A Passion for politics
By Jim Johnson ’89
Sandi Vulcano is in love. We’re not talking about the devotion of her 34-year marriage to Dr. Pat Vulcano, Jr. Nor those tender maternal feelings for her daughter, Michele, now age 25 and a graduate of Central Pennsylvania College who is continuing her education at NCC.
This is different; while it is nearly as strong, this particular love isn’t of the sentimental valentine variety. But just the same, Vulcano’s love is wide as a county map and nitty-
gritty real as a city Street.
“I was born and raised in Easton,” Vulcano ’72 says about the object of her ardor. “When we first were married we moved to Bath; just for two years though, and then moved back. So I consider that we’ve always really been in Easton.
If Easton is home, and Vulcano’s heart dwells in it, it’s no surprise that helping to keep that home in good working order is of prime importance. And there is no better way to do that than by becoming part of the engineering team—in a word: politics.
Collectively, Sandi and Pat Vulcano have been part of Easton’s political scene for just a few years shy of five decades.
In 1973, following a family trail his father had blazed, Pat was elected democratic ward leader; he eventually expanded that path with a seat on Easton city council (and a term as president of council), and then city treasurer, then city controller.
Then after retiring from his “day job” teaching marketing, he ran for mayor.
“I ran for a seat on the school board the same year my husband ran for mayor," Sandi says. “ He lost by only 120 votes, But I won.”
While Dr. Vulcano’s political star was far from waning (he currently serves as President of the Easton School Board and their representative on NCC's Board of Trustees, and C.I.T.’s Board of Directors, among other community commitments), his wife’s was rising like a five-pointed helium balloon on the loose.
Sandi’s full time job is a Vital Records Registrar for the State of Pennsylvania, in Easton. Her involvement in politics was the product of community service and her husband’s precedent in government.
“Working out of my home gave me the time to get involved in community things,” she says. “And it was really Pat who steered me into politics.”
In addition to the school board, on which she served for two years, she was elected as a member of city council in 2002, reelected - this time as president - then elected yet again for another term as president.
All totaled, Sandi Vulcano’s years have made their mark on Easton: “I am the senior member of council in the City,” she says proudly, “even over Sal (Sal Panto, Easton’s new mayor as of January 2008, serving a second non-consecutive term).”
Sandi has made her mark on Northampton Community College as well.
She has been on the College’s Alumni Association Board of Directors since 1998, lending her time and expertise as a member of the executive board, the fundraising committee, the board recruitment and development committee, and as co-chair, of the alumni/student outreach committee. Her Board commitment stands through 2010.
Back in Easton, Sandi is a ward leader and member of the Northampton County Democratic Committee, and a vice-chair of the Easton Area Democratic Committee, and president of the Greater Easton Area Democratic Women.
Her work in the community also includes membership on the Community Action Board of the Lehigh Valley, and overseeing different programs for the advisory board of CIT (Career Institute of Technology), of whose Foundation she was a funding member.
Somewhere in all of this Ms. Vulcano found time to snag her bachelor’s degree, online from Amstead University, in business administration.
After that exhausting list of activities, she is asked what else she does with her time.
“That’s about it she says nonchalantly – then pauses, does a double take, and with eyes full-wide she adds with a laughing shout: “That’s enough!”
