Alumni Organization

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Hillary Needle, President of Hillary Needle Events Inc., Dix Hills, NY, has more than 25 years of senior management expertise in event planning for corporate and nonprofit organizations. She created Hillary Needle Events Inc. in 2009 to bring her creativity, passion and dedication directly to her clients who value her unique ability to create exciting opportunities to generate revenue and gain recognition for their events.

Hillary brings organizational skills and staffing knowledge for a broad spectrum of special events that include large galas, golf outings, networking receptions, food tastings, fashion shows, art auctions and educational symposiums. Hillary is successful in developing and implementing strategies that help organizations brand and grow existing events in addition to building an event from concept to celebration.

Whether it is planning and producing a live or virtual event, creativity is what distinguishes a great event from a good event. Hillary has the professional ability to organize publicity, develop website content, write speeches, newsletter articles and create published materials. She enjoys her role as a featured correspondent for House Magazine’s video interview series and as a producer for a regional philanthropy podcast. She is often quoted in Long Island Business News and Newsday.

Most recently, Long Island Business News featured Hillary in the inaugural “Power List: Long Island’s Most Powerful Women 2022”. In 2013 and 2015, Hillary was named one of the “Top 50 Most Influential Women in Business” by Long Island Business News and in 2019 she was inducted into the Hall of Fame. This prestigious award recognizes the significant contributions of women professionals to the region’s economy and to the communities in which we do business. LIBN also featured Hillary in the 2017 & 2018 Who's Who in Women in Professional Services issues. In 2015, Hillary was selected as a “Long Island Power Woman in Business” by the Queens Courier Newspaper and Schneps Communications.

Hillary is member of the 2016 class of Molloy College’s The Energeia Partnership, a leadership academy dedicated to identifying and addressing the serious, complex and multi-dimensional issues challenging the Long Island region.

Hillary is a cum laude graduate of Hofstra University with a BA in Communications/Journalism. She serves as Immediate Past President of the Hofstra University Alumni Association, where she represented over 140,000 Hofstra graduates in all 50 US states and more than 100 countries. She previously served as President, The Lawrence Herbert School of Communications Alumni Association. She also held the following leadership roles as Vice President for Programs, Hofstra University Alumni Organization, Co-Chair for Events on the Executive Board Committee and as Chair of the Hofstra University Women in Leadership (WIL) Campus Connections Committee. In 2014, Hofstra University presented Hillary and her mother, a past alumni organization President, with the Marjorie and James M. Shuart Alumni Family Award honoring a family where two or more members have been active alumni, donors and volunteers in their service to Hofstra. She is also a proud member of the Alpha Theta Beta sorority, Hofstra’s oldest fraternal organization.

She is also an artist whose oil paintings are frequently featured in gallery exhibitions and she is a member of the Art League of Long Island, Huntington Arts Council, Long Island Museum LIMarts and the Mills Pond Gallery/Smithtown Township Arts Council.

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Heather Cohen is President of The Weiss Agency, a broadcast talent agency which represents and develops the careers of many of the industry's most successful local and syndicated personalities.

Heather joined the Weiss Agency directly from GreenStone Media, LLC, where she was Vice President, Programming.

Heather joined GreenStone from New York’s legendary WOR where she was Assistant Program Director and responsible for the station’s local and national on-air content, programs, and production. Prior to that, she served as Executive Producer for “The Joan Hamburg Show”.

In 2013 Talkers Magazine awarded Heather with the prestigious “Judy Jarvis Memorial Award for Outstanding Contributions to Talk Radio by a Woman,” also known as “Woman of the Year”. Radio Ink Magazine has selected Heather as one of the Most Influential Women in Radio every year since 2014. Heather was on the cover of Radio Ink’s June 2017 Most Influential Women in Radio issue. She is a 2015 recipient of Hofstra University’s George M. Estabrook Distinguished Service Award. In 2019 Heather was inducted into the WRHU Radio Hall of Fame. In 2021, Heather was one of the first awardees of the “Sheros in Media” Award from the Multicultural Media and Correspondents Association.

