The Honorable Karen T. Beltran, Esq. '02 is a Yonkers City Court Judge, appointed February 5, 2023.

Beltran spent more than 15 years serving the Westchester County government, most recently as the deputy administrator for Westchester County's Independent Office of Assigned Counsel and as the senior assistant county attorney for the County's Family Law and Litigation Bureaus. She served as a law clerk for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Beltran is a member of the New York State Bar Association and, next June, will become the vice president of the 9th Judicial District of the organization. She is a member of the board of directors of the Westchester County Bar Association and the Westchester County Black Bar Association and a member of the NYS Grievance Committee. She also serves on the board of directors for Yonkers Partners in Education and CLUSTER Community Services.

Previously, she was president of the Yonkers PTA and the region director of the Westchester/East Putnam Region PTA (WEPR).

An active participant in alumni activities, she recently participated in an event presented by the Purchase LatinX Alumni Network (PLXN) in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month last fall.

A member of the EOP program here at Purchase, Beltran earned her Juris Doctor Degree from the University at Buffalo School of Law.

Ndukwe Daniel Agwu '03 is Chief Legal Officer at Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation A.

Brooklyn A advances social and economic justice and community empowerment through innovative, collaborative, neighborhood-based legal representation and advocacy, as they represent low- and moderate-income individuals and families throughout New York City.

Agwu serves as a Lecturer in Law and Justice Studies and Communications at Purchase.

After Agwu graduated from Touro Law School in 2006, he  worked at DHL as an in-house attorney handling OSHA and workers compensation claims and hearings.

Between 2008–2013 he was a staff attorney at Legal Services of the Hudson Valley handling primarily landlord/tenant, public benefits, unemployment, and social security benefits foreclosure and bankruptcy cases before first joining Brooklyn A in 2013.

In 2018, Agwu moved to Borah, Goldstein, Altschuler, Nahins & Goidel, P.C. handling commercial litigation, license agreements, landlord/ tenant inter alia before returning to Brooklyn A.

Bargonetti is currently researching how cancer drugs impact DNA.

Jill Bargonetti (Biology) is a renowned cancer researcher, Hunter College professor, winner of many awards, and innovator in the education of minorities in science.

Bargonetti is currently researching aspects of DNA damage cause by chemotherapeutic drugs. She has received research grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

Following her years at Purchase, Bargonetti went on to complete her MS and PhD at New York University, followed by her Postdoc at Columbia University. She was profiled by Working Mother magazine In December 2004 as one of the nation's "Stellar Moms."

Since 1994, she has been running the Bargonetti Lab at Hunter College, where her team is using genetically engineered tools to research breast cancer.

Adotei Akwei '84 is currently the Interim Chief Collaboration Officer at Amnesty International USA (AIUSA), the largest grassroots human rights organization in the world.

Before this, Akwei served as the Deputy Director for Advocacy and Government Relations for Amnesty International USA. He rejoined AIUSA in September 2010 after serving as the Senior Policy Advisor for CARE USA.

Prior to joining the Government Relations team in Washington DC, he served as the Regional Advocacy Advisor for CARE's Asia Regional Management Unit. As an RAA, Adotei supported CARE Country Offices in Asia in the development and implementation of national-level advocacy strategies as well as with regional advocacy priorities. Before joining CARE, Adotei worked with Amnesty International USA for 11 years, first as the senior Advocacy Director for Africa and then later as Director of Campaigns.

Akwei was born in Ghana, where his father worked as a diplomat in the Foreign Service and later for the United Nations, which brought his family to New York.

In 1980 he enrolled at Purchase to study economics, at his father's request. However, his interest in economics waned the more he was exposed to classes in international relations, African literature, and political science. Professors Connie Lobur, John Gitlitz, and Jean Herskovitz were all influential, but it was Professor Peter Schwab who significantly impacted Akwei's life's work.

He viewed the 1974 Vietnam War award-winning documentary film, Hearts and Minds, in Professor Schwab's class, which inspired him to dedicate himself to fighting abuse.

Akwei earned a Master of Arts in Government and International Relations from William and Mary College. During his 30-plus year career in advocacy work, he testified before Congress, participated in human rights missions to Nigeria, Benin, and Ethiopia, and pursued advocacy work in Zimbabwe and Malawi.

He helped develop and implement campaigns that address issues affecting Africa and Asia, such as poverty, child soldiers, the conflict diamonds trade, HIV/AIDS, climate change, and the empowerment of women, to name just a few.

In 2000, he received the Washington Peacemaker Award from American University for work promoting human rights values to university students; in 2003, he earned fellowships at the National Endowment for Democracy and the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University.

He returned to Purchase in 2017 to deliver the Mary Edwards Lecture, "Breaking the Glass Ceiling and Human Rights in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Critical Challenge of Women's Rights."

In 2020, he received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Purchase College.