Dean's Advisory Council

Danielle Bechta is the Director of Development at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. She previously served as Senior Philanthropy Relationship Manager at The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, where she worked for seven years. Ms. Bechta is a devoted volunteer to Rutgers University and, in addition to her work on the SAS DAC, she serves on the University Board of Trustees and as a board member for the Rutgers Alumni Association (RAA). She was the first RAA President to have graduated from SAS and elected into a two-year term. Prior to that, Ms. Bechta was the founder and first Executive Director of the Rutgers University Dance Marathon Alumni group. During her undergrad, Ms. Bechta was also an active member of the SAS Educational Opportunity Fund and Sigma Kappa Sorority. After receiving her Rutgers degree, Ms. Bechta served as a national volunteer for Sigma Kappa, and is currently a Trustee for the Sigma Kappa Foundation. Ms. Bechta graduated from the School of Arts and Sciences in 2011 with a bachelor's degree in political science and holds a master’s degree from Saint Joseph’s University in organizational development and leadership. Ms. Bechta has served on the Dean’s Advisory Council since 2021.

Tahlia Bliss is a trustee at the Brandeis School of San Francisco, where she has chaired the development department for the last four years and will soon transition to co-chair a capital campaign set to launch in the fall of 2025. She is a 2000 graduate of Douglass College, Rutgers University with a Jewish Studies major, one of the first to graduate with the Alan and Joan Bildner Center for Study of Jewish Life. Ms. Bliss is also a 2006 graduate of the dual degree program at Columbia University School of Social Work and the Jewish Theological Seminary, where she was a Haas Fellowship recipient and a UJA-Federation of New York Weiner Center Scholarship recipient. She is also a 2008 graduate of the Muhelstein Institute for Jewish Professional Leadership at Columbia University School of Public Affairs. She has worked at UJA-Federation in the Network Commission, managing the Federation/Community Council partnership and the Minneapolis Jewish Federation, researching the special needs community. Ms. Bliss joined the Dean’s Advisory Council in 2024.

Rodolphe N. Brioché serves as Vice President for Global Public Policy and Policy Counsel for Comcast Corporation, where he focuses on the development of the company’s public policy positions and legislative analysis. Prior to joining Comcast, Mr. Brioché served as Legal Advisor to Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein at the Federal Communications Commission and Legislative Counsel to U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ, focused on media and broadband policy. Earlier in his career, he practiced law as a commercial litigator in New York City and Baltimore and served as Counsel to the Washington Bureau of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He also clerked for Judge André Davis on the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland and Chief Judge Robert Bell on the Maryland Court of Appeals. Mr. Brioché graduated from Rutgers College in 1992 with a bachelor's degree in History and received a J.D. from the University of Maryland, and an M.A. in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School. He has served on the Dean’s Advisory Council since 2020.

Robert Coppola serves as Chief Technology Officer at Sanctuary Wealth. He previously served as the Chief Technology Officer for Envestnet, Inc., where he was instrumental in the development of fintech that transformed the wealth management industry to enable once captive, W-2 employees to establish independent firms and unlock the value of their businesses. Prior to joining Envestnet, he was the Chief Information Officer at Cision, where he helped transform the company into a technology-driven solutions provider that empowers PR and marketing pros to target, reach and engage their audiences. Before joining Cision, Mr. Coppola spent 24 years in the financial services and media industry in various technology and business leadership roles for companies including Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, and S&P Global. He graduated from Rutgers College in 1992 with a bachelor's degree in Economics. Mr. Coppola joined the Dean’s Advisory Council in 2022.

Dr. Paul Dicker is the founder of The Center for Women’s Health, a private practice Ob/Gyn group in northern Bergen County, and is a partner in Lifeline Medical Associates, an organization comprised of over 200 women’s health practitioners throughout New Jersey. Dr. Dicker serves as a Board Member in Lifeline, playing a vital role in guiding this innovative, forward-looking company on its mission to provide the highest quality, most cost-effective healthcare to women across the state. Dr. Dicker is also actively involved in the United States Women’s Health Alliance, a nationwide organization of over 3,000 women’s health providers that is recognized as the leader in developing and implementing value-based healthcare for millions of women across the country. He graduated from Rutgers College in 1988 with a bachelor's degree in biological sciences and received his medical degree from New York University. Dr. Dicker has served on the Dean’s Advisory Council since 2017.

