Don’t miss the opportunity to network with some of the borough’s biggest and brightest movers and shakers! The fourth annual Top 10 Women in Business, presented by The Queens Courier and Queens Business Today, will be held this year on March 23 at 5:30 p.m. at Terrace on the Park.
Honoring business and community leaders who have achieved success in their respective fields and who have an overwhelming sense of community responsibility, the Top 10 Women in Business Networking event is expected to be attended by more than 600 guests.
Hostess Victoria Schneps-Yunis is pleased to announce that Mayor Michael Bloomberg will be in attendance to accept the “Best Man” Award, as will Borough President Helen Marshall for her Lifetime Achievement Award and Woman of the Year, NYC Council Speaker, Christine Quinn.
From 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., there will be a silent auction, a networking expo, cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. All proceeds of the auction will be donated to the Hospice Care Network.
Sponsors include Bombardier, Citibank, Commerce Bank, Con Edison, Family Care Certified Services, Farrell Fritz, P.C., Flushing Savings Bank, Mount Sinai Hospital of Queens, New York Community Bank/ Queens County Savings Bank, Parker Jewish Institute for Health Care & Rehabilitation, The New Parkway Hospital, Queens & Elmhurst Hospital Centers, The Queens Health Network, Queens Business Today, Queens Medical Associates, Townsend Glass, Verizon, CUNY, and the Bank of New York.
A networking booklet featuring women in business will be distributed at the dinner. If you would like to be included free of charge (deadline March 9) or purchase tickets ($80 per person $800 for a table of 10), call (718) 224-5863 ext. 226.
Honorees for 2006 are:
NYC Council Speaker
Christine Quinn
Woman of the Year
Since entering the New York City Council in 1999, Christine Quinn has been a leader for more comprehensive health care, equal rights for all New Yorkers, rational rezoning, better schools and tenants’ rights. Christine Quinn represents the 3rd Council District that encompasses Chelsea, the West Village, Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen, and parts of SOHO and Murray Hill. On January 4, 2006, Christine was overwhelmingly elected Speaker of the City Council. She is the first woman, openly gay or Irish Speaker of the City Council.
As Chair of the Health Committee, Quinn has consistently worked to provide quality and affordable health care to all New Yorkers. She worked successfully to help make New York City smoke-free, expand access to emergency contraception to rape survivors and other New York City women, increase the availability of mammograms throughout the five boroughs, secure millions of dollars for HIV prevention services, and to expand access to quality health care for New York City’s underserved children.
Since her election in 1999, Quinn has been a tireless advocate for the rights and dignity of all workers. She has championed labor issues such as the Living Wage Legislation and fair treatment of all City employees, and chaired Health Committee Oversight hearings on the low pay and high turnover in the home health care industry.
Quinn has also been a vocal advocate for the improvement of public education, expanding computer labs in schools, renovating school playgrounds and buildings, and rehabilitating libraries in her district.
Parks Commissioner
Dorothy Lewandowski,
Named Government
Leader of the Year
Lewandowski began her career with Parks & Recreation as one of the original Urban Park Rangers in 1979. Her organizational and leadership skills were immediately evident, and she quickly assumed supervisory and planning roles that helped guide the direction of the Urban Park Service. She served as an Operations manager in the Bronx and Queens before becoming Chief of Operations for the Bronx in 1994. With Borough Commissioner Bill Castro, she led the Bronx’s parks to new heights, building partnerships in all corners of the borough and orchestrating the renaissance of Orchard Beach. Following her appointment as Borough Commissioner (Bronx) in 2002, she was instrumental in leading the agency’s youth, greening, and customer-service initiatives. She was named Borough Commissioner of Queens in 2004.
Dr. Gail O. Mellow,
Winner of the Commerce WOW Award
Mellow is President of LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City. During her tenure at LaGuardia, the college has won numerous awards and achievements. It was named Top Three Large Community Colleges the National Survey of Student Engagement; Institution of Excellence by the National Policy Center for the First Year of College; Hesburgh Certificate of Excellence in Undergraduate Education by TIAA-CREF and Best Practice College by the MetLife Foundation. She has also spearheaded economic development, resulting in such achievements as the establishment of the LaGuardia Small Business Development Center (SBDC), which provides business counseling in four languages and secures more than $15 million in external funding through grants and contracts each year.
