DEI Alumni Advisory Council
Alejandra Adarve
Denise L. Bennett
Kebrina Carter
Hector Hernandez
Valentina Marastoni-Bieser
Atul Prashar
Justin Reyes
Karyn Twaronite
Alejandra Adarve
Alejandra is a manager in Deloitte risk and financial advisory, based in the New York office. Alejandra has experience primarily serving clients in the financial services industry. She has dual experience in both business risk and technology risk, specializing in third-party assurance engagements.
Outside of serving her clients Alejandra is equally as focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion work and leads the Tristate Hispanic Latinx “HLx” and Allies Community. In this role she helps drive strategic initiatives and career activators for HLx and ally professionals by fostering marketplace connections, community involvement, talent acquisition, and professional development. Alejandra is also passionate about campus recruiting and serves on the risk and financial advisory recruiting team at her alma mater Fordham University.
Denise L. Bennett
With 20 years of media and entertainment marketing experience, Denise is a seasoned professional. She is currently the vice president of brand strategy at iHeartMedia, specializing in multicultural marketing partnerships. She is also a professor at Fordham University Gabelli School of Business, where she teaches advanced business communications at the graduate level.
Her most recent post was as a senior member of the WarnerMedia Entertainment Content Partnerships team and served as the NYC chair of the Black Professionals at WarnerMedia Business Resource Group. Denise has held marketing roles at NBCUniversal’s “Women at NBCU” portfolio team, the NBA’s Global Marketing Partnerships team and TV One’s “One Solution” portfolio team, serving as primary liaison to premier client, Walmart, developing award winning marketing solutions across TV One, Radio One, Reach Media, and Interactive One.
She started as an intern at Viacom's VH1 Save The Music and spent almost nine years in various consumer and integrated marketing roles throughout the company including Noggin/The N, Comedy Central, and MTV/MTV2.
Denise has a bachelor’s degree in music business from Indiana State University and an MBA with a dual concentration in marketing and media and communications from Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business. She was in the first class of the Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT) MBA Prep class and has served as the president of the Fordham Black & Hispanic MBA Association and vice president of the Fordham Media and Entertainment Alliance. She has participated in the Council of Urban Professionals (CUP) Executive Leadership Program and was recently recognized as a 2020 CUP Technology Catalyst. She has also served as the NY Chapter President of NAMIC (National Association of Multi-ethnicity in Communications) and in 2019 she completed the NAMIC Executive Leadership Development Program (ELDP) at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. She also received The Network Journal's 40 Under 40 Achievement Award in recognition of her professional accomplishments and contribution to the community.
Outside of her professional responsibilities, Denise is a classically trained pianist, an avid world traveler, and a proud and active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
Kebrina Carter
Kebrina Carter is the senior director of strategy and operations for the Office of Supplier Diversity at the NYC Department of Education (NYC DOE). On behalf of the largest school system in the United States, with a $34B annual budget,1800+ schools, one million students, and 130,000 employees, Kebrina takes a data-driven approach to strategically design, implement, and launch M/WBE supplier diversity and inclusion initiatives while working closely with internal and external stakeholders to further the agency’s mission and commitment towards equity in procurement.
Prior to her current role, Kebrina was the agency’s executive director of business services and served as a key architect helping ensure NYC schools have the resources they need to create better educational opportunities for all of its students. In this position, she was responsible for the budget and procurement teams that support the city's 1,800 public schools throughout the city’s five boroughs.
Throughout her career with the NYC DOE, Kebrina has maintained a strong commitment to mentoring NYC’s youth and began her career in education in the classroom as a former NYC elementary school teacher prior to joining NYC DOE as a grants analyst.
A proud NYC native, Kebrina graduated from Brooklyn College and earned an MBA from Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business.
Hector Hernandez
Hector brings 11 years of leadership development experience into his coaching practice. Hector's expertise spans coaching and formal skills training and development programs at all leadership levels. He is equally comfortable coaching executives, facilitating training for new hires, or leading group coaching sessions.
Believing everyone is creative, resourceful, and whole, he brings a practical and earnest approach to his coaching that allows people to confidently unlock their own potential. He is currently the leadership coach at Blend. He also practices his coaching extensively as part of Bravely and Betterup's coaching rosters as well as his own private practice. Before Blend, Hector spent nine years developing leaders and talent at LinkedIn.
Living in Stamford, Ct., his true coaching skills are probably best challenged by his children, who refuse to be told what to do.
Valentina Marastoni-Bieser
Valentina Marastoni-Bieser is an experienced marketer with 15+ years of B2B marketing and brand building experience across start-ups and global corporations. She is currently the head of marketing at SmartHop, where she spearheads all marketing initiatives for the company.
Prior to SmartHop, she built and scaled marketing organizations for tech startups SuperAwesome (now an Epic Games company) and Cuebiq. Prior to Cuebiq, Valentina served in marketing roles at global organizations NBCUniversal and USA TODAY, focusing on integrated marketing and product marketing, leading revenue generating marketing partnerships and groundbreaking programs for clients.
Her career began in the tech start-up world where she found her passion for B2B marketing and brand building. Valentina holds an MBA from Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business.
Atul Prashar
With a “profit with a purpose” focus, Atul is one of three founding partners of umbrella company, KMH Group, a boutique investment and advisory company, managing $50M in investments in companies focused on disrupting media, entertainment and sports. In 2018, KMH Group led a group of 18 independent and institutional investors aggregating $500M to bid on a high-profile media portfolio, and most of the group’s media projects dedicate five to seven percent of resources toward social impact initiatives related to DEI and global sustainability.
Atul sits on the board of Digital Diversity Network and highlights minority founded companies through his annual Sava360 Ventures Startup Showcase in partnership with NAMIC National and Comcast NBCUniversal.
Atul is frequently hired to speak on Financial Literacy, Private & Public Investing and Trending Business Models and the Economies around them. He is also cohost on the Whiskey Hue podcast and previously produced urban music for major label recording artists and network TV/Film.
Justin Reyes
Justin Reyes is a diversity and inclusion strategist, advisor and practitioner with over 20 years of experience across financial services, non-profit, media and sports.
Justin joined Major League Baseball in 2020 as the vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion and is responsible for the design and implementation of a multi-year D&I, L&D and communications strategy, helping also shape execution approaches across Central Baseball, 30 Major League Clubs and 120 Minor League Clubs. Prior to joining MLB, Justin served as chief diversity and inclusion officer for Omnicom Media Group, a leading end-to-end global media, marketing and communications holding company.
Justin holds a dual concentration MBA in finance and management from Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business, and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Binghamton University. Justin lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two sons, ages ten and twelve.
Karyn Twaronite
Karyn Twaronite is EY global vice chair for diversity and inclusiveness. She is a member of the EY Global Practice Group leadership team and the EY Global Talent Committee. In her role, she is responsible for driving innovations that maximize the strength and effectiveness of EY’s diverse workforce of over 300,000 people across 150 countries in the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEIA).
She received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Miami University of Ohio, a master’s degree in taxation from Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business, holds a certificate in strategic human resource management from Harvard Business School, and is a graduate of the Partnership for New York City’s David Rockefeller Fellows program. Karyn is a licensed CPA of New York.