C&L Award – District 53 Toastmasters

For immediate release —

District 53 is pleased to announce the 2024 recipient of its Communication and Leadership Award. The Communication and Leadership Award is presented by the District to a non-Toastmaster in the community who is an outstanding communicator or leader. The recipient will have distinguished himself/herself as a leader or spokesperson for a worthy cause or purpose, especially as it exemplified their communication and leadership skills.

Alisa Klein, Executive Director of Grow Food Northampton (GFN), manages and stewards access to farmland and healthy food to create what they call a “local food system” in Hampshire County, Massachusetts. The organization:

Offers 320 organic community garden plots on six acres to provide gardening space to 400 community members;
Leases prime farmland and provides infrastructure and resources to ten small farms on the 121-acre Grow Food Northampton Community Farm;
Manages year-long weekly farmers markets to connect local farms directly with customers;
Runs a free mobile farmers market that, weekly, delivers fresh local produce and other quality ingredients to hundreds of individuals and families grappling with food insecurity and hunger;
Operates a Giving Garden that grows and donates thousands of pounds of organic produce annually to local food pantries and community meal sites; and
Conducts collaborative research projects with academics and others on sustainable and climate resilience-enhancing agricultural practices.

Alisa Klein,
executive director
Grow Food Northampton

On the Community Farm, GFN leases land to farmers who have traditionally been denied access to farmland, including refugees from war-torn places like Somalia, women farmers, and others. In addition to its farm-based Community Garden, GFN has established community gardens at nine public housing communities to enable low-income families to have access to green spaces and grow their own food. Working together with local business sponsors, Grow Food Northampton doubles the purchasing power of low-income individuals so they can afford more healthy local foods at GFN’s farmers markets. The organization also collaborates with the local school system to deliver hands-on education about nutrition, cooking with locally grown food, and gardening to all K-12 students, while also offering workshops to adults on a variety of local food system-related topics.

Ms. Klein is a long-time activist and community organizer working on issues as diverse, yet interconnected, as the climate emergency and peace and justice in Palestine and Israel. She has been deeply involved in bringing restorative and transformative justice models to addressing harm in communities. Between 2014 and 2020, Alisa served as a Northampton, Massachusetts, city councilor where she established a Select Committee on Pesticide Reduction and wrote and sponsored legislation to prohibit the use of pesticides in municipal spaces. She has a bachelor’s degree from Smith College and a Master’s in International Policy from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

Alisa Klein will receive the award at the District 53 Annual Conference in Southbury, CT, on May 11, 2024.

District 53 Toastmasters is an administrative unit of Toastmasters International that supports the Toastmasters clubs in Connecticut and Western Massachusetts, and the Albany, Hudson Valley and upper triangle of New York State. Clubs are open to all adults 18 years of age and older through the payment of membership fees; all members of clubs are members of District 53 Toastmasters. You can find a club near you through the Find a Club feature, or learn how to Start a Club in your community or in your corporate or government environment.

The 2023 District 53 Communication and Leadership (C&L) committee is pleased to announce that Patricia Nicolari has been chosen as the recipient for this year’s District 53 Communication and Leadership award which will be to be presented at the C&L Luncheon during our annual District Conference on May 6, 2023 in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Toastmasters District 53 Communications and Leadership Award recipient for 2023, Patricia Nicolari (she/her pronouns), founder and Executive Director of PROUD Academy, Inc., in a black & white checked blazer over a dark blue or black blouse, with a gold pendant on a chain at her throat. — Patricia Nicolari, 2023 Communications & Leadership Award recipient

Patricia Nicolari (she/her) is the Founder/Executive Director of PROUD Academy, Inc. PROUD Academy has been Patty’s vision for LGBTQ+ youth and their allies after working with youth in education and nonprofits throughout her 40-year career. Patty has four degrees from Southern Connecticut State University – a BS in Physical Education, an MS in Community Health, a Sixth Year in Educational Foundations, and another Sixth Year in Administration/Supervision, and presently holds an 092 certificate in Educational Leadership.

Patty has always been actively/progressively involved in her community and that passion escalated after coming out publicly as a teacher in 1997, alongside the brave move of Ellen DeGeneres. She was featured in the New Haven Register article, “Ellen is Out and so is Ms. Nic.” Patty even received a call from Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts, then a host of 20/20, for consideration to be featured on the TV show as an “out” teacher. The freedom to be authentic became the catalyst for Patty to create change in the educational environment for LGBTQ+ students, teachers, and staff. The most powerful part of coming out as a teacher was the outpouring of students who now felt safe enough to disclose their own sexual orientation/gender identity (SOGI) or that of a relative.

As a result of coming out, Patty started her high school’s first Genders and Sexualities Alliances and organized the first Day of Silence. She joined the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network Board of Directors, became a Stonewall Speaker, facilitated support groups for youth and closeted teachers at the New Haven Pride Center, presented workshops across the country in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, and CT, on the topic of “How to Create a Safe School for all Students Regardless of SOGI”. Additionally, Patty presented a workshop for actor Hill Harper’s nonprofit, “Manifest Your Destiny”, for 8th graders in LA on the topic, “Academic Success Strategies”.

Patty was interviewed by Faith Middleton on NPR, was a recipient of a Dorothy Award for her LGBTQ+ community involvement, and had her story published with other LGBTQ educators in Kevin Jennings’ book, “One Teacher in 10.”

Patty’s experience as an educator ranges from working with marginalized youth as a teacher in an Alternative to Incarceration program in Bridgeport, an administrator of an alternative school for grades 7-12, to higher education as an adjunct professor at Western Connecticut State University. In 2004, Patty was named Teacher of the Year in Ansonia.

Patty’s nonprofit work includes being the director of a mentoring program for youth involved with juvenile probation and State of Connecticut Department of Children and Families foster care. Patty was also a foster parent. She has volunteered on the Governor’s Prevention Partnership LGBTQ+ Advisory Board and presently serves on the New Haven/Hamden Juvenile Review Board.

Patty’s lived experience, “in and out” of the LGBTQ+ family, coupled with her careers in education and nonprofits, have led her to this moment in time.

Join us at the Toastmasters District 53 2023 Conference on May 6, 2023, at the Sheraton Springfield Monarch Place in Springfield, MA and hear Patty’s lunchtime remarks.

Tag: C&L Award

Communication & Leadership Award 2024

C&L Award 2023: Patricia Nicolari