48 The Queens Courier • KINGS OF QUEENS • SEPTEMBER 18, 2014 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com kings of queens H SEPTEMBER 18, 2014 H H H s ALBERT Founder, Perna Foundation for Kids Born and raised in Corona, NY, Albert attended Queens College where he studied architectural drafting and engineering. At a young age he started his own construction business and has received several awards acknowledging is work such as the Builder’s Award from the Queens, Brooklyn, and Bronx Association, the Judge William G. Giaccio award for Outstanding Achievement and the Project Oasis Award from Claire Shulman an award for outstanding Community Service In 2009 Mr. Perna established the Perna Foundation For Kids. The foundation’s mission is to help children and young adults reach their goals through after school activities, sports, volunteering and counseling. For many years Mr. Perna has been the driving force behind fundraisers, holiday parties and other volunteer programs giving back to his community. Under the Perna foundation For Kids, in 2013, Mr. Perna established the Corona Cadets. An organization that provides young men and women the opportunity to be the best they can by becoming stronger individuals physically and mentally. Through Mr. Perna’s leadership the Corona Cadets have participated in several community events and showed their support to community members in need. One tradition that Mr. Perna holds dear to his heart is the feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel which for the past several this community event has been reestablished. Mr. Perna is also involved in other charities such as The Italian Heritage Foundation, Sons of Italy, Corona Lions and The Saint Leo’s Holy Name Society. He also volunteers for Autism and Cancer Foundations. He is an active member of Community Board 4, The Queens County Democratic Club, Board member of the 110th Pct., Honorary Member of the Nassau County Sheriff’s Dept., Director of Corona Cadets and Chair of the Parks Dept. On March 7, 2010 he was awarded Lion of the Year Award and the City of New York declared that day to be Albert Perna Day. On October 13, 2011 Mr. Perna was honored by UNICO Brooklyn Chapter for the charity work he does through his foundation. In April,2014 he became President of the Corona Community Volunteer Ambulance Corp. Christopher WOODS Director of DBE Preconstruction Services McKissack & McKissack Christopher Woods is a highly skilled professional with more than 25 years of multi-billion dollar project experience developing community engagement programs. Chris has worked on a number of high profile public/private, mixeduse, infrastructure, transportation and intermodal projects. Chris began his career with Forest City Ratner where he designed and implemented the first MWBE program for Metrotech in downtown Brooklyn. From there Chris was recruited by LCOR to serve as Director of Diversity and Contract Compliance. During his tenure with LCOR Chris developed and managed Award winning EEO, MWBE, and community education programs, most notably the $1.4 billion dollar redevelopment and privatization of Terminal 4, The International Arrival Terminal at JFK International Airport in Jamaica Queens. Over the past 10 years Chris has been involved with a number of projects in Queens where his skill and expertise have added value to an array of successful projects such as The Queens Family Courthouse, Jamaica Airtrain Station Plaza, The Atlantic Avenue Extension and the Brownfields Opportunity Area Study. Chris’s most recent Queens based project was the Rockaway Boardwalk Reconstruction Project. On this project Chris assisted the Skanska/Mckissack team develop a public engagement program targeting businesses, residents, elected officials and all stakeholders impacted by the replacement of sections destroyed be Hurricane Sandy. Currently Chris is working with the NYC Department of Environmental Protection on the NYC Green Infrastructure Program. This project is part of a $700 million city wide initiative to build Right-of-Way Bioswales, Stormwater Greenstreets, and other stormwater management practices designed to improve water quality in New York City. In support of the Hunter-Roberts/McKissack Construction Management team on the Green Infrastructure project Chris is at the forefront of ensuring minimal impact to the community, keeping the public informed and facilitating solutions when problems do arise, and developing/implementing a MWBE initiative for the project. Christopher and his wife Jennifer are co-owners of the consulting firm Amedia Group LLC specializing in MWBE program development/implementation, public engagement programing, and corporate training and development. PERNA ROB MacKay Director of Public Relations Queens Economic Development Corporation Rob MacKay has worked at the Queens Economic Development Corporation since 2011. His responsibilities include writing press releases and promotional brochures, handling the agency’s social media outreach, placing stories in media outlets, providing information to the public and news agencies, organizing and promoting events such as Queens Taste and Restaurant Week, and spearheading the Queens Tourism Council—because “It’s in Queens!” A Brooklyn native, Rob fell in love with the diversity, people, restaurants, and attractions in Queens almost instantly after moving to Woodside in 1991. He has worked as an editor/reporter for various publications and an English teacher. He also lived in Honduras as a Peace Corps volunteer. Rob speaks fluent Spanish and loves to meet people. He lives in Sunnyside with his lovely wife, Sharmeela Mediratta, and two daughters, Asha (13) and Sarika (11). He certainly considers them to be queens of Queens.
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