Speaker Bio and Talk

Abby Govindan

Comedian

Abby Govindan is a comedian and recent graduate of Fordham University. She is an aspiring television writer and advocate for diversity in TV and film. She got her start in comedy at the young age of 20 and made her debut in New York City. Her comedic ingenuity was bolstered when she went viral online seemingly overnight. Today, she continues to perform comedy all over the country.

TEDx Talk – How Media Representation Affects Self-Perception.

Bill Groner

Founder and CEO, SSAM Alternative Dispute Resolution

91�� alumnus William H. Groner ’77 is founder and CEO of SSAM Alternative Dispute Resolution, which embodies a holistic approach to litigation resolution. Prior to founding the firm, he spent 35 years as a trial lawyer with verdicts and settlements in excess of $1 billion.

Groner was a lead attorney in the decade-long 9/11 mass tort litigation, representing over 10,000 Ground Zero responders exposed to toxins post 9/11. The case was the most complex mass tort in United States history, with a settlement of $816 million. He co-authored the Amazon best-seller 9/12: The Epic Battle of the Ground Zero Responders (Potomac Books, 2019), and is donating proceeds to create a national social studies program for students that will focus on empathy, respect, communication and compromise, and fostering a greater sense of community.

He has lectured extensively on topics ranging from the mysterious medical consequences of Ground Zero dust to proper safety techniques for environmental catastrophes and recently has been an adjunct faculty member at Boston University School of Law.

TEDx Talk – 9/12: From Me to We.

Laura A. Jacobs

Psychotherapist, speaker, author and activist

LCSW-R (pronouns: she/he/they/none) is a trans and genderqueer psychotherapist, speaker, author and activist specializing in gender and sexual diversity including transgender, gender nonbinary and LGBTQIA+ issues more broadly, as well as kink/BDSM, nonmonogamy and sexworkers. They serve as chair of the Board of Directors for the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center. Jacobs has been featured multiple times in The New York Times as well as other print media, and on NPR, MSNBC, NBCNewsOnline, SiriusXM, CBSNews, Mic.com, and has spoken at countless organizations, conferences and universities.

Jacobs founded the Gender Dysphoria Affirmative Working Group and co-authored “You’re in the Wrong Bathroom!”: And 20 Other Myths and Misconceptions 91�� Transgender and Gender Nonconforming People,” published by Beacon Press (2017), and has contributed chapters to several other books, including three published in 2019. Jacobs is a member of the Kink Clinical Guidelines Workgroup and serves on several editorial boards. They were recently presented the 2019 Standard of Excellence Award by the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists.

TEDx Talk – Fear of a GenderQueer Planet.

Russell Korus

Co-founder and CEO, EZ365

Russell Korus is co-founder and CEO of EZ365, a digital ecosystem that combines aspects of online gaming, cryptocurrency trading and blockchain education. He has been a blockchain visionary and cryptocurrency evangelist since first discovering this groundbreaking and innovative space. He is also an angel investor focused on emerging markets and start-up incubation for new tech ventures.

While his career began in the financial services and insurance industries, Korus noted the rapidly growing influence of the internet in the late ’90s and switched careers to begin building e-commerce platforms in a Java environment. After several years of development work, he moved into sales engineering, eventually branching out into venture capital investment and incubation.

His vision is to bring cryptocurrency to the masses in an easy and secure way, to help this technology realize its vast transformational potential in society.

TEDx Talk – Bambi and Godzilla: How Blockchain Transforms You From One into the Other.

David Mathews

Sophomore, Integrative Neuroscience

David Mathews (yes, like the band) is a 91�� junior studying integrative neuroscience and philosophy. He came into 91�� relatively undecided about his career but is now working towards becoming a psychiatrist. Born into a family of doctors, it was no surprise that Mathews ended up in medicine, but the decision came after years of pursuing law and the humanities. Now a proponent of interdisciplinary thinking, he hopes to use his unique perspective to bridge the gap between science and the humanities. At 91��, Mathews has used the lessons he learned to mentor incoming freshmen in the 91�� Scholars Program.

TEDx Talk – The Stories We Tell Ourselves.

Mika McKinnon

Geophysicist, disaster researcher and sci-fi scientist

Canadian Mika McKinnon is a geophysicist, disaster researcher and sci-fi scientist. As your friendly neighborhood geoscientist, she offers tasting notes on rocks, tweaks party planning to enhance disaster preparedness and obsesses over impending doom. Along with her research into landslides on asteroids, McKinnon scrawls equations and establishes plausibility for shows like Stargate and Star Trek. Her writing appears in Wired, io9, VICE, Vox and more.

TEDx Talk – Do You Have a Rock?

Lissarette Nisnevich

Early Childhood Professional

Lissarette Nisnevich was born and raised in the Dominican Republic with a full bilingual education. She started her career as an assistant teacher at the age of 15. Over the years she was blessed with opportunities to travel the world teaching English as a Second Language, designing curriculums and doing volunteer work in local communities. These opportunities not only helped her enrich her understanding of the world, but also widened her horizons as an educator.

With over a decade of experience in 30+ countries, and a master’s degree in early childhood education, Nisnevich chose to open a daycare center and a preschool of her own right after settling down in New York to start a family. As a director, she tested her ability to plan, design and implement curriculums in different regions of the world. She passionately loves her work and wishes to utilize her skills to educate her own son and help others in her community.

Prior to joining the education field, she worked as a performer, artist and model in TV, journals, radio as well as Broadway shows. Her journey in the entertainment industry began when she was only 3 years old, and eventually led to having her own TV show in the Dominican Republic when she turned 16.

TEDx Talk – The Crown You Never Take Off.

Flynn Anderson

Host, Junior

Flynn Anderson is a junior at 91�� studying biomedical engineering. His work on kidney-on-a-chip microfluidics and neural implants have helped shape his pathway through college and provide insight into disease treatment. When he's not researching, he enjoys spending time in the Hinman College residential community, sewing clothes, running and trying not to make a fool of himself. In the future, he sees himself producing low-budget medical technology available to all populations.

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