This April, the Zonta Club of the Joliet Area (ZCJA) named its 2023 recipient of the Woman of the Year award, Lisa Pappas. Each year, ZCJA recognizes one of their members for making a significant contribution in the advancement and operation of the Club. Sometimes the efforts are very visible and other times the good work takes place behind the scenes. Joliet Area Zontians thoughtfully nominate one of their own who has utilized creativity, time and effort to help make a positive difference. This can be through active participation in support of meetings, service projects, publications/websites, fundraising, communications, recruitment; or other significant activities such as representing our Club at district and national meetings.
Ms. Pappas joined the Zonta Club of the Joliet Area in 2017 at the urging of Dr. Patricia L. Miller, a founding member of the Joliet club, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this fall. Ms. Pappas has served on the Executive Board of ZCJA since 2018 as a director and as Corresponding Secretary, whose role is to disseminate all club correspondence and create a monthly newsletter for the club members. She has been an active member of the PR Committee and the LUNAFEST film festival event planning committee for the past four years.
In addition to executive board and committee duties, Ms. Pappas took on the responsibility of re-designing the Club's website and is responsible for all updates and maintenance of the site.
In 2022, the PR Committee, chaired by Bonnie Winfrey, and long-time member Pat Perrier, created the Zonta on the Move podcast, which can be found on all the major podcasting platforms including Spotify, Google and Apple.
Ms. Pappas, director of the Plainfield Area Library, has worked in public libraries in the Chicago area for almost 30 years. She has been serving the community of Plainfield in different capacities for 20 years, spending the last six years as library director.
Read the Naperville Sun article.
Read the Joliet Patch article.
