The National Heraldwww.thenationalherald.com

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E NATIONAL HERA

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NOVEMBER 5, 2016

40UNDER

40The National Herald proudly presents its inaugural 40 Under 40 edition!

Read 40 incredible bios of young people with Hellenic heritage who have dedicated their lives to helping others and are paving the way for others to follow them.

From artists to doctors... from journalists to politicians... and every field in between... this next generation showcases the traditional Greek spirit by honoring their past and helping their future thereby exemplifying the true meaning of Greek culture in their careers.

We congratulate these rising stars and acknowledge their wonderful achievements!Αliz Κoletas

40 UNDER 402 THE NATIONAL HERALD, NOVEMBER 5, 2016

Nick and MelanieAngelis, 33 and 32

One husband-and-wife teamin Florida is on a medical missionto help others as a nurse anes-thetist and holistic health consul-tant, respectively. Nick andMelanie Angelis are using theirMaster’s Degrees and wealth ofmedical knowledge and holisticinformation to help patients andclients stay safe through eithersurgery or alternative medicinaltherapies. They are also accom-plished authors in their field.Nick graduated nursing schoolfrom Youngstown State and is amagazine contributor for "AD-VANCE for Nurses" and "NewPhysician" and the author of Howto Succeed in Anesthesia School(And RN, PA, or Med School).Nick always enjoyed science andcommunication and the ability tocommunicate with patients anduses anesthesiology as a way toimprove a patient’s wellbeing.Melanie originally was in the ed-ucation field having received herteaching degree from Southeast-

ern University but after research-ing her way to health naturallyfrom a variety of puzzling condi-tions, she went back to school tohelp others “live a nourished life.”She received her Graduate andMasters of Science in Comple-mentary and Alternative Medi-cine from American College ofHealthcare Sciences. She’s seenchildren with behavioral prob-lems and adults with serious de-pression and anxiety improvetheir physical well-being just bychanging their diets and takinghealth supplements and it is mo-ments like these that inspire herto keep pursuing her professionalpath. Melanie is the author ofThe Grecian Garden: A NaturalPath to Wellness. Nick’s parentsemigrated from Rhodes asteenagers and Melanie’s paternalgrandparents are from Chios.They enjoy writing articles, read-ing books and cooking glutenfree in their spare time.

Eleni Antoniadou, 28

“Where there might have beendespair in the face of one patient,to see that replaced with hope isa gift beyond words.” That’s howEleni Antoniadou stays optimisticin the challenges of the increased

complexity of the multidiscipli-nary scientific field of Regenera-tive Medicine, where she at-tempts to create the buildingblocks of life. As a researcher inRegenerative Medicine and Arti-ficial Organ Technology with a fo-cus on tissue-engineered trans-plants for patients in need,Antoniadou also serves as thePresident of the European HealthParliament, a platform for eightyyoung professionals to brainstormabout making Europe a healthierplace and to rethink the EUhealthcare system. Their syner-gistic work between all 5 com-mittees outlines a ‘blueprint’ toreignite action for efficient deliv-ery of healthcare to EU citizens,utilizing the enormous potentialof emerging health innovation.Trying to translate pieces of herresearch into the clinics, towardsthe development of a new thera-peutic pathway has been a verytough but unique experience tothat has made Antoniadou evolvenot only as a scientist but also asa person. Translational medicalresearch requires a wider under-standing of the regulatory frame-work, the financial interdepen-dencies within the entirehealthcare continuum, as well asthe establishment of new healthpolicies that embrace disruptivemedical innovations. She explainsfurther, “I take baby steps in theworld of science, acknowledgingthat failure is part of the processand hoping to make fruitful con-tributions in the field of regener-ative medicine. Each day I take adeep dive into research trying todisentangle the complex issuesassociated with the developmentof artificial organs for transplan-tations.” Antoniadou is fromThessaloniki and enjoys travelingwith friends, skydiving, readingand exploring new things.

Nikephoros Argeroplos, 21& Vasiliki Argeroplos, 17

One time two childrenwatched a documentary on chil-dren suffering hardships through-out the world so the brother andsister decided right then andthere to do something about it.That’s how Okay to Play startedand while Nikephoros and Vasi-liki, the CEO and CFO, are nowyoung adults, they are still mak-ing dreams come alive across theworld. Nikephoros and VasilikiArgeroplos, 21 and 17 respec-tively, founded a nonprofit orga-nization that recycles old elec-tronics in order to raise moneyto buy items on wish lists for chil-dren that are in foster care, or-phanages or sick. Niko is a seniorat University of Wisconsin- Madi-son graduating in the spring of2017 with a BBA in Business andReal Estate. He is applying to lawschools this fall. Vasiliki is a se-nior in High school graduating inthe spring of 2017. She is apply-ing to colleges in the fall andhopes to study Computer Scienceand Economics. She plans on at-tending law school after college.Both siblings say the best part of

their organization is seeing thehappiness and joy that comesfrom giving children their wishitems. “We feel empowered thatwe can help to make a differencein a child’s life. Play is a vital partof growing up because it is notonly fun, it is proven to help withnormal cognitive, as well as, psy-chological development. We be-lieve all children need to play andhave the right to play. The hard-est part is finding the places toplace the money /gifts becausewe have to make sure we re-search the organization and en-sure the children that need theitems are the ones that will re-ceive our donations.” Several mo-ments in particular stand out themost to them. “We deliveredroller blades to an orphanage andwere allowed to help them learnhow to use them. We also playedbasketball together and just spenttime with them. Another memo-rable moment was deliveringitems to an all-girls foster homeand getting the chance to sit andtalk and enjoy dinner with them.”They also just held a special eventin Baltimore to help Kivitos touKosmou and proudly share, “This

August we delivered 6000 dollarsto Kivitos Tou Kosmo which wenttowards their wish list item ofcommercial sized washers anddryers in order to help take careof the needs of over 400 children.We are very proud of this eventand hope to host another one tocontinue to help Greece and allthe children that need it in ourhome country.” If that’s notenough to keep them busy, thesiblings also have launched theirfirst app called nudge social dat-ing available now for downloadat the apple App Store whereGreeks can locate other Greekswithin 100 feet of their locationworldwide. Also, they each arestarting their own clothing line.More importantly, they are mak-ing sure to follow their passionsand learning to not be afraid oftrying even if they fail. Theycredit the important businessmenin their lives- Pappou and dad-with instilling this importantwork ethic in them. The Argero-plos’ family is from Sparta andDomvrena and they enjoy trav-eling, reading and music.

John “Akillezz”Arvanitis, 22

Philosophy meet hip hop. Po-etry meet rap. Achilles meetAkillezz. Greek-American JohnArvanitis who is better recog-nized by his stage name,Akillezz, released his debut stu-dio length solo album Transgres-sionzz in May 2015. With his al-bum's success, he became the

only independent artist in hisclass to chart consistently on Bill-board Hot Single Sales with mul-tiple releases, holding the great-est weekly sales gain in the US.Since then, Akillezz has collabo-rated with artist, Tony Yayo, fromG Unit on a track titled "Circus"and most recently, released hismusic video "Gentleman," whichaccumulated a million views onYouTube in only one month'stime. Originally, his viral successbegan in 2013 with his musicvideo, Gravity, which garneredupwards of 2 million views onYouTube. As a result of early suc-cess, Akillezz was invited to per-form at Hot 97 Summer Jam in2014. This courtesy was ex-tended while the New Yorkbased station was expecting therelease of his first single, OneLevel off Transgressionzz but itwould be rival station Power105.1 which would first air hissingle. Quickly spreading acrossthe US, "One Level" aired onmore than 30 major radio sta-tions. Most notably, his mostpopular music video, PunchingBag, features model and actressCharlotte McKinney who quicklyrose to fame after her controver-sial Carl's Jr. commercial whichaired during Super Bowl XLIX.Akillezz' earliest break was hisinternational live performance atAkrwtiri Boutique in Athens,Greece for MTV Greece. Arvani-tis’ family is from Lefkada,Greece and he enjoys readingacademic work and writing es-says.

Elaina Athans, 33

Most people freeze underpressure. Very few go on camerato report the news. Elaina Athansis part of the very few. As a TVnews reporter for WTVD inRaleigh, NC, Athans doesn’t havethe typical desk job- one that shewouldn’t want anyway. Before re-porting down south, Elaina wasthe lead reporter at YNN HudsonValley about an hour north ofNew York City. She reported onHurricanes Sandy and Irene andwas invited to travel with WorldWar II veterans on an HonorFlight to our nation’s capital. Butthe most impactful was coveringthe Sandy Hook Elementary

School shooting massacre.“When I arrived in town that day,everyone was in shock. Memori-als immediately went up in townwith all the young victims'names. It was right aroundChristmas and it was so heart-breaking to see all these festivedecorations inches away from amemorial bearing children'snames. Every church in town washolding prayer services. Parentswere crying everywhere youlooked. You could not be therethat day without being emotionalattached and in shock yourself tothe injustice. I imagined the hor-ror these children went throughat the school. Dozens of innocentchildren were massacred and ter-rorized for no good reason. Fam-ilies had pieces of their soulsripped away. It's one thing to seea national tragedy like this on TV,but another thing to actually bethere watching it unfold beforeyour eyes. I don't think I sleptwell for days. I kept seeing thechildren's images in my mind andthinking of the fear that had hap-pened during what was supposedto be a typical day at school.”Athans’ father grew up in the vil-lage of Trikala and then immi-grated to the United States withhis family at 16. She enjoys read-ing (non- fiction only, please),cooking, hiking and spendingtime in museums.