Georgiana Reese,
Top 10 Honoree
Spending more than 25 years with Queens County Savings Bank (a division of NYCB), Georgiana served in many capacities and held the position of First Vice President of Purchasing from 1998 to 2003. She is a member of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, Queens Historical Society and the Queens Botanical Garden (QBC), and sits on the boards of multiple institutions. Reese has served on the following committees: co-chair of the Queens Botanical Garden’s 50th Anniversary celebration, co-chair of QBG’s Rose Ball Gala, organized a “Garden on Parade” gala luncheon sponsored by Queens County Savings Bank, co-chair of the Samaritan Foundation, Inc.’s Annual Gala Dinner, the Queens Child Guidance Golf Outing, and for the past four years as co-chair on the Flushing Town Hall’s Gala Committee.
Jasmin Moshirpur, M.D.
Top 10 Honoree
Jasmin Moshirpur, M.D. is the Dean for Elmhurst and Queens Programs of The Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Regional Medical Director, Queens Health Network, which includes Elmhurst Hospital Center and Queens Hospital Center. She has had a career passionately committed to improving and redefining women’s health care and medical education. At both Elmhurst and Queens Hospital Centers, she has chaired and is an active member of many committees.
Judy Trilivas,
Top 10 Honoree
Judy Trilivas, Mount Sinai Hospital of Queens’ leading expert on quality improvement, is passionate about delivering the highest quality medical care and service. In 2001, she was promoted to Associate Chief Operating Officer, and now leads 10 departments including key areas such as Radiology, Medical Records, Care Management, and Physical Therapy. Trilivas was instrumental in launching the Hospital’s customer service and patient satisfaction initiative, Patients First, a highly ambitious program involving every single employee at Mount Sinai Queens. She has also spearheaded the Hospital’s disaster management and bioterrorism planning, particularly since the 9/11 tragedy.
Marie Cutrone Smith,
Top 10 Honoree
Marie Cutrone Smith is the Director of Strategic Partnerships at Con Edison. Smith manages community relations, executive fundraising events, charitable giving, volunteerism and the company’s special events programs. Smith seeks to highlight Con Edison’s role in the communities within its service area, offering support and partnerships to community-based organizations while enhancing the company’s presence in the New York business community. In her work at Con Edison, she is the company’s liaison with many philanthropic advisory groups including, NY Regional Association of Grantmakers, The Conference Board and The Committee to Encourage Corporate Philanthropy. Smith serves as the Vice Chair of the Board and Chair of the Fund Development Committee at the Cross Island YMCA.
Jeanine Aquino,
Top 10 Honoree
Jeanine Aquino was born and raised in Queens. She attended St. Francis Preparatory High School and then St. John’s University where she majored in Business Administration and Health Care Administration. At St. John’s University, Aquino was the founder and first President of the Health Care Administration Club. While attending St. John’s University, she worked at Astoria Federal Bank, although her first love was always health care. This led her to volunteering her services, for several summers, at various local hospitals.
Aquino received her Masters Degree for Professional Services, in Health Care Administration from The New School for Social Research, in New York City. She then climbed the corporate ladder in health care as Associate Director of Surgical Services at Jacobi Hospital in the Bronx. As well as being appointed as Chief Operating Officer at The New Parkway Hospital, Aquino is also Executive Vice President of Capitol Health Management, Inc., an Administrative Services Organization whose corporate offices are located in Astoria, Queens.
In her spare time, Aquino enjoys spending time with her husband of 7 years and their Golden Retriever Teddy, traveling, reading and yoga.
Lourdes Hernandez,
Health Care LEader of the Year
Lourdes Hernandez is the Administrative Director for Queens Medical Associates (QMA), a cancer center serving the community of Queens. Her expertise in starting and establishing successful medical practices has allowed QMA to be considered one of the most successful oncology groups in the nation. In recognition of this accomplishment, Hernandez has been nominated for the 2006 Medical Group Management Association, Administrator of the Year Award. A graduate of City College, Hernandez also holds a certification as a medical administrator. In order to achieve the highest recognition as a healthcare executive she completed a Fellowship in Healthcare Administration allowing her to be one of only 420 healthcare executives to establish an innovative healthcare program at a nationwide level.
