Award winners Diane Arneth, Zeinab Eyega, Rev. Terry Troia and Maria Morales
On Wednesday, Sept. 16 from 6 to 9 p.m., Wagner College will host the annual New York Women’s Foundation Neighborhood Dinner, held this year to celebrate women leaders on Staten Island.
The dinner is hosted in a different New York City borough each year; this is the first year that NYWF is hosting the dinner on Staten Island.
Wagner College Trustee Mary Caracappa ’82 is a co-chair of the dinner, which will honor four Staten Island women leaders:
The Rev. Terry Troia will be given the Neighborhood Leadership Award. Rev. Troia is executive director of Project Hospitality, an interfaith effort serving the hungry and homeless community of Staten Island since 1985. She has been one of the foremost supporters of Wagner College’s Port Richmond Partnership since its creation in 2008.
Maria Morales will be given the Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award. Morales, who owns and operates Los Potrillos Restaurant on Port Richmond Avenue, has been a stalwart supporter of the Port Richmond Partnership, working each year with Wagner College students seeking to learn first-hand from a practitioner about running a business and serving as a community leader.
Zeinab Eyega will be given the Neighborhood Leadership Award. Eyega is the founder and executive director of Sauti-Yetu (Swahili for “Our Voices”), which seeks to empower women to exercise, advocate and protect their rights in the face of sexual and gender-based violence.
Diane Arneth will be given the Neighborhood Leadership Award. Arneth is president and CEO of Community Health Action of Staten Island, a post she has held for the past 23 years. Each year, Community Health Action provides health education, disease prevention and direct services for more than 15,000 Staten Islanders who are most vulnerable and affected by health disparities — HIV-positive people, criminal justice populations, substance users, people of color, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
The New York Women’s Foundation is the largest women’s fund in the United States; in 2014, it granted $5.5 million to 80 New York City organizations helping to promote economic justice for women.
To purchase tickets to the 2015 New York Women’s Foundation Neighborhood Dinner, visit its website.