Maria Avgitidis-Pyrgiotakis, 31

When people think of match-making, they may think “oldworld”, but not with Maria Avgi-tidis-Pyrgiotakis, CEO of AgapeMatch, a modern boutiquematchmaking firm based in NewYork City. Avgitidis-Pyrgiotakis isa dating industry entrepreneurwhose natural inclination to con-nect with people and her no-non-sense attitude helped establishone of the leading and awardwinning matchmaking firms inthe country. Avgitidis-Pyrgiotakisand her staff of six, known as the"Agape Team," provide dating so-lutions for busy professionalswho cannot (or won't) partici-pate in "modern dating" – onlinesites and mobile apps. She ob-serves that modern dating hasmade people “quite spoiled andunfocused" to what’s really im-portant, or "absolutely over-whelmed" by the amount ofwork needed to be successful."As matchmakers, we vet char-acter, family values, lifestyle, andcommunication style becausethat’s what is important when itcomes to finding a life partner.We are very popular among avast array of backgrounds andreligions, but ultimately we workwith college educated profes-sionals who value privacy andhigh caliber service." Avgitidis-Pyrgiotakis, considered to be aleader in the dating industry asa whole, regularly consults withother dating companies on im-proving their user experience.Her company was awarded BestMatchmaking Agency at the2016 US Dating Awards, wheredating companies were judgedon a number of factors, includingapproachability, professionalism,innovation, success rate, cost,customer service and reputation.Avgitidis- Pyrgiotakis is also oneof the co-founders of The Match-makers Alliance, an organizationthat exists to help collaborationbetween professional matchmak-ers around the world, and co-hosts their yearly conference fordating professionals each year.Her most memorable client in-teractions involve celebrities orpoliticians, whose life tends to

be public, who utilize AgapeMatch's discrete services. "Theyare just trying to find someonespecial to share their life withwho they can admire. Celebrityis an obstacle." Avgitidis-Pyrgio-takis has a Masters in Global Af-fairs – Private Sector & Econom-ics from NYU and her family isfrom Serres, Alonissos, andAthens. She enjoys exploring dif-ferent cuisines, spending timewith family and friends, travelingand discussing current eventsand business strategy.

Niko Bonatsos, 32

Talent is universal while op-portunity is not and that is a con-stant reminder for an early stageventure capitalist investing inyoung tech startups. Niko Bon-atsos, the Managing Director atGeneral Catalyst Partners, admitshe wasn’t the greatest engineerbut he loved technology and en-trepreneurship. Putting thosetwo together is “magical” and hereadily points out that the bestpart of his job is “partnering withridiculously ambitious founderswho are building category defin-ing companies.” Bonatsos alsospends a lot of time mentoringyoung founders and student en-trepreneurs at Stanford Univer-sity, YCombinator and othermentoring organizations. Bonat-sos’ most memorable momentsin his career came from “invest-

ing via General Catalyst in cate-gory defining startups like Class-dojo and Snapchat that are nowhousehold brands!” He receivedhis education at Stanford, theUniversity of Cambridge and theNational Technical University ofAthens. Bonatsos also worked inTokyo at the R&D headquartersfor Yokogawa Electric Corpora-tion. Bonatsos was born inAthens and grew up betweenGreece and the UK. He enjoysspending time with his wife andfriends and enjoying the Greekislands every summer.

John Catsimatidis Jr, 23

Finding a Republican in NewYork is unique. Finding a youngRepublican who graduated fromNYU is almost unheard of. YetJohn Catsimatidis Jr is not onlyproud of that fact but he’s opti-

40 UNDER 40: THE LIST IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

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40 UNDER 404 THE NATIONAL HERALD, NOVEMBER 5, 2016

mistic that his message of oppor-tunity and idealism will start afire among millennials, maybeeven those at odds with the GOP.His message is two-fold: thereare just as many Republicans asDemocrats out there that areconcerned with helping peopleand the second part? Don’t losefaith in the political system andlet it create apathy. Easier saidthan done but if anyone has themotivation for this mission it’sCatsimatidis who is determinedto show an alternative to theclichéd “dirty ol world of politics”mindset that has turned off somany of his peers. “SenatorSanders and Donald Trump havestruck a chord. They recognizedhow upset Americans are andhow broken they perceive Wash-ington to be. Laws regardingcampaign finance and the influ-ence special interest groups haveneeds to change, and we mightfinally see that happen. Whetheryou like any of the candidates ornot, the amount of people payingattention to politics is settingrecords. Political apathy is poisonto a free and democratic system’ssustainability, and I am happy tosee more people involved onboth sides.” When Catsimatidisis not busy staying abreast of thelocal, national and internationalpolitical scene, he is an executiveat the Red Apple Group in theenergy and investment divisions.An exciting development comingsoon for the company is theiropening of one of the largest bio-diesel plants in the Northeastwhich will be built in Brooklyn.And that may just be the firststop in Catsimatidis’ dream tosee North America become 100%energy independent. Catsima-tidis is involved in the Catsima-tidis Family Foundation and

serves on the Emerging LeadersCouncil of the Federal Enforce-ment Homeland Security Foun-dation. He was recently awardedthe Partner in Caring Next Gen-eration Award by The Bridge, anorganization focused on housing,treatment and training for thosesuffering with both mental illnessand substance abuse. Catsima-tidis’ family is from Nisyros andhe enjoys computer program-ming and playing the guitar.

Alexandra Cavoulacos, 30

In Greek mythology, themuses are goddesses of variousarts. In real life, the founder andCOO of The Muse, AlexandraCavoulacos is helping millennialsfind their dream job. “The Museis the most trusted career site forMillennials and beyond, chang-ing the way candidates find theirideal jobs and helping employersfind their best-fit candidates. Se-lected by over 50 million peoplea year as their career platformof choice, The Muse deliversquality advice, skills-building re-

sources, and coaching services topassive and active candidates.Employers rely on The Muse tohire top talent by showcasingtheir brands and corporate cul-ture, creating authentic and last-ing connections with candidatesbefore they even apply.” Sincestarting The Muse five years ago,Cavoulacos has led the opera-tions and product functions ofthe company. “My big focus hasbeen on growth and scaling,making sure that we’re preparedfor what’s coming next. On theproduct front, that’s taking thetime to speak to users andclients, and really push the en-velope in terms of user experi-ence. I’m excited about our workon the data and personalizationside, which continues to delivermore and more value to ourMusers. On the operational side,I work to think ahead -- whatmight we need in 3 months, 6months or a year -- and also tosolve issues as they come up.We’ve grown the company to135 employees through rapidgrowth, so every quarter has anew opportunity or challenge forme to dig my teeth into.” Whenasked the best part about her job,she immediately credits herteam. “It sounds cliché, but I lookforward to coming to work everyday because I’m surrounded bypassionate, smart, insightful peo-ple who are also collaborativeand kind. We’re all here to buildan impactful company; that’s ahard goal, but doing it togetheris part of the fun.” But starting acompany is never easy and thereare many highs and lows she ad-mits. “The hardest part more re-cently has been working to main-tain our culture as we’veexperienced rapid growth. Whenwe were small, those thingscame naturally - office outings,regular lunches, etc. But as we’vegrown, my co-founder, Kathryn,and I have needed to be muchmore deliberate about preservingthe culture that has set us apart.”But even the hardest parts bringthe greatest rewards. Getting ac-cepted into Y Combinator intheir winter 2012 class was themost memorable moment of hercareer. “Based on what we knewof the program at the time, wedidn’t think we were the type ofcompany that YC was lookingfor. But we applied anyway, andYC proved us wrong. We weretheir first all-female team, as wellas their first team of non-techni-cal founders, though I’ve sincelearned to code and design.” InSan Francisco she was an inau-gural advisor for HackbrightAcademy, the leading software

engineering school for women,and as a mentor for the LeanStartup Conference. Cavoulacosis also involved with Yale in Techand the Y Combinator alumninetwork. Alexandra grew up inParis before coming to the US forcollege. “My high school was es-tablished in 1952 as a school forthe children of international per-sonnel working at NATO's mili-tary command HQ (now in Bel-gium), so it was a hybridbetween French public schooland international school withover 13 different nationalitiessupported. In additional to abilingual curriculum, I was re-quired to take two additionallanguages, so I graduated highschool ready for the global econ-omy and appreciative of thepower of diversity and culturaldifferences.” Her family is fromAthens and she spent every sum-mer visiting her grandparents inGreece. She enjoys reading, longdistance cycling (having bikedfor 3 weeks from the South ofFrance to Paris) and mentoringand coaching entrepreneurs inher spare time, especially first-time founders, women, and non-technical founders.

Nikolas Cromydas, 29

If at first you don’t succeed,try again. Nikolas Cromydas tookthat advice and is now the CEOand founder of New Coast Ven-tures, a design, development andventure capital firm based inChicago. But he says the mostimpactful moment of his careerwas shutting down his first com-pany where he had built a busi-ness, was accepted into a top 10venture accelerator, pitched 500investors at the incubator’s demoday and secured a lead investoronly to watch it all crumble in amatter of months as the invest-ment dollars didn’t comethrough. Cromydas explains thelesson learned saying it taughthim humility and perseveranceand the importance of buildingsomething that didn’t rely on ex-ternal funding. That’s whereNew Coast Ventures comes in.New Coast Ventures is a digitalinnovation company helpinglarge companies and entrepre-neurs build technology solutions.“The best part of my job is help-ing clients bring their ideas tolife. Everyone has an idea. Wehelp make it happen. We helplarge companies gain a competi-tive advantage by movingquicker than they thought possi-ble and we give entrepreneursthe necessary innovation tools tostart their first business.” Cromy-

das’ family is from Sparta andCrete, and he enjoys playing plat-form tennis which is a combina-tion of tennis and racquetballthat is played outside on a minia-ture tennis court as well as tryingnew restaurants and spendingtime with family and friends.

Chrysoula Deligianni,PhD, 31

From biology class to danceballet, Chrysoula Deligianni eas-ily made her way between bothworlds that she loved so muchgrowing up in Greece. And nowshe finds herself using the samestretching techniques she learnedin ballet class (and a twirl hereor there in the biology lab whenno one is around) while sheworks as a molecular biologistpost-doctoral researcher atMount Sinai. She explains howher love of biology grew into hercurrent career saying, “I’ve al-ways had a strong interest in sci-

ence, and my undergraduatetraining in the laboratory of Prof. Papamathaiakis and Dr. Kretso-vali, in IMBB FORTH (Instituteof Molecular Biology andBiotechnology), cemented my in-terest in molecular biology andbiochemistry. So the decision topursue graduate training waseasy. To my favor ProfessorSpilianakis accepted me in histeam and together we workedon the spatial organization of thegenome, since then it has be-come my passion.” She con-

tributes her interest in the fieldto the influence she receivedfrom her mentors and says thebest part of her job is new dis-coveries. Deligianni received herBachelors, Masters and PhD atthe University of Crete and stillvividly remembers some verydefining moments in her career.“One of the most impactful mo-ments was when our work wasselected among more than athousand others to be presentedin an international conference,and I received a presentationalaward as well. I had just finishedmy first year as a PhD studentand I was extremely nervous forthis presentation, but at the sametime, I felt really proud of whatwe have been doing in this smalllab in the Institute of MolecularBiology and Biotechnology inCrete. My second most impactfulmoment was when I defendedmy thesis. I will never forget theopening speech (before my pre-sentation) of my supervisor. Histouching words about me andour project made all the effortworth the trouble.” She is nowpassing those same words of en-couragement onto the youngergeneration saying, “To all thoseyoung people who love science,my best advice would be to learnas much as you can about yourcareer path and as early as pos-sible. And never give up.” Deli-gianni is from Nafplio and enjoysdoing crossfit and spending timewith family and friends.