Hernandez is also founder and president of HOMNY (Hematology-Oncology Managers of New York). In this capacity, she holds a leadership role in the oncology arena by being able to influence reimbursement policies that allow for better patient access to oncology care. Hernandez has served as healthcare consultant for medical groups in New York, and Connecticut.
Hoong Yee Lee Krakauer,
Cultural Leader of the Year
Hoong Yee Lee Krakauer is the Executive Director of the Queens Council on the Arts. As a lifelong Queens resident, she is a firm believer in the power of the arts to mobilize and transform community. At the Council, she oversees all programmatic activities that include: arts in education initiatives, information services, arts services, and grants programs including the Queens Community Arts Fund, the Individual Artist Initiative, the Arts in the Schools Grant Program. She is the author and illustrator of Rabbit Mooncakes, a multicultural picture book for children published by Little, Brown & Company. Her second book, Peanut & the Chinese Dragon is a great success. She is a graduate of Oberlin College, attended the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria and received a Masters of Music in Piano Performance from the Manhattan School of Music. Krakauer is married. She and her husband reside in Rockaway with their three children, Mikki, Remy & Sky.
Doris Fogle,
Winner of the Pioneer Award
Doris Fogle was born and raised in a small town in Pennsylvania. During World War II, Fogle moved to New York City and attended classes at New York University. Her volunteer work began at the time when she sold U.S. Savings Bonds all over the states as part of the Women’s Volunteer Corps.
She worked in the Payroll Department at Schraff’s restaurant for over 20 years. That is where she met her husband, Allan. When he became ill, she retired to look after him. When Allan passed away, she was at a loss as to what to do to occupy her time. One morning, she wandered over to Elmhurst Hospital and asked to become a volunteer. That was over 23 years ago and over 49,000 hours ago. And she remains an active volunteer today.
Volunteering has always been a part of Fogle’s life and she has tried to be as generous as possible with both her time and efforts. Fogle has many duties at Elmhurst Hospital with her basic assignment being an assistant in the volunteer office. She is an integral part of the team, where she organizes and prepares all monthly statistics, as well as greeting and assisting the volunteers and visitors who come to the office. She also helps with many other clerical tasks in the volunteer department. She is responsible for the preparation of the RSVP monthly reports. She is an active member of the Community Advisory Board where she serves on the Patient Care Committee, the Legislative Committee, and Women’s Health Committee. For the past six years, she has served as a Hospice advocate for Long Island Hospice.
Mary Jane Gigatti,
Top 10 Honoree
Mary Jane Gigatti, Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer for Parker Jewish Institute, is an outstanding leader in the field of health care finance. She earned her Masters of Public Administration from Long Island University at C. W. Post, and possesses 32 years of experience in the field of finance. As an accomplished senior financial executive and licensed Nursing Home Administrator, Gigatti has proven her ability to develop business and create value for the Institute. She is a member of the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) and the American College for Health Care Administrators (ACHCA).
Her experience and accomplishments at Parker, including the recent successful implementation of the complex new Medicare Part D Drug Plan, exemplify an outstanding ability to create positive change in all financial systems and business operations as well as long-term strategic financial planning for a vertically integrated, state-of-the-art 527-bed voluntary nursing facility. She serves as a liaison to the Board of Trustees as well as Secretary to the Finance, Investment and Audit Committees of Parker’s Board of Trustees.
Patricia Mahecha,
Top 10 Honoree
Patricia Mahecha was born in Bogota, Colombia. She immigrated to the United States in 1981. Mahecha is a professional model. She has participated in different beauty pageants and has made many commercials for Spanish TV. More recently, she worked on a campaign for an insurance company where she was featured as one of the leading models.
In her professional life, Mahecha opened the doors for “Modelamos Talent Agency and School” were she teaches etiquette, charm and glamour. Mahecha’s mission is to motivate young girls to have the best future possible by building their self-esteem, teaching them manners of dress, self-appearance and protocol.
Mahecha has coordinated many events such as Miss Chiquitita Latina, Miss Latina, Miss Colombia USA, Miss Mundo Colombia, and many more. More recently, she has partnered with Victoria Schneps-Yunis on Miss Chiquitita 2006.
Mahecha is also the Vice-President of Abetex Int’l Brokers. She holds a Broker’s license P&C and Notary Public and has helped the company to grow in sales and market penetration.