Heather serves on the Alliance for Women in Media and Foundation Board of Directors as the Immediate Past Chair. She has formerly held positions as Chair, Vice Chair and Treasurer, and has co-chaired the Gracie Awards since 2016.

Heather is on the Board of Directors of the Broadcasters Foundation of America and is a juror for the Academy of Radio Arts & Sciences.

A graduate of Hofstra University, she is President of the Executive Board of Hofstra University’s Alumni Organization, and has previously served as both Vice President for Programs and Vice President for Services. Heather is a member of The Lawrence Herbert School of Communication Dean’s Advisory Board. She recently completed her term on the Board of Directors of the George M. Estabrook Alumni Association. Heather previously served as President of the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication Alumni Association.

Heather has mentored New York City school children as part of NYC’s Principal for a Day program and has been a Safe Space committee member. She judged the Tony Awards for eight seasons.

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Daniel Pellegriti ’00 is currently a Google Workspace Sales Specialist. His mandate is to showcase and sell collaborative technology including GenAI and ML to Fortune 100 institutions in the United States.  Prior to that he was at the London Stock Exchange Group in New York City as a Senior Sales Manager. His mandate was to assist in expanding electronic trading to institutional investors and provide consultative software solutions to large enterprises in the financial services industry.

Prior to that he was Vice President, Senior Sales Manager for the Algomi Corporation, an independent software vendor that provides enterprise software solutions to the financial services industry.

Daniel has over 20 years of experience working in the financial services industry. He started his career working in various roles in the sales and trading divisions at investment banks, including JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Intesa Sanpaolo and Santander. He later leveraged his unique skillset of sales, strategy and trading in the financial markets and transitioned his career into the Technology sector.

Daniel’s interests in architecture, culture and history have contributed to a passion for traveling. To date, he has visited 42 countries, and plans to continue adding stamps to his Passport.

Daniel has a BBA in Banking and Finance from Hofstra University. He also volunteers as an advisory board member for Hofstra’s LGBTQ Advisory Board, recently created an endowment for future students that demonstrate leadership and advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community.  He is the current Vice President of Services of the Hofstra Alumni Organization.

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With 20+ years of professional production experience under his belt, Rondell has produced everything under the sun from film, print and digital/social content to experiential activations, interactive games, podcasts, music videos and global television ad campaigns for various brands, including NBC Universal, ExxonMobil, Discover, Gillette, AT&T and Google.

Among the work that Rondell has produced over the years, there are quite a few pieces of which he’s
particularly proud.  He lead the production for arguably one of the most controversial and talked about Gillette ads to date, entitled, ‘We Believe,’ which addressed the #MeTooMovement and toxic masculinity head-on.

Also, for Procter & Gamble, he was the production force behind their ‘Widen The Screen’ film, which shed a light on the systemic biases and inequalities that exist in advertising and media, with a purpose to celebrate creativity and enable Black creators to share the full richness of the Black experience from both behind the camera and on the screen.

Some of Rondell’s career highlights and accomplishments include: 2 Silver Lions, 1 Bronze Lion + 19 Shortlists at The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity; Gold, Silver and Bronze at One Show; 2 Gold International Andy Awards and a Graphite Pencil at D&AD, among others.

Rondell is a true advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion, having established two Hofstra scholarships in his name to support these efforts.  In 2019, he established the ‘Rondell J. Wescott Endowed Scholarship’ which is awarded every year, in perpetuity, to one or more deserving students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds who are pursuing an undergraduate degree in television production at The Lawrence Herbert School of Communication. 

In 2023, he established the ‘Rondell J. Wescott Annual Award for Herbert School Study Away Programs,’ which is awarded each year to one or more diverse students from the School of Communication and provides the opportunity for them to study away in places including Los Angeles, Cuba and Rome.

When he’s not doing his producing or philanthropic thing, you can be sure to catch Rondell in the gym at his daily 6am CrossFit class – and rooting for the Philadelphia Eagles during football season!