Maria Dimakopoulou, 25

In November 2011, Maria Di-makopoulou received an emailfrom Google. She replied backand this was the peak that un-folded many other peaks beforeher eyes that she conquered overthe following 5 years. “My pro-fessional passion is Mathematicsand Computer Science for deci-sion making. Currently, I am pur-suing my PhD studies at Stanford,focusing on Operations Research& Optimization. It has alwaysbeen my dream to work on re-search problems directly drawnfrom and applied to industry. Ifeel very fortunate to haveworked with Krux, a very dy-namic company in the space ofmarketing intelligence, as it hasinspired the line of research I ampursuing at Stanford. From 2012to 2015, I worked at Google, firstin the Operations Research & Op-timization team and then in theAd Exchange Optimization team.This experience defined my pas-sion for my field.” She earnedbachelor’s and master’s degreesfrom the School of Electrical and

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Computer Engineering of the Na-tional Technical University ofAthens. “I always had great re-spect for this academic institution,which spawned many genera-tions of acclaimed Engineers, in-cluding my grandfather. So, in2014, when I graduated with10/10 GPA, the highest everachieved in the 200-year Historyof National Technical Universityof Athens, it was a dream comingtrue for me.” At school, Maria de-veloped a strong interest in Math-ematics, participated and wonseveral prizes in national and in-ternational competitions. Sincethe beginning of her studies, shehas been attracted to the chal-lenging problems in the area ofAlgorithms which also have atremendous impact on real-lifeapplications and she is seizing anyopportunity to pursue them. “Un-doubtedly, the best part of my jobis the people with whom I collab-orate. I am impressed by the peo-ple I have worked with at Googleand Krux. Not only they are in-credibly smart and constantly im-proving themselves, but also theyput a lot of energy to elevate andcatalyze the contributions of eachother. One would normally expectsuch a culture from Silicon Valleycompanies that change the world,but when I experienced it, I wasamazed. Similarly, at Stanford,the intellect of the people withwhom I collaborate and fromwhom I learn, is what motivatesme most. There are professorssuch as Peter Glynn, Susan Athey,Olivier de La Grandville, who aretop contributors to the worldprogress and inspire me not onlywith their knowledge, but alsowith their attitude. I fully entrustthem in steering my passion formy field. At the same note, it iscertainly a great honor to be thelatest “Arvanitidis” Stanford Grad-uate Fellow in memory of WilliamK. Linvill. The greatest part, how-ever, is that I got to know Dr. NickArvanitidis. He is a remarkablefigure in Silicon Valley, an amaz-ing person, a role-model and Ifeel very fortunate to have himin my life.” In 2014, her solutionto a three-year-old problem in theIntel processors improved thou-sands of Intel machines andbrought her acclaim insideGoogle, Intel and CERN. In 2015,she developed an algorithm thatsignificantly increased the rev-enue of Google Ad Exchange Auc-tion. Over the past years, she hasbeen honored with a number ofawards in the field of ComputerScience, including the Intel Inno-vation Award and the GoogleAnita Borg Memorial Award. InJune 2016, Stanford honored herwith the Annual Award for Out-standing Academic Achievementat the Graduate Level in Manage-ment Science & Engineering.However, she feels that the mostimpactful and memorable mo-ments have not come yet. “Thisenhances my dedication to offereven more to my field”. The hard-est part for Maria is people whotry put her in their box and con-fine her freedom to create. Di-makopoulou was born and raisedin Athens and her parents aredoctors. Maria’s mom always toldher that “when at a crossroad, al-ways choose the most difficultpath” and that has become hermindset. Dimakopoulou enjoysswimming, travelling across theworld with company and explor-ing surrealist art.

Christopher MichaelDodd, 40

A Greek-American doctorwhose own grandparents wereGreek immigrants fleeing war isbringing compassion and medi-cine to the most medically andsocially complex patients locallyand globally. Christopher MichaelDodd is Regional Medical Direc-tor for Concerto Health, a newbreed of healthcare organizationsaiming to help improve the livesof those living in poverty andheavy burdens of chronic dis-eases, mental illness and sub-stance use disorders. “Concertoemploys a concierge model ofcare that allows multi-disciplinarycare teams to spend extendedamounts of time (that includeshome visits) with their patientsin order to allow them to buildand maintain strong relation-ships. The social determinants ofhealth - what actually makes peo-ple sick often has little to do withdisease and much more to dowith the social context of theirlives - i.e. living in poverty, lackof housing, mental illness, race,lack of access to food, potable wa-ter, and sanitation, little formaleducation, etc.” Dodd is also thefounder and president of Mar-avilla Health, an US-based non-profit launched in 2015 to sup-port grassroots organizations inresource-poor Latin Americancountries which focus on improv-

ing health and creating jobs. “Onesuch organization is Atencion Pri-maria en Salud (APS), a commu-nity-based organization in thesecond poorest country in theWestern hemisphere, Nicaragua.Maravilla Health seeks to developand expand the communityhealth entrepreneur (CHE) modelbest championed by APS. It trainsand empowers community mem-bers to provide basic health careservices in the most impoverishedand remote areas where there isno doctor. CHEs learn to take vitalsigns, assess patients, and provideappropriate treatment and refer-rals when specialized care isneeded. APS also helps Commu-nity Health Entrepreneurs estab-lish small pharmacies in their owncommunities where medicationsare otherwise not available.”Dodd has been working with APSsince he was a medical studentin 2004. But it’s not just his workglobally that inspires him. He ex-plains, “As you may know, theU.S. is currently facing an epi-demic of deaths from opioid use(prescription narcotics, heroin).To become a part of the solutionI underwent training to becomea Buprenorphine prescriber,which is a medication used totreat opioid addition. I now havethe pleasure of caring for a num-ber of people whose lives werefilled with chaos - abusing heroin,without work, etc. ... now livingproductive lives. One of them re-cently stopped me from walkingout of the examination room,took my hand, and said "Dr.Dodd, I just want to thank youfor saving my life ... I couldn'thave done it without you." Wow,just one moment like that contin-ues to drive me to do what I do.”Dodd is on the faculty at the De-partment of Global Health at theUniversity of Washington and twoof his primary roles there are tomentor public health/medicalstudents as well as to direct theNicaraguan Social MedicineCourse and Rotation - hostingmedical students in Nicaragua fora one week didactic course on So-cial Medicine and 5 weeks of ro-tations- time with an APS com-munity health entrepreneur, timein a rural hospital/clinic, time inan urban hospital/clinic, etc.Dodd’s mother is Greek and herparents were immigrants from

the island of Marmara, which iscurrently modern day Turkey.“They were Asia Minor Greekswho were forced to leave theirhome during the Greek-TurkishPopulation Exchange after WorldWar I in the year 1923. They thenbecame refugees in Greece andeventually immigrated to the U.S.My Pappou worked on the rail-roads and eventually settled inTacoma, Washington.” Dodd en-joys international travelling andspending time with his wife MariaChristofilis and two daughtersEvangelia and Elena.

Angelo Drakopoulos, 31

Most thirteen year olds arefocused on grades and sports.Angelo Drakopoulos was focusedon working every evening andevery weekend while at the sametime attending grade school to

help provide for his family justrecently arrived to the States. Af-ter only living in America for oneyear he landed on the honor rollall through high school and thengraduated Cum Laude with hisBBA in Finance from DeVry Uni-versity. Since then he’s tirelesslyfocused on financially helpingGreek-Americans both in Greeceand America while currentlyworking at the Republic Bank ofChicago. Understanding the eco-nomic issues happening to bothcountries is paramount to his jobsince many of his clients have fi-nancial ties to both Greece andthe United States. But it’s not justabout the financial success of hisclients that matters to him- it’sthe physical and spiritual successof those in need that hasDrakopoulos going on missiontrips throughout the year. Heproudly supports organizationssuch as Feed My Starving Chil-dren, Bread of Life Orphanage

in Romania and Passage to Lifein Athens, Greece whose missionis to reach out and save thosesuffering from drug addiction,prostitution and poverty. Heagrees with the organizations’belief that a strong foundationin their Christian faith is just asimportant as food on their tableand clothes on their back. ButDrakopoulos never forgets wherehe came from. “I came here asan immigrant when I was 13. Itwas very hard for me as I was ina totally new environment, didn’tspeak the language and had tosupport my family. The way thatsome of the Greek Americanshelped me was amazing. Nowthat makes me want to help peo-ple in their difficult times.” Drak-oupoulos is from Kiato Greecewhere his family owned success-ful automobile and agriculturalcompanies as well as a fruit ex-porting business before immi-grating to the United States.

Lydia Emmanouilidou, 23

When telling stories changeslives, Lydia Emmanouilidou does-n’t do it for the awards… thoughsometimes those come. Em-manouilidou is a Higher Educa-tion Associate Producer forBoston's NPR station (WGBH)and involved in all aspects of pro-ducing local and national highereducation reports, including en-terprising story ideas, conductingresearch, and mixing radiopieces. While working in publicradio for about two years nowsince graduating college, she’salso has been doing internshipsand temp work in journalismsince starting college. Whileworking for NPR’s InvestigativeUnit, she had the opportunity tocontribute some research to thePeabody Award-winning seriesWorld War II Secret Mustard GasTesting. The NPR investigationfound that tens of thousands ofAmerican troops served as testsubjects, and approximately4,000 "were used in extreme teststhat government studies havelinked to illnesses including skincancer, leukemia and chronicbreathing problems.” Since thestories aired, a dozen U.S sena-tors have called on the Depart-

ment of Veterans Affairs to helpWorld War II veterans who wereexposed to mustard gas, andhundreds of people have beenable use NPR’s online databaseto determine whether they ortheir relatives has been exposedto mustard gas. Recently she andcoworkers at NPR were honoredwith two awards: the RFK Awardand the Television and RadioJournalism Award in the 22ndAnnual NIHCM Research and

Journalism Awards for their In-jured Nurses series. She says,“The best part of my job is leav-ing the office and getting out inthe community to talk to peopleabout the issues that matter tothem.” Emmanouilidou was bornin Thessaloniki and moved toNewton, MA around 12 yearsold. She enjoys, running, readingand taking acting classes.

