Allison Pataki is the New York Times bestselling author of THE TRAITOR'S WIFE, THE ACCIDENTAL EMPRESS, SISI: EMPRESS ON HER OWN, WHERE THE LIGHT FALLS, and the nonfiction memoir BEAUTY IN THE BROKEN PLACES. Allison's novels have been translated and sold in more than twenty countries. She is the author of two children’s books, NELLY TAKES NEW YORK and POPPY TAKES PARIS.

A former news writer and producer, Allison has written for The New York Times, ABC News, The Huffington Post, USA Today, Fox News and other outlets. She has appeared on The TODAY Show, NPR, Fox & Friends, Good Day New York and MSNBC's Morning Joe.

Allison graduated Cum Laude from Yale University with a major in English and spent several years in journalism before switching to fiction writing. A member of The Historical Novel Society and a co-founder, along with her father Governor George Pataki, of the birthright program ReConnect Hungary, Allison lives in New York with her husband and family. She is the proud granddaughter and great-granddaughter of immigrants, with family from France, Hungary, Italy, Ireland and Great Britain.

Executive Partner, LLEX Partners

TOBI PETROCELLI

Hakki Akdeniz is the owner of Champion Pizza Soho. Born and raised in a desolate village in Turkey, Hakki always dreamed of a better life and big success. The one thing on his mind was always to be successful and support his family. When he was a teenager, Hakki’s parents sent him to live with his brother in Montreal. When he was 21, he left home to achieve the American dream. All he had was a one-way bus ticket to New York and a little bit of cash that would be gone in few days.

The life in New York was harder than Hakki thought. At first, he stayed in a cheap motel as he looked for a job. But the language barrier kept him from getting hired. Since Hakki had no friends or family members to ask for help, he ended up sleeping in Grand Central Station after one week. Feeling lonely and miserable, he still did not give up. On his third day at the station, Hakki heard a conversation in Turkish and ran over to the guys speaking. Hakki explained his situation and, fortunately, one of the guys introduced Hakki to a friend who ultimately hired him.

Today Hakki has become successful and has been featured on TV shows, newspapers, radio shows and a magazine cover as well. He opened 7 pizzerias in just five years. Behind all the great achievements and his good-hearted character is the tremendous hard work, love for his family and appreciation for all the people supporting him.

DAPHNE OZ

JAMAL MADNI 

SARA ALIABADI

Emmy Award-winning, TV Host , Chef

​New York Times, Best selling Author​

ZECKI DOSSAL

Jenny is an entrepreneur and intrapreneur, founding two scaled digitally native business from scratch: Rent the Runway and Jetblack. Jetblack is the first portfolio company within Walmart’s technology incubator. As CEO and Co-Founder of Jetblack, she is disrupting traditional ecommerce with a personal shopping service over text message and voice. In Jenny’s role she is also helping shape innovation more broadly within Walmart. Previously, Jenny Co-Founded Rent the Runway, a business that has transformed the retail industry by making designer clothing rentals a convenient and accessible luxury experience for millions of women. During her time at Rent the Runway, Jenny wore many different hats, serving as President, Head of Logistics, Head of Business Development and Head of Special Projects. Jenny remains a Rent the Runway board member and adviser. Prior to Rent the Runway, Jenny held roles in strategic planning at Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers.

Jenny has been honored with numerous recognitions including: Inc. Magazine’s “30 Under 30”; Fortune Magazine’s “40 Under 40” and “Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs”; and Fast Company’s “Most Influential Women in Technology.”

She earned her MBA from Harvard Business School and graduated Cum Laude from Yale University. She is Co-founder of the RTR Foundation, a proud advisor to and investor in several start-ups and is a guest lecturer at Yale, Princeton, NYU, Columbia and Harvard Business School. She currently resides in New York City with her husband and three children. 

