Georgette Boulegeris
Grand President Georgette Boulegeris has been involved in the Daughters of Penelope for over 40 years, serving the organization at the local, district, and national levels.
Boulegeris has embraced the theme, “The Power of We,” to lead the Daughters of Penelope Sisterhood. Seeing the potential in women and the power of collaboration, Boulegeris is promoting “The Power of We” to engage women and strengthen the organization. She identified three fundamental areas that will be targeted this year: membership growth, financial growth, and the expansion of program initiatives. She is confident that this will be an outstanding and productive year for the Daughters of Penelope Sisterhood.
Nationally, she chaired many committees. These committees include Scholarship, St. Basil’s, and Penelope House for Battered Women, Mobile, Ala. She served as chairman for two Supreme Convention business sessions and served as the President of the Daughters of Penelope Educational Foundation 2004-2006.
Boulegeris is a member of Tethys Chapter 229 New Brunswick, N.J. This chapter is a part of the Fifth District, comprised of New Jersey and Delaware. At the District level, Boulegeris’ contributions to the Sisterhood include instituting a biennial Salute to Women reception recognizing and honoring women who have achieved at the highest level in their professional careers. This biennial event mirrors the national celebration of women held at the Supreme Conventions. She also was the first Daughter of Penelope member to serve as chairman of the Fifth District AHEPA Cancer Research Foundation. The foundation has awarded over one million dollars in grant funding to cancer research. She was recognized by the Sisters of her District for her contributions by being named District Penelope of the Year twice (1999 and 2011).
Locally, she has and continues to, serve Chapter 229 in all of their initiatives. She is a communicant of the St. George Greek Orthodox Church, Piscataway, N.J. Her efforts on behalf of the church community currently include being a member of the St. Barbara Ladies Philoptochos Society, serving on the St. George Greek School Committee, and serving on the Rutgers Football Parking Committee.
Professionally, Boulegeris is a retired educator serving the Somerville, New Jersey, school community for 37 years as a teacher and school principal. Recognition of her professional contributions includes being named Teacher of the Year in 1996 and is recognized as a New Jersey Best Practice in 2006 for a middle school transition program initiative that she developed and implemented. As principal, her middle school was named a National Title 1 Distinguished School in 2010. She retired in 2019.
She currently serves on the New Jersey Hellenic American Commission after being appointed to the commission by Governor Phil Murphy in 2019. She has chaired the March 25 Essay Contest for the Commission for the past two years.
She is the daughter of George (deceased) and Mary Karnounpakis Boulegeris, and the sister of the late Michael G. Boulegeris, of Atlanta, Ga. She calls herself a “Jersey Girl with Buckeye Roots” since her grandparents, when immigrating to the United States, established the family roots in Monessen, Pa., and Weirton, W.V. She lives her life and strives to serve her community while keeping the four cornerstones of her family’s foundation prominent in her mind- Faith, Service, Family, Education.