Dagon L. Garris, Jr – CLTC, FSCP, LUTCF, MBA is currently a financial planner and investment advisor at Eagle Strategies LLC. Prior to starting his practice, Mr. Garris held sales executive positions with Pitney Bowes, IBM Corporation and GTE Corporation. He has received special professional recognitions including IBM’s Southwestern Region Rookie of the Year, Insurance Industry Regional Manager of the Year and New York Life’s Chairman’s Council. He also served on the board of directors for the Santa Maria Hostel, an addiction and recovery center for women, the Windrose Homeowners Association and the Houston Society of Financial Services Professionals. Mr. Garris received his B.A. from Upsala College in 1972 and his MBA from Rutgers Graduate School Business of Administration in 1976. He has served on the Dean’s Advisory Council since 2021.

Dr. Allen M. Khademi serves as Vice President of Medical Affairs for Christian Health, a health care organization in Bergen and Passaic counties offering a continuum of high-quality senior living, short-term rehabilitation and mental-health services. Prior to joining Christian Health, Dr. Khademi served as the Medical Director of Rehabilitative Services, Post-acute Care Services, and Care Transitions for Summit Medical Group. Previous leadership positions also included Vice President of Medical Affairs for the Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network, and Chief of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Division/Medical Director of Stroke Rehabilitative Services at Lehigh Valley Health Network in Pennsylvania. Dr. Khademi graduated from Rutgers College in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in Biology. He subsequently received his M.D. from Georgetown University School of Medicine in 1992. He joined the Dean’s Advisory Council in 2022.

John Mathai is a Vice Chairman and Senior Investor at J.P. Morgan Private Bank in New York. He is responsible for advising real estate principals, corporate executives, hedge funds principals, private equity principals, high net worth individuals, entrepreneurs and families on their wealth. Mr. Mathai has dedicated his entire 30-year career to the J.P. Morgan Private Bank advising clients on asset allocation and tactical investment ideas across broad asset classes around the world. Prior to that, Mr. Mathai was the head of the investment desk working closely with a team of ten investment professionals, managing assets in excess of $10 billion. He received a bachelor’s degree in Economics and a minor in Finance from Livingston College in 1988. Mr. Mathai joined the Dean’s Advisory Council in 2021.

David Pappalardo brings more than three decades of leadership experience in the financial services industry to his role on the Dean’s Advisory Council. Before retiring in 2023, he spent 37 years building and leading successful teams, most recently as a Director in Bank of America’s Home Loans Division. Throughout his career, he established a strong reputation for building high-performing teams and programs from the ground up and for transforming underperforming business areas into successful operations. Deeply committed to service and mentorship, he now volunteers as a Leadership Coach for Rutgers–Newark students and the Aldersgate Food Pantry in East Brunswick. His previous community work includes serving on the ARC of Hunterdon Foundation Board and coaching participants in Rutgers’ New Start Program for several years, which helped unemployed New Jersey residents over 45 re-enter the workforce.A proud alumnus, he graduated from Rutgers College in 1985 with a bachelor's degree in Economics. He has been a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council since 2025.

Theresa Ragozine retired from Johnson & Johnson in 2017 after 36 years of service, most recently as Vice President Procurement Citizenship. Prior to that, she led an enterprise wide standardization effort as VP Enterprise Standards & Productivity, following her lead as VP Global Procurement Business Services.  Early career days covered a wide variety of roles in Global Strategic Sourcing and end-to-end global logistics. Theresa also served as J&J's National Program Director for what is recognized as the most successful volunteer blood drive campaign in industry, and now serves on the Board  of Trustees and Executive Committee of the NY Blood Center. She graduated from Rutgers College in 1980 with a degree in English and holds an M.B.A. in International Business from Fairleigh Dickinson University. Ms. Ragozine has served on the Dean’s Advisory Council since 2015.

