2025 RWSC Presenter Bios 

Keynote Speaker & Conference Presenter: Dawn Riley.
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Dawn Riley was the first woman to manage an America’s Cup sailing team as CEO and captain of America True. She has raced on four America’s Cup and two Whitbread (now The Ocean Race) teams. She is the former Women's Sports Foundation president, served on the board of US Sailing, and is an advisor to several public service organizations. Dawn is currently the Executive Director of Oakcliff Sailing Center. 

Christina Cerroni ​grew up on Long Island Sound but did not start sailing until adulthood. The spark to sail was ignited by watching races in New York Harbor. After taking an introduction to sailing class, she couldn't stay away, navigating under sail as often as she could. She learned to sail on J24s and has been a crew member of the 12 Meter America II 42 and 46.

​Moving upstate, Christina became a US Sailing Certified Basic Keelboat Instructor in 2024. She is excited to share her love of sailing with others and hopes more people discover the magic of sailing.
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Captain Stefany Coulter learned to sail at a young age.  Not being able to afford boat rentals while raising children as a single mom, she became a licensed captain, so she could work in the field with sailboats. She earned the 100 Ton Master Captain License with a sailing endorsement. Delivering private yachts from 29 to 60 feet, she has sailed over 50,000 nautical miles to 6 countries. She has trained crew who pursued a merchant mariner credential, bringing them on these deliveries. Stefany charters luxury catamarans for companies in the Caribbean in the off season. Stefany has a keen interest in navigation and technical systems and has learned enough to become self-sufficient in most situations. She has learned the basics of fiberglass repair, brightwork and interior boat restoration and has put these skills to use in renovating three boats.  Stefany is the founder of SailHope, a not-for-profit that offers free and sponsored trips for people from diverse backgrounds who would not normally be able to sail. She holds a CDL and drives buses when not sailing.
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Barbara Karpinska Hopkins grew up in Cracow, Poland and started sailing little boats on little lakes as a Girl Scout. She’s sailed on tall ships, delivered a Carkeek 60 from Hobart to Sydney, and completed numerous offshore/ocean races including podium finishes in the Vineyard, Newport Bermuda, Block Island, Around Long Island Regatta, Caribbean 600, Chicago Mac, Marblehead to Halifax, Transatlantic, and Rolex Fastnet races. 
Basia’s one design racing experience includes the IC37, Etchells, M24, Sonar, J/105, J/44 and Swan 42 classes, and she enjoyed frostbiting her Cook 11 Snow White at American Yacht Club. Basia team races for the New York Yacht Club, where she serves on the Race, Events, Seamanship, and Communications Committees. She’s also a member of the Storm Trysail Club and the Buzzards Society.
Since 2019, Basia has helped pioneer a new Olympic discipline,  Mixed Offshore Doublehanded, a distance race focused on gender equity with one woman and one man as co-skippers. In this discipline she has competed in European and World Championships representing the USA and Poland and racing aboard an L30 and Beneteau’s Figaro 3.
When not on the water, Basia dedicates her life to healthcare and education. She is a fellow and a member of the ACHE and the IWF, a member of the EF, and a mentor to youth. Having served in a variety of leadership roles in major academic medical centers and a startup, Basia is a consultant, a board advisor, and a motivational speaker.
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Ann Loeding started working as a deckhand on tugs in NY Harbor in 1991. She worked her way up to Captain as a hawsepiper, and has sailed coastwise between Maine and Virginia, in the Great Lakes, on the NYS Canals, and on the Yukon River and Bering Sea. Since 2005, she has been running the restoration of large historic vessels, and still takes towing jobs that are unusual or interesting. Ann also works at HRMM with our solar vessel Solaris and in grants.
Sarah Olivieri Sarah Olivieri grew up sailing and racing on the Hudson River with her dad out of Kingston. She currently enjoys racing as the skipper of a J/80 named π through the Kingston Sailing Club and cruising around in an older but lovely J/30. Sarah and her crew took first place in the Kingston Sailing Club’s Fall 2023 Series and in the 2024 Spring and Fall Series. On land Sarah is a nonprofit business consultant, mom, and enjoys cooking
MJ Reiss grew up racing and coaching one-design racing on dinghies on Long Island Sound and learned how to race with a whisper of a breeze and strong currents. She then moved on to leading Outward Bound Courses in all sorts of weather, (standard 25 knots) at Hurricane Island Outward Bound off of Rockland Maine and in the Florida Keys as Course Director. Being a retired Earth Science teacher from Kingston High School fits in nicely with her experience on the water. MJ is a US Sailing Certified Basic Keelboat Instructor and a US Sailing Certified Performance Sailing Instructor, and she teaches sailing at the Sailing School at the Hudson River Maritime Museum.
​​Jody Sterling is the Sailing Program Director at the Sailing School at the Hudson River Maritime Museum and is the ​RWSC Chair. Jody has been involved with the Riverport Women’s Sailing Conference since its first iteration in 2017.  ​Jody started sailing at age six on Long Island Sound, racing on a variety of centerboard and keel boats throughout her childhood. She taught sailing in high school and college. Jody retired from a career as an English professor in 2017 and happily focuses more of her energies on sailing now. She tries to make at least one long sailing trip each year, sailing the length of the Hudson from Kingston to New York Harbor and out East on Long Island Sound to various destinations, including Block Island and beyond. Jody is a US Sailing Certified Small Boat Level One, US Sailing Certified Basic Keelboat Instructor, and a US Sailing Certified Performance Sailing Instructor.

Sam Yaffe (she/her) is completing her senior year at Hunter College High School.
Sam learned to sail with the HRMM Sailing School, and has been part of the program for several years.  She was a Youth Sailing Program mentor in 2022, 2023, and 2024, and she earned her US Sailing Small Boat Level One Assistant Instructor Certificate.
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