Isabella Huffington, 25

A child’s fascination of justsimply “making things” can leadto something so much more andit’s led Isabella Huffington on ajourney of self-awareness and ex-ploration as an accomplishedartist. Perhaps her secret to suc-cess is also the freedom to workunstructured by the weights ofstatic nonsense but allowing theinspiration of art to carry herthrough to the next stage of com-pletion. She explains her moti-vation saying, “Being an artistrequires constant self-motiva-

tion. If I want to make somethinghappen I really have to show up.There is no road map and oftenfor each success there are multi-ple failures. But my Yiayia usedto always say that failure is thestepping stone to success. Andany good Greek knows Yiayiasare always right.” Huffington fo-cuses on creating art out ofeveryday objects saying “I've al-ways been really interested increating art out of every-day ob-jects. I love that every day I'mmaking things. That even whenthe day has seemed hard or un-productive I can look down atwhat I've done and see progressand say I made that. I think thereare so many beautiful, interest-ing things around us that we justdon't notice because we've for-gotten how to really look atthings. I've always wanted tobring beauty into the every-day.I even wrote my thesis on art andaccessibility at university, which

40 UNDER 40THE NATIONAL HERALD, NOVEMBER 5, 2016 5

Continued on page 6

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Ioannis Christos Zouzias, M.D., is an attending orthopaedic surgeon at Winthrop University Hospital who specializesin sports medicine and shoulder surgery. He received his medical degree from New York University School of Med-icine and completed his residency in orthopaedic surgery at Columbia University – New York Presbyterian Hospital.During his training at Columbia University he completed a research fellowship in the Columbia University TraumaTraining Center. He was elected to be chief orthopaedic surgery resident during his final year of training at ColumbiaUniversity. He then went on to complete a sports medicine fellowship at the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in LosAngeles where he assisted in the care of multiple professional sports teams including the L.A. Dodgers, the Lakers,and Kings, as well as local high school and college teams. He has also served as one of the physicians for the NFLPlayers Association Collegiate Bowl game and the PGA Tour’s Northern Trust Open. His post-residency trainingfocused on both surgical and non-surgical techniques to treat shoulder, elbow, hip and knee disorders in athletesof all levels, from teenagers playing organized sports to weekend warriors and elite athletes. Dr. Zouzias has alsopublished multiple peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and has presented his research at the American Acad-emy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) National Meeting. Dr. Zouzias performs shoulder, elbow, hip and knee re-constructive procedures including total shoulder replacements, and arthroscopic treatment of rotator cuff tears,shoulder instability, ACL reconstruction, and hip labral repairs.

Education:Medical School: New York University School of Medicine, New York, New YorkResidency: Columbia University-New York Presbyterian, New York, New YorkFellowship, Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy: Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic, Los Angeles, California

Board Certification:Board Eligible, American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery

Academic & Hospital Appointments:Attending Physician, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Winthrop University Hospital, Mineola, NY

Affiliations:American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS)American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM)Arthroscopy Association of North America (AANA)

Ioannis C. Zouzias, MD

Specialties:• Sports Medicine and arthroscopy• Shoulder, Elbow & Knee Reconstruction• Hip arthroscopy

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Alexandros Dimitris Zouzias, M.D., received his medical degree from newYork University School of Medicine and completed his residency in neurologicalsurgery at the University of Medicine and dentistry of new Jersey (UMdnJ),University Hospital in newark. during his training, dr. Zouzias spent one year atUniversity Hospital as a neurointerventional endovascular fellow.

He was later chief neurosurgical resident both there and at Robert Wood JohnsonHospital in new Brunswick. dr. Zouzias then went on to complete a secondfellowship program in complex and minimally invasive spinal surgery at TampaGeneral Hospital. His post-residency training and research has focused on findingminimally invasive spine (MIS) solutions in regards to spinal pathology traditionallyapproached with open surgery.

dr. Zouzias has published multiple peer-reviewed articles and book chapters in hissubspecialty fields. His work was recently presented at the Society of Lateral access

Surgery (SOLaS) national meeting as a podium presentation. He currently specializes in advanced back and necksurgery and has a particular interest in the application of MIS lateral access surgery to adult spinal deformity.

aλέξανδρος Δ. Ζούζιας, M.D.Νευροχειρούργος - Εγχειρήσεις Σπονδυλικής Στήλης

ΜιλούμεΕλληνικά

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started my interest in making artmore accessible to more people.”Huffington received her Bachelorof Arts degree from Yale Univer-sity. She’s also had solo art exhi-bitions in New York City and LosAngeles. Her mom was born andraised in Athens and her sparetime, she enjoys reading and lis-tening to audio books- “the morelow-brow the better.” Huffingtonalso enjoys science-fiction, coun-try music, and the theater.

Constantino “Deano”kastis, 33

United States of America sayhello to United Greek Americans.Kastis is the founder of UnitedGreek Americans (UGA) thelargest young Greek-Americansocial networking groups inNorth America. In his “spare”time, he is also founder of Naked

Fitfoods, a healthy meal deliverycompany in the Tampa area andco-founder of Acropolis Foods, afresh food manufacturer. Kastisexplains why creating UGA wasso important even on top of hisbusiness demands. “The aspectof unifying Greek-Americansacross the nation that share sim-ilar enthusiasm and passion forour common threads of cultureand love of the homeland issomething that gives me tremen-dous pride. What Greeks can doas a unified entity has beendemonstrated time and timeagain and I wish to do my partin supporting and creating op-portunities such as UGA. Thetireless efforts of our predeces-sors are something that shouldn’tbe taken lightly, but rather em-braced and we must allow theseefforts to create enough momen-tum for future generations to fol-low.” And helping future gener-ations is why UGA started ascholarship foundation awardedto Greek-Americans entering col-lege. Kastis’ family is from asmall village outside Kastoria inNorthern Greece and is alwayslooking for ways to help promoteHellenism and Greek-Americandreams.

Chrysovalantis “Chrys”kefalas, 37

He may have lost an electionbut he won a movement- andthat’s why Chrysovalantis“Chrys” Kefalas may not be donewith politics just yet. For morethan 15 years, he worked tochange Maryland and the nationfor the better--initially as a coun-sel to the Governor of Maryland,as a litigator at the U.S. JusticeDepartment, as a speechwriterto the Attorney General of theUnited States, as a voice forAmerica's manufacturers andmost recently, as a candidate forU.S. Senate. For the past year,he campaigned for the Republi-can nomination for U.S. Senate

in Maryland, earning the en-dorsement of The Baltimore Sun,the state's leading newspaper.The Sun wrote, "When Republi-can primary voters go to the polls...., they should pick the candi-date not only best positioned [towin the senate seat] but also toserve the state with distinctionin Washington, and that is attor-ney Chrys Kefalas." After finish-ing third in a crowded 14-candi-date field, he returned to helplead the NAM, the largest indus-trial trade association in the

country, representing more than14,000 manufacturers in theUnited States. He says the mostimpactful moment was “thenight I lost my first election. De-spite the outcome, we won overthousands of supporters, enoughto fill a major league ballpark,and built a movement that liftseveryone up and leaves nobodybehind.” Kefalas’ father is fromRhodes, and his maternal grand-parents are from Karpathos andPireaus, respectively. He enjoysmentoring young people to payforward all the great advice andmentorship he’s received in hislife.

Manolis kellis, 39

Working in computer sciencesince 18, working in genomicssince 23 and being a professorat MIT since 27 –these are justsome of the accomplishments ofManolis Kellis. He is also an in-stitute member of the Broad In-stitute where his research is onunderstanding the humangenome and the mechanismthrough which genetic differ-ences predispose humans to dis-ease. Kellis loves blending hislove of computer science andmath and his love of biology andthe natural world. He believesthat computer science is at theheart of decoding the circuitryof human cells, deciphering thelanguage of DNA and mining

thousands of genomics datasets.Ultimately the goal is to under-stand biology and the medicalknowledge to interpret those re-sults and translate them to newinsights on how the genomeworks in health and normalprocesses are disrupted in dis-ease. In 2015, his group pub-lished a series of important find-ings, starting with the mostcomprehensive map of the hu-man epigenome across 127 hu-man cell types and tissues(Roadmap Epigenomics Consor-tium, Nature 2015), continuingwith the realization that geneticvariants in Alzheimer’s diseaseact primarily in immune cells,not in neurons (Gjoneska, Na-ture 2015) and with the uncov-ering of a genetic switch inside

our fat cells that decides whetherthey will store excess calories asfat or whether they will burn itas heat (Claussnitzer, New Eng-land Journal of Medicine, 2015).These three papers have majorimplications on our understand-ing of human disease, and on thestrategies for therapeutic devel-opment against some of the mostimportant diseases we face today.Kellis is from Athens and is a de-voted father to two children andloves spending time with themand discovering the worldthrough their eyes.

Sophia kioulaphides, 18

The engineering field is only18% female dominated andSophia Kioulaphides is hoping tohelp increase that number onceshe graduates college. But sincethe age of 12, Kioulaphideswanted to be an engineer andcredits her math teacher for en-couraging her to pursue a careerin the STEM (Science, Technol-ogy, Engineering and Mathemat-ics) field. She talks about her ac-complishments just in highschool alone saying, “In senioryear of high school, I became anIntel STS semifinalist with myproject on artificial neural net-works. I felt that this was mygreatest achievement so far, as Ihad worked extremely hard onthat project for about 2 years.That entire experience openedbefore my eyes a whole a fieldof science that I had not knownabout until that moment andmade me incredibly curious todiscover, to explore new frontiersof knowledge. Other than be-

coming an Intel semifinalist, I re-ceived several other awardsthroughout my time in highschool. In my sophomore year(2013), I got a bronze medal atthe Greater Metropolitan NewYork Math Fair. In my junior year(2014), I joined the NationalHonors Society at Bronx Science,was awarded the Deputy Com-missioner Labor Relations Awardat the New York Police Depart-ment for an essay contest, andwas awarded a scholarship froma Bronx Science alumnus to helpfund my studies at the EPGYsummer program at StanfordUniversity. At the start of my se-nior year, I became an APScholar with Distinction, a Na-tional Hispanic RecognitionScholar (my mother was born inthe Dominican Republic and isof Spanish descent, so I hail fromboth cultures, Greek and Span-ish), and was the gold medalistin the NYC region for engineer-ing and mathematics in the His-panic Heritage Youth Award pro-gram. (The scholarship itself wassponsored by Exxon Mobil). Af-ter that, I became an Intel STSsemifinalist, a finalist for theArchimedes Award, a recipientof the 2015-2016 HispanicScholarship Fund, and a recipi-ent of numerous awards and dis-tinctions from my high school in-cluding honor roll, music,Spanish, and the Jules ByronMemorial Scholarship Award,which was meant specifically fora Bronx Science student going toMIT.” Currently Kioulaphides isa rising sophomore at MIT, ma-joring in Materials Science andEngineering with a humanitiesconcentration in music (both ofher parents are classical musi-cians and she has played the vi-olin for 13 years and the violafor 7 years). At the end of May,

Kioulaphides went with one ofher classes to Japan that was in-volved in a joint effort with theUniversity of Tokyo to tackleworldwide engineering prob-lems. “Getting to travel to Asiafor the first time and meet somany friendly people was trulyincredible! I was able to both seehow the students there tackledproblems like energy storage, theglobal food chain, or education,and at the same time immersemyself in the culture, one that isdrastically different from the onethat I have grown up in.”Kioulaphides’ father was bornand raised in Athens and she vis-its her paternal side often.