MATTHEW GOETZ

Assistant United States Attorney, District of New Jersey

CEO And Co-Founder, Jetblack

Co-Founder, Rent The Runway

 Founder And CEO, Kairos

HAKKI AKDENIZ

ALLISON PATAKI

REBECCA ACUNA​

Co-Founder And CEO, NEXUS

Forbes “30 Under 30” entrepreneur (2019) Nicolas Bijan – Vice-Chairman and Co-Owner of the House of Bijan Beverly Hills – is the son of late world famous fashion designer Bijan Pakzad, Founder and creative visionary behind the iconic fashion house Bijan. Famously known as the most exclusive and expensive luxury menswear brand in the world, the House of Bijan was established in 1976 and remains an internationally recognized hallmark of incomparable quality and style over forty years later. The brands appointment-only boutiques began by offering seasonal collections as well as complete wardrobe and accessories for the most powerful men in the world, including heads of state, royal families, captains of industry, and the Hollywood elite. Over the years the Bijan brand has continued to evolve, expanding into bestselling fragrance lines, women’s handbags, and limited-edition car collaborations with Bugatti and Rolls Royce and Aston Martin.

Nicolas, who began immersing himself in the family business at the age of 16, quickly knew he wanted to follow in his patriarch’s footsteps. While attending Pepperdine’s Graziadio School of Business, Nicolas worked in his father's Rodeo Drive boutique part-time, eventually dropping out to work full-time at the House of Bijan. In 2011, after the death of his father, Nicolas took over responsibility for the brand’s future alongside Bijan Co- Founder, Dar Mahboubi. Having been mentored by his late father in all aspects of design and operations for several years, Nicolas Bijan was ready for the role of a lifetime. Today Nicolas is continuing to ensure that the House of Bijan remains a fixture in the luxury market and is working to expand the prestige and global reach of the legendary brand.

In recent times, Bijan expanded from its original flagship location on Rodeo Drive, opening two new luxury retail spaces in just one year’s time. In the fall of 2017, Bijan opened a second Beverly Hills location at the new Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills. The following spring (in 2018), Bijan opened its signature mahogany doors to a third location at the Wynn Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. . Nicolas has also worked to modernize the brand while remaining true to the House of Bijan’s historic past. These new milestones mark the first chapter of growth and global expansion, with Bijan now eyeing potential new locations in America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

JOHN KLUGE 

Director of Government Affairs, PepsiCo Inc. 

 Co-Founder And CEO, Block Tower Capital 

Vice Chairman And Co-Owner, House of Bijan

Tobi Petrocelli is an executive partner at LLEX Partners, a direct investment platform that incubates and builds businesses alongside sponsors and entrepreneurs. Petrocelli advises on sustainable impact-oriented direct investments and serve clients interested in using their investment capital for positive social and environmental progress. Using expert ESG analysis, Petrocelli screens the company’s financial performance, competitive positioning, brand equity and other key indicators of long-term shareholder value creation.

Ms. Petrocelli was the former Director of Strategic Initiatives at Clearbrook Global Advisors. In this role, Ms. Petrocelli was responsible for scoping and implementing special projects and strategic initiatives, and improving sustainability performance across portfolios. She is the founder of Verde Enterprise, an independent consultancy focused on growth in profitability by assessing environmental, economic and social governance, and mapping solutions for improvement. Petrocelli advised a range of industries and investors, and worked in a variety of roles involving stakeholder engagement, socio-economic development, qualitative research and analysis, relationship-building and project management.

In addition to her consulting work, she was previously a Senior Sustainability Advisor for AccountAbility, a global advisory firm focused on sustainable development for Fortune 50 companies. Tobi has worked with global organizations in Europe, Asia and Africa, focusing on social challenges and planning for environmental and disaster risk reduction. Her clients included United Nations, state municipalities, and family offices. Petrocelli is an Ambassador to Blue Sky Investment Management, an ESG centric equity fund. She also serves on the Board of the Federal Law Enforcement Homeland Security Foundation and acts at the Chairman to the Board of Impera Intelligence, a cyber security firm.

Petrocelli is of Italian decent and her grandparents immigrated through Ellis Island. She holds a BA from Fordham University and a Masters in Science from Columbia University. She is completing her Doctorate in Integrated Reporting from Walden University.​

JUSTIN FREEH

Rebecca Acuña is the Director of Government Affairs at PepsiCo Inc. where she represents the global portfolio of food and beverage brands before public policy makers and opinion leaders in seven states. Prior to joining PepsiCo Inc., she was the Executive Director of the Latino Center for Leadership Development, a national leadership organization that creates a pipeline of policy-makers and thought-leaders. Rebecca has also served in leadership roles in political campaigns and federal and state government in Washington, D.C. and Texas. She has served as a Chief of Staff and Communications Director for three members of the Texas House Representatives and one member of Congress. She was the first-ever Latina tapped as statewide Press Secretary for a major-party gubernatorial campaign in Texas as well as the first Latina to serve as Communications Director for a major political party in Texas. In these roles, Rebecca created and implemented press strategies, served as on-the-record source for media outlets both in English and Spanish, and worked to increase Latino outreach.

