2008 Community Leaders of Distinction honor was awarded to Gloria Aftanski by Middlesex County Regional Chambers of Commerce.

As President and Chief Professional Officer at United Way of Central Jersey, Gloria Aftanski leads the effort to create opportunities for a better life for people living or working in our community.

She achieves this by mobilizing people, organizations and financial resources to accomplish things that no individual, no organization and no government can accomplish on its own.

Working with many partners, Ms Aftanski looks for the most effective ways to help people gain access to educational, economic and health-related opportunities. For example:

• She started a program to improve the birth results of at-risk, low income mothers. Today, over 100 first-time mothers receive a home visit from specially trained nurses until their child is two years old. Research shows that this program has reduced child abuse by 43%!

• She started a program that has distributed over 10,000 savings cards to help people with no health insurance pay for their prescription medicine.

• She started an initiative to make childcare centers more effective by undergoing an accreditation process to upgrade curriculum and teacher credentials.

Ms Aftanski leads an organization based in Milltown that works with over 50 non-profits and supports almost 100 programs that serve the needs of our community here in Central Jersey.

The United Way is the largest source of health and human services support – next to the Federal Government. Ms Aftanski serves on its Regional Operating Council, she is the Treasurer of the statewide association: United Ways of New Jersey, the statewide Women’s Leadership Council, and serves on the Middlesex County Workforce Investment Board, Coordinated Family Care and serves as co-chair of the Middlesex County Housing First Initiative…among several other community service organizations.

While dedicating her life to improving conditions right here for all of us in Central Jersey, Gloria also finds the time to care for two children, husband and father.

Education, income and health are the building blocks for a good life. Education is essential to getting a good job. An adequate income is essential to provide for a family’s financial stability. Access to quality health care keeps children on track at school and adults productive at work. Remove any one of these building blocks and the other two topple.