New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Meet more of Connecticut’s Class of 2023
They’re giving voice to the voiceless. They’re creating opportunities for others. They’re making it big on the world’s grandest stages. They’re forging new paths in industry. They’re winning at the highest levels of athletic competition. They’re working to find cures for deadly diseases. They’re devising innovative solutions to the world’s problems.
Selected from nominations of readers and Connecticut Magazine staff, this year’s 40 Under 40 collection of influential young people is changing the game in Connecticut and beyond. They feature a kaleidoscope of backgrounds and pursuits, but what they all have in common is their power to inspire others to do great things of their own.
Here are 10 members of the 40 Under 40 list. Check in next week for the next list of 10 names.
Michael Nieves
You might say Michael Nieves has “the house” on his side in his role as the SVP of finance and treasurer at Penn Entertainment, the largest provider of gaming entertainment in North America with 43 casinos and racetracks, 44,000 gaming machines, and 7,800 hotel rooms, sports-betting and lifestyle-content components.
Nieves, who grew up in New Jersey and now lives in Darien with his wife and two children, oversees treasury functions, liquidity management, capital deployment and strategy, financial and operational analyses, and communications with the investment community.
Formerly a director at commercial real estate company JLL, a vice president at Citigroup and a corporate lawyer, Nieves puts a priority on giving back. He’s a board member of Friends of Karen, the nonprofit that provides emotional, financial and advocacy support for children with a life-threatening illness and their families, and also sits on that board’s diversity, equity and inclusion committee.
“As a new parent, I felt compelled to try and give back and help families experiencing what was likely the scariest and most uncertain periods of their life,” Nieves says.
Kayla Wooley
Simsbury’s Wooley is a health care prodigy with a knack for multitasking, thinking big, innovating and getting results.
By the time she was in middle school, she was also working in the family’s nursing home business, and she became the director of business development for Apple Rehab in her early 20s.
A graduate of Simsbury’s Westminster School, she has a bachelor’s degree from Boston College, an MBA from Cornell, and a master’s of public health degree from Yale.
She planned the February 2022 launch of her tech startup StaffOnTap while working on those advanced degrees, and went live with the new staffing model at the same time she was a part-time teaching fellow for two Cornell School of Management graduate courses focused on entrepreneurship.
As CEO of StaffOnTap, she guides a digital marketplace that connects understaffed nursing homes and temporary nurses in Connecticut, as part of a mission to fill open slots on provider’s schedules while empowering the nurses and helping solve a pervasive health care crisis.
Since launching in spring 2022, StaffOnTap has facilitated more than $540,000 in marketplace transactions. In terms of what’s next, it’s scaling the operation into neighboring states.
Mike Weber
You might say serendipity favors Weber, who lives in Delray Beach, Fla., but grew up a marching band/drumline kid in Stamford, where his family still lives.
He entered the University of Maryland on a pre-med track and added finance as a major after an internship with a biotech startup gave him a taste of business. That landed him a job after college with Deloitte Consulting, where his favorite client was a top-five ice cream company.
Weber left corporate life for a Wharton MBA, and on his first day he ended up sitting next to Vedant Saboo, who would become his Frutero Ice Cream co-founder.
A trip to India in 2019 inspired their creation of the first brand of tropical fruit ice cream in the U.S. with national distribution (300-plus stores, including Stop & Shop, Shop-Rite, Whole Foods and FreshDirect). It’s made with 100 percent real fruit, is super creamy, and with 1.5 million pints sold in 2½ years and 670 percent year-over-year growth, it’s hardly melting against the competition.
Next year, Frutero’s expansion will include the launch of a new line of ice cream bars. You can also buy it direct on the website, and if you have an inspiration for a new flavor, Weber wants to hear it.
Drew Angus
fruteroicecream.com
Finding success as a musician is not easy, explains this Bridgeport-based and Westport-raised singer-songwriter. “In this business, behind all the accomplishments and successes are many more unsuccessful projects and ideas that just never quite worked out,” Angus says.
“It takes a certain kind of drive and a sick love for things not working out to be successful in creative ventures like music.” Fortunately for him and fans of music everywhere, Angus has that drive, as his easy-to-listen-to, melodic New Americana music propelled him to be a finalist on “American Idol” in 2016.
He’s also shared the stage with Harry Styles and Nile Rogers on “Saturday Night Live,” as well as Pat Benatar, Ann Wilson, of Heart, and Andrea Bocelli. He has also toured with Marc Broussard and last summer impressed his hometown music fans with a set at Sound on Sound festival in Bridgeport.
When asked what advice he has for aspiring songwriters, he urges artists to not over-revise their work. “Finish those songs and put them out,” he says. “There’s a point of diminishing returns when changing lyric, melody or mix on a song no longer makes it better but just different or actually worse. Sometimes version one is actually the magic take.” drewangus.com @drewangusmusic on
Instagram and TikTok
Nakai Clearwater Northup
Northup has spent more than 10 years developing educational programs on Eastern Woodland tribal history and culture for visitors of all ages to the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center.
In addition, he is the vice chair of the
Tribe’s Natural Resources Protection Committee and serves as a board member of the Stonington Historical Society.
An avid hunter and fisher, he lectures regularly on historic preservation, environmental Indigenous activism, food sovereignty, and teaching traditional Eastern Woodland histories and lifeways. He has both Mashantucket Pequot and Narragansett bloodlines, and has spent his entire life on both reservations and is a passionate advocate and activist for Native American rights.
