NYU Alumni Changemakers

Vision. Perseverance. Belief.

These are the qualities that unite this class of NYU Alumni Changemakers—a selected group of NYU alumni whose accomplishments help build a better world. Chosen by the NYU Alumni Association Board from crowdsourced nominations, these alumni are the best of the best: entrepreneurs and visionaries who save lives, reduce suffering, and bring hope to the marginalized. Ambition for private gain is one thing. But ambition with the public good in mind? That’s how you make change.

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Current Honorees

These Alumni Changemakers are entrepreneurs and visionaries who save lives and spread hope, while promoting ethical values, fostering inclusive dialogue, and driving action.

  • Headshot of Mimi Bhatt

    2026 Alumni Changemaker

    Mimi Bhatt [she/her]

    CAS ’97, MEYERS ’04, GPH ’14, MEYERS ’19

    Senior Midwife at NYC Health + Hospitals, Assistant Professor at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing

    Dr. Mimi Bhatt has always been critical of systems. Her mother was a midwife, her father a physician, and she saw how often medical systems failed the people who needed them most. Her frequent childhood trips to India revealed a shocking poverty gap and a lack of healthcare access. Her mother shared tragic stories about women giving birth in underserved rural areas. It was clear to her that existing power structures privileged some and left others behind. And more often than not, those left behind were women. “My mother,” she says, “embodied the idea for me that women bore the price of the world’s injustice.”

    Meet Mimi

  • Headshot of Barbara Heitman Bronstein

    2026 Alumni Changemaker

    Barbara Heitman Bronstein [she/her]

    STERN ’78

    Founder and President of Second Servings of Houston

    Barbara Bronstein had just retired from a successful brand-marketing career in Houston, but she wasn’t ready for the rocking chair. “I was looking for something,” she says. She found it while attending a catered charity event where a lot of fresh food was destined for the dumpster. Accustomed to finding solutions, Bronstein made a quick call to a local food bank. But they wouldn’t take pre-prepared food. The lack of common-sense rankled Bronstein. “I’m the child of Depression-era parents,” she says. “We never wasted anything.”

    Meet Barbara

  • Headshot of Mario W. Cardullo

    2026 Alumni Changemaker

    Mario Cardullo [he/him]

    TANDON ’57, ’59

    Inventor of the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Tag

    “When you solve a problem, it’s not because the sky suddenly opens up. Solutions come from putting ideas together.” So says Mario Cardullo, a Brooklyn-born, Tandon-trained engineer who’s put more than a few ideas together. The son of Italian immigrants, Cardullo leveraged a natural curiosity about how things work, an immigrant’s hustle (he put himself through college by selling shoes), and a gift for making connections, to help engineer technologies that are today so ubiquitous that it’s hard to imagine life without them.

    Meet Mario

  • Headshot of Jeremy Del Rio

    2026 Alumni Changemaker

    Jeremy Del Rio [he/him]

    CAS ’95, LAW ’99

    Co-founder and Executive Director of Thrive Collective

    Although Jeremy Del Rio’s academic training is in Law, many of his formative experiences involved the arts. He grew up on the big street-art gallery of the Lower East Side. And an adolescent visit to the Met with his uncle left a lasting impression, as did a trip to Italy and its famous public art spaces. Throughout his work as a youth ministry leader and through his time in law school, these seeds of art-appreciation were germinating inside of him. Then 9/11 happened, and something clarified. “On 9/12,” he says, “I knew my life as a corporate lawyer was over.”

    Meet Jeremy

  • Headshot of Chiené Joy Jones

    2026 Alumni Changemaker

    Chiené Joy Jones [she/her]

    SPS ’13

    Founder and Executive Director of Grow Our Game

    For Chiené Joy Jones, basketball was always bigger than sport. From the games at Hoover Park during her childhood in Jamaica, Queens, to her years in CYO and AAU, up through her time as a student-athlete at NYU, Jones realized that basketball taught all the skills necessary for a successful life—resilience, confidence, and character. But as Jones began spending time on the other side of the ball—as a coach and mentor—she was frustrated to see how few opportunities there were for girls, specifically, to thrive and grow through basketball.

    Meet Chiené

  • Headshot of Asad Lilani

    2026 Alumni Changemaker

    Asad Lilani [he/him]

    GAL ’19

    CEO & Executive Director of The Access Challenge

    Asad Lilani was on the corporate finance track, with a career trajectory pointing straight upward. Then he looked toward Tanzania, where he was born, and thought about how lucky he’d been. He was one of the few who’d made it to the US, where a first-class education had given him opportunities that put life for most Tanzanians in sharp relief. Back home, he knew, preventable deaths occurred on a scale that should shame the world, and international aid lasted just long enough for a press release. “I wanted to do something for Africa,” he says. He went looking for a graduate program with a solutions-based treatment of Africa’s challenges. When he couldn’t find one, he turned to Gallatin, determined to build it himself.

    Meet Asad

  • Headshot of Talia Scott

    2026 Alumni Changemaker

    Talia Scott [she/her]

    LAW, STERN ’25

    Founder of Legally BLK Fund

    When Talia Scott took a job as a paralegal at the famous Cravath Law Firm, she didn’t expect to become a crusader for Black women. But it was 2020, and Scott’s professional beginnings coincided with a period of national racial unrest. “I was working at one of the most prestigious white-shoe law firms in the world,” she says, “and down on the streets people were protesting. I felt like I wasn’t doing my part as a Black person.”

    Meet Talia

Nominations

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Please check the nomination form for details about the current submission deadlines. Learn how to compile a nomination by reviewing this sample nomination.

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Past Honorees

Meet our extraordinary honorees from previous years whose work is focused on making a better world. To reset filters, scroll back to the default title (i.e., if using the Industry filter, navigate back to the word Industry at the top of the filter.)

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