Brooklyn-born Adina Kamkhatchi is the founder and designer of Adina’s Jewels. From an early age, Adina has loved jewelry and recalls selling snacks & candy in school as a business at 10 years old- and used that money to buy rings & necklaces! Through her own experience, she is focused on empowering the next generation of female entrepreneurs with leadership and brand-building skills.

Mr. Ferraro serves as the Executive Director of the FIT Design and Technology Lab (DTech) at FIT, where he oversees Industry Partnerships and Collaborative Programs for the college.

The DTech Lab is a vital part of the FIT Center for Innovation, acting as a bridge between academia and industry. Its mission is to advance the business objectives of industry partners by leveraging emerging technologies and innovative creative direction.

Mr. Ferraro is a creative technologist, researcher, artist, and educator whose career spans computer animation, software development, virtual reality media production, fashion, retail, fine art, entertainment, and higher education.
Before joining FIT, he spent 12 years at Lehman College/ CUNY as an associate professor in the digital media program of the art department. In 2015, he collaborated with students to win a NY Emmy for Graphics and Animation Supervision for a series of PSAs titled “Best of the Bronx.”

Before his tenure at Lehman, Mr. Ferraro founded Possible Worlds, an innovative real-time animation studio that worked with clients such as Warner Bros., MTV, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network.

In the 90s, Mr. Ferraro created large scale virtual worlds shown in contemporary art centers around the world, In the mid-1980s, he co-founded Blue Sky Studios and served as System Architect of the Academy Award-winning CGI Studio™ Renderer and production animation system. He created his first computer-generated image in 1969 and continues to produce them today.

A trailblazer in the field, Daina brings more than a decade of experience in growing and developing technology companies focused on harnessing and processing complex data and AI. An active angel investor of technology startups, Daina is a mentor for startup accelerator programs including Techstars and IgniteNI where she advises burgeoning tech companies on their financing and product development strategies.