Stephanie Stellaccio worked as a sales executive for Courier Life Newspapers, now part of Community News Group, for 34 years and has recently retired.
“Belief and passion in one’s profession is a must for success,” is the motto Stellacio says served her well during a full career in sales and marketing for Courier Life.
“I started selling subscriptions for the Kings Courier in 1983, moved on to classifieds, and went on to outside sales,” she says. “I grew to love the business. Every day was an adventure. I loved going to work. I learned the benefits of print advertising and how important a community newspaper was. People read them. I really enjoyed selling ads and providing a good service.”
Her sales and marketing ability enabled her to coordinate CNG’s Back-to-School expos at the Kings Plaza, Green Acres, and Queen Center Malls. She delighted kids in Brooklyn by organizing and hosting the paper’s first spelling bee at Kings Plaza Mall.
“That was my dream, the spelling bee,” Stellacio recalls “The kids loved it; CNG provided prizes for the winners. It was a wonderful community outreach experience.
“I was part of a great group of Courer Life people, who continued to help grow a valuable media product. Courier Life has always been a second a home to me and has provided a learning experience I couldn’t have gotten anwhere else,” she says.
But there’s more to this Woman of Distinction’s story.
Her personal experience with juvenile diabetes — and finding out that her son at age 12 would also have to go through life with same affliction — prompted her to reach out for the New York chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. At the time, there wasn’t a local Brooklyn chapter of the foundation, so she and others co-founded a chapter in the borough, which she helped run for five years.
“We helped put on fund-raising events, including the Walk for a Cure and the Discovery Ball,” which Stellacio served as co-chairwoman for several years.
Stellacio grew up in Bay Ridge with her parents, Al and Carmella Florio, and brothers Alfred and Steven. She says it was Al, a pattern design maker in the garment industry, and Carmella, an account manager in the banking field, who taught her “to meet challenges head-on, and always stay positive and go forward.”
Her most recent achievement was coordinating and serving as chairwoman, from 2011 to 2016, CNG’s Brooklyn Women of Distinction, a magazine and gala honoring women in the borough who have made a difference in their community. What was most rewarding, Stellacio says, was seeing each and every honoree given the praise and recognition they so deserved.
Not one to retire to a life of leisure, Stellacio has embarked on a new career as a real estate agent for Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Syosset, Long Island.
