Patricia Canzoneri-Callahan to run in Malverne special election

One year and six days after the late James Callahan was elected to serve his fourth term as a Malverne village board trustee, his widow, Patricia Canzoneri-Callahan, will run in a special election to fill the remainder of his four-year term.

“I do feel very strongly that I want to finish his term because I feel that this is his term, and I feel like I’m completing the things that he wanted to do,” Canzoneri-Callahan told the Herald last week, after officially announcing that she will run in the special election. “So it’s a nice balance of feeling that I’m serving his memory well and I’m also doing something that I’m really enjoying.”

Malverne Mayor Patricia McDonald appointed Canzoneri-Callahan in July to fill the vacant trustee seat her husband left behind when he died in late May following a stroke that landed him in a six-week hospital stay, during which time it was discovered that he had cancer. The appointment was only intended to fill the remaining portion of the first year of the term, and it was made with the understanding that there would be a special election held in March to fill the rest of the term.

The qualifications that landed Canzoneri-Callahan, who is a member of Malverne’s Independent Party, in the vacant seat were an important piece of her appointment. Like her late husband was, she is a practicing attorney. Canzoneri-Callahan, who graduated cum laude from St. John’s Law School, is a partner in a general law practice concentrating in estate and income tax planning, trust and estate administration, and real estate and elder law. She is a Certified Public Accountant with experience at global accounting firms and holds a Master of Law in taxation from the New York University School of Law and a Bachelor of Science in accounting from St. John’s College of Business Administration, where she was president of Beta Alpha Psi Accounting Honor Fraternity.