Queensborough CC Fund Hails Con Ed's Conslato

Photo Arpi Pap Conslato (c.), holding award, and current QCC Fund Board members (l. to r.): Stephen Levine; Steve Chen; Dr. Sandra Delson; Martí; Futterman; Holocaust Center Campaign chair Harriet Kupferberg; Reese; Planned Giving Liaison Dr. Sheena Gillespie; Vice Chair Norm Bigman, and Steven Blank.

Queensborough President Eduardo J. Martí, Ph.D., and Ira Futterman, Esq., chair of the Queensborough Community College Fund Board, Inc., presented Carol Conslato, the immediate past chair of the Fund Board, with a proclamation of appreciation at the college's annual Donor Recognition reception on Thursday, November 29.

Conslato was honored at the reception for her perseverance and exemplary leadership as chair of the college's Fund Board during the past four years and as a vital member of the Queens community. She has worked for Con Edison for 27 years, and has been the utility's director of Queens public affairs since August 1999. Additionally, she is first vice president of the Queens Chamber of Commerce and trustee of the Queens Borough Public Library. Her effective leadership and business skills, combined with her dedication and great vision, have resulted in the enrichment of funding for Queensborough's community-oriented programs such as the Queensborough Art Gallery and the Harriet and Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center and Archives as well as substantially increased funding for student scholarships.

To quote from the proclamation: "At a time when we look for effective leadership in the public sphere, Carol Conslato has emerged as one who has given instinctively of her time and has inculcated a productive leadership style for our Fund Board that readily emerges as a yardstick by which all such future undertakings will be measured."

During the 2006-'07 fiscal year, through the efforts of the Board and faculty, staff, students and friends of the college, more than $2 million was raised to benefit the students of Queensborough Community College. "I am highly impressed with the significant increase in fundraising I have seen the QCC Fund Board accomplish. Yet, the most important part of fundraising is what we do with the funds to enhance the learning experience of all who attend Queensborough," Martí told the audience of donors, friends and supporters.

In addition to the proclamation Conslato received at the Donor Recognition reception, Georgiana Reese, secretary of the Fund Board, presented her with a gift on behalf of all the Board members, and Futterman presented her with a gift to share with her employer, Con Edison.

The programs, projects and services supported by fundraising efforts include increasing student scholarships, the amount of funds for which has doubled in the last two years and quintupled in the past three years; equipping the Virtual Hospital for the college's nursing program, under which Queensborough serves as a primary provider of nurses to the borough of Queens and the entire New York City community; sponsoring Service Learning projects to encourage students to develop civic responsibility; underwriting costs to host world-class art exhibits, such as last year's Andy Warhol's Graphic Works and the current exhibit, A Cameroon World: Art and Artifacts from the Marshall and Caroline Mount Collection, and generating programs for the Kupferberg Holocaust Center to ensure that current and future generations will learn about the ramifications of unbridled prejudice, racism and stereotyping.