Drs. Jason kofinas andAntonia Fthenakiskofinas, 32 and 30

The Hippocratic Oath is oneof the most well-known Greekmedical texts and two doctorsare upholding that ethical stan-dard not just as husband andwife but as proud Greek-Ameri-cans. Jason Kofinas and AntoniaFthenakis Kofinas are reproduc-tive endocrinology and infertilityand dermatologist physicians, re-spectively. Jason helps coupleswith fertility struggles saying,“There are so many 'best parts'of my job that it is hard to pickjust one. Ultimately, the joy ofhelping a couple who has beendealing with infertility to have achild is the biggest reward. Itmakes the many years of hardwork and study worth it.” Anto-nia is helping those strugglingwith various skin conditions andskin cancer. “The field of derma-tology is extremely diverse andexciting. From diagnosing andtreating skin cancers to alleviat-ing debilitating skin rashes toperforming cosmetic procedures-the versatility of the field ensuresyou’ll never be bored.” Shepoints to a recent example thatwas very memorable to her. “Itreated a young woman whocame in with severe, scarringacne a few months before herwedding. I provided her with atreatment regimen and was ableto clear her acne prior to thewedding. She was so happy thatshe could enjoy her photos andspecial day without stressingabout how her skin looked!” Ja-son understands a patient’s stresswhen it comes to not being ableto have a baby and he credits hisown dad for the inspiration togo into the infertility field. “Myfather has been an infertility spe-cialist in NYC since 1984 and hehas been a huge inspiration forme. During medical school I didexplore all of my options and ca-reer paths but ultimately I landedon infertility as my true passion.”While the hardest part of his jobis dealing with a treatment thatis not successful or a couple whosuffer a miscarriage, he points tothe much more common occur-rences like a patient who becamepregnant and was moving to Cal-ifornia. “She came in that day tothank me for making her dreamof having a child come true. Thatinteraction put a tear in my eyeand is a constant reminder ofwhy I do what I do.” Both Jasonand Antonia mentor medical stu-dents and residents in their re-spective fields. Antonia is a clin-ical assistant professor at NYULangone Medical Center and Ja-son is active in research and pre-sented one of the prize papers atthe American Society of Repro-ductive Medicine having to dowith mitochondrial mutationsand human oocyte quality. Ja-son’s family is from Chios andKiato. Antonia’s family is fromCrete and Peloponese. Antoniashares her parents’ impact on hercareer. “My parents have in-spired me and instilled in me thevalue of a strong education andpursuing a career that keeps youexcited and enjoying what youdo from a young age.” Jason andAntonia love traveling (with eachother!), cooking healthy meals,

technology and new gadgets,and long walks with theiradorable puppy.

Cristos kontos, 36

What does a BS in criminol-ogy, a master’s in forensic psy-chology and a fashion label havein common? Ask Cristos Kontosthe founder of MAC&LOU andyou’ll get your answer. The com-pany creates leather bags, shoesand other accessories that com-pare to premium Italian brandsand that was his mission sayinghe embraces “the need to createquality products that are reason-ably priced.” While it’s difficulthe said to get “people to under-stand they don’t need to spend afortune to own a quality prod-

uct,” he feels honored when see-ing something he created wornby random people on the street.The most impactful moment ofhis career was being “hired by arenowned Asian fashion com-pany to develop their entirehandbag collection for threestraight seasons.” And he hopeshis efforts will bring awarenessto the other talented Greek de-signers out there creating amaz-ing products. He has two wordsfor everyone: “Support them!”Kontos is from Cyprus and enjoysplaying with his son- and new-born baby girl!

Yiorgos kostopoulos, 29

From a young boy in Greecetaking private lessons in violinand music theory to now havinghis own record, “Last Trip to the

Moon” has taken YiorgosKostopoulos all over the worldchasing his musical dreams.“Since I was a child, I used tospend a lot of time playing onmy piano and eventually Istarted writing music. The thrillof writing new music when theinspiration comes and the magicmoments of energy when impro-vising and playing music withother accomplished performersis the best part of my job.” Butthe job doesn’t feel like work atall since this is his passion andlove at the same time. Two mem-orable moments for Kostopouloshappened when he recorded hisown album in the studio (LastTrip to the Moon is available oniTunes, Amazon and Spotify) andwhen he played at Lincoln Cen-ter in New York City with theWorld Peace Orchestra. And ifthe hardest part of his job meanscarrying the upright bass, he’sready to see what else the musi-cal winds bring him saying “Themore you give, the more youtake back.” Kostopoulos hasshared the stage with a widerange of performers in the USand Europe. Artists includingUlysses Owens Jr., Michael Moss-man, Alexander Markov & WorldPeace Orchestra, Emilio Solla,Lammy Istrefi Jr., Camille GainerJones, Vitor Concalves, LivioAlmeida, Oran Etkin, Joe Gal-lardo, Douglas Walter, MilchoLeviev, Tuomo Uusitalo, JamesShipp, Celia Owens, Sly Scott,Spiros Exaras, Costas Baltazanis,Kyreneia Opera Orchestra andalso with some of the most ac-complished singers in Greecesuch as Marios Frangoulis, Alk-istis Protopsalti, Dimitris Bassisand Stavros Siolas to name a few.He also participated in the NewYork Times acclaimed off-Broad-way musical “Louis Armstrong:Jazz Ambassador” and has per-formed in venues around NewYork City including the LincolnCenter, Town Hall, Kaufman Mu-sic Center, Cooper Union, LouisArmstrong House Museum,Shapeshifter Lab, Bitter End,Somethin’ Jazz Club, Silvanas,Shrine, Pianos and PrincetonUniversity. Kostopoulos splits histime between New York City andhis hometown of Athens, Greecewhen he’s not cooking, watchingmovies and traveling across theworld for fun or for work.

Nadia kountoures, 28

Every year a young girl wouldwatch the planes in the sky atthe Chicago Air and Water Show.Now at 28, she’s a pilot flyingthem all over the country… andthe world. Nadia Kountoureswent to the University of Illinoisat Urbana Champaign to studyaviation and within weeks wasat the controls of an aircraft. Dur-ing her studies, she obtained sev-eral types of pilot licenses andratings, including her flight in-structor license. As a senior incollege, she began flight instruct-ing for beginner student pilotsand continued even after gradu-ating. In 2011 she began work-ing as a corporate pilot for GogoLLC, a Chicago-based companythat provides in-flight internet

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service and other entertainmentand connectivity services forcommercial and business air-craft. She talks about the differ-ent types of aircraft she’s had thethrill of flying. “I began flying asmaller turbo-propeller aircraftcalled a King Air 200. Shortly af-ter, the company acquired a busi-ness jet called a Challenger 600and trained me to fly it. After fly-ing that jet for a couple years,the company acquired a Boeing737 and trained me to fly it also.”A pilot’s life is full of travel andthat is true for Kountoures whogets to travel on a weekly basis-from all over the US, to Canada,the United Kingdom, Germany,Ireland and Iceland, the MiddleEast and even Greece! One mo-ment stands out the most fromall the others. She explains,““Flying my first trip across theAtlantic Ocean has been my mostmemorable moment so far in mycareer. There is no radar cover-age over the ocean, so crossingit in an aircraft requires follow-ing special procedures making itmore challenging than flyingover land. It requires specifictraining and preparation, and Ihad the most rewarding feelingof accomplishment after com-pleting my first trip across theAtlantic.” There are challengesin the air but Kountoures wel-comes them with open arms.“There are many variables thatcould affect whether a scheduledflight happens as planned or not.For example, sometimes thecompany decides they want toreschedule a flight to a later dateor a different location, and othertimes a thunderstorm system willrequire us to divert to an alter-nate airport destination. As a cor-porate pilot I am required to beprepared to adjust the flightpreparations, and my own per-sonal schedule, to deal withthese changes.” But she’s also fly-ing high with a personal mission:one that may help motivate ayoung girl—or boy— one daylooking into the sky and perhapsseeing Kountoures flying overher. “One of my wishes is to beable to inspire people of all ages,

genders, and cultures to pursuetheir dreams of flying. I think itis something that anyone can ac-complish if they study hard, fol-low the rules and truly have apassion for aviation.” Kountouresis a third generation Greek-American (her great-grandpar-ents immigrated to the US in theearly 1900s) and enjoys biking,yoga and trying out new localrestaurants with friends.

Elena LaQuatra, 24

Miss Pennsylvania USA isproudly wearing her crown as aGreek-American helping to bringawareness to those who are deafor are hard of hearing. Previousto winning this title, LaQuatraheld the state titles of Miss Penn-sylvania’s Outstanding Teen 2007(under the Miss American Orga-nization) and placed second run-ner-up at the national competi-tion, Miss Pennsylvania Teen USA2010 (under the Miss UniverseOrganization). She currently isan agency signed model workingall over Pennsylvania, New York,Ohio and West Virginia and afterreceiving her Bachelor of Arts inBroadcast Communications fromPoint Park University, startedworking for WTAE-TV, Pitts-burgh’s ABC news affiliate. InFebruary, she participated in TheStarkey Hearing Foundations Su-per Bowl Mission Trip. The foun-dation provides hearing aids in-ternationally to underprivilegedcommunities and third worldcountries. She talks about theemotional impact this has on hersaying, “There is nothing sweeterthan seeing a person hear for thefirst time. You just see their facescompletely light up and usuallythey start crying as well. It’s trulylife changing. All of the people Ihave met along the way- whetherit has been a celebrity, a CEO, anelderly veteran, a parent of a deafchild, a billionaire, or a 4-year-old girl who thinks I’m a princess,I have been so inspired by eachperson. I cherish these memoriesso deeply and will never forget

the opportunities and friendshipsthat pageantry has awarded mewith.” LaQuatra is Greek on hermom’s side and her family immi-grated from the island of Ithaca,Greece. She enjoys traveling andspending time with her two Chi-huahuas, Miki and Taco.

