Joyce Nastasi grew up in Union, New Jersey and has distinguished herself by the outstanding work that she was done on behalf of others throughout her life. Never one to seek the spotlight, Joyce has a remarkable talent for bringing together parties with seemingly opposing objectives and working out solutions that ultimately have the greatest benefit for all. It is a skill that she first applied as Assistant to the Mayor of the City of Linden through the entire decade of the 1990s. As anyone who is familiar with the management of a municipality will tell you, the Assistant to the Mayor is the most hands-on position in a city. Her role was to act as liaison with the public and point person in coordinating every city department for every city project. This position required extraordinary diplomacy, especially when working directly with the city council and assembly members.
After a decade in the mayor’s office, Joyce joined the Building Trades Employers Association in New York City as a Vice President. In addition to managing the office staff, she created new committees designed to strengthen the communication between the member companies. This was essential based on her initiation of a safety committee that would interact with the many New York City agencies. This led to the implementation of a safety grant, which provided the funding necessary to offer construction skill classes to the association’s members. Joyce’s skill at defining the clearest vision for each project undertaken made her the natural choice to head the association’s social events and fundraisers, each of which brought about unparalleled success.
In 2009, Joyce joined the Environmental Contractors Association as Executive Director. The organization had been created in 1996 with just a handful of members from the highly specialized industry. Members of the organization deal in hazardous materials removal, emergency response, asbestos removal and clean-up among other environmental services.
Charged with creating a brand image for the association, Joyce also sought broaden the scope of communication among members and increase its membership. Through her efforts, the ECA has grown to include over fifty member firms and has become New York’s premier trade association of environmental contractors. The now ECA works with a wide range of clients and has built a strong reputation through partnerships with public agencies that shape environmental policy.
As has been the case throughout her life, Joyce has devoted an extraordinary amount of her time on behalf of others. This was evident in the days following Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The damage wrought by the storm created a stupendous problem for the City of New York. Soon thereafter, Joyce spearheaded the creation of the Environmental Contractors Association’s Charitable Fund for Disaster Relief and Recovery to marshal the resources of local firms to mitigate the environmental impact of natural disasters and emergencies.
Even though she has avoided the spotlight, Joyce Nastasi has been a driving force behind the scenes, quietly making the lives of countless people safer as a result of her vision and efforts.