Rebecca serves on the Board of Directors of the League of Women Voters of Greater Dallas, a nonpartisan political organization encouraging informed and active participation in government. She also serves on the Board of the Dallas Workforce Solutions, IGNITE Texas, and the Childcare Group, where she provides guidance on enacting policy to improve the safety of childcare centers. Born in Mexico and raised in Laredo, Texas, Rebecca is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.

Commissioner, Mayor's Office of Immigration Affairs, New York City

Brooke Milstein is Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Milstein Capital Partners, a single family office with portfolio assets owned by Brooke and her family that represent billions of dollars of investments allocated across a variety of asset classes, including commercial real estate, construction, telecommunications, gaming and hospitality, private equity, public equity markets and credit.

Brooke is dedicated and committed to philanthropic causes. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation, which has funded $35 million in research grants for blood cancer to date. Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation invests 91 cents of every dollar into their program and as of 2018, has funded more than 275 scientists in labs across the country.

Ms. Milstein is a member of the Milken Institute Young Leaders Circle for intellectually curious, motivated and philanthropic young professionals who support the Milken Institute's mission to increase global prosperity by advancing collaborative solutions that widen access to capital, create jobs, and improve health.

Brooke is also a UJA Federation New York Spotlight Circle Member, a group of philanthropic young professionals in the entertainment, media, and communications fields who support the UJA mission of bringing people and nonprofits together to respond to global crises, seed innovative jewish programs and connect Israeli Jews and American Jews to one another.

Ms. Milstein also supports the American Friends of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Robin Hood, Contemporary Jewish Museum, Keep A Child Alive, Randall’s Island Park Alliance and Women’s Entrepreneurship Day.

Brooke attended University of Southern California, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and Harvard Business School.​

SHAY KHATIRI 

KEITH AGOADA 

Podiatrist And Founder, To Healthy Feet Podiatry

ANKUR JAIN 

Sara Aliabadi is a second-generation American, born and raised in Minnesota to a mother from Trinidad and a father from Iran. She thanks and credits her family for instilling in her a strong work ethic and compassion for others while encouraging her intellectual curiosity and lifelong enjoyment of music and art.

Ms. Aliabadi grew up intending to follow her parents’ paths and pursue a career in medicine. In Ms. Aliabadi’s freshman year of college, however, she fell in love with an inspiring course in civil liberties, and she slowly but surely shifted her sights toward the law.

After graduating from law school, Ms. Aliabadi worked at two international law firms based in Philadelphia, where she handled a broad range of litigation matters including pharmaceutical claims and complex business disputes. Ms. Aliabadi also clerked for two prominent, female federal judges: one in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and another on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In these clerkships, Ms. Aliabadi researched and drafted legal opinions to achieve fair and just outcomes.

Ms. Aliabadi currently serves as an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of New Jersey. In this role, Ms. Aliabadi has investigated and prosecuted a variety of crimes including mortgage fraud, child pornography offenses, and drug and gun-trafficking conspiracies. Most recently, Ms. Aliabadi served as lead counsel in a criminal trial involving threats to murder United States officials.

In Ms. Aliabadi’s spare time, she helps to judge moot court and mock trial competitions and conducts college application interviews. She also supports local charitable and civic causes, including increased access to the arts, legal services, and medical services.

Ms. Aliabadi is grateful for all the amazing opportunities that she has been afforded over the years and hopes to continue making a positive impact in her community.

DR. GOLI SAMIMI 

Steve Choi is currently the Executive Director of the New York Immigration Coalition, a coalition of nearly 200 member groups that represents New York State’s immigrant communities. Mr. Choi has doubled the size of the organization’s budget and staff, now overseeing the nation’s largest state immigrant rights coalition and serving as New York’s chief advocate on immigrant rights, education, civic participation, and health care access on the Federal, state and local levels.

From 2009 to 2013, Mr. Choi was the Executive Director of the MinKwon Center for Community Action, which represents the Korean and Asian community in New York. Prior to that, Mr. Choi was Director of the Korean Workers Project at the Asian American Legal Defense & Education Fund. His previous experience includes working for the Hale and Dorr Legal Services Center in Boston, Greater Boston Legal Services, and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Los Angeles.

