Woman of the Year
Each year, the Zonta Club of the Joliet Area 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.
2023 Honoree
On Tuesday, April 11, 2023, the Zonta Club of the Joliet Area named Lisa Pappas as ZCJA's Woman of the Year.
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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.
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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.
Woman of the Year Past Honorees
2004 Kathy Giegerich
2005 Beth Ann May
2006 Mary Baudino
2007 Pat Perrier
2008 Dinah Archambeault
2009 Yolanda Reyes
2010 Bonnie Horne
2011 Rita Weiss
2012 Beth Colvin
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2013 Mary Lancaster
2014 Peggy Field
2015 Cathy Lowery
2016 Helen Hester Ross
2017 Kristine Schlismann
2018 Catherine Adamowski
2019 Pam Hunte
2020 Donna Zanzola
2021 Terri King
1995 Pam Davis Gorcowski
1996 Helen Sarsfield
1997 Emita Ostrem
1998 Ta Wilson
1999 Jan Larsen
2000 Lora McGuire
2001 Bonnie McElroy
2002 Dianne Harmon
2003 Karen Lega
1986 Helen Harshbarger
1987 Dorothy Cryder
1988 Carmela Castagna
1989 Dianna Gliwa
1990 Wanda Onstad
1991 Charlotte Baker
1992 Mohra Gavankar
1993 Jane DeWitt
1994 Judith Freund Vavrus
2022 Karen Pastell