METRO's 85th Anniversary Celebration

Join us for a Birthday-themed celebration of the 85th anniversary of METRO! The evening will include food, networking, and a special panel of past presidents, volunteers, and long-time members.

If you have any photos of METRO memories that you'd like to share for the event, please reply to this e-mail!

Panelists will share their experiences of METRO, how METRO has helped their careers, as well as some ideas for the future of METRO. Panelists include:

Dr. Comila Shahani-Denning

Dr. Shahani-Denning is a Professor of Psychology and Senior Vice-Provost for Academic Affairs at Hofstra University. In her current role, she is responsible for all areas of faculty assessment and development. Her IO skills in leadership development, performance assessment, selection, and conflict resolution have proved particularly useful in her current role in higher-education leadership. She has previously served as the Director of the M.A. Program in Industrial-Organizational Psychology and currently teaches courses at the doctoral level. Over the course of her academic career, Dr. Shahani-Denning has participated in and led many volunteer committees at the University. She has also served on the Executive Board of METRO (New York Metropolitan Association of Applied Psychology), COSI (Community of Organizational Sciences in India), serving as President on METRO for the 2019-2020 academic year. She has also served on several SIOP committees, most recently joining the core team for the SIOP initiative in India.

Dr. Janis Ward

Dr. Ward has a Ph.D. in industrial/organizational psychology from Stevens Institute of Technology and a Master’s degree in industrial psychology from New York University. She has been working as a management consultant for over 35 years. In 2002, she founded her consulting practice, J. M. Ward Consulting. She also has vendor relationships with several large consulting firms that operate in the leadership assessment and development space. Her primary focus for the last 30 years has been executive and managerial talent development through assessment and executive coaching, team building with executive teams, and Action Learning team coaching. She served for 4 years in all officer positions of the Metropolitan New York Association for Applied Psychology (METRO) and previously served as the Director of Professional Development for 5 years prior to joining the officer ranks. She has also presented at national professional conferences, such as the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychologists (SlOP) and Society of Consulting Psychology (SCP). She was a contributing author to a chapter in The Professional Practice Series - Advancing Executive Coaching; Coaching Programs: Moving Beyond the One-on One; Lorraine Stomski, Janis Ward and Mariangela Battista; Jossey­ Bass 2011.

Dr. Roza Jankovic

Dr. Jankovic is a Lead people Scientist at Culture Amp, where she leads a team of Senior People Scientists and works with organizations and leaders to help them leverage evidence-based practices and make data-informed decisions. Roza previously spent six years at PepsiCo, in global roles leading leadership assessment and development, executive coaching, strategy and design for engagement surveys, as well as culture and value models. There, she also held generalist roles spanning various aspects of talent management and development, including performance management, careers, DEI, analytics, and more. Prior to PepsiCo, Roza was with Publicis for four years, building and implementing new talent management and development practices. Roza received her M.A. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from CUNY Baruch and her Ph.D. in Applied Organizational Psychology from Hofstra University. She is a member of SIOP, where she serves on the program committee, as well as of METRO, where she served on the board. She lives in Pleasantville, New York with her family- her husband (Michael) and two sons (Leo, 4.5 and James, 1.5). Roza's I/O passions and interests are currently in the space of leadership, and she spends a lot of time thinking about how we might re-define leadership to better fit women leaders. Having done this work in the past, and missing her work with individuals as well as organizations, she has also become very interested again in all things executive coaching and how we enable people to leverage strengths and uncover and navigate challenges to meet their goals. In her personal life, she enjoys spending time with her sons, traveling, summers, and being outdoors.

Johanna Seppalainen

Johanna Seppalainen works to develop and expand METRO's sponsorship relationships. She received her M.S. in I/O Psychology from San Francisco State and has well over a decade of experience in Talent Management & Learning and Development. She specializes in integrating assessment results into developmental goals, which she has applied to projects in talent management, executive development, group facilitation, and the delivery of organizational development initiatives.

Dr. Allen Kraut

Dr. Kraut is Professor Emeritus of Management at Baruch College, City University of New York, since 2009. Dr. Kraut also taught in Singapore and Taiwan, as a faculty member of Baruch College’s International Executive Programs, from 2010 to 2014. His area of special interest is organizational surveys. He also focuses on human resource management and the development of strategic personnel practices. For much of his professional career, he worked at the IBM Corporation, where he held managerial posts in personnel research and management development, until leaving for Baruch College in 1989. As Manager of Personnel Research Studies on IBM's Corporate Staff, he directed major studies of how employees balance work and family life issues. In 1995, he received the Distinguished Professional Contributions Award, from the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, recognizing his work in advancing the usefulness of organizational surveys. Dr. Kraut earned a Bachelor's degree at the City College of New York, a Master's degree at Columbia University and a Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, where he was affiliated with the Institute for Social Research. He is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and of the American Psychological Association; he earned a Diplomate from the American Board of Professional Psychology. Dr. Kraut has been an adjunct staff member of the Center for Creative Leadership, conducting seminars on Employee Opinion Surveys. He also headed Kraut Associates, a human resources management consulting firm specializing in opinion surveys, strategic studies, and management development. His clients included a number of leading Fortune 100 firms. Dr. Kraut has been a member of METRO for over 50 years.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Event Location Details

Date

Wednesday, June 12th 

Time

6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Location

NYU Wasserman Center

The Wasserman Center for Career Development is New York University’s central career development resource, providing services and support to undergraduate students, graduate and graduate certificate students, postdocs, and alumni with a bachelor’s, master’s, graduate certificate, or doctoral degree from nearly every NYU school. 

133 E 13th Street, 2nd Floor

NY, NY