Maria D’Andrea-Yothers Honored AS ‘WISE WOMAN’ BY NOIAW

AMHS Immediate Past President Maria D’Andrea-Yothers supported by family and friends including Fr. Ezio Marchetto at NOIAW’s celebration of Three Wise Women.

A sizeable group of AMHS members was on hand to cheer for Maria D’Andrea-Yothers as she was honored as one of the Three Wise Women by the National Organization of Italian American Women. Maria and the other two honorees were celebrated for their professional achievements at a dinner on January 9, 2020 at Maggiano’s in Washington, D.C. The annual event, which coincides with the Feast of the Epiphany, honors Three Wise Women from the Washington, D.C. area. Maria, our AMHS Immediate Past President, was recognized for her distinguished career in the field of international trade. Speakers at the event included Diane Femia, president of NOIAW for the Greater Washington Region; Maria Tamburri, the NOIAW Chair visiting from New York; and Domenico Bellantone, the First Counselor for Consular and Social Affairs of the Embassy of Italy. The emcee for the evening was Gemma Puglisi, a 2016 recipient of the Wise Woman award. Gemma, an assistant professor of communications at American

University, is the sister of AMHS member Angela Puglisi who has also been an award recipient. Maria was introduced as an international trade specialist who is currently with the U.S. Commerce Department, where she is Director of the Office of Textiles and Apparel in the International Trade Administration. In that capacity, she manages a staff of 11 international trade specialists, international economists and administrative specialists. She has been involved in negotiations of top trade priorities such as special safeguards against China and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. Maria is such an expert in the field of textiles and apparel that her advice is sought by U.S. industry and foreign government representatives. Before going to work at the Commerce Department in 1992, Maria worked on textile and clothing trade issues at the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. Even while maintaining a busy work and travel schedule, Maria has been very active in several Italian cultural organizations. Most of all, of course, she has been involved with the Abruzzo and Molise Heritage Society, where she has served as an officer and past president.

The AMHS, which is about to celebrate its 20-year anniversary, was founded by Maria’s father Lucio, who is from Molise (her mother Edvige is from Abruzzo). Maria is also a board member of the National Christopher Columbus Association, and she has collaborated on programs with the Italian Cultural Society, the National Italian American Foundation and the Lucchesi nel Mondo-Tuscany Club. The two other women honored by NOIAW this year were lawyer Giovanna M. Cinelli and political journalist Tara Palmeri. Giovanna is a partner in a leading global law firm, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, where she heads the firm’s international trade and national security practice. During her career, she has conducted over 250 civil and criminal investigations, both classified and unclassified, and she is an expert in a broad range of issues affecting national security, including sanctions, cross-border compliance, international technology transfer, and export controls including arms exports. Over the last 30 years, she has negotiated and favorably settled more consent agreements with the State Department than any other outside counsel.

Honored as Three Wise Women for 2020 were (l to r) Tara Palmeri, Giovanna Cinelli, and Maria D’Andrea-Yothers

Giovanna has also lectured and written extensively on strategic issues affecting international arms trades, technology transfer and export issues, and she has appeared on CNN and MSNBC programs as an expert in international technology, arms exports and related national security issues. At the same time as she was establishing herself in her legal career, Giovanna, who is fluent in Italian and French, served as a Naval Reserve Intelligence Officer. In her spare time, she is a competitive amateur concert pianist and a violinist with the Washington Opera Society.

Tara was introduced by Gemma Puglisi, who was her professor at American University and who said she knew all along that Tara’s smarts and hard work would lead to success. Tara has been a CNN political analyst, a contributor to the New York Post’s Page Six, Politico’s White House correspondent, and a former White House correspondent for ABC News. For a time, she reported from Brussels for Politico’s European edition, returning to Washington in 2016. Tara is most recently the host and chief investigative reporter on the podcast “Broken: Jeffrey Epstein.” Her work has taken her all over the world, most recently from Singapore to Finland and North Korea. She is one of the few American journalists to travel to North Korea with an official delegation.

Tara said she is proud of her Italian heritage and her family’s roots in Sicily and at no time did she consider changing her name to Palmer to advance her career in broadcast journalism. Maria, in addition to members of her AMHS “family,” was joined by her husband Sam, her parents Lucio and Edvige D’Andrea as well as many other proud family members. Among those present and congratulating Maria was one of the 2019 Wise Women, AMHS 2nd Vice President Lynn Sorbara, who was recognized last year for her important cancer research work. ❚