NJIT Recognizes Impactful Graduates with Alumni Achievement Awards
NJIT’s annual alumni weekend is a two-day extravaganza that is filled to the brim with events for returning NJIT graduates. One event in particular recognizes a select group of alumni who have achieved profound professional success: the Alumni Achievement Awards.
This year’s class of awardees includes high-level executives in multinational tech organizations, engineering graduates who run some of the biggest firms in the world and an NJIT professor who has won praise from young alumni.
Below are the recipients, with more information about each one available on Alumni’s Wall of Honor.
Lysa Banks is an IBM distinguished engineer and technical executive within the CTO office of IBM Consulting’s Worldwide Cloud Transformation Team. In Lysa’s capacity of overall solution lead, she oversees a cross functional squad to collaborate across various industries, including the financial services sector and on their Digital Transformation and Journey to Cloud. She pioneered the formation of Cloud Video and Watson Media, a new line of business within IBM’s Cloud and & Cognitive group.
In the Cloud & Cognitive group, she served as the CTO of Watson Media where she led DevOps transformations of IBM teams, oversaw the move to cloud for existing IBM software products and provided technical leadership in building Cloud Native applications that delivered AI SaaS solutions for rich media including the first automated closed captioning systems for live broadcast news.
The Albert Dorman Honors College scholar graduated summa cum laude from NJIT and is passionate about mentoring the next generation of STEM students and professionals. In her spare time, Lysa seeks out fast-moving adventures on her motorcycle, road bike or downhill skis.
Angelo Del Russo has over 45 years of experience in the building construction industry with an illustrious career that started with juggling school and work. He attended NJIT at night over the course of eight years as an evening student all while incorporating Del-Sano, where he joined with skilled tradesmen to gain valuable work experience in carpentry and construction. Those skills and a sharp focus on studies at NJIT helped him orchestrate the evolution of a truly comprehensive construction company with a deep and diverse skillset.
Del-Sano is consistently rated as a “Top Contractor in New Jersey” by Engineering News-Record New York. The firm has won a “Masonry Trowel Award” and “Project of the Year” from the publication, Masonry Construction. The New Jersey Senate and General Assembly passed a joint legislative resolution honoring Del-Sano after the company was named “General Contractor of the Year” by the New Jersey Subcontractors Association.
The company was also part of a team that won the Sustainable Buildings Industry Council’s “Beyond Green” award for a Hoboken condo project, the Garden Street Lofts. The building qualified as adaptive re-use structurally and included elements ranging from a green turf and a planted roof, to sustainable construction materials, with a zinc rain screen façade, energy-efficient windows, water-saving features and indoor air quality enhancements in heating and cooling. Del-Sano recycled nearly 90% of the construction debris. Today, the company is an active participant of the U.S. Green Building Council® with LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) credentialed staff on board.
Del Russo, who also sits on NJIT’s Board of Visitors and Board of Overseers, has previously been honored by Newark College of Engineering as an Outstanding Alumnus. He has spent many years giving back, helping to launch young engineers’ careers through a variety of avenues, including serving on the NCE Board of Visitors.
Rashmi means “ray of sunshine,” which is what she aspires to be for others: a ray of hope positively influencing someone every day.
Rashmi is passionate and value-driven, creating cutting-edge products that customers love and driving high-revenue growth through digital transformation. Prior to this role, she was part of the Verizon Leadership Development Program, leading cross-functional teams for artificial intelligence innovations, growth strategy, and value realization in marketing, finance and platform engineering teams.
Rashmi started out as a shy and quiet personality on campus, but learned how to step out of her comfort zone and explore her interests and skills while at NJIT. The Albert Dorman Honors College scholar overcame several hurdles at NJIT: making a shift from pre-medicine to data science, and conquering her fear of public speaking. Today, she shares her experiences as a mentor to over 55 girls in STEM, has hosted 24 events, spoke on 11 panels in nine conferences and has been featured in the media.