Mr. Choi received a J.D. from Harvard Law School, a M.A. from the University of Hawai’i, and a B.A. from Stanford University in History with Honors. He is the recipient of the 2013 New York Law Journal’s “Rising Stars” Award, the 2012 NAPABA Best Lawyers Under 40 Award, the Korean American Association’s “Man of the Year” Award, the Skadden Fellowship, the Wasserstein Fellowship, the Skirnick Public Interest Fellowship, and the Harvard Law School Asian Pacific American Alumni Award. Mr. Choi also currently serves on the New York City Commission on Human Rights and on the Board of the United Way of New York City.

Shay Khatiri is an immigrant from Iran, currently seeking political asylum. He was born in the city of Gorgan, located in the norther region of Iran. After living in Budapest, Hungary for two and a half year, Shay moved to Arizona to attend college. He graduated from college in May, 2018 and is currently pursuing a master degree in Strategic Studies at Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies. Shay is a member of the Alexander Hamilton Society. 

Co-Founder & CEO, Producers Market

NICOLAS BIJAN

Bitta is Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA) in New York City. Under her leadership, MOIA has created programs and policies to advance the integration of immigrant New Yorkers in to the city’s civic, economic and cultural life. Bitta spearheaded the IDNYC outreach campaign, connecting over 1.2 millions New Yorkers regardless of immigration status to government issued identification, increasing access to services and a greater sense of belonging to the city. Other groundbreaking achievements include helping design the ActionNYC legal services program, bringing immigration legal services and education to communities through partnerships in schools, hospitals and community based organizations. In a time of intense anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy at the federal level, Bitta has led New York City’s efforts to ensure immigrant families have access to the services and resources they need, while fighting back against polices that negatively impact New Yorkers.

Bitta has been a passionate immigrant and human rights advocate throughout her career. After graduating law school from DePaul University in Chicago, she practiced civil rights law with a particular focus on the discriminatory impact of immigration practices on Muslim and Middle Eastern immigrants. She later joined Safe Horizon as Senior Staff attorney and continued her legal practice representing immigrant crime victims, asylees, and others in both affirmative and defensive petitions before the immigration court. Bitta led the organization’s advocacy work on behalf of immigrant crime victims seeking U visas, including before the City and Department of Homeland Security.

Bitta also has a background in community organizing, increasing awareness of global human rights injustices and the plight of refugees from Iran and Iraq. Bitta is the proud daughter of Iranian immigrants.​​

Justin Freeh is the Chief Operating Officer of Ncyber, a privately held technology company with a focus on tailored information security solutions in the cyber domain. At Ncyber, Justin is responsible for leading the design, implementation and execution of all day-to-day company operations across multiple business units, engineering divisions, finance and administrative professionals. Prior to his role at Ncyber, Justin was the Vice President of Operations and Chief Legal Counsel at SAIFE, Inc. He assumed this position after spending several years in an investment management role at a Single Family Office with a private equity group. While at the private equity group, Justin was responsible for managing a technology centric investment portfolio of hardware and software cybersecurity solutions and leading operational improvements at three portfolio companies. Justin proudly served as an active duty officer in the United States Navy, where he completed multiple deployments in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom as a Navy SEAL. He holds a BS from the United States Naval Academy, a JD from Georgetown University Law Center and an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School. He is a Member of the Bar in Maryland and Washington, D.C. Justin is the founder and President of the Custodes Libertatis Memorial Foundation, a 501(c)(3) that funds post-secondary education for the children of fallen United States Naval Academy graduates. He serves as advisor to several growth stage companies, is Of Counsel to the law firm of Freeh, Sporkin & Sullivan, LLP and is a member of Business Executives for National Security.. 

Jamal Madni is currently Managing Director of Enterprise Technology Strategy for The Boeing Company, the world’s largest aerospace & defense company and largest US exporter. He is responsible for architecting the integrated technology strategy and roadmaps for the $93B company, shaping boutique disruptive technology assessments and leading the company’s merger & acquisition due diligence activities for technology, including Boeing’s 2018 acquisition of Millennium Space Systems representing one of the largest acquisitions in satellite industry history.

