Didier Barjon '14 is a Legislative Assistant for Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer advising him on technology and telecommunications policy. He previously worked for Senator Gary Peters (D-MI), serving as the staff member in charge of technology, telecommunications, consumer protection, and judiciary policy. He previously served as a Legislative Assistant for U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor (FL) and worked for U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra (CA).

Additionally, Barjon is President of Congressional Black Associates, a Congressional Staff Organization of the U.S. House of Representatives that aims to enhance the political, social, and economic capabilities of Black people on Capitol Hill and in the Greater Washington Metropolitan area.

Barjon holds a BS in Law and Society from Jefferson – East Falls. As a student at Jefferson, Mr. Barjon was Captain of the Men’s Cross Country and Track Teams. He was the head student representative for the “Single Bullet” exhibition at the Arlen Specter Center and was a member of Phi Alpha Delta, the legal professional fraternity.

As an alumnus, Mr. Barjon has served as a student mentor and has hosted students in Jefferson’s Law and Society program, setting up tours and facilitating meetings for the students to engage with members of Congress. He is currently forming Jefferson’s first official Law and Society Alumni Council.

Steven M. Spivak, BS '63, PhD, CText, FTI, FSFPE, FSES, is an internationally known and renowned textiles and clothing, fire safety, and engineering expert, as well as Professor Emeritus, Fire Protection Engineering, the University of Maryland. He serves as an industry advisor in a variety of textiles, apparel, and furnishings science, technology, and research capacities. Prof. Spivak has over four decades of education, training, and experience advising, lecturing, and writing on fibers and polymers; particularly for textile science and engineering. Specialties have included wearing apparel and furnishings with regard to fire and flammability testing, apparel burn injury prevention, consumer safety standards, apparel labeling, and regulations including survey papers and injuries analysis.

In a parallel career, Prof. Spivak is also an expert in cleaning science and technology, facilities maintenance, care, and performance: its research and testing, development of a clean standard for interiors, hygiene measurement, and practices. He maintains a professional scientific relationship with industries in the cleaning, professional care, janitorial-sanitary products, and facilities maintenance. Principally this has included over a decade as science advisory council chair for the Cleaning Industry Research Institute. Recently he serves as editorial advisor to CIRI’s new Cleaning Science Quarterly, a print, and online peer-reviewed research journal.

His consulting and public service includes advisor and presenter for business, industry, professional and technical associations. In the public domain he’s advised several U.S. governmental agencies plus international organizations such as ISO and NGOs (UNIDO et al); and previously as a leader for textile customs, quality, and import controls with the Saudi-Arabian–USA Joint Commission.  

Simultaneously he served thirty-three years in university education and administration. Dr. Spivak is Professor Emeritus plus past chairman with the Department of Fire Protection Engineering, Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland.  Leaving full-time academe in 2001, he’s continued as a principal scientist with a textile, standards, and fire safety consultancy in Virginia and Puerto Rico.

Dr. Spivak is a recognized authority on fire and flammability performance, care and cleanability, quality, specifications, fire safety and standards for textile materials, wearing apparel, protective clothing, carpet, and furnishings. He has extensive experience and publications in fibers, textiles, carpet and furnishings, textile, and consumer product safety, as well as national and international standards. He served pro bono as a consumer advisor with Underwriters Laboratories and as a fire science advisor in clothing, textiles, and furnishings flammability with the U.S. National Association of State Fire Marshals (NASFM), the senior fire authority in each U.S. state.  

Dr. Spivak is a past president of The Fiber Society, a Chartered Textile Technologist (CText) and Fellow of The Textile Institute (FTI), a Fellow with The Society of Fire Protection Engineers (FSFPE), and a Fellow of SES- the Society for Standards Professionals (FSES). He served four terms on the Board of Directors of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). He chaired the consumer policy committee of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) from 1991-1995 and represented USA delegations at ISO meetings throughout the world. He remains abreast of textile product safety and standards work plus consumer product standards and textile development with the ASTM International, among others.

He has published articles and invited commentaries for the ISO Focus, the ASTM Standardization News, ASAE Association Management, and numerous industry trade magazines. He is an Honorary Member of ASTM International and recipient of the highest awards given by ASTM and by the Standards Engineering Society. He’s also a Distinguished Engineering Alumnus of the Georgia Institute of Technology and garnered service honors from the Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland.

Dr. Spivak is the author of 80 scientific papers and reports, plus some 300 or more cleaning science, industry technical articles published in select cleaning & restoration magazines. He is co-author of two seminal books on standards development, standardization policy, practices, and applications. These include Standardization Essentials: Principles and Practice, CRC Press, Taylor & Francis, 2001. This book on national, regional, and international standards is currently being translated into Chinese. It should be available in 2020-2021 from the Tianjin, China Science and Technology Press.

His education includes BS and MS degrees in textile science and engineering, and PhD in fiber and polymer (materials) science from the University of Manchester (England, UK).  He served thirty years full-time in academe mainly with Univ. of Maryland, and briefly before with Philadelphia University – now part of Thomas Jefferson University. 

Harold and Catherine “Kay” Ronson

After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Harold Ronson ’51 enrolled at Jefferson (then the Philadelphia Textile Institute), earning a degree in chemistry and dyeing. Following graduation, he worked at the textile manufacturer W. Lowenthal Co. as a plant chemist, remaining with the company for more than 35 years. He rose through the ranks to become vice president, and in 1962, he and a group of stockholders bought W. Lowenthal. Mr. Ronson was appointed president, becoming the sole owner in the 1970s. In 1986, he sold the company to Hanes and retired.

Kay Ronson was born and raised on a farm in Postenkill, NY. She earned an RN diploma from Samaritan Hospital in Troy, NY, and later earned a BSN and MSN from Russell Sage College, where she taught medical-surgical and psychiatric nursing. Mr. and Mrs. Ronson married in 1955, and had two daughters, Norma Jean and Joanne. Mrs. Ronson died in 2012.

Harold and Kay Ronson have been generous benefactors, supporting programs and buildings at Thomas Jefferson University including the Kay and Harold Ronson Health and Applied Science Center, the Kay and Harold ‘51 Ronson Scholarship, the Ronson Simulation Lab, Ronson Hall, and the Paul J. Gutman Library. Mr. Ronson is Trustee Emeritus at Jefferson and has been honored for his generosity with the Leadership in Philanthropy Award.

The Kay and Harold Ronson Health and Applied Science Center is the new front door to Thomas Jefferson University along Henry Avenue. For our students, it’s a gateway to what’s-next, future-defining professions. The Ronson Center is built smart: for hi-tech, real-world Nexus Learning, for boundary-stretching research endeavors, and for abrupt turns of innovation that make people, products, and processes better. The LEED Silver building, which includes a green roof, features the Jeff Bruner Materials Characterization Laboratory for textiles analysis, the College of Health Professions, and the College of Rehabilitation Sciences. The center includes a 62-seat Nexus classroom and six learning hubs; collaborative breakout areas; labs for clinical simulation, physical diagnosis, and athletic training; as well as student lounges and faculty offices. A catalyst for collaborative learning and an incubator for new knowledge and innovation, the Ronson Center casts in glass and steel some of the ways that Jefferson is creating the professionals of tomorrow and shaping the future today.