Mahecha is the recipient of numerous awards for her commitment to community service. She is the proud mother of three boys, and is passionate about her family; she is happily married to Eduardo Giraldo, president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
Philippa Lee Karteron,
Top 10 Honoree
Philippa Lee Karteron is currently an administrator with the NYC Department of Small Business Services and currently holds the position of Executive Director for the New York City Workforce1 Career Center/ Queens (One Stop). The Center is one of five (5) “One Stop” Centers currently operating in New York City as part of the NYC Workforce System. These centers were established under the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. The Career Center also provides an array of services to local businesses including employee recruitment, business incentives and labor market information.
She has enjoyed a career in city government for the last twenty-five years. Additional appointments at the N.Y.C Human Resources Administration include Regional Administrator, One Stop Operations Division, Assistant Deputy Administrator, Office of New Initiatives and Executive Director of Special Projects/Intergovernmental Liaison for the Agency’s Chief Contracting Officer.
Prior to joining the N.Y.C. Human Resources Administration, Karteron spent a large part of her career with the N.Y.C. Department of Employment. During her tenure with D.O.E. she was Assistant Commissioner for Marketing and Business Development, Assistant Commissioner for Resource Development, Executive Director of Grant Management, Executive Director of Training, and Executive Director of Private Partnerships.
Assemblywoman
Catherine Nolan,
Winner, The Claire Shulman Community Service Award
Catherine Nolan represents the 37th Assembly District in Queens County, which includes the historic New York City neighborhoods of Sunnyside, Ridgewood, Astoria, Woodside, Long Island City, Maspeth, Queensbridge, Ravenswood, Dutch Kills and Blissville. She was first elected to the Assembly in 1984.
A resident of the district for most of her life, she is a graduate of St. Aloysius R.C. School and Grover Cleveland High School. Ms. Nolan graduated from New York University cum laude with a B.A. degree in Political Science.
Speaker Sheldon Silver appointed Nolan to Chair the Assembly’s Committee on Banks in February, 2003. She has focused the Committee’s efforts on enhancing consumer protections and maintaining a competitive balance among financial institutions, successfully passing six new banking related laws. Among Nolan’s initial achievements was the extension of the state’s wildcard provisions that foster parity between federal and state-chartered banks. She also authored a new law to extend the retention period for ATM surveillance tapes in an effort to curb ATM fraud.
In the Legislature, Nolan was appointed to Chair the Committee on Labor in January, 1994. As Chairwoman of this important Committee, she led the Committee’s review of workers’ compensation, worker safety, protection and privacy laws. She successfully passed legislation in the Assembly to raise the minimum wage, to enhance whistleblower protections for healthcare workers, strengthen sweatshop enforcement, tighten enforcement of unpaid wage violations, protect innocent bystanders involved in strikes and to create a special fund to investigate prevailing wage violations. Nolan also continued to focus on occupational safety and health and worker education and retraining, securing funding for several programs, including the first ever occupational safety and health clinic in Queens. She has also held hearings on such important issues as raising the minimum wage, wage and hour violations, workers’ compensation, the understaffing of nurses and age discrimination in the workplace.
She lives with her husband, Gerard Marsicano, and son Nicholas on Grove Street in Ridgewood.
Nancy Littlefield, QPTV
Artist of the Year
Nancy Littlefield started at QPTV, a non-profit private corporation for Community Access Public Television, in 1987.
At QPTV, she helped design and supervise acquisition and construction of two 1.1 million-dollar studio facilities, which included two full color studios, seven edit rooms, two control rooms, suites, training rooms, transmission room, and offices.
She also designed and implemented integrated training curriculum for community residents including portable field productions, editing and post production, studio production and advanced workshops in lighting and computer graphics.
Littlefield acted as Executive Producer on (Award winning) Grant Aids and QPTV Productions that have been honored by The National Media Alliance.
Her awards include an Emmy Award, recognition from the National Academy of Arts and Sciences; Broadcast Media Award from San Francisco State University; Ohio State University Award for Media; Women In Motion Picture Industry Award; Annual Award Motion Picture Engineers Society; Annual Award Cameramen’s Local 644 I.A.T.S.E.; Annual Award Bookers Club of America; Excellence in Media Award, New Cinema Artists; Human Relations Award, American Jewish Committee; Big Apple Award for Excellence, Producers Guild Award; YWCA Women Achievers Award; CAPA Award for Documentary, Six Awards from National Alliance of Community Media Awards; Queens Center for the Women of New York.
