AIRPORT VOICE, OCTOBER 2021 25
Vaughn College
Nre Board Members
Vaughn College has announced
the appointment of two
new board members beginning
in October 2021. Their backgrounds
in aviation and aerospace
bring a wealth of knowledge
to the College to assist in
fulfilling its vision, “To change the
world one student at a time with
a transformational education that
creates a lifetime of opportunity.”
Patty Clark has recently retired
from the Port Authority of
New York and New Jersey as
the chief strategy officer in the
aviation department and Dr.
Surya Raghu, an innovator and
entrepreneur, is the founderpresident
of the high-tech company
Advanced Fluidics, LLC
since 2001 and founding partner
of a nonprofit company ET
Cube International, Inc.
“It is an honor to be able to
work together with the board
and the administration to help
further the mission of this very
special institution and the students
it serves. What a privilege
to support students and graduates
as they embark on careers
in aerospace and aviation—an
industry that I love,” said Clark.
Clark joined the Port Authority’s
New York Airport Access
Program in 1995 and helped
secure all federal, state and local
regulatory approvals and
funding from the Federal Aviation
Administration for the John
F. Kennedy (JFK) International
Airport AirTrain project. In 2000,
she worked as a senior adviser
to the aviation director, spearheading
major planning and
capital projects, resulting in
the LaGuardia Airport and JFK
Redevelopment Programs. In
2017, she was named the department’s
first chief strategy
officer and had been responsible
for managing the aviation
department’s strategic, legislative
and regulatory agendas.
She is currently establishing
her own consulting firm that will
focus on improving diversity,
equality and inclusion in the aviation
sector, and aviation policy
and regulatory matters.
Before founding Advanced
Fluidics, Dr. Raghu’s earlier affiliations
were with Yale University,
Technical University of Berlin
(Germany), SUNY Stony Brook
and Bowles Fluidics Corporation.
He has also been a visiting
scientist at the National Institute
of Standards and Technology
(NIST) and the Air Force Office
of Scientific Research (AFOSR)
Laboratories, a guest lecturer
at Kyushu Institute of Technology,
Japan and currently a visiting
professor at the University of
Witwatersrand, South Africa.
Dr. Raghu has inventions
related to aerospace, automotive,
consumer and biotechnology
applications and has been
awarded 15 US patents as an
inventor or co-inventor. In addition
to his research and development
work in aerodynamics,
he works with various organizations
on capacity building for
innovation, technology transfer,
research commercialization
and entrepreneurship in more
than 25 developing countries.
The dual-mode of working
as an engineer-entrepreneur
and teaching both in the US
and in developing countries,
combined with his own background
as a first-generation college
graduate and immigrant,
has enabled Dr. Raghu to understand
situations related to
such students and inspire them
to pursue their education and
dream careers.
“I am having a great career
as an engineer, entrepreneur
and educator and want to create
excitement of all possibilities
for the students at Vaughn
by working with the board and
college administration towards
this goal,” said Raghu.
“We are very fortunate to
have such prominent and knowledgeable
individuals with impressive
qualifications as Ms.
Clark and Dr. Raghu join our
board of trustees. Their backgrounds
and experience will enhance
our community and provide
important guidance as we
develop new curricula and continue
to launch the next generation
of engineers, managers and
entrepreneurs into the fields of
aerospace, engineering, transportation,
and energy alternatives,”
said Vaughn College
President Dr. Sharon B. DeVivo.
Raymond Calascibetta.
Wright Brothers Award for 50
years in aviation. Long time
JFKer
To be eligible for the Wright
Brothers Master Pilot Award,
nominees must meet the following
criteria:
Hold a U.S. Civil Aviation
Authority (CAA) or Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) pilot
certificate.
Have 50 or more years of
civil and military piloting experience
or 50 or more years combined
experience in both piloting
and aircraft operations.
GatewayJFK Annual Meeting
Goals met and future growth discussed with attendees
BY JEFF YAPALATER
GatewayJFK the IBID area along
Rockaway Boulevard south of Sunrise
held its annual meeting which celebrated
its 5th year in the community adjacent to
JFK Airport and laid out plans for 2022.
Both the President Frank Leggio and
Executive Director Scott Grimm-Lyons
proudly spoke about the accomplishments
of the past year in the annual review.
The annual meeting also was the forum
for the election of the Board in which
many current members were re-elected
from this part of Southeast Queens.
This was also the opportunity to invite
the community and supporters to the Annual
Awards Gala to be held at the TWA
Hotel on November 4th. Tickets available
at.
Leggio said that there were great accomplishments
over the last 5 years. He
said it was important for a succession
plan. “We need to take closer look at how
overall structure of the Board for more efficiency
due to time constraints as a parttime
endeavor and how we will take this to
next level.”
He thanked all the area civic associations,
many which are represented on the
Board, and the work of all for getting goals
met.
Grimm-Lyon listed the number of fiscal
year 2020-2021
Achievements by the
Gateway JFK that
included:
- Establishment of the GJFK Shuttle.
-Creation of two vehicle area security
patrols.
- (5) Scholarship of $1k each. GJFK
seeks nominations during the Christmas
break for award in March for 2022 scholarships
announcement.
-14 laptops were donated to the Humanities
and the Arts High School.
-Public art, community garden with local
artist with mural and statue beacon for
neighborhood.
-Supplemental sanitation cleanup
with 4080 hours of debris, graffiti and
vandalism removed by “Wildcat” sanitation.
-Street condition survey sent to DOT,
which repaired many potholes and some
re-pavement in the area.
-Beautification of the street area with
207 colorfully repainted fire hydrants
-A clean truck webinar held to help
businesses to access funding for business
vehicles.
-Coordinated covid testing for small
business services.
- Co-hosted candidate forum for special
council election
-Book bag giveaway, gun buy-back
program.
-Paper newsletter sent out to almost
3500 local addresses.
Plans for
fiscal2021-2022
-Renewed Board mission with consultant
input
-GJFK is anticipated a 2021 Christmas
celebration at the Burger King again this
year after pausing for 2020.
-Improve business outreach and JFK
air cargo networking
-Improve garden planning
-Beautification new sanitation plan
-Strategic planning on Board and mission
objectives.
A study on air cargo traffic was started
with a poll to the community but due to unforeseen
passing of one of the organizers,
this study may de belayed a few months.