Alex Loizou, 28

When your company saves abusiness’ Christmas than that’sprobably the best present youcould get. Alex Loizou is the co-founder of trouva.com, a desti-nation marketplace for premiumlifestyle products. Sourced froma network of 150 independentboutiques, these boutiques selltheir products through the e-commerce site Trouva. A cus-tomer is able to buy unique

handpicked items you rarely findanywhere else…to put it simply,they make boutique shoppingeasy. Loizou explains why help-ing other businesses is his fa-vorite kind of work saying, “I al-ways wanted to run my owncompany, mainly because mydrive is very much linked to be-ing able to start from scratch andcreate something that producesvalue. When my cofounders toldme about the idea, I thought itwould be very interesting to helpindependents by providing themthe technology and communitythey need to compete against thechains.” Loizou was part of En-trepreneurFirst, did a short stintat IBM and was a freelance mo-bile app developer during Uni-versity. StreetHub (Loizou’s orig-inal company) raised millions ofdollars to help kick start the busi-ness model of Trouva being ane-commerce store for consumersinterested in their goods. Loizougrew up in Cyprus and admitsto not having much spare timeoutside of his company.

Alexander Louizos, 36

What happens when a vascu-lar surgeon stops operating onpatients to create artificial intel-ligence to save even more peo-

ple? After working for a com-pany in New York creating thefirst artificial intelligence thatoutperformed doctors in a diag-nostic task, Alexander Louizosdecided that it was time to starthis own company named Nan-otech Galaxy. It is comprised ofa team of data scientists, pro-grammers and designers whowork to empower doctors andthe healthcare system using AI.Louizos isn’t a mathematicianbut he says simple math willprove him right. “I thought thatif I operated in one patient perday, say 300 working days peryear, 20 years of career, I wouldprobably save 6400 patients inmy whole career which is like asmall village…I want to havemore impact on the lives of morepeople. Also, the fact that med-ical data is doubling every 73days while the number of newlytrained doctors stays low meansthis technology gap will eventu-ally lead to inequality to health-care access. I do not want this tohappen. I envision a democra-tized accessibility to all highquality healthcare.” He believesthis will happen with the aid ofsmart machines helping doctorsto become 100x more efficientand is the key for a better futurehealthcare for all. He acknowl-edges the hardest part is thethousands of experiments theymust go through until somethingworks but realizes he is workingon the cutting edge of technol-ogy. If AI scares anyone, he isquick to point out, “It is sad thatmost people are affected by theHollywood "Terminator" when itcomes to artificial intelligence.People should not be afraid. In-dustrial revolution liberated peo-ple from the manual work. Weare on the verge of the cognitiverevolution. The cognitive revo-lution will free us from cognitivelabor. How many of you would-n't quit your job if you could af-ford it? This is the definition ofcognitive labor. The cognitivemachines will create abundanceand wealth for our society andempower us to follow our pas-sions. Artificial intelligence willnot take your job. It will liberateyou from your day job!” Louizos

is from Rhodes and enjoys cy-cling and cooking saying it savedhim from the startup roller-coaster.

Nicole Malliotakis, 35

A fighter for policies to betterher community, the daughter ofNew York City immigrants, andthrow in a book, bicycle andyoga pose…and you would get3-term candidate Nicole Mallio-takis. Defeating a two-term in-cumbent, Malliotakis (R) cur-rently represents Staten Islandand Brooklyn in the New YorkState Assembly. “The best part of

public service is being able tomake a difference in my commu-nity and fight for policies I be-lieve in to make our state a betterplace to live. Because I am amember of the opposition party,I often spend my time fightingagainst bad pieces of legislationto prevent them from becominglaw instead of spending time fo-cusing on advancing my ownpolicy agenda.” Interested in pol-itics and government since ateenager, Malliotakis volunteeredon campaigns at city, state andfederal levels. Serving in the ad-ministration of New York StateGovernor George Pataki andworking in the private sectormonitoring energy and environ-mental policies, Malliotakis de-cided to run as a candidate in2010 for a simple reason: “I feltwe were underserved by our rep-resentative at the time and be-lieved I offered a better alterna-tive to the citizens of the district.”Her most memorable momentwas being sworn into office andbeing seated in the Assemblychamber for the very first time.But while that memory will beone of her favorites, she wasmost impacted by the terrifyingmoments following HurricaneSandy helping hundreds of fam-ilies in her districts deal with thestorm’s aftermath and rebuildtheir lives. Malliotakis’ father isfrom Crete and her mother is a

Cuban exile of the Castro dicta-torship. She enjoys reading, bi-cycling and yoga when not fight-ing for her constituents.

Elpitha Hope NalpantidisMalone, 31

Where others see hopeless-ness she sees hope….and maybeone’s name does inspire theirprofession. E. (Elpitha) HopeNalpantidis Malone, MA, LMHCis a child, adolescent, and familytherapist specializing in behav-ioral therapy, mindfulness andplay therapy. She works out ofher practice in the Bronx helpingchildren and families becomehappier, healthier, more skilledversions of themselves. Under-standing that therapy takes hardwork and changes aren’t oftenimmediate, she helps familiesslowly progress and acknowl-edges, “there is nothing betterthan looking back with a familyon what seemed to them a hope-less situation and seeing theprogress they’ve made. It’s reallyrewarding to see the childrenand families I work with soar.”In fact, she cites them as a sourceof encouragement and motiva-tion in her personal and profes-sional life. She adds, “I've had so

many memorable moments, butmy most memorable has beenopening my office this past April.It's been an incredible and chal-lenging experience to have myown business, but the minute Igot those keys is absolutely mymost memorable- it was the mo-ment I knew I was exactly whereI needed to be!” She also runssibling support groups for broth-ers and sisters of kids with spe-cial needs. Nalpantidis is fromnorthern Greece and is first gen-eration Greek-American. She en-joys spending time with her hus-band Eliot and dog Zeppelin.

Spiro Marangoudakis,PhD, 34

What started as a childhoodinterest in accelerated mathe-

Continued on page 8

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Congratulations to all Greek American young men and women

for their achievements in whatever they do.

You are amazing, the future of our Greek American Community.

This is the next generation that exemplifies what the Greek spirit

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As the parents of two bright Greek American young people we are proud of all of you.

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We love you and we are very proud of you.

Georgios Pyrgiotakis, Ph.Dand

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40 UNDER 408 THE NATIONAL HERALD, NOVEMBER 5, 2016

matics and science programs be-came a Ph.D. thesis titled “Mole-cular Mechanisms of CaV2.2 Cal-cium Channel Regulation” andthen came entrepreneurship tostart Piddx and now an MBA pro-gram for Spiro Marangoudakis.Piddx, the world’s first peer-to-peer employment social network,was co-founded byMarangoudakis naming it fromthe Greek word “to jump” refer-encing the network’s ability tocreate a system that allows peo-ple to choose their own level ofeconomic activity and productiv-ity. Marangoudakis is also focus-ing on leadership positions in thebiotechnology and pharma in-dustries after discerning patternsin economic data that resultedin his retirement from financialinvesting at age 29.Marangoudakis is a graduate ofBrown University’s Molecular Bi-ology, Cell Biology and Biochem-istry program. His family is fromCrete and he enjoys reading busi-ness-related journals and booksand spending time on the water.

Demetri Maxim, 18

Some kids entering collegeare planning frat parties andfootball games but not DemetriMaxim. He’s developing a newtechnology to “grow” kidney tis-sue from stem cells- somethingthat personally affects his family.

He explains saying, “My familyhas been affected by polycystickidney disease (PKD) for fourgenerations, and when I wasseven, my mom nearly died fromkidney failure before receiving alife-saving transplant. I also havePKD and may someday need akidney of my own, so I figuredwhy not get started early on de-veloping a new technology toavoid the need for transplants al-together? I have been actively in-volved in the kidney researchfield for over three years andmost recently developed a newmethod to turn stem cells intokidney cells that can then formfunctional kidney tissue. I useda 3-D printer to create inexpen-sive, biocompatible plastic kid-ney structures (scaffolds) andseeded the kidney cells into thesescaffolds to create the functionaltissue. More details about thespecifics of my work can be

found on my LinkedIn page.”Maxim attended the AmericanSociety of Nephrology’s AnnualKidney Week Conference in2015, which taught him aboutthe possibility of using gene edit-ing to treat and prevent kidneydiseases such as PKD. He wasawarded Best in Category in Cel-lular and Molecular Biology atthe 2015 Intel International Sci-ence and Engineering Fair (ISEF)and First Place in TranslationalMedical Science at the 2016 IntelISEF. The grand award was a tripto India which Maxim enjoyedalong with his passions of trav-eling parts of the world vastlydifferent from the East Coast.Maxim’s mom was born inCyprus and immigrated to theUnited States during the Turkishinvasion in 1974. He enjoys ski-ing and science- which he wasable to pursue while attendinghigh school at Gould Academyin Bethel, ME. Maxim will be at-tending Stanford University inthe fall to pursue a degree in bi-ology and biomedical engineer-ing. Maxim is an American &Cyprus dual citizen and hopes torepresent Cyprus in the 2022Winter Olympic Games.