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Alyeah E. Ramjit, MS, MHA currently serves as the System Vice President Depts. of Cardiology, Orthopedics & Surgery at One Brooklyn Health. Prior to her current role she was System Vice President for the Department of Medicine there. In that role she was responsible for System fiscal, human resource, and strategic operations of 10 divisions across the 3 hospital System. Prior to this role she served as the Associate Director and Chief of Staff to the Chief Transformation Officer at Mount Sinai Health System and President of Mount Sinai Morningside where she supported key initiatives to transform organizational culture, including patient experience, system learning and process improvement as well overseeing initiatives within operations, hospital strategy joint ventures and business development. Other prior experiences include serving as the Administrative Manager for Northwell Health’s Mobile Integrated Healthcare/Community Paramedicine Program where she oversaw programmatic design and care management of the Advanced Illness population by using prehospital care providers. Ms. Ramjit further gained experience as a Project Manager of Integrated Care with the Suffolk Care Collaborative, Stony Brook Medicine, overseeing the creation of an integrated delivery service using PCMH accreditation to create practice transformation, IT/provider integration, community engagement, network development and performance and quality improvement. In addition, Ms. Ramjit has experience in Medicare Part D operations, Hospital, Long-Term Care & Rehabilitation and Emergency Medical Services operations.

In addition to her vast experience in healthcare, Ms. Ramjit serves as an Advisory Board Member and Clinical Assistant Professor with the Master of Health Administration Program, Program in Public Health at Stony Brook University. Ms. Ramjit serves on the Dean’s Advisory Board for the School of Health Sciences and the Women in Leadership Board both at Hofstra University. She is also Co-Chair of Hofstra University’s Alumni Organization Scholarship and Fundraising Committee. In addition, she is the Founding President of the Master of Health Administration Alumni Association at Hofstra University.

Her additional volunteer activities include serving as President with Healthcare Leaders of New York, member of the American College of Healthcare Executives. She is a recipient of the American College of Healthcare Executives 2018 Early Career Healthcare Executive Regent’s Award and the 2020 ACHE Recognition Award for Chapter Service. Ms. Ramjit was named by Crain’s New York on their Most Notable in Healthcare 2021 list. Ms. Ramjit has also been featured as a guest on Becker’s Healthcare Podcast. In addition, Ms. Ramjit is an Alum of the 2022 Young Executive Leadership Program hosted by the International Hospital Federation.

Ms. Ramjit is a two-time graduate of New York Institute of Technology holding a Bachelor of Science in Life Sciences/Biology and a Master of Science in Clinical Nutrition. She also holds a Master of Health Administration with Distinction from Hofstra University as well as obtaining Certificates in Executive Healthcare Leadership and Healthcare Change Leadership from Cornell University.

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Michael’s producing career began in the 80’s, when he created quality content for the neighborhood from his family room with his dad’s VHS camcorder. He went on to become a veteran broadcast producer, having worked for more than a decade in national TV news. He has worked on the frontlines of major news stories from presidential elections to international humanitarian issues, and everything in between: including running live newscasts, training on-air reporters, and developing video content.

At Sorrentino Media, Michael’s unparalleled production experience is put to good use in three different and meaningful ways: full-service video production, consulting and media training. As a producer and consultant, Michael creates and develops bespoke digital content for his clients. At his core, he’s a master storyteller with a journalistic eye and a keen understanding of the big picture. He knows how to quickly unearth the client’s core development needs and fine-tune the messaging. Michael’s passion and unbridled enthusiasm have resulted in long-term client relationships and a strong referral base. He always strives to bring out the best in everyone he works with.

Michael literally wrote the book on virtual production. Based on the methods, technologies, and lessons learned from producing through the Covid pandemic, he co-authored the book, VIRTUAL PRESENTING A Guide to Formats, Production and Authentic Delivery.

He is admittedly a gadget nerd who has a knack for finding a good travel deal. When not working, you’ll find him “cooking” in a play-kitchen alongside his daughter, Rose, and wife, Annie.