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PAA MENTOR PROGRAM


Visionaries and Innovators

Welcome to our PAA Mentor Page where you can connect with individuals who have volunteered their time and their knowledge to help PYA members as they decide which road to travel.  Continuing PAA values through mentoring The PAA Mentor Program is designed to support PYA and PAA members through connections with effective corporate executives, business owners and professionals for a rigorous mentorship experience to help them further their knowledge, experience, and understanding of career related skills and resources in order to become more successful.

The main goal of the program is to connect Mentors with Mentees through a mentorship experience in order to support Mentees with performance or career exploration. Mentors are recruited professionals and include corporate executives, small business owners & professionals from a variety of occupations. Mentees will be high school or college students or aspiring professionals that are current and paid PYA/PAA members. In addition, we offer monthly PAA Online Mentor Talks and we hope you will visit this page often to hear about upcoming programs.  

Our previous mentor guests are listed below as well as our mentors. Information about our online programs are always emailed out to our membership database (this is a member benefit) and through our bi-monthly newsletter. Please make sure to have your email in our database system and follow us on all of social media sites (Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn).  

If you would like more information on the mentor program, contact us nkastrinakis@pancretan.org and we will connect you with the appropriate person. 

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Visionaries and Innovators

Brought to you by the PAA Mentor Program

Mentor #13


Join the Pancretan Association of America and PYA for an inspiring evening with Damon Dukakis, as part of our ongoing mentorship series.


Monday, June 22

9:00 PM EST

Live on Zoom (link emailed to registered participants)


Damon Dukakis is the Vice President of Integrated Partnerships for the Pac-12 Conference, under the purview of Playfly Sports.  Damon is a 25-year veteran of collegiate athletics, having received his start at Sacramento State as the Director of Marketing & Promotions for Athletics in 2001.  From there, Damon stayed within the Big Sky Conference, moving on to become the Associate Athletic Director for External Affairs at Portland State.  Following his time at Portland State, Damon made his first move into the Multimedia Marketing Rights industry, joining ISP at UC Berkeley (Cal) in 2006.  He remained at Cal for seven years, including 3 ½ years as General Manager as ISP was acquired by IMG.  Damon remained with IMG as he transitioned from Cal to UCLA/Rose Bowl at the beginning of 2013, where he remained for 13 years as the MMR rights transitioned to Learfield and ultimately to JMI Sports in August, 2024.  He joined the Pac-12 and Playfly in January, 2026.  Damon received his B.A. in Communication from UC Santa Barbara and M.A. in Athletic Administration from St. Mary’s College.  Prior to working in collegiate athletics, he coached football at the high school and junior college level and spent two years as a high school athletic director. 


Register here: PAA Mentor Registration

Questions? Email nkastrinakis@pancretan.org

Let’s learn, connect, and grow together 🇬🇷✨

The following provides the Online Mentor Programs that we have uploaded with our Mentors for your viewing pleasure.  We will continue to add more programs as they become available.  Thank you again to all of our outstanding guests for their insights, expertise and time.


Mentor Program--Dr. Stella Kafka
Mentor Program--Dr. Peter Kouretas
Mentor Program--Mihali Bletsas
Mentor Program--George Thanopoulos
Mentor Program--Nick Vlahakis



Mentors / Visionaries / Innovators

Engineering & Technology



George Thanopoulos
  • Mechanical Engineering 
  • Management
  • Leadership 
  • Philanthropy

Nick Vlahakis
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Aerospace/Defense Contractor
  • Vlahakis Recording Studio/Carnegie Mellon
  • MBA University of Utah


Michali Bletsas
  • Computer Engineering
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Computer Science
  • Network Computing Systems
  • Research


Peter Marangoudakis
  • Engineering & Quality
  • Leadership
  • Team Building
  • Project Management
  • Presentations

Nickos Kastrinakis
  • Transformational Leadership
  • Corporate Change Management
  • Inclusion
  • Emotional Intelligence
  • Leadership
  • Engineering Management
  • Software Development
  • Agile
  • AI & Cloud Computing


Tom Jouvanis
  • Engineering & Quality
  • Leadership
  • Team Building
  • Project Management
  • Presentations

Business  & Management


Andreas Batakis

  • Mindset
  • Leadership
  • Business Growth
  • Management



James Boutzoukas

  • Carpentry
  • General Contractor
  • Specializing in Bridge Repair
  • Leadership

Kostas Katsohirakis

  • Financial Analysis
  • Negotiations
  • Career Development
  • International Expertise
  • Presentation Skills

Demetri Koston

  • Commercial Real
  • Estate Finance
  • Financial Analysis
  • Business Development



Ted Manousakis

  • Entrepreneur
  • Leadership
  • Communications
  • Business



Erasmia Novotny 

  • Entrepreneurial Skills
  • Marketing & Sales
  • Jewelry Sales
  • Teambuilding
  • Leadership



Manousos and Kallia Pediaditi 

  • Entrepreneurial Skills
  • Marketing & Sales
  • Teambuilding




John Giouroukakis, ESQ. 

  • Juris Doctor from the New York University of Law 
  • Strategic Advisor to Financial Investors
  • Private Equity 

 

Chemistry, Physics & Science


Dr. Elia Psillakis
  • Environmental Engineering
  • Chemistry
  • Research
  • Water & Climate Change
  • Management


Dr. Stella Kafka
  • Astronomy
  • Physics
  • Geophysical Science
  • Research
  • Management

Humanities & Social Sciences


Jane Voros
  • International Affairs
  • Nonprofit Management
  • Publishing/Editing/Writing
  • Communications/Public Affairs
  • French Language and Culture

Architecture & Design


Christ Kamages
  • Architecture
  • Project Management
  • Byzantine History & Design

Healthcare


Dr. Peter Kouretas
  • Professor of Surgery, UCSF
  • Surgical Director
  • Pediatric Heart Transplantation
  • Research 

Dr. Elias Taxakis

  • Medicine
  • Leadership
  • Diagnostic Radiology
  • Personal Finance