Jenna Armato

Mindy Lipsky is the Executive Director of the Pottstown Public Library. In this role, she wears many hats, Human Resources, Fundraising and Development, Operations, just to name a few and is responsible for all day to day and strategic level decision making.

Mindy’s passion for the library and for the community drives her every day to have an impact in her role.

She says, “I want to make sure the community knows we’re here as a resource, and that we have multiple services. The library isn’t just about books anymore.”

Over the last year and a half, Mindy has spent time building relationships and creating a broader awareness of the massive resource that the library can be to the community – both to the people and to the organizations in our community.

She says, “We’re one of the last organizations that you can walk into the building and not be expected to spend any money while you’re here.”

We want people...

Lauren McCloskey is a valued Community Leader across the Pottstown area who recently stepped into the role of Marketing Manager of the SE Region with Barry Isett and Associates.

In her new role, Lauren supports the SE region of the company in business development efforts, marketing and maintaining a social media presence. She works closely with department heads, managers and the President to ensure business goals are met.

Barry Isett and Associates is an employee-owned, multi-discipline engineering and consulting firm headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania that provides single-source responsibility and start-to-finish project involvement in the design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and replacement of facilities.

Outside of her day job, Lauren is an active leader in her local community and recently finished a year in the role of Pottstown Rotary Club President. 

Lauren says, “Rotary is an international service organization. We are...

Sheila Dugan is the Director of the Pottstown FARM which is currently in its eighth season.

Sheila said in the early days, the team was excited when they counted 50 people coming to the market in a day. Now, an average Saturday looks like 500 to 600 people coming to shop at the Pottstown FARM!

Originally, the market was held on Thursday nights, and the team tried a few different locations, eventually landing on Saturday mornings in Smith Family Plaza.

Sheila shared, “Smith Family Plaza is such a beautiful park, and the FARM fits there perfectly!”

In all it’s been about 10 years since Sheila and her team of volunteers started the process of getting the FARM up and running and to where it is today.

The process of growth is typically not always smooth sailing, so I asked Sheila what some of the lessons are that the team has learned over the years.

She shared one of the biggest learning curves has been with the vendors, specifically farmers and also learning about the...

Amy Auwaerter is the Director of Operations for Montgomery County Community College Pottstown Campus.

In our discussion, Amy shared her love of working with her team, the MCCC students, and the Pottstown Community.

Amy expressed the importance of the “Community” aspect of Montgomery County Community College, and said how important it is to embrace the community, and “get out into the community so the community knows what the college has to offer, and also to truly understand what does the community need the college to produce?”

Amy’s insights reminded me of John Maxwell’s philosophy on an “open door policy”, John says it’s one thing for a leader to have an open door that team members can feel comfortable walking through, but just as important is for a leader to walk through the door to proactively connect with their team.

Amy also shared her love of working with students, “I have the pleasure of...

Tammy Vontor is the sole customer service representative at West Motor Freight. Her day-to-day is fast paced and dynamic. She manages various events including customers calling in orders, tracking loads, helping dispatch, and filling in for whoever needs help on the team.

Tammy says, “Some days especially snow days, or bad weather or coming in and out of COVID, we had a lot of things going on with our drivers getting sick and we had loads that still needed to be moved.”

Tammy often needs to think creatively and put solutions in place quickly and safely to honor commitments, and ensure customers get what they’re paying for.

Outside of her day job, Tammy shares her gifts and talents volunteering for Pottstown Go Fourth and the Pottstown Rotary Club.

This summer will be Tammy’s fourth year volunteering for Go Fourth alongside of her husband Phil.

Tammy’s role with the Go Fourth Festival is to coordinate all of the...

Dr. Myra Forrest is the Education Advocate for the Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation. In her role, she advocates for educational funding equity for underfunded school districts, with special focus on Pottstown School District. Myra also advocates for both health and racial equity in the Pottstown Community.

Myra is active in several community organizations and serves as the Board Chair of the Pottstown Hospital, and the Chair of the Advisory Council for the Pottstown Campus of Montgomery County Community College which focuses on education but also on partnerships and has three subcommittees that are working on early college dual enrollment, the Challenger Learning Center, and Workforce Development. Myra is also a part of the Pottstown Ministerium which is an opportunity for Pottstown Clergy to come together.

A big part of Myra’s involvement in organizations includes facilitating partnerships and collaboration.

One example of that collaboration is the recent...

Absolutely fascinating!!

In the work I've been doing on Bridging the Multigenerational Gap, the concept of Emotional Professionalism came up, so I started doing some exploring and what it led to was a huge discovery in human behavior that I wasn't expecting! 

In explaining Emotional Professionalism, Simon Sinek shares that it's one thing to acknowledge you're having a bad day, and another thing to sit in a meeting, grumpy, with your arms folded - non participative.

As I've learned through the EQ Project in Empowered Living, this would be the Self Recognition and Self Management aspects of Emotional Intelligence, in other words, understanding your emotions and managing the way you express them. 

Interestingly, Simon Sinek shares that typically, the more people advance in their careers, the less emotion they share, the perception being that expressing emotion is a sign of weakness. 

He goes on to say, some people are uncomfortable...

Casey Fenoglio is the Director of Community Engagement at Pottstown Hospital, she oversees the Community Wellness Department.

Casey’s role includes conducting a Community Health Needs Assessment every three years, working with community partners to develop an implementation and execution strategy to meet the community needs that are identified, and writing grants to receive additional funds for new or continuing programs.

A large part of Casey’s work is in community engagement. She says, “I work with community partners and really listen to them and the clients they serve, to learn where their needs are, to see where we can be a good partner, and where we might be able to add a unique health perspective to a project.”

She continued, “We're doing a lot of work in health equity right now, and I'm really focused on ensuring our most vulnerable community members have the same access to care as everybody else in the community.”

...

Matt Moyer is the Principal of Rupert Elementary School.

He knew from a young age that he wanted to enter the field of education and was quite driven in college to obtain his teaching degree.

Matt began his career teaching in the Springford school district and then transitioned to Schuylkill Valley Elementary School where he served as the Assistant Principal for 3 years prior to stepping into the role of Principal at Rupert Elementary in the Pottstown School District.

Over the last several years, the global pandemic has been challenging for educators to say the least, so I asked Matt what the most challenging aspect of his role has been throughout that time. 

He said, “We encountered things we never thought we would encounter. And so you don't have past experience to draw from when you reach those things. You have to gather as much information as you can and then make the best decisions you can based on your mission and values.”

The mission of the Pottstown School...

Jessica Clemmer is the assistant to the Principals at Pottsgrove High School and an active leader in the local community.

When Jessica originally applied for her role at the high school, she was looking for a “fill in job”, while she did some processing and tried to determine what would be next for her.

She was the lead pastor at a church that she and her husband started several years prior and as that was wrapping up and they were beginning the process of shutting it down a bit, so she was looking for a “fill in job” to make some needed money at the time.

Jessica took the role at Pottsgrove and it ended up growing into so much more. She is in her fifth year there, and plays an integral role in the success of the principal team, and energizing the staff at PGHS.

When asked about the biggest lesson she’s learned on her leadership journey, Jessica shared,

“I used to think that not everyone was a leader, then for a while I thought everyone was a...