Thursday, October 1, 2026
Six Rockville Centre businesswomen met for an early morning breakfast at the Flour Shoppe Café on Sunrise Highway on Oct. 18, using the opportunity to discuss their challenges and successes over tea, coffee and croissants.
What these women had in common was their recent selections to the Long Island Business News’ Top 50 Most Influential Businesswomen.
The women were Christina Van Vort , a partner at Director of Garfunkel Wild, Lisa Rispoli, a partner at Grassi & Co., Martha Krisel, the president of the Nassau County Bar Association, Kate Heptig, a partner at Rivkin Radler, Diane Masciale, the general manager of WLIW 21 and Sharon Keenan, a certified public accountant (CPA) at Eisner Amper.
This group of female accountants, lawyers and managers all agreed that Rockville Centre was an excellent place to raise a family, but they noted that it was a challenge to raise children while having a successful career.
Despite the challenges, many of the women were determined to leverage their experience as successful professionals in their roles as moms.
“Part of being a successful businesswoman is being able to illustrate to your children what it means to be in business and to be successful,” said Keenan.
They valued their leadership roles and hoped to instill those values in their children.
For many of them, they wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I think I’m a better parent as a working parent,” said Heptig.
Being a part of the Rockville Centre community of women, families and neighbors, and working for the betterment Long Island, “is really meaningful for me,” said Masciale.
Looking at the next generation of hard working female professionals, the women chose the Flour Shoppe Café to meet for two reasons.
“The food is really good,” joked Krisel. “But it’s also a women based enterprise,” she said referring to the café’s new owners, Samantha Caltagirone and Madison Kaer, who dramatically restructured their business in the last year with huge success.