Prior to this over a five-year period with Boeing Satellite Systems, Jamal embarked on a technical and leadership journey during the most unprecedented and scrutinized era in the space industry. More specifically, balancing technical intuition for software development, laser communications, advanced analytics and microelectronics, while thriving in the purposeful ambiguity of business strategy, new market development and customer cultivation. Furthermore, Jamal is passionate about envisioning and creating organizational initiatives that epitomize a return on culture, including founding the da Vinci Summit, a Boeing career development and ideation conference that was named North America’s 2017 Employee Engagement Project of the Year.

Devoted to STEM outreach, Jamal, while a faculty member at Long Beach State University, founded the Upward Bound Math Science college application preparatory program, which in a two-year period sent over 50 low income, under-represented, first generation, minority students to college in STEM majors, including Harvard, MIT & Caltech. For three years, Jamal led Boeing’s National Engineers Week outreach efforts, resulting in physical and virtual school visits to over 4,000 students. Furthermore, Jamal serves as honorary teacher at John Muir Middle School, teaching an “Imagination thru Engineering” course to the underprivileged school’s magnet students.

With a professional ideology of “technology, strategy & service,” Jamal has been nationally & internationally recognized for technical & leadership excellence by societies such as IEEE, IET, SSPI, SAE, and ASEI.

John W. Kluge Jr. is a social entrepreneur and impact investor. He is Founder and Managing Director of the Refugee Investment Network, the first impact investing and blended finance collaborative dedicated to creating long-term solutions to global forced migration. Previously, he co-founded the Alight Fund, an investment and financing company for refugee entrepreneurs, Toilet Hackers, a social enterprise dedicated to scaling access to dignified sanitation for the 2.5 billion people without a toilet.

Mr. Kluge serves as a Trustee of Babson College, a member of the Center for Strategic International Studies’ Taskforce on Global Forced Migration, as a Director for the Fonderie 47 Foundation, as a Director for the New Hill Development Corporation, and as a member of the Human Rights Commission of Charlottesville, Virginia. He is the co-author of Charity and Philanthropy for Dummies, the author of John Kluge: Stories, and has written about the intersection of business and social impact for Forbes and Conscious Company Magazine. Kluge holds a B.A. from Columbia University and an MBA from the Babson F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business.

Mr. Kluge is the son of John W. Kluge Sr., who immigrated to the U.S. from Germany in 1922 (via Ellis Island) and Patricia Kluge, who fled Iraq as a political refugee in the late 1950s and immigrated to the U.S. in the 1970s.

the american immigrant society

Zecki Dossal is a passionate entrepreneur with a deep commitment to creating social impact in society. His life-long mission is to empower others to use the power of innovation and collaboration to accelerate positive social change.

Zecki is a Senior Director at Henry Schein, where he oversees the Solutions Development Process to harness innovation across the company. Henry Schein, Inc. (Nasdaq: HSIC) is a health solutions network powered by people and technology. With over 22,000 Team Schein Members serving more than 1 million customers globally, the company is the world’s largest provider of healthcare products and services to medical, dental and animal health practitioners. Zecki partners with executives to identify, incubate and launch new products, solutions and businesses that can contribute to the company’s continued growth, market leadership, and global health impact.

He was most recently a Senior Vice President at GLG - a global platform for on-demand professional learning - where he led strategy, service and operations for the private equity and venture capital business. He was responsible for GLG’s entry into several new markets, and also launched the company's Social Impact initiatives, to help high-growth social entrepreneurs accelerate their decision-making and scale. Zecki has extensive experience working across sectors, and helped develop GLG’s business with a number of corporations, strategy consulting firms, start-ups and non-profit organizations. He was also responsible for managing the global Technology, Media & Telecommunications global research practice.

Zecki earned a BA in Economics from Columbia University, after initially starting undergraduate work at Johns Hopkins, and holds an MBA from Columbia Business School. He serves on the boards of United Hatzalah, the Columbia College Young Leadership Council, The Resolution Project, and the Global Partnerships Forum. Zecki is an Advisory Board Member of the Columbia University Center for Sustainability Policy & Management.

JENNIFER FLEISS

Co-Founder And Chief Investment Officer, Milstein Capital Partners 

BROOKE MILSTEIN

New York Times, Best selling Author​

Matthew Goetz is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of BlockTower Capital, a leading institutional cryptoasset investment firm. Previously, he spent 11 years as an executive at Goldman Sachs, and prior to that, as an engineer at Sargent & Lundy in the energy industry. He currently serves on the Advisory Board for the University of Illinois Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering. Matthew earned a BS in Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business. 

