and most recently as the head of strategy for a listed Japanese manufacturing firm.
Oluwaseun Salako came to the United States of America for his bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering at the City College of New York. He completed his doctoral work under the supervision of Prof. Jae W. Lee at the same college and joined the Department of Chemistry and Environmental Science in Medgar Evers College in the Fall of 2015 as a Substitute Assistant Professor.
Dr. John Flateau is a Professor of Public Administration and Political Science at Medgar Evers College, CUNY; Director of their Census Information Center; and a career public service executive. He is also a Commissioner of the NYC Board of Elections. Dr. Flateau has served as Chief of Staff and campaign coordinator for Mayor David Dinkins; Senior Vice President, Empire State Development Corp.
For the past two decades, in addition to teaching in the Department of Public Administration at Medgar Evers College, Professor Ford has taught Masters of Public Administration and Masters of Business Administration candidates at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, Metropolitan College of New York’s School of Public Affairs.
Professor Gregorio Mayers has been a part of the Public Administration faculty at Medgar Evers College for over 15 years. His areas of expertise include State and Local Government, Administrative and Regulatory Law, Community Development, Not-For-Profit Management, Legislative Process, Infrastructure, and Education policy.
Sam Groveman is a research associate and adjunct professor at Medgar Evers College in the Department of Chemistry and Environmental Science where he engages in research with faculty and students focusing on chemistry and the environment. Even so, he still finds time to indulge his interests in computers and hobby electronics.
Hannah began her career at DEP in August 2017, and her work supports the Integrated Water Management group’s mission of sustainably managing New York City’s water resources and identifying cost-effective approaches to balancing regulatory and long-term sustainability goals. Hannah is also the project manager for the On-site Water Reuse Grant Pilot Program which helps promote water reuse and conservation through research and data analysis
Michele is a member of the doctoral faculty of The Graduate School and University Center’s Ph.D. Program in Chemistry of the City University of New York. Dr. Vittadello is primarily interested in the investigation of fundamental physical-chemical properties of nanomaterials and biomaterials with potential applications in the fields of energy storage/generation and biotechnology.
Harsha completed her doctoral studies at University of Illinois at Chicago and applied her methods as a Postdoctoral Scholar at Biomedical Division of University of Chicago to study gastrointestinal protein interactions.She is serving at Medgar Evers College as the only Biochemistry professor since year 2014. Her research focuses on investigation of long lifetime nano-probes to study molecular interactions.
Wayne Murray is an American Board of Industrial Hygiene Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) and a Certified Hazardous Materials Manager (CHMM) with over twenty-five years of safety and environmental experience. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering Chemistry and Master’s Degree in Environmental and Occupational Health Science.
Dr. Xiaoping Zhu received his PhD degree in Environmental Engineering from Lublin University of Technology, Poland and PhD in industrial engineering from Kumamoto University, Japan. He worked as a research associate at Hunter College on metal-ligand interaction, functional polymer design, preparation and applications for heavy metal pollution control and remediation, before moving to Medgar Evers College.
Blackburn earned his Master of Engineering in Environmental Engineering, where he received a university citation for outstanding performance and a Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering from CUNY-City College of New York. Noel is responsible for a $4M university internship program; designing, implementing and managing workforce development research programs for undergraduates, graduates, and faculty at BNL.
Binda earned a B.A. in Economics and Public Policy from Duke University with a minor in African-American Studies, and has a JD from the Georgetown University Law Center. She formerly served as Deputy Director for the U.S. Department of State’s Global Intergovernmental Affairs Division in the Office of the Secretary and in the West Wing of the White House in the Office of Public Liaison, under two administrations, respectively.
Dr. Blaho received his PhD. in Biochemistry, and was the PI of an academic research lab at the University of Chicago and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine of CUNY for over 25 years.He has worked at startups for the last twelve years and is currently the CUNY Director for Industrial‐Academic Research where he has been responsible for maintaining productive sponsored research projects between Industrial entities and CUNY research faculties.