2024 RWSC Presenter Bios 

Keynote Speaker & Conference Presenter: Captain Nitzan Levy
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Nitzan Levy was born in the U.S. and grew up along Israel’s Mediterranean Coast where she developed a lifelong passion for the sea and water sports. A few years after relocating to New York and immersing herself in the local sailing community, in 2013 she founded Sailors NYC - a sailing club and school in the NY Harbor. Building on the increased demand for the club’s sailing vacations, Nitzan launched Neptune’s Daughter, a one-stop-shop for all boat charter needs: from consultation to booking, private sailing vacations, flotilla vacations, captain services and qualifying skippers for the International Sailing Certificate by NauticEd. 
Nitzan’s exceptional community-building skills have enabled her to lead and facilitate various initiatives and programs to introduce sailing to diverse groups, especially teens and women. Nitzan is currently serving as a Rear Commodore at the Liberty Yacht Club. Nitzan hails from Jersey City, NJ by the New York Harbor, where she enjoys sailing and racing surrounded by some of the world's most breathtaking views.
Captain Nitzan’s Credentials: U.S. Coast Guard Licensed Master of vessels up to 50 Tons with Auxiliary Sail and Assistance Towing Endorsement; NauticEd Level V Captain; Rank Chief Instructor, American National Standards Assessor and SLC instructor; ASA Certified Instructor Bareboat Chartering; Israeli licensed skipper on Boat For International Voyages.
Mia Brandenstein is a sophomore at SUNY Maritime College. She is from West Islip, Long Island where she grew up sailing Opti’s and 420s on the Great South Bay and playing lacrosse. Her major is Marine Transportation, and she is also pursuing her U.S. Coast Guard Unlimited 3rd Mate Deck License. During this past summer, she spent 6 weeks on the California Maritime’s training ship, the Golden Bear. They traveled from California to two ports in Hawaii: Hilo and Honolulu and back to California. It was an incredible experience using what Mia learned in the Terrestrial Navigation class on land and applying it to the real world on the ship.
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.
Isabel Czech was a student at The Sailing School at the Hudson River Maritime Museum for five years starting when she was 12 years old.  After building strong sailing skills, she qualified as a US Sailing Small Boat Level One Instructor in 2021, and is now on the staff of the Sailing School at HRMM, where she'll works to educate youth on how to sail safely while also having fun.  Isabel has experience sailing a variety of centerboard and keel boats. She is a member of the Kingston Sailing Club.
Shiri Dembovich first stepped on a sailboat in 2017 as a member of the newly launched Kingston Sailing Club / HRMM Women on the Water Program. She took the US Sailing Basic Keelboat class through The Sailing School at HRMM in 2019 and began crewing at Kingston Sailing Club races after that. Shiri has developed her skills on a variety of centerboard and keel boats locally and at other locations in the past few years and is now a valued KSC racing crew. Shiri is the lead organizer for the HRMM/KSC AdventureSail Day and is one of the Riverport Women’s Sailing Conference organizers.
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.
Barbara “Basia” Karpinska 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.
Elizabeth McCarthy has been a mariner for over 25 years.  She graduated from SUNY Maritime College with a Bachelor of Science in Oceanography and Meteorology and a Third Mate Unlimited tonnage USCG license.  She worked on the Great Lakes for 2 years as a deck mate and then sailed around the world as a deck officer with NOAA, working on many types of research vessels.  She obtained her Second Mate unlimited and 1600 ton Captain USCG license.  She then came ashore and began working at the Mariner’s Museum in Newport News VA as a researcher.  After a year she began working as an analyst for a Tanker ship brokerage company in Long island, while attending law school at night.  She received her Juris Doctorate and was admitted to the NY State Bar.  Elizabeth began teaching at SUNY Maritime College, obtaining the rank of Tenured Associate Professor. After 15 years of teaching she left Maritime College and is presently working as an Associate Attorney with the law firm of Lyons and Flood.  She continues to teach as an Adjunct Professor at the US Merchant Marine Academy, where she has been for 8 years.
Eileen Mehrkens is a junior at SUNY Maritime College. She hails from Bellport, Long Island where she grew up sailing dinghies from the age of six on the Great South Bay. Eileen is currently on the SUNY Maritime Sailing Team. She is pursuing her  U.S. Coast Guard 3rd Mate’s Deck License. This past summer she spent 6 weeks on a 500ft vessel traveling from California to Hawaii and back. During that time, Eileen used Terrestrial Navigation to plan and track our voyage there and back. ​
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 Series in 2023.  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 teaches sailing at the Sailing School at the Hudson River Maritime Museum.  MJ holds a USCG Masters 25 ton Sailing License & Towing Assistance for Inland Waters.
Rebecca Runyan is from Long Island where she started sailing dinghies at the age of eight on the Moriches Bay. Rebecca is a junior majoring in Marine Environmental Science with a minor in Marine Biology at SUNY Maritime.  She is currently a Co-Captain of the SUNY Maritime Sailing Team. Rebecca went on her first Summer Sea Term in 2022 where she was able to use her knowledge of chart plotting. This past summer, she learned many navigational skills aboard an inland towing vessel in Houston, Texas
​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 Instructor and a US Sailing Certified Basic Keelboat Instructor. She also holds a US Coast Guard Captain's 25 Ton Masters License.