Five Questions With: Melissa DiNapoli, Administrative Manager (Marketing and HR)
Melissa DiNapoli oversees the firm’s human resource and business development functions as an administrative manager, a position she has held since 2013. She is based in the firm’s Stamford, Connecticut office, and has been deeply involved in both recruiting and marketing since she joined the firm in 2004. A New York native, Melissa holds a degree in psychology from Mercy College.
Melissa with her daughters;
photo courtesy Melissa DiNapoli.
1. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
As a child, I wanted to be a marine biologist. I was fascinated by ocean life and thought that I would choose that as my career, so I could spend all of my days with the whales and dolphins. Recently, I read somewhere that “marine biologist” and “oceanographer” were the number-one career choices of people from my generation. Apparently my love of the ocean was not unique.
2. What’s the most interesting thing you’ve read recently?
I recently read a book called “All the Ugly and Wonderful Things.” This book was tough to read in some ways. It is about a young girl whose life was extremely challenging, and she faced a lot of hardships and family trauma very early on. But I fell in love with the writing, and the story really captured me from the beginning. Some of the subject matter would be considered a little controversial, and some may consider it too much, but I really found it to be a good read. What I’ve learned about myself through television and movies is that I really enjoy watching or reading stories where the main characters overcome extreme hardships. In other words, I don’t like fluff; romance novels are not for me. Also, worth noting is that I have read all of the books that my coworkers have suggested through this Five Questions series. So if any of you are like me and you decide to pick up this book, don’t say I didn't warn you that it's very dark.
3. If you’re a sports fan, what team has your loyalty?
I would consider myself mildly a sports fan, but only of certain sports. The team that I am loyal to is the New York Rangers. I come from a long line of hockey fans. My father played hockey his first year in college. My uncles continue to play hockey to this day, into their late 50s, and my brother is a die-hard Rangers fan, so much so that his wedding was Rangers-themed. For these reasons, I consider myself a fan of both hockey and the Rangers. I find hockey to be more exciting to watch than football or baseball any day.
4. What non-famous app on your phone do you love?
A non-famous app on my phone that I love is called SOAR. SOAR is an app that allows you to track turbulence. You can put in your flight number and it will tell you the different turbulence possibilities one hour out, three hours out and six hours out. It also shows you different maps depending on where you're traveling, storm positioning, and various other information pertaining to your flight. When I tell people about this app, they ask if I’m crazy and ask why I would want to know that information. I have developed a fear of flying in recent years, and I find knowing what to expect and having some level of predictability helps to ease my fears slightly. The person who created the app, Tom Bunn, is a former pilot who worked for Pan Am for many years. I even did some Zoom counseling sessions with him. I’ve found both him and his app to be a great resource. Maybe not everyone’s bailiwick, but definitely mine.
5. What’s a typical weekend day look like for you?
The DiNapoli girls at a cheer competition in Baltimore;
photo courtesy Melissa DiNapoli.
A typical weekend day for me looks a bit like this: If it’s during the school year, my kids and I will use the opportunity to be able to sleep in a little bit on a weekend and not wake up early. Both my girls really enjoy bagels, so we usually get breakfast out on one of the weekend days. After that, I will usually go on a long walk where I listen to a book on Audible. I like to walk in my neighborhood and see the various home projects that people are doing, as well as the different holiday decorations as the seasons change.
After that, it depends on the time of year. If it’s summertime, we tend to use our pool when we can. We have company over and barbecue and have a good old-fashioned pool day. Outside of summertime, from December to May, both of my girls are “all star cheerleaders” (not to be confused with sideline cheerleaders). Weekends during those months typically consist of cheer travel, sometimes fairly local, but most of the time not. Over the past three years we have traveled to Virginia Beach, Kentucky, Las Vegas, Baltimore, Florida, Philadelphia and Atlanta. This coming season, we’re going to Myrtle Beach, which is a new addition to our competition schedule. It is a very tough schedule to keep up with, but it gives us an opportunity to see places throughout the country that we otherwise wouldn’t see. Those cheer weekends consist of a lot of standing around arenas for most of the day, eating crappy food, and waiting to watch the kids compete for 2.5 minutes each. It’s a love-hate relationship with cheer weekends, but for right now, I wouldn’t change it.