Executive Director And Co-Founder, Citizenship Counts

Program Director, National Cancer Institute (NCI)

Dr. Goli Samimi has been an ovarian cancer researcher since 1999, and is currently a Program Director at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Washington DC. Dr. Samimi received her PhD in Biomedical Sciences from UC San Diego, and her MPH from Harvard School of Public Health. In 2006, she moved to DC as a Cancer Prevention Fellow at the NCI. In 2011, she moved to Sydney, Australia to run an ovarian cancer research lab at the Garvan Institute. One of Dr. Samimi’s biggest accomplishments was being named one of Australia’s Most Inspiring Women in 2013, for her role in increasing awareness of ovarian cancer. Although she wishes she could have lived by the beach forever, Goli was lured back to the NCI in 2015 and loves living in DC!

Dr. Samimi is extremely passionate about career development and serving as a mentor, particularly for young women and scientists. She serves on multiple career panels at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and at universities and high schools throughout the DC area, and serves as a career mentor for UCLA undergraduate students. Goli currently works with the non-profit organization Upwardly Global, which provides career and job placement services for immigrant and refugee professionals in the DC area.

In addition to her research career, Goli has been involved with non-profit and arts organizations since she was an undergrad at UCLA (Go Bruins!). She served as the stage manager and associate producer for the Troubadour Theater Company in Los Angeles. Goli has been performing improv comedy in the US and abroad for the past 10 years after completing the improv training curriculum at DC Improv, Washington Improv Theater and ImproAustralia. She currently serves as Chair of the Board of the Washington Improv Theater in Washington DC.

THE BEACON AWARDS HONOREES

LAUREN WEINIGER

Chief Operating Officer, Ncyber

Founder And President, Custodes Libertatis Memorial Foundation

ALYSA COOPER

Lauren Weiniger is the CoFounder and President of The SAFE Group, a national healthcare company leveraging technology and innovative marketing techniques to disrupt the sexual health crisis. The SAFE App lets people show their verified STD status privately on their phone, and it's the easiest and least expensive way to get tested and treated. More than an App, SAFE is a movement to disrupt the spread of HIV in our lifetime.

Lauren is also the Executive Director of SAFE Movement, a nonprofit 501c3 that empowers young people to “date responsibly” through sexual health and responsibility education, activations, and innovative public outreach designed to inspire a higher standard of accountability for this generation, and generations to come.

Prior to founding SAFE, Lauren was Chief of Staff for TAU Investment Management, an impact-focused PE fund based in NYC. She also previously founded GrowthCity, oversaw a portfolio of healthcare startups for Abraxis Bioscience, and led a microfinance team for Grameen Trust in South America. Lauren began her career at Citigroup as a Derivative Analyst and also previously ran large scale investor conferences throughout the country.

Lauren is an MBA graduate of Oxford University, Lincoln College and serves as an adviser to several companies from start-up through growth, including Glow Concept, MashandGrape, and GTV. She is a member of the Milken Institute Young Leaders Circle a founding member of Dreamers//Doers.

Lauren's mother, maternal grandparents, and paternal great-grandparents all immigrated to the US through Ellis Island from Israel, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Romania, respectivelyLauren Weiniger is the CoFounder and President of The SAFE Group, a national healthcare company leveraging technology and innovative marketing techniques to disrupt the sexual health crisis. The SAFE App lets people show their verified STD status privately on their phone, and it's the easiest and least expensive way to get tested and treated. More than an App, SAFE is a movement to disrupt the spread of HIV in our lifetime.

Lauren is also the Executive Director of SAFE Movement, a nonprofit 501c3 that empowers young people to “date responsibly” through sexual health and responsibility education, activations, and innovative public outreach designed to inspire a higher standard of accountability for this generation, and generations to come.

Prior to founding SAFE, Lauren was Chief of Staff for TAU Investment Management, an impact-focused PE fund based in NYC. She also previously founded GrowthCity, oversaw a portfolio of healthcare startups for Abraxis Bioscience, and led a microfinance team for Grameen Trust in South America. Lauren began her career at Citigroup as a Derivative Analyst and also previously ran large scale investor conferences throughout the country.

