Officers and Board

Bob Kunkler, B.S. 1988

Bob is Vice President, Global Commercial Operations for Abbott Diabetes Care, leading customer facing strategy and operations.

He began his career with Abbott’s Diagnostics Division in July 1993 and has led Commercial Operations for Abbott Point of Care and Abbott Molecular. Prior to this role, Bob served as Divisional Vice President & General Manager for Abbott’s Consumer Diagnostics business.

Bob has a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Yale University and a Masters in Management (MBA) from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Bob serves on the Boards of the Yale Science and Engineering Association, the Yale Crew Association and the National Rowing Foundation, and is a member of the Yale Alumni Schools Committee.

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Kristine Budill, B.S. 1989

Kristine has seven years of teaching experience in the areas of engineering, computer science, math and finance. Prior to her role as an educator, Kristine spent over ten years working at a private equity fund that invested university endowment funds and contributions from high net worth individuals in medical device companies. She also served as the Director of Business Development at Haemonetics Corporation, where she was responsible for analyzing, negotiating, and managing corporate investments in new technologies and businesses. Her early career included a variety of technical and managerial roles at General Electric Aircraft Engines and ITT Fluid Technology Corporation. Kristine holds a NYS Teacher Certification from Manhattanville College, a master’s in Management Science from MIT Sloan School of Management, a master’s in Electrical Engineering from MIT and a bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from Yale University.

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Elissa Dunn Levy, B.S. 2009, Secretary

Elissa graduated from Yale (Berkeley College) in 2009 with a BS in Physics (Intensive). She spent 8 years in the hedge fund industry in a variety of analyst, project manager, and senior program manager roles. By day, she is now a high school physics and computer science teacher in northern Virginia. By night, she is a mom, a yogi, a teacher workshop leader, and – of course – a proud YSEA board member.

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Mehmet Baykara, Ph.D. 2012

Mehmet Z. Baykara is a tenured Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at UC Merced. He also serves as the Department of Mechanical Engineering’s Vice Chair of Academic Operations. A native of Istanbul, Turkey, he obtained his B.S. degree from Boğaziçi University in 2006, and his Ph.D. degree from Yale University in 2012. His doctoral thesis was recognized by the “Henry Prentiss Becton Graduate Award for Exceptional Achievement in Research” at Yale University. Mehmet’s research is at the intersection of mechanical engineering, materials science, and applied physics. He performs experimental studies in the general area of nanoscience, focusing on atomic force microscopy (AFM) to explore mechanics, tribology, and electronics at the nanoscale.

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Austin P. Bishop, M.S. 2013

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John Frank, B.S. 1999

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Rick Koster, B.S. 1982

Rick Koster graduated from Yale (Berkeley College) in 1982 with a BS in Electrical Engineering. Rick started his career at Texas Instruments, followed by work at the US Army, Ikos Systems, Bytex Corporation and a couple of startups. Returning to Ikos systems in 1996 he is now at the Siemens Corporation as Ikos was acquired by Mentor Graphics which was then acquired by Siemens.  His career focus has been around the functional verification of Integrated Circuits.  Rick is currently the awards coordinator for YSEA. He is also the Dallas area Yale Alumni Schools Committee (ASC) director in charge of coordinating local admissions undergraduate interviews. Rick is actively involved in politics running for office in 2006 and 2010 and is also an avid workout and sports enthusiast.

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James Lockman, B.S. 1989

James Lockman BS ‘89 is a former President of YSEA. He manages Adobe’s Enterprise Customer Onboarding programs in the Americas. His team also develops software integrations that close gaps in creative workflows. James is an Adobe Founders’ Award winner, projecting the Adobe Values as a Boy Scout leader, STEM Education advocate, and volunteer Game Announcer with FIRST Robotics. He was the FIRST Robotics Volunteer of the Year at the Detroit Championship event in 2019. He lives in Maine, where he makes maple syrup each spring with his family.

