Donna Palermo
Donna Palermo is the President of the Greater Hazleton Chamber of Commerce She began her employment with the chamber in 1988 as an executive secretary and continued to move through the chamber ranks as an administrative assistant, vice president, interim president and in May of 2001, as the chief executive officer..the first woman in the Chamber's 111 yr. history.
In addition to her very busy schedule with the Chamber, Donna is very active in the community, serving on many boards such as the United Way of Greater Hazleton of which she also serves as secretary, Partners in Education, Great Valley Technology Alliance, Grt. Hazleton Area Civic Partnership (vice chairman), Mountain Council of Governments (secretary), Leadership Hazleton, Alliance to Revitalize Center-City Hazleton, Hazleton Community Development Organization, the Luzerne County Convention & Visitors Bureau (Treasurer), and serves on the Luzerne/Lackawanna Transportation Advisory Committee. She also serves on the YWCA PEARL committee. Ms. Palermo has also served as a judge for the Pennsylvania Free Enterprise Week, which is a week long program for high school students in which they learn about the free enterprise system.
Through Donna's leadership abilities, a partnership has been formed with 17 Northeast PA Chambers in forming a new health insurance program for their chamber members. She is President of the NEPA Joint Insurance Committee and also serves on the board of directors of ChamberChoice Service Corporation headquartered in Pittsburgh.
In 2000, she has received an Environmental Partnership Award from the PA Environmental Council for her coordination of the Keep Pa. Beautiful litter campaign, of which the Greater Hazleton Area is the single largest group in the County. She has been inducted into the Pa. Honor Roll of Women, a YWCA PEARL Award winner and has been named one of the top 25 women in business by the NE PA Business Journal.
Ms. Palermo is a graduate of the University of Delaware Chamber Management Institute, Leadership Hazleton, and McCann School of Business. She has also received credits from Penn State University.