Winner: Carol Muscarella

Carol MuscarellaPrincipal

Carol Muscarella of North Massapequa has received a Woman of Distinction Award for 2013 from New York's 17th Assembly District in recognition of efforts to "make her community a better place to live in," district officials said. Muscarella is principal of John H. West Elementary School in the Plainedge Union Free School District, where she has worked since 2001, and before that she provided speech and language pathology services to preschoolers through a private practice she ran from 1991 to 2001. She also has served as chair of the Committee on Preschool Special Education/Committee on Special Education and is married to Town of Oyster Bay Councilman Joseph D. Muscarella.