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Jonathan Mori, B.S. 2004

Jonathan Mori, MD, is an Internal Medicine physician at UCSF with a focus on occupational health and rehabilitation medicine. Previously he was the lead physician for the Spinal Cord Injury Clinic at the Sacramento VA Medical Center. He is interested in translating emerging technologies and therapeutics into direct improvements in patients’ lives. Currently he is integrating AI assistive software into his daily medical practice and seeking new ways to leverage this technology to improve patient care. He is also involved in a collaboration with a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University’s Imaging Radiobiology Laboratory. 

Dr. Mori was a Physics major at Yale College, graduating in 2004. For his Senior Thesis, he used mathematical modeling to determine the optimal radiation dosimetry for brachytherapy in the treatment of prostate cancer. He earned his medical degree from Columbia University and completed his Internal Medicine residency training at Stanford University Medical Center. Before joining UCSF, he served as a flight surgeon in the US Air Force, gaining extensive experience in occupational and aerospace medicine. He enjoys traveling with his wife, sailing, practicing Kendo, and trying to maintain his fluency in Japanese.

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Shawn He Yuxun, B.S. 1993

An entrepreneurial trailblazer for over 30 years, spanning continents and industries—from advisory to advertising, finance to fashion, tech to theater—Shawn has built a career on forging strategic partnerships and driving innovation. In the early 2000s, his leadership in founding and scaling a national business development network earned him widespread recognition, culminating in a federal agency leadership nomination in 2009.

Today, aside from mentoring startups, Shawn is charting his next quantum leap as an interdisciplinary Quantum AI researcher and educator, currently at Purdue University. His contributions to the field include playing a pivotal role in a Quantum Machine Learning (QML) for Drug Discovery project that led to a paper and a published scientific report in Nature, serving on the QML Sub-committee for IEEE Quantum Week 2024 to evaluate cutting-edge research submissions from around the world, and spearheading quantum initiatives and/or fostering collaborations at multiple universities (including Yale). He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry from Yale University.

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George Chen, B.S. 1977

Daniel R. Delmar, B.S. 1973

Dan Delmar (Yale BS 1973, Stiles) is an angel investor, entrepreneur and a mentor of startups. He is the chief mentor and a board director of the Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of New York, living in the Seattle area. He was a strategy consultant (Bain, Accenture, and for more than 20 years, his own firm). Dan’s most recent corporate position was as an executive in IBM’s Corporate Strategy Department for six years. Dan has been a board member of YSEA for more than 30 years, as well serving on other non-profit boards over the years.

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David K. Gonda, Ph.D. 1986

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Jonathan Hartman, B.S. 2009

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John L. Troutman, B.E. 1965

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Laurel Reitman, B.S. 1999

Laurel Reitman (JE ’99, BS Electrical Engineering) is a General Manager at Microsoft. Laurel joined Microsoft from DocuSign where she was VP of Product. Prior to DocuSign, Laurel held Product Management leadership roles at Adobe, Joyent, and Microsoft developing products and services across a broad range of cloud technologies. Laurel is passionate about helping to improve diversity and inclusion in the technology industry.

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Anita I. Kishore, B.S. 1999

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John Siemon, M.S. 1990

John is a licensed Professional Engineer with engineering degrees from the University of New Hampshire and Yale. He holds over 50 patents in the field of information technology (IT) infrastructure. In 2013, John was awarded the Astin-Polk International Standards Medal for distinguished service in promoting trade and understanding among nations through the advancement and development of international standards.

John also enjoys time with his family, cycling, skiing, ice hockey and is a Former President of the Yale Science and Engineering Association.

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Sein Lee, B.S. 2024

Sein Lee graduated from Yale in 2024 with a double B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and Cell Biology. During her time at Yale, she served as Co-President of the Society of Women Engineers and founded Project Ignite, an initiative focused on bridging educational gaps in STEM through mentorship and experiential learning. Her leadership experience at Yale inspired her passion for amplifying the voices of scientists and engineers in the policy landscape. She was a Youth Representative at the 2023 United Nations Assembly for Women and Girls in Science and interned at the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Science Policy under the Biden Administration. Sein is excited to pursue her interests in biomedical science and health policy as she begins medical school this fall.

