Attribute to: Dr. A. Kenneth Ciongoli, NIAF Chairman

All Italian Americans can be proud of Nancy Pelosi. She is positioned to make history by her impending election to Speaker of the House, the highest post in the United States House of Representatives, and the third-highest office in the United States government.

She will become both the highest ranking woman and Italian American in the history of the U.S. Congress. Congresswoman Pelosi has been a longtime supporter and a member of the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) Board of Directors. We heartily congratulate her.

Leader Pelosi has also been active in the bipartisan and bicameral ItalianAmerican Congressional Delegation, of which NIAF has served as an extension for more than 30 years.

Representative Pelosi grew up in Baltimore’s Little Italy neighborhood as the only girl and youngest of seven children in an Italian Catholic family. Public service runs through her lineage. Her father, Thomas J. D’Alesandro Jr., served as a U.S. congressman and later mayor of Baltimore from 1947 to 1959. Her brother, Thomas J. D’Alesandro III, also served as mayor of Baltimore from 1967 to 1971. Rep. Pelosi and her husband, Paul, have five children and five grandchildren. Her ancestors are from Naples and Genoa, Italy.

November 8, 2006 Washington, D.C.

NIAF is a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., and dedicated to preserving the heritage of Italian Americans. Visit www.niaf.org