Rutgers Black and Latine student leaders from all three campuses will be connecting with stellar Rutgers alumni in the annual RAAA Student Leader/Alumni Mixer. Held as a Pre-Event for the Rutgers African-American Alumni Alliance 19th Annual Hall of Fame Ceremony, the mixer will be held at 4 p.m. on Saturday, October 1, 2022, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel (JK Meeting Room) in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The alumni and student leaders will listen to each other’s perspectives and give feedback about what are the expectations for success in 2022 and where support is needed.
Special Guest
Dr. Jeffrey Robinson
Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor, Rutgers-Newark
Rutgers Business School professor Jeffrey Robinson is an internationally known author and co-founder of the Center for Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development. He was named Rutgers University—Newark’s new provost and executive vice chancellor in 2022.
Robinson, who started the Provost position on July 1, holds the Prudential Chair in Business and is Professor of Management and Global Business at Rutgers Business School (RBS). He joined Rutgers-Newark in 2008, where he specialized in management and entrepreneurship.
Robinson has extensive experience in major grant writing and management, including multimillion-dollar support from the National Science Foundation aimed at building and broadening inclusive pathways in STEM. He has also received funding from numerous federal, state, and private agencies and organizations to cultivate entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds.
With a broad academic and professional background spanning business, the social sciences, public policy, and engineering, Robinson has been quoted by PBS, NPR, NJ PBS, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Marketplace, Public Radio International, and NJ Biz.
Alumni Perspectives
Anthony Covington
Anthony is a leader at Microsoft focusing on Tech Strategy. He is a technology investor and strategist; considered a thought leader and skilled professional. Anthony also serves on two boards; the Governing Board of Trustees for Rutgers University and the Camden Board of Directors, where he has fought to increase access to higher education for all students. In June of 2021, he became Curator/President of the Global Shapers Hub in Washington, DC where he has consistently advocated for change through diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the community.
Previously, Anthony worked at the White House in the executive office of the President under the Obama Administration focusing on community engagement and development.
Maurice Russell Grey
Maurice is Chief Executive Officer at Esra Holdings LLC. He is a 4th generation real estate broker, who has worked in his family business for the last 23 years. The parent company, Edwards Sisters Realty, was founded in 1929, by his grandmother and two of her sisters who emigrated from Guyana, West Indies, and is currently the oldest Black-owned real estate firm in NY state. For 90 years, Edwards Sisters Realty has provided affordable housing to the Harlem community.
Russell has a belief that financial education at a young age is a key to closing the racial wealth gap, and has gone around the city speaking at schools and at events on the value of financial education and acquiring real estate.
Tashna Lilly Grey
Tashna is a Senior Leader, Sales Enablement (Go To Market Onboarding and Productivity) at Zoom. She has many years of experience and a reputation as someone who is passionate about delivering business impact and optimizing sales performance through effective program development and management. Having worked with companies such as ADP, IBM and Avaya, she has implemented global sales enablement and communications programs in a wide variety of settings and directed strategy for revenue growth and sales development.
Javid Louis
Javid Louis is a Senior Brand Strategist at Twitter, responsible for helping Fortune 100 brands unlock the power of Twitter to drive conversation and connect to consumers in an authentic way.
Javid started his career in entertainment marketing, working at then Jay Z owned marketing firm Translation, where he helped execute experiential marketing campaigns for brands looking to be culturally relevant through pop culture and music. Javid and his former Rutgers college roommate then went on to form a content creation company, developing online video and managing social media accounts for a variety of music artists. Most notably, he produced a PSA starring Justin Bieber about the dangers of cyberbullying.
Now over 15 years into his career, he has worked with brands from Deloitte to Dr. Seuss, helping implement both C-suite executive and brand digital strategies.
Larry Traylor
Larry is currently the Aide for Mercer County Commissioner Samuel T Frisby Sr. Before joining the Commissioner Board, Larry worked on the Murphy 2021 Reelection Campaign as a Compliance Associate and volunteered with Assemblyman Dan Benson’s office. His future goals are to write policies and research socio-economic inequalities that can help improve the conditions of the most marginalized within our society. Larry graduated from Rutgers University-New Brunswick in 2020, where he studied Political Science and African American Studies.