Anna M. Piacentini,
Business Leader of the Year
Anna M. Piacentini joined Flushing Savings Bank in 1969 as a Customer Service Representative and served as an Executive Assistant for Branch Operations, Assistant Secretary for Human Resources and Assistant Vice President of Human Resources. In 1984, Piacentini was named Vice President of Human Resources. In 1994, Piacentini was promoted to Senior Vice President Human Resources of the Bank. She has served as Corporate Secretary of the Bank since 1995.
For many years, Piacentini served as a member of the Human Resources Society for Financial Institutions. She also served on the Human Resources Committee for the Community Bankers Association of New York State.
In 1998, Piacentini was named Corporate Secretary of Flushing Financial Corporation, the parent company of Flushing Savings Bank.
Stacy Morgan
Top 10 Honoree
Stacy Morgan, Queens Area Operations Manager for Verizon, has over 17 years of experience in the Telecom Industry, and is dedicated to providing outstanding customer service.
Morgan started out with Verizon, formerly NYNEX, in 1987 as a Customer Service Representative. She excelled to the point of becoming a peer trainer in Order Writing and Customer Contact. In 1999, she moved on to the Outside Plant Department where she was promoted to Installation Local Manager for Queens. In this role, Morgan was responsible for overseeing 200 field technicians and over 10,000 telephone installation orders per year. She received numerous internal awards and accommodations in this capacity, including a nomination for an Excellence Team Award in 2002 for work on the Global Positioning System Implementation Team.
In 2004, Morgan moved on to Manhattan and became the Verizon Service Manager for the NYC Board of Education and Public Libraries. This is Verizon’s largest municipal account, and Morgan was responsible for overseeing all telecommunication issues and planning.
In 2005, Morgan was offered a promotion back in Queens as Area Operations Manager. In this capacity, she manages the Installation, Repair and Cable Issues for over 1 million residential and small business customers, and a budget of $4,000,000. In January 2006 she also gained the responsibility for installing and maintaining Verizon’s new premier high-speed data & voice service, FiOS-Fiber to the Premise, which opens for sale to Verizon customers in 2006 in Bell Harbor, Bayside, Laurelton, and Long Island City.
Vicki Ellner
Top 10 Honoree
Vicki Ellner is the Director of Marketing for Family Care Certified Services/Brooklyn and Queens. She is a dynamic healthcare marketing professional and a nurse by profession with over fifteen (15) years of demonstrated competencies in all disciplines of new business development, strategic planning, community affairs, organizational development, and project management.
She is the founder and chair of the Senior Umbrella Network of Brooklyn (SUN-B).
Senior Umbrella Network of Brooklyn is a mechanism that identifies and advocates for issues related to the seniors in the Brooklyn community. The mission of the organization is to improve the quality of life for seniors and increase access to services.
Ellner is a founding member and Executive Vice-President of the Health and Business Alliance (HBA). The Health and Business Alliance is an action-oriented professional association that pools resources from the business, not-for-profit, and healthcare communities to create projects and educational events that enhance services and improve business practices, while benefiting the borough of Queens and adjacent counties. Her work with HBA includes collaborating on a mentoring program with the NYC Board of Education/Queens Gateway to Health Sciences Secondary School and the Office of Student Placement, Youth and Family Services.
Ellner serves on various committees and advisory boards and she is committed to being a “connector” and community advocate. She is passionate about helping professionals and consumers navigate the complex and frustrating healthcare/eldercare maze.
Ann Jawin
Volunteer of the Year
Ann Jawin, founder of Center for the Women of New York, has spent her life advocating for equal rights for women, minorities, and the underpriviliged.
Jawin started the first-ever course for training teachers in women’s rights. It was later included in the required course in human relations for all teachers by the Board of Education and is still in use.
She also worked with the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) to help eliminate sex bias in the classroom, volunteered with NOW (National Organization for Women) and served as chair of the NOW Educational Employment Task Force.
In 1987, Jawin founded the Center for the Women of New York (CWNY), formerly known as the Queens Women’s Center.
A voluntary, non-profit organization which runs on member dues and volunteerism, CWNY aims to be a one-stop walk-in resource center for women.
