Elizabeth Boylan and Katie Conlon named 2023 Women of Distinction

For eight area women who have gone above and beyond for their communities for decades, it was their turn to receive some much-deserved thanks last weekend. Assemblyman Brian Curran honored them as Women of Distinction at Crossroads Farm at Grossman’s, in Malverne, on Sunday.

“The one thing that all eight of these women have in common is their love and devotion to their community and their neighbors,” Curran said. “Whether it is their contributions to public safety, in local government, drug prevention, Boy Scouting, or children with disabilities or allergies, these eight honorees have made the conscious decision to bring their expertise and efforts to better their community.”

Two of the honorees, Elizabeth Boylan and Katie Conlon, are Rockville Centre residents.

Katie Conlon

Locals may best know Conlon as a village trustee, but she began helping people long before she joined the board. She became a nurse practitioner after graduating from New York University in 1995, and specialized in oncology.

“It struck a chord in me,” Conlon said. “There’s something about the battle that cancer patients fight. Their true grit. What they go through just to survive another day.”

It was a profound and humbling experience to work in Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s bone marrow transplant unit, she said, and to see some of her patients go on to live happy and healthy lives.

Conlon left nursing in 2010 to raise her three children, Kathleen, now 17, Liam, 15, and Aidan, 14. As they grew, their mother coached soccer at the Rockville Centre Soccer Club and volleyball at St. Agnes Cathedral School. An athlete in middle and high school herself, Conlon said she wanted to foster a love of sports while connecting with her kids and their friends.

She has since returned to work, becoming a nurse at Oceanside High School. She said that although she loved the intense, clinical atmosphere of a hospital, the opportunity to help kids in a new way has been gratifying.

“We’re dealing with a lot of emotional and psychosocial struggles for these kids,” Conlon said, adding that the pandemic magnified many students’ school-avoidance tendencies, as well as mental health issues like depression and anxiety.

“I like being able to sit down and point blank ask what’s going on,” she said.

Being a village trustee, for Conlon, is simply an extension of volunteering. She is trying to instill the value of service in her children, and leading by example.

“If we have the time, we have the energy, we have the ability, then we should always be working to help others,” Conlon said. “It’s important to be involved, so that you can have a voice, and just try to make things better for everyone involved.”

Elizabeth Boylan

Boylan is passionate about history, theater and education, and she finds time to dedicate to all the causes close to her heart. It’s important to her, she said, to be part of something greater than herself.

“That’s what makes service so special,” Boylan said. “We’re like these little threads that run through the community.

“It gives you a sense of purpose,” she added.

Much of her work is focused on young people. She is a member of the Rockville Centre Coalition for Youth; the Drug, Alcohol and Violence Prevention Task Force; and the Rockville Centre Education Foundation. She wants to encourage young people the same way she finds encouragement in them.

“They’re not only our future, they’re our present,” Boylan said. “It’s their energy and their vitality that I find so encouraging.”

Seeing young people getting involved in volunteer work and dedicating themselves to causes, she said, gives her hope and inspiration that the future looks bright. But in the meantime, Boylan said, there’s still work to be done.

“Our job is to educate our legislators, and educate our parents on constructive, positive decisions,” she said. “We are really up against some major speed bumps — substance abuse and stuff — but I think we’re making a difference. We get the message out there.”

Boylan has also worked extensively with the village, in the interest of keeping Rockville Centre “a great place to live, work and raise a family” — and retire, she added. She said that what keeps the community beautiful and the quality of life high is when neighbors come forward with ideas and solutions to problems. She would encourage anyone to dedicate their time or energy to a cause, and to volunteer in any capacity, she said.

“It’s extremely rewarding,” Boylan said of volunteering. “It keeps you alive. It gives you a sense of purpose.”

“If you want to go out and volunteer, just do it,” she said. “There’s a reward in knowing you’re making a difference.”