She is a curious individual who loves to learn and share knowledge to empower others. Rashmi is an ardent contributor as a Harvard Business Review advisor, women leadership ambassador, entrepreneur and financial investor. One of her proudest accomplishments was to be the first woman of color and South Asian Global Co-Lead in the history of the Womxn’s Association of Verizon Employees, an employee resource group consisting of up to 13,000 members globally.
In her free time, she enjoys meditating, playing badminton, listening to audiobooks, adventure sports and exploring new places.
For more than 40 years, in a career that includes awards and special recognition for innovative design, Alvaro Piedrahita has successfully led technical design professionals on multimillion-dollar transportation infrastructure projects for major airports, highways, bridges, transit and rail and support facilities worldwide.
Alvaro has remained active in the development of large-scale projects, such as the design and construction of the New Northside Runway at Miami International Airport, his technical advisory role on a Florida Department of Transportation committee for the $1.2 billion Port of Miami Tunnel, and his strategic direction to procure the I-395 to MacArthur Causeway Signature Bridge structure over downtown Miami.
From his role early on as Bridge Engineer to Chairman of the Board of T.Y. Lin International Group, Alvaro has been instrumental in guiding T.Y. Lin International through a period of double-digit growth and establishing a solid foundation and strategy for the firm’s expansion and success.
Alvaro is also a past recipient of NCE’s Outstanding Alumnus award, and a member of NJIT’s Hispanic and LatinX Leadership Council.
Joseph Dominguez has spent more than 20 years in the electrical generation business, ranging from spearheading transformational changes in the policy landscape supporting zero emission nuclear energy, to negotiating large commercial transactions, to his current position as President and CEO of Constellation.
At Constellation, Joseph manages a workforce of over 13,000 employees which serve over 20 million homes and businesses with clean energy (over 32,400 megawatts). Constellation comprises both the nation’s lowest-carbon fleet among large power producers and the largest competitive energy supplier. Together, they are America’s clean energy leader, producing over 10% of the nation’s clean energy.
Joseph oversees Constellation’s clean energy fleet of nuclear, wind, solar, hydroelectric and natural gas facilities in 19 states, and the nation’s top competitive retail and commodities business, which provides electricity, natural gas and other energy-related products and services to two million residential, public sector and business customers nationwide, including more than three-fourths of the Fortune 100.
The Van Houten Award for Excellence in Teaching from the NJIT Alumni Association is based on a survey of all recent NJIT graduates from every department from the past 10 years. It is given to members of the NJIT faculty who have demonstrated teaching excellence, and who have also made a positive, lasting impact on the lives of their former students.
Darius Sollohub AIA has been affiliated with the university since 1995 and currently serves as the executive director of the Newark Design Collaborative at NJIT, which coordinates engagement with the city of Newark through design studios, seminar classes, independent projects and archives.
Darius’ roles since 1995 have varied greatly. He served as director of the School of Architecture, administering graduate and undergraduate programs in architecture and planning; and he is a founding member of NJIT’s Infrastructure Planning Program. He teaches, conducts research and consults on architecture and planning topics at multiple scales, including civic architecture, infrastructure, resiliency, housing, officing, transit-oriented development, cycling networks, parking, and earth art. His interest in design pedagogy is expressed in his book, “Millennials in Architecture: Generations, Disruption, and the Legacy of a Profession,” published by the University of Texas Press in 2019.
Darius’s contacts outside NJIT are extensive and has partnered with private sector companies focused on expanding the potential of design such as Audible, Edison Properties, the Hanini Group, FX Collaborative, WSP, and India’s Abellon Clean Energy. He has worked closely with many institutions and agencies including the National Endowment for the Arts, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and New Jersey state agencies. He has advised the Newark administrations of Cory Booker and Ras Baraka on airport, housing, parking and bus rapid transit policies. Through each of these contacts, Darius has brought professionals into the classroom to influence students.
Darius is a registered architect in New York and New Jersey and is a published and award-winning designer formerly with Rosenbaum Sollohub Architects, Polshek and Partners (now Ennead), Ellerbe Becket and Steven Holl Architects.
