Binja Basimike, BHS’12, MPH’14

Healthcare business systems consultant, Synthesis Health Systems

A healthcare IT consultant for over seven years, Binja Basimike’s specialty is in healthcare system implementations, from their initial conception to the training and onboarding of end users. Her passion is to create healthcare systems that not only meet the technical team requirements but that are also business- and client-centric. Prior to her current role, Basimike worked at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s Cancer Survivorship department to improve the well-being of female cancer survivors.

Basimike is also a published oncology co-author of Excellent Care for Cancer Survivors: A Guide to Fully Meet Their Needs in Medical Offices and in the Community. She is a part of Northeastern’s Women Who Empower ambassador program, where she serves as a mentor and advocate. She is also a member of the Bouvé College of Health Science’s MPH Young Alumni Board.

Basimike runs Africancocktail.com, a website that celebrates innovation and supports women’s empowerment through blogging and hosting local and national events. She recently relocated from Boston, MA, and currently resides in Kinshasa, DRC. She received both her bachelor’s in health sciences and her master’s in public health from Northeastern University.

Katherine (Kater) N. Pendergast, MEd’73

Vice President Emeritus, Human Resources Management, Northeastern University

Kater Pendergast is a Human Resources (HR) Executive with an extensive background in advising University leaders on strategic direction, innovative HR programs, executive compensation, and HR operations. Most recently, she served as Vice President, Human Resources Management, at Northeastern University for over 20 years, where she delivered high quality, competitive, and cost-effective HR programs to attract and retain top talent. Overseeing a staff of 40, her team delivered streamlined services to leaders, managers, faculty, and staff in the areas of talent acquisition, benefits and compensation, employee relations, learning and development and HR information systems and operations. Pendergast also provided oversight for the university’s children’s center, served as an advisor to the President on executive compensation, and worked closely with the Compensation Committee of the Board of Trustees.

Pendergast has been involved with a number of professional associations including serving as Vice Chair of the Board of the Boston Consortium for Higher Education. She has taught graduate and undergraduate HR management courses at Northeastern University and has served for a number of years as Corporator of Eastern Bank. Pendergast holds a BA from Trinity College, Washington, DC, and an MEd from Northeastern University.

Barbara C. Alleyne, LA’70

Former Managing Director in Global Fixed Income, Citigroup (retired)

Barbara Alleyne graduated from Northeastern University in 1970 with a degree in economics. She spent several years working with the elderly in the Office for the Aging in New York City and later as a program analyst in the New York State Office for the Aging. In 1977, Alleyne won a scholarship from the Coalition of Concerned Black Executives to attend Columbia University in New York City, where she earned an MBA in finance in 1979. Upon graduation, she joined Salomon Brothers, a Wall Street firm, until 1989, when she went to Chase Manhattan Bank and sold their first corporate bond. Next, she returned to Salomon Brothers, which later became part of Citigroup in 1998. Alleyne served as the first African American female managing director in global fixed income at Citigroup.

She joined the Northeastern University Corporation in 2001 and became a member of the Board of Trustees in 2007. Alleyne was a member of several Board committees, including the Academic Affairs and Student Experience Committee. Among her many commitments to Northeastern are her efforts to establish the Black Alumni Scholarship Fund, support of the Torch Scholars Program, and bequest to create a full professorship. She is a full-time resident of Martha’s Vineyard, where she launched the Northeastern University Black Alumni Weekend, growing it from a small, single yearly event to a weekend of engagement that alumni travel from across the country to attend. She also serves as a member of the philanthropic organization the Cottagers, and was formerly vice chair of the Board of the Martha’s Vineyard Museum.

Dr. Louis H. Barnett, B’44, H’77

Founder and President, Louis H. Barnett Investments

Born on November 22, 1918, in Malden, Massachusetts, to first-generation American parents, Louis Barnett earned degrees in chemical engineering and industrial management before starting his business, Loma, in 1948 with an order for plastic fishing lures. By 1965, Loma had grown by leaps and bounds, and Barnett had many firsts to his credit, including the plastic garbage can, the plastic roll-top bread box, plastic the paper towel dispenser, and the plastic clothes hamper. He sold the company in 1966. Barnett is also a philanthropist, author, gourmet cook, connoisseur of fine wines, and cigar afficionado. He has served on the boards of banks, companies, hospitals, arts organizations, and universities in the U.S. and Israel.

Through philanthropy, the Barnett institute of Chemical and Biological Analysis at Northeastern University was founded and named for him in 1973. Today, with more than 50 scientists and an $8 million endowment, the institute is internationally recognized as one of the premier centers for cutting-edge research and advanced training in analytical chemistry for biomedical applications. The Barnett Institute’s active program of spin-outs and licensing technology provides for many real-life applications of research advances, which have led to more than 1,000 published papers and 75 patents. Its more than 400 graduates are leaders in prestigious academic institutions and the pharmaceutical industry. Barnett serves as chair of the advisory board for the institute, and has held volunteer leadership roles at Northeastern as both Corporator and Overseer.

Joseph Fleming, Jr., PAH’70, MS’71

Former Chair, Health Sciences Entrepreneurs
Chair, Infusion Ventures, Inc.

Joseph Fleming has dedicated his career to excellence in the fields of pharmacy and healthcare services. He is the founder of the Health Science Entrepreneurs at Northeastern, a Bouvé College of Health Sciences program comprising alumni and friends who have founded health science companies and who desire to give back to the university as venture mentors.

Fleming is the chair of Infusion Ventures, Inc. a vascular access and infusion nursing company servicing the New England states. Before that, in September of 2003, Fleming co-founded Specialty Pharma, Inc. and led a management buy-out of Professional Home Care Services, Inc., with Eureka Growth Capital. The company was successfully sold in 2006 to Kohlberg and Company. Fleming was also co-founder, president and chief executive officer of Community Rehab Centers, one of the largest networks of rehabilitation centers in the Northeast, which he successfully sold in 2001.

His volunteer activities include serving as past board member and volunteer for Hospice West, Inc., and as past president and former fundraising chair of the Nashoba Regional Scholarship Foundation. Fleming and his wife, Nancy, also a pharmacy graduate, live in Stow, Mass. He holds a BS in Pharmacy and an MS in Pharmacology from Northeastern University.

Dr. Chuanwei Zhuo, MS’09, PhD’14

An engineer turned entrepreneur, Dr. Chuanwei Zhuo is currently leading MesoGlue, founded by Northeastern researchers, to commercialize their room temperature bonding solutions. Bringing in more than 10 years of materials development and scale-up experience, including a four-year product and project leader role in Cabot Corporation, he helped expand MesoGlue’s collaboration with more than 200 industrial partners globally. Some of these companies, including SpeedWatt—a consumer electronics venture focused on generators, batteries, and more that was recently launched by Dr. Zhuo—have already signed up to adopt MesoGlue’s inventions.

While a doctoral student, Zhuo received a grant from the Akira Yamamura Fellowship fund. And since his graduation, he has actively engaged with Northeastern, from working closely with Professor Yiannis Levendis on commercializing the patented plastic waste treatment solutions, to generously supporting student entrepreneurship through the Michael J. and Ann Sherman Center for Engineering Entrepreneurship Education. He is passionate about industrial revolution through product, process, and business innovation and has served as a conduit for developing partnerships between other entrepreneurs and the university.