Top Award for Long Island Employer

November 12, 2003 - Rita DiStefano, Manager of Human Resources for the East Hills, New York-based Pall Corporation, has been named Employer of the Year for 2003 by the New York State Cooperative & Experiential Education Association (NYSCEEA). For more than five years, DiStefano has partnered with the C.W. Post Office of Professional Experience and Career Planning (PEP) to provide an internship program that gives college students the opportunity to participate in meaningful work experiences in a corporate environment.

"It is more than a pleasure to work with the academic community to help broaden the ties between business and education," said DiStefano. "Working with C.W. Post and its wonderful PEP staff has helped to provide a vehicle to develop mutually beneficial programs through which students have an opportunity to develop their skills, while Pall Corporation gets the benefit of cost effective added resources."

DiStefano has been Manager of Human Resources for Pall Corporation for 11 years. Pall is the global leader in the highly sophisticated filtration, separation and purification industry. Their products are found in a broad range of industries, including aerospace, automotive, medical, food and beverage, environmental and biopharmaceuticals. A highly visible leader in Long Island business, DiStefano embraces and promotes the value of internships to help build a future workforce for the region.

Through the internship program, Pall training managers act as mentors to college interns. An important element of the program is feedback, performance evaluations and salary increases for interns, most of whom stay for two years. Managers must provide a job description including projects that will challenge the intern as well as contribute to the department’s goals.

DiStefano co-chairs the Professional Experience and Career Planning Employer Advisory Board at C.W. Post. Her appointment to the C.W. Post PEP Advisory Board gives her the opportunity to work with professors and students to help bridge the gap between business and education. She is also involved with many community organizations, including Long Island Works Coalition, the Hauppauge Industrial Association and the Half Hollow Hills School District School Advisory Board. She now chairs the One-Stop Committee for the Department of Labor and is a member of the Executive Board of Directors.

"Rita’s effective influence and professional accomplishments are accompanied by her gracious and caring personality," said Jeanette Grill, director of Professional Experience and Career Planning at C.W. Post. "Our students also get the benefit of her personal concern and advocacy for their success within her company."

For more information call the Professional Experience and Career Planning Office at 516-299-2435 or visit this web site www.liu.edu/pep.