Mahopac Woman Named ‘Woman of the Year’
Gina Pietrocola, a longtime volunteer in the Mahopac Central School District, has been named “Woman of the Year 2012-13” by the National Association of Professional Women.
Pietrocola is president of D.J.A. Imports, Ltd., ornamental steel and gate hardware supplier, a family business. Her activities as a volunteer in the community and in the schools most likely contributed to her selection, she said.
Mahopac District Superintendent Thomas J. Manko called her “the quintessential school volunteer.”
A former special education teacher, Pietrocola has been a member of Mahopac Central School District Site-Based Teams for 17 years. Site-based teams are composed of five teachers, five parents, an administrator and a community member. Teams make recommendations about curriculum and programs in specific schools, with a goal of improving the school experience for students, teachers and staff.
Pietrocola started at Lakeview Elementary School where her sons, David, Joseph and Alexander, were students. “I wanted to be engaged,” she said. As the boys grew older, she joined the middle school and high school site-based teams and now serves those teams as a community member and chairperson.
She continues to participate in the schools’ teams, believing she can bring them a different perspective, she said. “I’ll keep doing it as long as I feel I am bringing something to the table.”
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.