Lauren is an MBA graduate of Oxford University, Lincoln College and serves as an adviser to several companies from start-up through growth, including Glow Concept, MashandGrape, and GTV. She is a member of the Milken Institute Young Leaders Circle a founding member of Dreamers//Doers.

Lauren's mother, maternal grandparents, and paternal great-grandparents all immigrated to the US through Ellis Island from Israel, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Romania, respectively​.

The Beacon Awards has been established to celebrate influential first and second generation immigrants. 

 Founder, Refugee Investment Network

 Student, Strategic Studies Program, John Hopkins University

Senior Director, Henry Schein

Founder and CEO, Champion Pizza

Managing Director, Enterprise Technology Strategy, The Boeing Company

Daphne Oz is a chef, Emmy Award-winning television host, and New York Times-Bestselling author. As cohost of ABC’s lifestyle series The Chew for its first six seasons, Daphne engaged viewers to see health and wellness as indulgence rather than deprivation with her delicious, wholesome recipes. Now as one of the cohosts of The Dish, a weekly series airing Wednesdays on The Dr. Oz Show, Daphne and her foodie friends bring the latest in food news, family-friendly recipes, expert tricks, and Instagram-worthy indulgence to the small screen. Daphne hosts the successful podcast Mom Brain alongside her friend and fellow mom Hilaria Baldwin. Through candid conversations with guests including celebrity parents, childhood experts, entrepreneurs, fitness gurus, and healthcare practitioners, the duo are creating a digital “village” of happy parents raising happy, confident kids. Daphne is the author of The Dorm Room Diet, Relish, The Happy Cook, and she has a new release slated for early 2020 exploring her message of post-baby body positivity and wellness. She is the Chief Innovation Officer for Pure Spoon, an organic fresh baby food delivery service. A graduate of Princeton University, The Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and The Natural Gourmet Institute, Daphne and her husband John have three beautiful children and live between NYC and Florida​

Dr. Farah Alani is a New York City foot and ankle surgeon at To Healthy Feet Podiatry, a boutique podiatry practice. Located in the heart of Manhattan, her patient base includes senior diplomats, Broadway stars, professional athletes, as well as young professionals and anyone in need of help from injuries or pain. Her practice focuses on non-invasive surgery, regenerative medicine, and innovative techniques in general podiatry. Dr. Alani is currently in her fourth term as the Chairman of the Northeast Aga Khan Health Board where she manages over 350 volunteer health care professionals. In this role, she has done significant work with the underprivileged across the northeastern United States, providing much needed health care, healthy living, and health education programming. Additionally, she serves as mentor to young medical professionals in the United States. This year, Dr. Alani was recognized for Outstanding Community Service by the State of New York. She recently spoke at the United Nations Women’s Entrepreneurship Day. Dr. Alani volunteered abroad in Uganda, where she was inspired to become a foot surgeon. She studied in Chicago, and has served in multiple medical missions to remote parts of Mexico with LIGA-Flying Doctor of Mercy. Being a language enthusiast, she taught English in China and developed an oral English language curriculum for a middle school in Changsha. She is fluent in English, French, and Kutchi and is learning Spanish. Dr. Alani is a local arts scene supporter and loves to travel.

Executive Director, New York Immigration Coalition

Alysa Cooper is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Citizenship Counts, a national, non-partisan 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to inspire pride in America. In 2008, she created Citizenship Counts with her grandmother, Gerda Weissmann Klein, a celebrated author, humanitarian, Holocaust survivor, and proud naturalized citizen.

From a young age, Ms. Cooper was taught to value American citizenship and appreciate its benefits. In 2007, she was hired by K-12 education publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to author The Path to Citizenship. This guide was designed to educate middle and high school students on the tenets of U.S. citizenship and the naturalization process. To date, the Citizenship Counts educational program has been implemented in schools in 38 states across the country. Upon completion, students have the unique opportunity to host an official naturalization ceremony at their school, bringing their learning to life!

Prior to Citizenship Counts, Alysa served on a media team that authored the certified biographies for all 11,000 athletes that competed in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. She also worked as a Corporate Marketing Manager for Monumental Sports, the umbrella organization that includes the Washington Wizards, Capitals and Mystics, the Georgetown Hoyas, and Verizon Center.