As a Student Liaison for YSEA during her senior year at Yale, Sein was excited and inspired by the organization’s mission to strengthen Yale’s STEM community. Now, as a prospective board member, she hopes to support YSEA’s efforts in digital outreach, content creation, and engagement.

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Andrew Reardon, B.S. 2021

Andrew Reardon (Pauli Murray ‘21, BS Electrical Engineering) is a proud member of the YSEA board. He helped spearhead the inaugural YSEA pitch competition and is a part of the grants committee. Andrew won a NASA grant in 2019 for his research in soft robotics. He is passionate about entrepreneurial thinking and innovation.

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Jeffrey Sherman Katz, GRD. 1989

Jeff Katz is the Connecticut District Vice President of the Yale Science and Engineering Association. He is the Technical Leader of IBM Global University Programs. Prior to that he was the CTO of the IBM Energy and Utilities industry, and the Manager of the Computer Science department at ABB Corporate Research US. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE, and a member of both the IBM Academy of Technology and the IBM Industry Academy.

ResearchGate

IBM

Hahn Chou, M.E.M. 2004

Christopher Carosa, B.S. 1982

If you don’t know it, Chris Carosa is a man who wears many hats. He’s written thousands of articles (on topics ranging from global finance to white cream donuts) and more than a half dozen books (focusing on anything from finance to history, including the true story of the origin of the world’s first hamburger). An astrophysicist by training, he not only founded our local newspaper – the Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel – where he serves as publisher, but he’s also President of Carosa Stanton Asset Management and Chairman of the Board of Bullfinch Fund, Inc, a nationally recognized family of independent no-load mutual funds. On top of that, he’s a past-President of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and is on the Board of the New York Press Association. He’s served in various official capacities (including President) for the Yale Alumni Corporate of Rochester, where he’s presently acting as its YAA rep. A proud member of Davenport College, he graduated in 1982 after majoring in Physics and Astronomy. Given all this, he’s probably best known as the “Hamburger Historian.”

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Waleed Nasir, M.B.A. 2015

Waleed Nasir, MBA ‘15 is the Metropolitan District VP at YSEA, where his role is to foster collaboration and engagement within the community through events and webinars. For ideas and suggestions related to events and community engagement, please feel free to get in touch with him.

Waleed is a seasoned technology and product management executive and has founded several technology ventures. He serves on the advisory board of a number of accelerators and venture capital firms.

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Mid-Atlantic District: Antonio (Tony) Underwood

Mountain District: OPEN

New England District: OPEN

Maxwell Micali, B.S. 2012

Maxwell Micali is a practicing engineer focused on data-driven design and control of modern robotic systems. He holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Yale. Max continued his studies with M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. He has also spent time as a Science Policy Fellow at the Science and Technology Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., and has served as an adjunct member of ASME’s Board on Government Relations. Born and raised in the Bay Area, he enjoys exploring the rich local histories of industry in Northern California.

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Aunica Steele, B.S. 2015

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Benjamin Ofori-Okai, B.S. 2009

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James Baird, B.S. 1963

Gail Kalison Reynolds, B.S. 1978, M.F.S. 1981

Gail Kalison Reynolds (MC 1978, BS Biology, FES 1981, MFS Forest Ecology), directs the Middlesex County Master Gardener Program and the statewide Master Composter program for the University of Connecticut, Department of Extension. She also represents the University of Connecticut in several biological control research projects with the University of Rhode Island. Gail retired from a 30-year career in technology, where she served in senior manager and strategist positions. She holds five information security industry certifications. Her interests include natural areas, Yale, and fitness.

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Michael Rosenberg, B.S. 1972