“I am most proud of being a historian and a voice for my community to share our stories and lifeways with the world,” says the father of two who lives in Mashantucket. “Representing my nations and advocating for our future generations is what gives me a true sense of purpose.”
@chefkaiclearwater on Instagram
Amanda Arling
The New Hampshire native moved to southeastern Connecticut in 2016 to become general manager of The Whaler’s Inn in Mystic and guide its transformation into a destination property that wracks up five-star online reviews.
In addition to overseeing renovations, Arling implemented a vision for a food and beverage program. In 2019, the same year she was named the Connecticut Tourism Office’s “Rising Star,” Arling was elevated to the position of inn president and, amid the pandemic, the inn opened The Shipwright’s Daughter restaurant in the summer of 2020.
With chef David Standridge at the helm, the restaurant quickly earned a reputation as one of the best in the state. Arling, also the co-owner of a small inn in northern Vermont, is guiding the renovation of a nearby property that will add five suites and position the inn to compete for meetings and events business.
Now a resident of Stonington, she serves as chairwoman of the board for the Greater Mystic Chamber of Commerce and is on the executive board of the New England Inns and Resorts Association. In her free time, Arling is a passionate mountain biker who also loves hiking and — no surprise — enjoys
traveling.
Anthony Fantano
Calling himself “the internet’s busiest music nerd,” Fantano is seemingly everywhere. His online presence covers all the bases: Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Twitch and TheNeedleDrop on YouTube, where he reviews albums and tracks, and interviews artists for nearly 2.7 million subscribers.
The Wolcott native and graduate of Southern Connecticut State University started The Needle Drop as a program on Hartford’s WNPR in 2007. A blog of his reviews began the same year as the YouTube channel in 2009, and they have exploded in popularity ever since.
Still living in Connecticut, Fantano says the style which has attracted so many listeners stems from his own desire to dive deeply into the history of musical styles, the evolution of individual artists, and how past and present meld to create the music that moves us in our lives.
Fantano’s analysis, personality and recognizable 0—10 ratings from “Light” to “Strong” led The New York Times to call him “the only music critic who matters (if you’re under 25).” theneddledrop.com, @fantano on YouTube, @afantano on Instagram, @theneedletok on TikTok, @theneedledrop on Twitter and
Twitch
Karl Minges
An expert on improving the health of vulnerable populations, Minges not only chairs UNH’s Population Health and Leadership Department, but is also founding director of the university’s Master of Public Health program, and in 2021, became the first recipient of a National Institutes of Health grant in UNH history.
Earning a Ph.D. at Yale University in 2016 as an NIH Fellow, he completed his master’s of public health degree at Columbia University, and as a Fulbright Scholar traveled to Australia to conduct research on a diabetes health promotion program delivered to older adults and indigenous Australians.
In 2020, Minges was awarded UNH’s annual Faculty Recognition Award for his outstanding service, research and teaching to the university. “In my work as a public health advocate, practitioner, educator and researcher, I seek to encourage
my students and communities to inspire change and think globally,” Minges says.
“Throughout the pandemic, I was encouraged by the resolve of Connecticut residents and the public health workforce to enable our residents to live their fullest lives.”
The Connecticut native says he’s always been impressed by the talent across all fields in the state, and continues to make his home in Wallingford.
Neviana Zhgaba
Zhgaba says the Newtown vineyard she owns with her husband, Ardian Llomi, is a dream come true because it brings people together and makes them happy. And, as she sees it, “that’s the beauty in life.”
Overlooking a bucolic Connecticut hillside, its roots are truly in Albania, where she and Llomi grew up around wineries. The Fairfield University graduates, who have two sons, were looking to build a new home when they found the property that’s become Aquila’s Nest.
The 41-acre farmland was so spectacular they had to share it, says Zhgaba, who speaks six languages and is committed to community, diversity and empowering women. Acting on one of her favorite quotes — “Create a vision so clear that all your fears become irrelevant” — they planted grapes and moved forward.
Despite opening at the height of the pandemic, the vineyard is thriving, and not just because of its wine. Events run the gamut from art exhibits to llama visits. They recently constructed a family home on the site. Next, Zhgaba says, they want to be a 100 percent solarpowered
operation.
aquilasnestvineyards.com , @aquilasnestvineyards on Instagram
Jennifer Tsai
An emergency medicine physician, writer, educator and advocate, Tsai works to rethink and advance health and climate justice, expand social medicine and support equity across health systems. The New Haven resident received a master’s of education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and her academic work centers on the intersection between race, medicine, inequity and trauma-informed care.
Her essays and research have been published in The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, Scientific American. The Washington Post and Elle magazine, among other outlets, and she has been recognized for notable works of literary nonfiction in The Best American Science and Nature Writing.
“I’m interested in analyses that elucidate pathways between structural inequity, political economy, historical disinvestment and health disparities,” she says of her ongoing research. “I prioritize research that translates to applicable interventions and political — not just policy — solutions.”
Her advice to others: “Don’t do what you think you’re supposed to do, or pursue what’s shiny. Find out what you care about, and what sustains you, and then pursue it with equity at the forefront of your mind.”
This article originally appeared in Connecticut Magazine. Follow on Facebook and Instagram @connecticutmagazine and Twitter @connecticutmag.