Dr. Steven Stylianos serves as system director for Pediatric Surgery and surgeon-in-chief at Bristol Myers Squibb Children's Hospital at RWJUH and professor of surgery and chief of the Division of Pediatric Surgery at RWJMS. He previously served at Columbia University as the Rudolph N. Schullinger Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics and Chief of the Division of Pediatric Surgery. He also served as the Surgeon-in-Chief of the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital/New York Presbyterian. He has organized and directed the multi-disciplinary teams of physicians and nurses who have separated five sets of conjoined twins. Dr. Stylianos served as Chairman of the Trauma Committee for the American Pediatric Surgical Association (APSA) from 1997–2002. Dr. Stylianos currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Pediatric Surgery Case Reports, Associate Editor of the Journal of Pediatric Surgery and served on the Executive Board as a founding member of the Pediatric Trauma Society. He graduated from Rutgers College in 1978 with a bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences and received his MD from NYU School of Medicine. He joined the Dean’s Advisory Council in 2022.

Brian Tobin has been in the transportation industry for close to 30 years. Starting out as a staff member with NJ legislators working on local issues with NJDOT, Tobin then shifted to managing two statewide transportation and construction contractor associations where he worked on issues from accessibility to materials for close to a decade with all of the region's road owners and users. Following that, Tobin managed and performed research at one of the top transportation research university programs in the country - Rutgers CAIT - for close to 14 years. Currently, Tobin has been the Executive Director of one of New Jersey's eight Transportation Management Associations - Keep Middlesex Moving - where he focuses his time on accessible, reliable, and safe methods of transportation for all. Tobin spends his free time enjoying live events with his wife, family, and friends or walking around Metuchen where he allows people to pet his dog Archie. Mr. Tobin joined the Dean’s Advisory Council in 2024.

Donna Usiskin is the Chief Strategy Officer at New Enterprise Ventures. She has over 25 years of experience in sales, marketing, and strategy within information technology companies across various industries, with a focus on healthcare and pharma IT. She previously served as VP of Sales at Notiv (Dubber) and VP of Corporate Development at MMIT (Nostella). She held numerous other roles to drive growth and raise capital in early- and growth-stage companies. Additionally, she has twelve years of venture capital experience on the Healthcare investment team, while leading business development and executive forums for the portfolio. Donna has collaborated with investments such as Portico (McKesson), Health Market Science (LexisNexis), Octagon (Accenture), Cadient (Cognizant), and iContracts (RLDatix). Mrs. Usiskin previously held advisory positions at IHT2, NJTC, and NJEN, and mentors many startups and incubators in the region. She graduated from Rutgers College in 1991 with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology. Mrs. Usiskin has been a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council since 2020.

Gary Way is currently an independent director on the board of Townsquare Media, Inc. (NYSE: TSQ), and a member of the Board of Trustees of NYU School of Law, and the Board of Advisors at the National Sports Law Institute.  Mr. Way retired in 2020 after a 36-year career practicing law.  His last 24 years were spent at NIKE, Inc. where he was the Vice President and Global Counsel of its worldwide sports marketing organization and a member of the NIKE Corporate Leadership Team, and later served as the first-ever General Counsel of the Jordan Brand—a $5 billion division of NIKE.  Mr. Way began his legal career on Wall Street as a litigation associate at Haight, Gardner, Poor and Havens before moving on to work as a league lawyer at the National Basketball Association.  Mr. Way graduated from Rutgers College in 1980 with a degree in English, and as a Distinguished Military Graduate, together with a ROTC commission in the U.S. Army Reserve.  Following graduation, he earned his law degree from New York University.  He is a graduate of the Portland Metro Chamber’s Leadership Portland Program, and completed the Directors’ Consortium Program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.  Mr. Way joined the Dean’s Advisory Council in 2021.

Alan Wink is Managing Director – Capital Markets at EisnerAmper LLP, one of the largest accounting firms in the U.S. Mr. Wink assists clients with capital budgeting, capital structuring and capital sourcing. He has 20 years of financial and consulting experience, having served as Director of the Interfunctional Management Consulting Program at Rutgers Graduate School of Management, a program he helped build into one of the largest business school-based management consulting practices in the country. He started his career in accounting, spending six years on the audit staff of a Big 4 accounting firm and a Fortune 500 Company. He left the accounting field to expand his horizons in the area of Corporate Finance. Mr. Wink spent several years as Director of Financial Analysis for AmBase Corporation (NYSE). He graduated from Rutgers College in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, and he received his MBA in 1987 from Rutgers Business School – Newark. Mr. Wink has served on the Dean’s Advisory Council since 2018.