Mariella Paulino-Peralta, Founder, Project Hearing

Mariella Paulino's life-changing experience with a police officer in 2014 revealed the pervasive lack of understanding and support for people with hearing disabilities. Determined to make a difference, she pursued a Master's degree at Georgetown University to explore how deaf and hard of hearing individuals navigate the world around them. In 2019, Mariella launched Project Hearing, a community-driven initiative aimed at promoting accessibility and inclusivity for those with hearing disabilities. Through Project Hearing, Mariella shares best practices, innovative technology, and personal experiences to empower and connect individuals with hearing disabilities. Her advocacy work has taken her to prestigious institutions such as The United Nations, Harvard University, and the NY Tech Meetup, where she has delivered powerful talks on accessibility inclusion. 

Welcome by

Frederic Jambukeswaran, Chief Architect & Vice President at Northwestern Mutual

Frederic Jambukeswaran is the Chief Architect & Vice President at Northwestern Mutual where his team’s responsibility is helping ensure excellent technology decisions are being made in support of Northwestern Mutual’s long-term business interests. His team partners closely with groups across the enterprise in both technology and business areas to help realize better technology outcomes.  

Frederic joined Northwestern Mutual through the LearnVest acquisition in 2015. After the acquisition he had the opportunity to help deliver and support many important business initiatives for Northwestern Mutual. His previous role, prior to becoming the Chief Architect, was the Chief Technology Officer of the Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company.  

Before joining LearnVest, Frederic worked at a range of technology companies, ExpoTV, Pronto (an IAC company), Sportnet (a California based startup), Register.com and even partnered on a startup of his own.

Frederic earned his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from SUNY Buffalo and his MBA from New York University. He currently lives in Port Washington, NY with his wife and two children. 

Demo Presenters

Adam David Jones, Founder & CEO, Zeer

Adam David Jones is the CEO and creator of Zeer. Zeer is a frictionless, 21st-century predictive safety system that uses the cloud, connected devices, and machine learning to interpret if you might be in danger. If Zeer cannot prevent violence or medical emergencies, it calls for help autonomously, sharing location, video, and health data with emergency contacts, the cloud, and emergency services. 

Seven years ago, Adam was violently assaulted. His attacker was caught within twenty minutes covered in Adam's blood with his money in his attacker's pocket. After a coma and lengthy recovery, the attacker was acquitted by a jury. Adam lives well with epilepsy, partial deafness, and TBI complications from this attack. He now dedicates his life to preventing violence from happening to you and the people you care about.

Adriana Mallozzi, Founder and CEO, Puffin Innovations

Entrepreneur, innovator, and most importantly advocate, Adriana combines her entrepreneurial spirit with a passion for technology and empowering people with disabilities (PWD). Born with cerebral palsy, she learned at an early age that embracing technology would offer her limitless possibilities. In 2017, Adriana formed Puffin Innovations, an assistive technology startup whose flagship product is an innovative mouth-operated input device that incorporates machine learning, artificial intelligence, and IoT connectivity to give PWD greater opportunities to lead more inclusive, independent lives.

Adriana is a guest lecturer at Northeastern University and Boston University’s PT and OT/AT classes respectively for over 10 years. She has been a featured speaker on numerous panels covering topics ranging from assistive technology to disability advocacy/inclusion to entrepreneurship for venues including SXSW, MIT, HUBweek, ATIA, and Olin College, in addition to speaking engagements for notable companies such as CarGurus, Zappos, and SharkNinja. Adriana also serves on the Advisory Board for HackerU, and Board of Directors of FixPat; former Board of Directors member of Easterseals Massachusetts.

Jane Lendingham, Cochlear Implant Consumer Specialist, Advanced Bionics

Jane has been a part of the Advanced Bionics Family in her role as a Cochlear Implant Consumer Specialist. She supports AB candidates, recipients and their families in the Northeast Region.

Jane received her undergraduate degree from Douglass College and two Master’s Degrees- from Montclair State University and Smith College. She has extensive experience as a Teacher of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing, Listening & Spoken Language Specialist – Certified Auditory Verbal Therapist, and a Speech/Language Pathologist.

Before joining Advanced Bionics, she worked for many years in education, teaching students with hearing loss, training professionals, and providing Auditory Verbal Therapy for children and adults. She has presented at numerous professional venues including the AG Bell Convention on topics related to hearing loss. She has been a dedicated professional and is now using her expertise at Advanced Bionics.

Kevin Yoo, CEO & Co-Founder, WearWorks 

Kevin Yoo is a serial entrepreneur with a background in industrial design from Pratt Institute. Yoo has gained international recognition and awards for pushing sustainability, design and technical innovations forward. Winning competitions such as the Bauhaus Award, German Design Award, National Science Foundation and more. He focuses on social and positive impacts at large scale, yet working closely with the end users to generate long lasting, meaningful products. Yoo has fully patented several technologies and designs, which includes a novel wearable for precise navigation utilizing only the sense of touch called the Wayband.

Quemuel Arroyo, Chief Accessibility Officer, MTA 

Quemuel Arroyo is the first Chief Accessibility Officer and Senior Advisor to the CEO and Chairman at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Arroyo joined the MTA from Charge, a micromobility docking station startup where he served as interim President and Global Head of Community. Prior to Charge, Arroyo served as the first Chief Accessibility Specialist at the New York City Department of Transportation. He received a  Bachelors of Arts in Urban Design and History of Architecture and a Master in Public Administration from New York University. Arroyo lives in Harlem and serves on the boards of New York City Outward Bound Schools, Project Sunshine, Hudson River Community Sailing, and is chair of the Heidi Latsky Dance Company. A Dominican native, he is an avid swimmer and scuba diver, and loves to sail on the "sixth borough", NYC's waterways.

RJ Heller, Vice President Strategic Partnerships, AudioEye

RJ Heller holds a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Merced and has done advocacy work in Washington DC on capitol hill. He has passion for accessibility and inclusion and is currently the Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at AudioEye, a technology company that specializes in digital accessibility solutions whose mission is to eradicate every barrier to digital access. With nearly a decade of experience in the accessibility industry, RJ has honed his skills in building and managing partnerships and leading teams to change the reality that only 3% of the internet is accessible.

Thomas Logan, Owner, Equal Entry

Thomas Logan has spent the past 20 years assisting organizations to create technology solutions that work for people with disabilities. Over his career, Thomas has delivered projects for numerous federal, state and local government agencies as well as private sector organizations from startups to Fortune 500s. He is the owner of Equal Entry, whose mission is: “contributing to a more accessible world.” He is also organizer of Accessibility Virtual Reality and co-organizer of Accessibility New York - monthly Meetups for people interested in topics related to accessibility and people with disabilities. Thomas lives in Tokyo, Japan.

Tomer Aharoni, Co-Founder & CEO, Nagish

Tomer Aharoni is the Co-founder and CEO of Nagish, a tech company at the intersection of accessibility, natural language processing, and telecommunication. Prior to pursuing his life mission of making communication more accessible, Tomer worked as a software engineer at Bloomberg L.P., a research assistant at Columbia University, and an Intelligence Analyst in the IDF. Tomer holds a degree in Computer Science (Magna Cum Laude) from Columbia University and has co-authored and published academic papers in Natural Language Processing and the Internet of Things.

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