Cumberland County Women’s Hall of Fame 2025 Inductees Amy Mansue, left, and Jean Scarani, right, with daughters Maria D’Agostino, and Gia Scarani.
Cumberland County is full of talented women who make a difference in their communities, but up until 2007, none of them were formally recognized for their contributions.
Today, 56 of the county’s most ground-breaking, talented women have been inducted into the Cumberland County Women’s Hall of Fame.
This month, the hall will add two more names: Upper Deerfield resident Jean Scarani and Amy B. Mansue of Mullica Hill.
The event will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 19, at the Merighi’s Savoy Inn, 4940 Landis Avenue in East Vineland. A cash bar will be available at 6 p.m., with dinner following at 7 p.m. The cost is $70 per person. The emcee for the event will be Donna Bennett, CEO of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Cumberland and Salem counties.
The Women’s Hall of Fame honors local women of outstanding achievement who have made significant contributions to a profession, the community, or women’s issues. The money from the event is used to award scholarships to young women who graduate from Cumberland County high schools and go on to higher education.
The Hall of Fame was founded by Louise T. Bertacchi, who wanted the hall of fame to inspire future generations.
Dr. Shelly Schneider, former Millville school superintendent and a fellow inductee into the Hall of Fame, who now serves as president of the organization, said, “For me, I think the main thing is it gives us an opportunity to celebrate the women who have been trailblazers in our community. These women are breaking barriers, and they are paving the way for others to follow.”
The hope of all the women in the Hall of Fame is that future generations will continue to dream big. This year, young women from the Cumberland County Technical Education Center and Our Lady of Mercy Academy have been invited to attend.
“As they see what’s happening at the gala, we hope they are inspired by the vision of these women who have created lasting change in our area,” Schneider said.
Jean Scarani, founder, Upper Deerfield Preschool
Jean Scarani just needed a good daycare for her child. The year was 1974, and the options around her Pittsgrove home were grim.
Babysitter? Sure, but that’s not what she wanted. Scarani, a fifth-grade teacher in Deerfield, wanted more than that for her five-year-old daughter.
Instead, Scarani did something few women in that era thought to do: She started her own. In those early days, Scarani used the garage of her own house as her makeshift classroom.
Fifty years from that day, Scarani is the founder of the Upper Deerfield Preschool in Upper Deerfield Township. It employs 25 people and has between 75 to 80 children in the school every day. In a full circle moment, her daughter, Gia Scarani, now runs the preschool, with her mom in more of a consulting role.
“I felt like I was a pioneer,” said Scarani. “I loved education, and I loved teaching fifth grade, but I also loved the preschool children.”
Scarani opened a second location in Upper Deerfield, then combined them both into a new building she constructed to accommodate her preschool in 2002.
The new facility allowed Scarani to contract with Bridgeton, providing the room to fill three of its seven classrooms with Bridgeton Public School students.
“It was a growing moment,” she says with pride. It was a moment that gave her a lot of satisfaction, but all her hard work paid off. “We were able to combine them and work with the township.”
Scarani is proud of all her children, including her daughter, Gia, who is one of two directors at the school. Her daughter splits her time between her jobs as a preschool director and adjunct professor at two colleges, Stockton University and Liberty University in Virginia.
“She’s over and above what I did. I’m very proud of her,” she said.
Her son, Albert Jr., is a chef and is in charge of all the meals served at the school, where they dish out breakfast, lunch, and snacks.
Scarani, now 82, still helps where she can.
“I go in once a week in the morning or afternoon,” she said. “I’ll attend some of the staff meetings. I keep limited involvement.”
She serves on the Pittsgrove Township Board of Education, where she was recently re-elected to another term.
One of her greatest joys is coming across former students, some of whom have gone into education.
“Some of my former students are now teaching in one of the schools,” she said. “They come up to me and have nice comments.”
They tell her they remember the “Big Bird School,” so named for the cutout of Sesame Street’s Big Bird, which was next to the sign when Scarani’s school was attached to her Pittsgrove home.
The honor from the Cumberland County Women’s Hall of Fame fills her with pride.
“I’m very honored and surprised,” she said. “Teachers are very important in a child’s life. I’d like to see all teachers be honored in one way or another.”
Amy B. Mansue, president and CEO, Inspira Health
Amy B. Mansue is a busy woman at Inspira Health, overseeing a lot of moving parts since September 2020 when she became president and CEO. She is in charge of 7,800 employees, four hospitals, two satellite emergency centers, more than 150 doctor’s offices, and several imaging centers.
But this Mullica Hill resident’s purpose in recent years has been helping those most in need in South Jersey. Medical excellence? Certainly. But the growing poverty in the region has forced Mansue and her staff to move beyond medical needs alone.
Think about that guy, she explained, who is homeless and a diabetic. Inspira’s initiative, the Community Health Worker Program, thinks beyond just the medical side, employing people who try to connect that diabetic with programs that help with housing, shelters and food banks.
To help with his medical issues, he needs help with the obvious.
“All of that is really hard if you don’t know where you’re going to sleep tonight,” she said. “Part of our responsibility is beyond their healthcare needs; it’s making sure they have access to other services.”
But the need is so great.
“We can’t take care of everything,” she added.
Post-COVID, the demand for mental health services for both children and adults exploded, in part because of the isolation, perhaps also from the impact of social media and growing addictions to opioids.
“We tripled the number of therapists, and there’s still a waiting list of people needing help,” she said.
Her hospitals are in rural areas surrounded by farms, yet the need for basic nutrition remains great.
“Cumberland and Salem are the two poorest counties in the state with the poorest health outcomes,” she said. “It’s because of all of those complicated issues. It comes down to education and jobs.”
And yet, it’s not just a job for her employees, who for the most part live in the same region where they work.
“It’s more personal here (in South Jersey),” she said. “So many people work here and live here. In many others (hospital systems), they commute. They are coming and taking care of their friends and neighbors.”
Mansue gives the credit to her thousands of employees who do the hard work every day.
“What’s really happening is our employees care deeply about those they care for. I am proud of the work we are doing,” she said.
In recent years, even new initiatives began with employees noticing obvious needs, and responding to those needs. Take, for example, the patients who would be sent home from the hospital during holidays such as Thanksgiving without any turkey dinner.
It wasn’t long before Inspira’s employees were donating 800 meals to the homes of local patients during the holiday season.
“It was all driven by employees asking, ‘What happens? What if they can’t get out or have no one to come home to?’ ”
Mansue is proud of the work Inspira accomplishes, but also tries to keep the big picture in mind.
“There’s still so much more need. We’ll keep working, every day together,” she said.
Mansue is deeply honored by the award, but still gives credit to Inspira’s employees.
“I’m accepting this award on behalf of Inspira and all the people who work here,” she said. “This is all about the people at Inspira. I am just sitting in the seat and giving voice to it.”
Women, she said, aren’t afraid to give credit where it’s due.
“The key to power is to give it up, to give it over to people and make sure they have the tools to do the right thing,” she said.
Wednesday, March 19
Cumberland County Women’s Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. Merighi’s Savoy Inn, E. Landis Ave., Vineland. 6 p.m. cash bar, 7 p.m. dinner. 2025 inductees are Amy B. Mansue, Mullica Hill, CEO, Inspira Health Network and Jean Scarani, founder of Centerton Country Day School, now known as Upper Deerfield Preschool. For reservations ($70 per person), contact Board member Dr. Keith C. Figgs at kcf4@aol.com or call 856-692-0133.
