New Members for Winter of 2022
The National Organization of Italian American Women warmly welcomes the following new members who joined our organization this fall! Benvenute a tutte!
Michela Marconeit, Technology Strategy Senior Consultant, Deloitte
Born and raised in Abruzzo, Italy, Michela left her hometown when she was 18 years old to attend college. From that moment on she lived in many cities like Rome, Paris, and Milan where she started her career. Last year she decided to leave her manager position in Accenture Milan to join an international MBA program in Boston with the purpose of following her dream: to live and work in NYC. She moved to the city two months ago and is keen to meet you and be part of the Italian American community.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michela-marconeit/
Wendy Ridolini, Editor, Sunflower Publishing
Wendy married into an Italian family and over the years became fascinated with Italian history, culture, and ancestry. In 2009, they moved to Abruzzo where she worked as a teacher of English to children, teenagers and adults. A career change three years ago led her into the world of writing and publishing. She writes book reviews for an Italian magazine and hosts creative writing retreats in Abruzzo. Details here on this spring’s retreat.
Dr. Fred L. Gardaphe, Professor of English and Italian American Studies
Fred is a Distinguished Professor of English and Italian/American Studies at Queens College/CUNY and the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute. He is past-President of MELUS, the Italian American Studies Association, and the Working Class Studies Association. This year he celebrates his 45th year of teaching. His books include Italian Signs, American Streets: The Evolution of Italian American Narrative, Leaving Little Italy, and From Wiseguys to Wise Men: Masculinities and the Italian American Gangster and the short fiction collection, Importato dall’Italia. You can watch him interview NOIAW’s Chair and President on the October episode of CUNY TV’s Italics on our web site’s home page.
https://calandrainstitute.org/the-institute/fred-gardaphe/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/fred-gardaphe-7ab9242a/
https://www.facebook.com/fred.gardaphe.3/
Melissa Gisler Modanlou
Founder/Wine Director, Rock Juice
Melissa is a certified Advanced Sommelier who has spent the past 12 years working in wine. For the first 7 of those years, she was launching and running an Italian enoteca and retail shop in San Francisco (Ottimista + Spuntino). Then she learned about all the bad stuff that can go into wine, and all of the ways it can be processed and manipulated so that it that hardly resembles wine –the kind of wine she wants to drink, at least. So, in late 2015, she started Rock Juice to bring organic, low-intervention wines to drinkers everywhere with a curated natural wine subscription service.
Not yet a member of NOIAW? Join this amazing group of women today and we’ll feature your bio and photo in our next newsletter!