Christiana Metaxas, 22

Traveling to New Zealand andAustralia at only 11 eleven yearsold with the People to People stu-dent ambassador programfounded by President Eisen-hower started a passion for oneGreek-American girl from NYthat has turned into a culturalambassadorship to Cyprus aftercollege. Christiana Metaxas grad-uated with a BA summa cumlaude from Binghamton Univer-sity (SUNY) with a double majorin Linguistics and French and aminor in Classical Civilization.While at Binghamton, she joinedand then became president ofHellenic Cultural Society increas-ing membership and participa-tion. Metaxas was also electedto Phi Beta Kappa and receiveda Fulbright grant to Cyprus forthe 2016-17 academic yearwhere she is currently an assis-tant teacher of English. “I hopethis will be my first step towardslaunching a career in interna-tional service. I always seek op-portunities to engage with theinternational community. MyGreek heritage has played a largerole in my choosing to study lin-guistics and languages and thehistories and cultures attachedto different linguistic communi-ties. I studied abroad in Franceand Spain during college and atthe American CommunitySchools of Athens for a semesterof high school. During the sum-mer of 2014, I volunteered inGreece in the midst of its finan-cial crisis at a free day-care facil-ity administered by the Archdio-cese of Athens. I was able tointeract with the children andstaff in Greek.” Metaxas’ seniorthesis, Greek Heritage Speakersin the USA: an Examination ofLanguage and Identity, allowedher to study her Greek heritagethrough a linguistic lens for thefirst time. “In my thesis, I surveythe history of the Greek languageand recent research on the bilin-gualism of heritage speakers – aheritage speaker is someone whogrows up exposed to a non-ma-jority language in their home en-vironment. After discussing thedevelopment of the Greek lan-guage and its linguistic commu-nities, I conducted a sociolinguis-

tic and phonology study onGreek heritage language atti-tudes and pronunciation. I re-ceived 150 responses fromGreek-American college studentsto an online survey I created ask-ing about their language andheritage exposure, involvement,and attitudes. There was an ad-ditional optional section wherethe participants self-recordedthemselves reading out loud alist of Greek words that I prede-termined. I also interviewed 10Greek-Americans of varying agesas a qualitative supplement tomy study. It was so rewarding tocombine my studies in linguisticswith a lifetime of exposure toand involvement with the Greek-American community. I discov-ered so much about the Greeklinguistic tradition and aboutheritage languages in the UnitedStates, and I was touched to seehow many individuals care aboutthe status of the Greek languagewithin the Greek-American com-munity. I was honored to repre-sent Binghamton University andthe field of linguistics when I pre-sented this study at the SUNYUndergraduate Research Confer-ence, and to have received de-partmental honors in Linguisticsfor my thesis.” Metaxas’ paternalgrandfather is from the island ofKefalonia and her paternalgrandmother's parents werefrom Asia Minor and Syros. Hermaternal grandparents are alsofrom Asia Minor. Metaxas enjoysmusic, has studied classical pianoand currently serves as Chief ofStaff for the National HellenicStudent Association of NorthAmerica.

katerina MountanosCheliotis, 35

Olive oil, beauty products andecommerce all come flowing to-gether for one successful entre-preneur and executive in Man-hattan. After spending 4 years ininvestment banking for Citigroupin London and Manhattan, Ka-terina Mountanos dived intoecommerce and entrepreneurialendeavors and has no plans toquit anytime soon with successafter success. “In 2010, I joineda company called Quidsi, whichran several ecommerce sites in-cluding Diapers.com, Soap.com,Beautybar.com and Wag.com. Iwas given a lot of autonomy inmy roles there and the experi-ence to work for a very successfulfast growing startup that waseventually acquired by Amazonhelped me fall in love with star-tups and entrepreneurship. Itwas one of the founders ofQuidsi who started Jet.com andrecruited me back to work forhim a second time.” Mountanosis the VP of the $100 millionHome category on Jet.com, afairly new mass-market ecom-merce business recently sold toWalmart. “Jet is a very excitingplace to be right now as we beginto integrate with Walmart. There

is so much that can be done toreinvent and win in ecommercewith the support of a $200+ bil-lion retail company. And sepa-rately working to grow a brandnew food brand (Kosterina sellspremium, organic, extra virginGreek olive oil directly to Amer-ican consumers onkosterina.com) gives me my en-trepreneurial fix and helps mecontinue to learn about digitalmarketing, partnerships and in-ternational operations. I love thedichotomy and experience ofworking to grow both the largestretailer in the world and a brandnew tiny retail business with 1SKU at the same time. You wouldbe surprised to see how muchoverlap there is!” In 2012, Kate-rina co-founded Manicube, acompany focused on improvingthe lives of working professionalsby offering affordable, high-qual-ity personal care services (mani-cures and haircuts) in corporateoffices. Katerina worked to growManicube to serve over 200 cor-porate clients and over 30,000end customers across four US

markets – New York, Boston,Chicago & San Francisco. In No-vember 2015, Manicube was ac-quired by Elizabeth Arden RedDoor Spas after which Katerinaserved as the Co-President ofElizabeth Arden Red Door Spa’sRed Door division. Mountanossays the launch of Manicube wasa very impactful moment in hercareer as Manicube received ex-tensive media coverage in TheNew York Times, Bloomberg tele-vision, CNBC, ABC, Marie Claire,Allure, Mashable and other me-dia entities for its unique ser-vices. Mountanos received herBS from NYU’s Stern School ofBusiness and her MBA from Har-vard Business School and is anactive member of F Cubed whichis a network of female entrepre-neurs based in NYC. Katerina’sparents came to the UnitedStates as teenagers and she visitsfamily every summer in Greeceas her father is from a smallbeach town outside Kalamataand her mother is from theAgrinio area. She enjoys spend-ing time with her family (includ-ing her 4-month old daughter!)and learning Mediterraneancooking.

Nicolle Pangis, 38

As a child, she wanted to bethe first female president of theUnited States, and then a lawyer,but Nicolle Pangis believes sheended in the career where she isabsolutely best suited--advertis-ing. Pangis accelerated throughthe ranks in digital media, in-cluding leading a joint ventureintegration with Dentsu, one ofthe largest advertising compa-nies in the world at age 28; run-ning Global Product Manage-ment and Strategy for 24/7Media--one of the pioneeringcompanies in digital advertising-- for five years and then becom-ing President of Europe andNorth America in 2012 at age33. Earlier this year, she wasnamed “The Most PowerfulWoman in Programmatic” adver-tising by an industry publication.Pangis is now the Global Chief

Operating Officer at Xaxis, theworld’s largest programmatic au-dience company that connectsadvertisers to audiences acrossall addressable media channels-a company with over 1 billiondollars in revenue and 2,200 em-ployees in 46 markets across theworld. Pangis runs the opera-tional teams in the company in-cluding Product and Engineer-ing, Strategic Partnerships,Business Operations, M&A andHuman Resources, “My teamsare responsible for making surewe are building the best technol-ogy in the industry, keeping thecommercial teams moving for-ward with the toolset they needthrough partnership or acquisi-tion, and making sure our em-ployees are being challenged andfulfilled professionally. I continueto learn from our teams everyday I come in to the office, and

feel lucky to be able to work andhave fun at the same time and alot of that is driven by loving thepeople I work with. A few of mydearest friends stemmed fromwork relationships.” But work re-lationships aren’t the only impor-tant pieces to Nicolle’s puzzle.She explains saying, “Raising afamily is so fulfilling but takes alot of coordination, and with twoworking parents it becomes evenmore of a scheduling dance.When you have a global position,you add travel to the equation,and there is an extra level ofcomplexity. I’m fortunate to havean amazing support system in-cluding my husband, parents, in-laws, siblings and a devotedbabysitter. That village is theonly way to keep it all working,so my girls stay happy and sup-ported, even when I am travel-ing.” While Pangis participates ina mentoring program at her com-pany, and drove the launch of awomen’s leadership initiativewithin Xaxis called X-women lastyear, she says that mentoring andleadership initiatives are notabout a one year program…theyare about creating relationshipsand skills that continue indefi-nitely for an individual through-out their career. Nicolle com-pleted her BS from BostonUniversity in three years and re-ceived an MBA from RutgersUniversity. Nicolle was named toCrain's NY 40 under 40, Adver-tising Age’s 40 under 40, and isthe recipient of Cynopsis Media’sTop Women in Digital Award andAdvertising Women of NY andWorking Women Media’s Awardfor Mother of the Year. Her ma-ternal side has roots in Chios asher mother was born in theApollo Hotel which was ownedby her great-grandfather at thetime and is now a landmark inChios. Her father’s side comesfrom Kalamata and Sparta.When she’s not taking in puppetshows, participating in danceparties in her kitchen, or doingcrafts with her two daughters,Nicolle is an avid runner whichshe credits to keeping her men-tally and physically healthy forher family and job.

Athena Papadopoulos,28

When curiosity in the arts isdeveloped through study andpractice, you may see that piecein Athena Papadopoulos’ artgallery one day. The artist ex-plains how she flows in betweenprojects saying, “It has been avery long process of moving fromone work to the next. Each timeanother process is added it con-tinues to evolve and merge with

processes previously employed.I think the best way to imaginethe process is that everything be-gins to get contaminated -in apositive sense, one piece rubs offonto the next and that one backon to the precedent in order tocreate a world built using myown artistic language.” Pa-padopoulos has had several im-pactful moments in her careerincluding a Frieze New York solopresentation at Supportico Lopezin May 2016, Art Basel Miami,Public Sector curated by NicholasBaume in December 2015 and asolo show at Supportico Lopez,Berlin in May 2015. “I havemany loves and a deep appreci-ation and love of the artists GreerLankton, John Waters, Niki deSaint Phalle, Tetsumi Kudo, YayoiKusama, Dorthea Tanning andPaul Thek. I have enjoyed read-ing about their work, their bi-ographies are always interestingand whenever I can see the workin real life- I feel very lucky, thatis a real moment of joy for me.”And there’s more coming showsfor Papadopoulos as she talksabout her upcoming schedulesaying, “I am very excited aboutmy upcoming shows including,Shoot the Lobster in NYC in No-vember… a group show calledWild Style at Peres Project,Berlin…and another group showcalled Streams of Warm Imper-manence at David Roberts ArtFoundation, London UK.” She ex-plains the foundation behind herart, “In my work I use autobio-graphical references and re-con-textualize them by combiningimages and text that I’ve appro-priated from pop culture, histor-ical and contemporary literature.By collaging these materials to-gether. I am able to create nar-rative works that take my ownsubjectivity to navigate issuesaround contemporary genderpolitics and social relations.”She’s had young admirers of herart express their appreciation forher work in the field and timewill only tell the influence Pa-padopoulos has on a younger

generation. Papadopoulos re-ceived her MFA from Goldsmiths,London and BFA in Visual Artand Art Theory from Universityof British Columbia, Vancouver.Her father’s family is from Kas-toria and she enjoys readingabout art, artists, fiction, as wellas, cooking and baking and …rearranging her rooms.

