Annetta Centrella-Vitale is an instructor in the department of geology, environment and sustainability studies.
Photo Courtesy of Annetta Centrella-Vitale
Welcoming students on a cold rainy day with her fresh homemade peach jam and kimchi, Professor Annetta Centrella-Vitale is a warming sight. The large group of students devoured the jam and cookies as they waited for Mary Callanan (also known as Farmer Mary), Beth Ricardi and Professor Centrella-Vitale to start the tour around East Meadow Farm. As a food studies and sustainability professor, Centrella-Vitale plans field trips to expose students to firsthand experiences related to her lessons.
Around the farm, students saw demonstrations of different stages of the composting process, award-winning rose and dahlia gardens and vegetable gardens. Throughout the tour, Callanan and Ricardi explained the importance of pollination, maintaining healthy soil and community activism.
“My biggest goal for my students is just awareness. I am very passionate about teaching my class and I honestly really love my students. I see the hope in their eyes and that the future is important to protect and preserve for them,” Centrella-Vitale said.
In her classes, she informs students about sustainability-related events occurring at or outside of Hofstra. She welcomes students to talk about issues relating to sustainability and share their ideas on how to make the world a better place.
Centrella-Vitale received her undergraduate degree in nursing and psychology from Molloy College. She worked as a pediatric nurse, mainly in the pediatric emergency room, but also in neonatal and pediatric intensive care units. In 1998, she received her graduate degree in marine environmental science and oceanography with a focus on physical oceanography and ocean optics from Stony Brook University. The drastic shift in careers occurred when she saw what was happening around her.
“That really had to do with my passion for the environment and what I saw happening in our environment. My concern for what was going on and [what to] do for my children. I decided I really need to do something about that,” Centrella-Vitale said.
Centrella-Vitale is still a part-time nurse and director of patient services for a home care agency. However, getting her first oceanography/marine science job out of graduate school as well as getting paid while doing what she really loves made her happy.
In the span of her career, she has worked to help place environmental parameters in the oceans to support warfighters by retaining information about the marine environment before their operations. Centrella-Vitale has also worked on dredging the New York Harbor to minimalize its impacts on the channels and economy. Her sustainability courses call attention to the major influence the economy and politics have on the environment.
During her free time, she works with her local community to give its members access to fresh produce and food. She and her husband are beekeepers and focus on growing and processing their own food. With her family, Centrella-Vitale reinforces the importance of being connected to their food and knowing where it comes from.
She said, “I am afraid that many people today are disconnected to their food, how it is grown, where it comes from, how far it has traveled, how many people have handled it before it even reached our grocery shelves, how long ago it was harvested, how was it processed and in some cases what even is it.”
Centrella-Vitale advocates for educating people on where their food comes from in order to create sustainable food systems.
Recently, she has collaborated on a project called “Building Community through Sustainable Living.” The project is in partnership with Town of Hempstead Conservation and Waterways, Town of Hempstead Camp ANCHOR, Nassau County Soil and Water Conservation District, Nassau BOCES Rosemary Kennedy School, Cornell Cooperative Extension Nassau, L.I. Greenmarket and Hofstra University. It aims to demonstrate how to build neighborhoods with sustainable, local food systems that support a vibrant and resilient suburban community.
As for on-campus sustainable projects, she believes Hofstra does a good job of creating various green-friendly projects, some of which students may not know about.
“I think what we could do better is give [students] opportunities to explore different things on campus like the student garden,” she said. “Give them the tools to do the programs they would like to do.”