In May 2011 Alysa was recognized at the White House as a “Champion of Change,” part of President Obama‘s Winning the Future initiative. Her efforts were highlighted as one of the top innovative educational initiatives in the field of immigrant integration. She has an impassioned commitment to education and service, as evidenced by her leadership roles on the National Conference of Citizenship Steering Committee, the Civic Education Advisory Committee for the Arizona Department of Education, and the Jewish Community Relations Council Board of Directors. Her appreciation for America has taken her to each of the 50 states. A graduate of the University of Michigan, she is the proud wife of U.S. Navy Commander, Dr. Adam Cooper and mother of Kayla and Jake.

Ankur Jain is founder and CEO of Kairos, a venture fund building and investing in companies to tackle the world’s greatest challenges. Over the years, Kairos has helped launch and grow over $6.5bn worth of companies tackling problems in healthcare, housing costs, transportation networks, and more. Before rejoining Kairos in May 2017, Jain was the Chief Product Officer at Tinder, the world's largest social network for meeting people. He joined Tinder after it acquired his previous company, Humin, where he served as Founder & CEO.,

Over the years Jain has been recognized for a variety of achievements. In 2017, he was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. In 2011, Inc. magazine named Ankur Jain the "Best Connected 21-Year-Old in the World" and awarded Jain "30 Under 30". In 2012, Jain was named “30 under 30: Solution Broker” by the Christian Science Monitor. And in 2015, Forbes also named Jain to their “30 under 30” list. Jain also currently serves on the innovation board of the X-Prize foundation and as a member of the Pacific Council on Foreign Relations.

Jain graduated from the Wharton School of Business in May, 2011. 

DR.FARAH ALANI

Keith Agoada is the Co-Founder and CEO of Producers Market. Keith has worked in the supply side of the agricultural industry for the past decade. He is the founder of the commercial urban agriculture firm, Sky Vegetables, which pioneered the integration of greenhouse hydroponic agriculture in urban environments. After being acquired of majority ownership, Keith consulted in the founding and initial development of leading organic agriculture real estate developer, Simply Natural. Prior to his work with Producers Market Keith spent the last four years in international procurement development roles for UNFI, Global Organics, Veg Fresh Farms and other leading organic brands in the United States. Keith speaks four languages: English, Spanish, Producer, and Buyer. He maintains on-the-ground relationships with leading growers, packers and processors globally and works everyday to transform the industry to return more profits back to farmers. Keith’s passion for supporting producers is the initial inspiration behind the Producers Market platform. He envisions disrupting the $4 trillion agriculture value chain industry by creating a world that is fully organic and empowers farmers with better payments and end-consumers with more transparency to the source of production.

STEVE CHOI

RACHEL GERROL 

Co-Founder And President, The SAFE Group

BITTA MOSTOFI

Rachel Gerrol works at the intersection of millennial philanthropy, community building and social impact. Rachel is Co-Founder & CEO of NEXUS, the leading international network of next gen philanthropists and impact investors, representing members from 70+ countries who collaborate on creative solutions to global problems. NEXUS has catalyzed tens of millions in donations and impact investments, supporting projects on human trafficking, refugee assistance, renewable energy and more.

Rachel has organized 40 NEXUS summits globally, including at The U.N., The White House and No. 10 Downing Street, and with the First Lady of Australia and the Prime Minister of Lebanon.

Rachel Co-Chaired the 2013 G8 Young Summit, Co-Hosted the 2014 White House Conference on Next Gen Philanthropy, worked with Vice President Biden to create the “It’s On Us” campaign to stop sexual assault on campus, and worked for 8 years with Nancy Rubin, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights.

A proud descendent of Ashkenazi Jews from Ukraine and Poland, and of missionaries from China, she founded “The Survivor Initiative” in support of Holocaust survivors living in poverty in the US, leading to millions of dollars directed to the cause, including from NY City Council and The White House.

Rachel launched the “Media for Social Impact Summit” at the U. N., the “IMPACTHAUS” program at the Sundance Film Festival, and was Founding Executive Director of PVBLIC Foundation.

Rachel was named a “Top 99 Foreign Policy Leader Under 33” by the Diplomatic Courier, received the Jewish Women’s Archive “Making Change, Making History” Award and has been featured in The New York Times, The Financial Times, Forbes and Vanity Fair.

Rachel serves on the Advisory Council of Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, the Governing Committee of Lifestyles Magazine, the Board of Birthright Israel Foundation and the Next Gen Council of the USC-Shoah Foundation.