George Psomas, 33

As a 10-year-old boy, Georgesaw his cousin’s high school pro-duction of “Fiddler On The Roof”and realized that he wanted tobe an actor. Fast forward and heis presently playing the principalrole of Avram in “Fiddler On TheRoof” on Broadway. He says,“Fiddler changed my life, and af-ter seeing it as a child, I decidedto sign up for my elementaryschool talent show; I sang“Where Is Love” from the musi-cal Oliver. It turned out that oneof my neighbors who attendedthe show was related to the tal-ent manager Shirley Grant, andintroduced me. She signed meas a client and I worked profes-sionally as a child actor for ashort time doing projects in the-atre, voice-over and print. Ulti-mately my parents and I madethe decision that school shouldstay a priority, so I stopped, andI think it was the best choice forme at the time. However, I had

already been bitten by the actingbug, so I continued doing com-munity theatre, camps and work-shops throughout my middleschool and high school years be-fore going to college to major inTheatre". Psomas graduatedfrom Muhlenberg College with adouble major in Theatre andBusiness, and since then hasbeen working as a professionalEquity Union actor on Broadway,Off-Broadway, on Tour, Region-ally, and doing various develop-mental readings and workshops.He’s also worked professionallyas a SAG-AFTRA Union actor do-ing film, voiceover work for PizzaHut and The Cartoon Network,has won the title of 'BroadwayIdol', and has appeared in VogueMagazine in a spread by photog-rapher Annie Leibovitz. Psomasexplains the best and the hardestparts of being an actor saying,“The best thing about my job isthat it doesn’t feel like work. Noteveryone gets the opportunity tomake money doing their passion,and I do not take that forgranted. I love getting into themind and body of the charactersthat I play and figuring out whothey are. I also like to watch andlisten to people that I respect inthe business, so that I can learnfrom them and continue to growand work in the industry. Thelearning never ends, and that’swhat makes it so exciting for me.Even when you are doing a longrun of a show, I love to continueto discover new meaning in thematerial so that I can keep infresh show after show. The hard-est part about doing a show onBroadway is that the schedulecan be very taxing on your body.We do eight shows a week andthe work that we do in a three-hour show is very physical. Weare all constantly watching ourvoices, eating healthy and mak-ing sure that we are gettingenough rest. In addition to theshows, there are understudy re-hearsals where we work on theroles that we understudy, andother rehearsals for brushing up,and for when we get new mem-bers of the company. It's all veryexciting, but the days are longand can get very tiring, so it isimportant to pace myself andtake care of my health.” Howabout a memorable moment inhis career? "There is one momentthat stands out vividly, and that'swhen I made my Broadway de-but. I had the good fortune ofdoing the entire run of theBroadway Revival of South Pa-cific, and it was one of the great-est experiences of my life. Theshow ran for almost 3 years, andit surpassed every expectationthat I had of doing Broadway.The way that the Seabees wereintroduced in that show was bysinging the iconic song “BloodyMary” while running out over asand dune on the enormousstage at Lincoln Center. That mo-ment when I first ran over thedune and heard the roar of thecrowd, I had a rush of emotionthat I will never forget. You workso hard to be successful in yourfield, and when a lifelong dreambecomes a reality, it is a very spe-cial moment." Psomas explainshe is thankful for his heritagesaying, “I feel so lucky to havegrown up in the Greek Orthodoxchurch with an incredibly sup-portive family and community ofpeople around me. From mydays in talent shows and school

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40 UNDER 40THE NATIONAL HERALD, NOVEMBER 5, 2016 9

plays, to my current work onBroadway, the Greeks have liter-ally come in bus loads to showtheir love and support; and theamazing thing is that they don’tjust come alone, they bring alongtheir friends and relatives, so thecrowds just keep growing. Thebusiness I work in can be veryhard, and it is an honor to haveso much positive energy aroundme. My parents and my sisterhave been a tremendous supportover the years, and withoutthem, I would not be where I amtoday.” Psomas’ family is fromLemnos and Sparta.

Georgios Pyrgiotakis, 38

From Physics to Materials Sci-ence to Bioengineering and nowto Public Health, you could say

Georgios Pyrgiotakis has quite afew interests and talents. Cur-rently he’s a nanoparticle engi-neer and researcher at the Centerfor Nanotechnology and Nan-otoxicology at Harvard T.H.Chan School of Public Health.He gives a whole other meaningto the term ‘splitting hairs’ as heexplains exactly what he does.“Nanoparticles are consideredthe particles that have dimen-sions less than one millionth ofthe width of the human hair.When it comes to particles sotiny, looking at them becomes ahuge challenge on itself. It re-quires techniques that push thelimits of current techniques andvery often it requires the use ofseveral techniques at once. Myresearch is at the forefront of sci-

ence and engineering, innovat-ing and changing the way welook at these particles. It is justamazing how in a beaker we canmake billions and billions ofthem, while controlling theirproperties down to molecularscale. Every day there is a newproblem that we try to solve. Thejourney trying to solve theseproblems and overcome thesechallenges, has been keeping meinterested for 15 years and willkeep me for years to come. How-ever, since I am an academic, Icould not do without mentoringand teaching a new generationof scientist and engineers of allages and backgrounds--from PhDstudents to elementary schoolstudents.” His research is makingan impact on lives all over theworld through the discovery ofa “green method” that with theuse of pure water can inactivatepesky bacteria that is lurking onthe surface of common vegeta-bles. This, now a patented tech-nology, has gained national andinternational attention, includingPyrgiotakis being featured in theEconomist’s Technology Quar-terly issue. He believes this tech-nology will become a key playerin the battle against airbornebacteria and airborne infectionsespecially in developing coun-tries where healthcare is not veryaccessible. Pyrgiotakis holds aPhD from the University ofFlorida and is from Crete. He en-joys cooking and engineeringfood- including reading aboutthe history and science of foodand then writing about thisknowledge on his blog, NerdMeets Food.

Aravella Simotas, 37

Who knew a Greek girl grow-ing up in Astoria would one dayrepresent her own neighborhoodfor New York State Assembly?That’s exactly what AravellaSimotas, a lifelong resident ofAstoria, Queens, does for NewYork’s 36th Assembly District. In2010, Simotas (D) became thefirst Greek-American womanelected to office in New York and

the first woman elected to officein her district. Simotas’ involve-ment in civic affairs dates backto high school, where she orga-nized fundraising events for localcharities. Since then, she has es-tablished a strong record of pub-lic service and has devoted her-self to improving the lives ofothers. “I am a lifelong residentof Astoria and proud to be aproduct of the New York Citypublic school system. My interestin public service and civic affairsreally began in High Schoolwhen I organized fundraisingevents for local charities. WhenI was in law school I worked withthe NYS Department of Environ-mental Conservation and localelected officials to stop the con-struction of more power plantsin Western Queens, a neighbor-hood already suffering from theeffects of existing power plants.This victory of environmental ad-vocacy – which resulted incleaner air for Astoria – reallygave me a taste for the good thatelected officials can do and forthe joy that comes when youknow you’ve helped make peo-ple’s lives better.” Simotas re-ceived her Bachelor of Arts de-gree in economics andphilosophy, summa cum laude,from Fordham University in1999. She received her law de-gree from Fordham Law Schoolin 2002, where she served as themanaging editor of the FordhamEnvironmental Law Journal.In

2011, Simotas was named a "Ris-ing Star" and listed in the TheCapitol's "40 Under 40" list of"Albany's next generation" of po-litical leadership. In the sameyear, she also was one of the firstwinners of the Geraldine FerraroLeadership Award. Simotas wasnamed "Greek American Womanof the Year" in 2013 by the Asso-ciation of Greek American Pro-fessional Women. In April 2014,Simotas was honored with aWomen in Leadership Award bythe Center for the Women ofNew York. She was also named“2015 Woman of the Year” bythe Pancyprian AssociationWomen’s Issues Network. In ad-dition to those she has beengiven numerous awards andhonors from cultural and localcivic associations. Simotas’ fam-ily is from Kefalonia and shemarried her husband John Kat-sanos there in 2004 and theybaptized their daughter Eleni in2013 on the island as well. Sheenjoys gardening and spendingtime with her extended family.

Maria GeorgiadesSfakianos, 36

Walking away from death andwalking towards life is one sur-geon’s dream come true for herpatients. Maria GeorgiadesSfakianos is Associate ProgramDirector of Surgical Critical CareFellowship and Assistant Profes-sor of Surgery at NorthwellHealth. She is a trauma surgeon,emergency surgeon and surgicalcritical care doctor all rolled intoone. She explains saying, “Thebest part of my job is whensomeone comes to the emer-gency department or the surgicalintensive care unit acutely ill tothe point when they are neardeath and they walk out of thehospital with a smile. It is verysatisfying.” She also gives backteaching others how to helpthose in need being involved inresident education for the gen-eral surgery program at NorthShore- LIJ. “My field involves thesickest of patients and the fami-lies that support and love them

and to be a part of the toughestpoint in the lives whether it isbeing struck by a motor vehicleor needing emergency surgery istruly a special relationship.”Sometimes all of her hard workdoesn’t keep death away thoughand she explains the toughestpart of her job. “There are timeswhen I will do everything I canusing my medical knowledgeand skills but the patient stilldoesn’t survive due to the sever-ity of their illness. It is hard notto take this part home with you.”But the most memorable mo-ment for Sfakianos’ career waswhen a young woman came toher who was in a boating acci-dent and Sfakianos spent 9 hoursin surgery to save her life.“Throughout the week we triedvery hard to save her leg (se-verely injured in the accident)but after multiple surgeries anamputation was required due tothe infection. I built a strong re-lationship with her and shetaught me to never give up. Shetaught me strength and courage.Her positive nature and motiva-tion throughout the hospital staythat year was very impressiveand served as an example formany other patients.” Sfakianosis from Kastoria and Pelopon-nesus and enjoys running by thewater, cooking and spendingtime with her two chiweeniesand family, including a newborn!

Jeff Stefanis, 25

Need to go somewhere in abig city without parking, traffic

or congestion and without walk-ing or taking the subway? Ebikesis to bikes what email is to mail.Jeff Stefanis is the co-founder ofRiide who designs electric bikesand sell them as a subscription.Stefanis explains, “For$79/month riiders get their ownbike, unlimited maintenance,and theft insurance. After twoyears they own it forever or canupgrade to the latest model forfree.” Stefanis talks about wherethe idea of “ebikes for urbancommuters” came from. “I havealways been extremely passion-ate about sustainability and en-vironmental justice. With ad-dressing the inadequacies inurban transportation my co-founder, Amber Wason, and Isaw an opportunity to solve apiece of both of those issues.”The 36V 9ah lithium-ion batteryhas a 25 mile range- and it’s abike so you can use the pedalstoo. The bike can be charged inany standard wall outlet in justtwo to three hours and at 40

pounds, it is one of the lightestebikes every created. But the im-pact of these bikes are muchdeeper than one would normallythink explains Stefanis. “Talkingto our riiders is by far and awaythe best and most impactful partof my job. Hearing how Riide hasnot only saved them time andmoney but shifted the way theysee and interact with their citiesfor the better.”Stefanis is fromLesbos and enjoys playing bas-ketball and soccer.

Jonathan Timmes

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