After N1H1 Outbreak Mary Pappas ‘78 Lauded as Hero; Invited to White House Press Briefing
Mary Pappas (above, center) with other members of the National School Nurses Association were invited to a White House Press Conference in which President Obama reviewed plans for his health care bill.
Mary Pappas ‘78 never imagined that her position as the school nurse at Prep would end up casting her into the national spotlight in the nursing profession. But that is what happened in the year-and-a-half since scores of frightened Prep students first started arriving at her office with fever, nausea, sore throats, difficulty breathing, and other flu-like symptoms. A nurse of 27 years, Pappas credits her broad range of experience in pediatric nursing, hospital nursing, and nursing at summer camps with preparing her to recognize that something was not right and to react calmly and decisively to what would be identified as the first U.S. cases of influenza A (H1N1)—swine flu. Since the outbreak in April 2009, she has been interviewed by the all of the major New York media outlets including the New York Times, NY Daily News, Newsday, “Good Day New York” and ABC, NBC and National Public RaElizabeth A. Chester has been working in Kenya since 2008 and is running an Orphans and Vulnerable Children’s Program. Mela Gerbasi-Stevens opened a nutrition & wellness counseling practice six years ago, when she changed careers, and has since added teaching yoga and meditation to the mix. Debra A. Handte-Wang started an evangelization apostolate a few years back and will be opening the St. Francis Xavier Institute of Evangelization in Brooklyn. The apostolate is responsible for evangelizing the Chinese living in North and South America and Europe.
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Joseph A. LaBarbera is working at Sunharbor Manor Nursing Home in Rosy-
dio. She was nominated as the “Queens Person of the Year” in 2010, and has been invited to make presentations at a dozen health conferences across the United States. Just recently Mary learned that she was nominated for the CDC Hero Award. But what does Mary think of all of this? She is very modest and maintains, “When our students got sick, I gave them the oldest advice in the book: stay home, get rest, and avoid contact with people who could catch the flu from you.” It’s the same advice the Centers for Disease Control and public health officials told millions of Americans to help stop the spread of the disease. Mary may not consider herself a hero, but the parents of our 2,700 Prep students and her 45,000 fellow school nurses certainly do!
lyn Heights. He is in nursing administration and is the coordinator of the Wound and Infection control programs of the facility. He sold his coin store in South Florida a few years ago(Coin Traders, Inc.), and is still very active in the rare coin market. You can check out his website at www.joelabarberacollectibles.com.
pily married for 15 years to Rosemarie and they have two children. They are proud that one child will be attending Prep this Fall.
Jeffrey Santiago married his beautiful classmate Monica Rios. They have four outstanding children.
Linda Morrissey moved to California in 1985 and currently resides in the San Francisco Bay area. She obtained a graduate degree in Social Work from San Diego State University and is employed by the County of Sonoma as a Forensic Interviewer and supervisor for Child Protective Services.
Louis Angulo is the owner of “Back Together Again Chiropractic PC” located on the Upper West Side. He recently opened a second practice in Flushing. Lou specializes in Active Release Techniques Therapy which is great for repetitive stress. He has been hap-
Mariana Bernunzo-Connolly is a client portfolio manager at JP Morgan. She is happily married to Ray Connolly and lives in Huntington, NY .
Marian E. Baldwin-Fuerst is a corporate partner at the law firm Chad-
bourne & Parke and has two boys with her husband Roland. Christine M. Gentile-Goodgold is married with two girls and lives in Ridgewood, NJ. She is the general counsel of Rockefeller Center. Joseph J. Gumber is writing his first book, non-fiction, about how media coverage affected the public perception of major events in the world from newspapers to radio to television to 24 hour Cable News to the Internet and now to social media. Michael C. Giordano and Carol Tilt (Class of 1980) were married in 1987. Carol is a high school math teacher and Mike is a pharmacist. They have two children.