Award Recipients

2025 Contemporary recipient - Joannie Flynn

Joannie Velotta Flynn is the 2025 winner of the Dante Alighieri Society’s Donna di Merito award. The award is given annually to women who have made contributions to the promotion, maintenance, and preservation of Italian culture.

This year’s award is in recognition of Joannie’s many years of service to local Italian organizations. Ethnic organizations have long been a mainstay for preserving cultural heritage. Without members like Joannie, who give freely of their time, they wouldn’t exist. At last count Joannie has been an officer or a member of at least seventeen Denver Italian organizations.

The Dante is not the first organization to recognize her dedication. In 2021 she was chosen “Volunteer of the Year” by the Italian American Business Association (IABA) for her 50+ years as a very successful Tupperware business owner, as well as her continued volunteerism with Italian organizations.

Joannie was IABA secretary for 4 years, president of Il Circolo Italiano for 8 years, secretary of the Colorado Sons of Italy for 2 years and president of the Ladies Auxiliary Potenza Lodge for 2 years, and is a member of the Dante Alighieri Society of Denver. Through the years she has actively supported the Caruso Family Charities. She has also volunteered at a local food bank for 2 years.

A native of north Denver, she attended Mt Carmel High School. She is still actively involved with Mt Carmel Church where she is a Eucharistic Minister, on the pastoral council, and a member of the Altar and Rosary Society.

2024 Contemporary recipient - Jenna Capra

The Dante Alighieri Society of Denver has named Jenna Capra, editor and publisher of Andiamo as the 2024 recipient of the Donna di Merito award. The presentation will be presented at the annual Dante Awards Luncheon May 5 at Mount Vernon Canyon.

The Donna di Merito is awarded to a woman who has made outstanding contributions to Italian culture in Colorado. Jenna Capra, as editor of Andiamo, each month documents and shares stories about the Italian American community and Italian culture in Colorado.

Even more important, without Jenna Capra Andiamo wouldn’t exist and a major source of Italian culture in Colorado would be silent. When in 2011 publication of Andiamo was suspended, it looked as if Andiamo would cease to exist. Jenna Capra, then a staff member, refused to let that happen. She purchased the paper and now 13 years later Andiamo continues to be the voice of the Italian American community. Each month she continues to “pour her passion into every page and remains committed to documenting and sharing the stories that makes us all proud to be Italian and Italian American.”

Born and raised in Colorado as part of the first generation of her Italian American family born in the United States, she has always been inspired by her family’s immigration story. Jenna is a graduate of Colorado State University and began working as a writer at Andiamo paring her love for “all things Italian” with her talent for writing.

The Dante Alighieri Society is not alone in recognizing Jenna’s contributions to the Colorado Italian American community. She twice received the “Primo! Awards of Excellence” for her writing and currently represents Colorado as an Ambassador in the We the Italians network uniting Italy and the United States. She continues to work behind the scenes to keep our Italian American Community and culture alive, celebrated and connect.

2023 Contemporary recipient - Rosalie Caputo

Rosalie Caputo has been dedicated to the teaching of the Italian language and culture for most of her adult life as well as being active in numerous Italian-American cultural organizations in Colorado. She began her teaching career in 1981 in high schools in Pueblo, Colorado, teaching Italian and French at both South High School and Centennial High School until June of 2007. She served on the faculty of Colorado State University-Pueblo as an Adjunct Professor of Italian from 2007-2012. After relocating to Denver in 2012, she taught Italian at the Italian Institute of Denver in 2013 as well as teaching an after school Italian language program to elementary school children at Slavens Elementary School.

In August of 2014, she was recommended by the Dante Alighieri Society of Denver for a teaching position in Italian at the Montessori School in Evergreen. She continues in that position today and has had great success introducing Middle School students to the joys of Italian language and culture. Rosalie, with her husband Silvio, are members of the Dante Alighieri Society where they have given a number of cultural presentations on the history of early Italian immigrants in Southern Colorado. Rosalie has also presented a program about her teaching in the Montessori system and the accomplishments of her young students. In addition to her membership in the DAS of Denver, she is a member of the Sons and Daughters of Italy and the Italian American Business Association. She worked actively in a number of Italian-American organizations in Pueblo.

2023 Historical recipient - Sister Blandina Segale (1850-1941)

Courtesy of the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA), negative no. 067735Sister Blandina was born Rosa Maria Segale January 24, 1850 in Ciagna, a little mountain town near Genoa. When she was four, her family emigrated to the United States and settled in Cincinnati, Ohio. At sixteen she entered the Sisters of Charity and professed her vows in 1868. Six years after starting her service as a teacher in schools in Ohio, she was sent, alone, over the Santa Fe Trail to Trinidad in the Colorado Territory in 1872 to teach in the public school. One of her first actions was to fight against the common practice of lynching. In 1877, she moved to Santa Fe where she served in the schools, orphanage, and hospital operated by the Sisters of Charity. She also served in Albuquerque, where she taught and opened a Wayfarers’ House and became a defender of Native Americans and Mexicans. She returned to Trinidad in 1889 and also spent a short time in Pueblo, Colorado before returning to Ohio in 1897, where she and her sister, now Sister Justine, worked with the Italian immigrant community. She died in February 1941 at the age of 91. In her life in the West, Sister had many adventures which she kept in a diary so she could share it with her sister. The diary, At the End of the Santa Fe Trail, was published in 1948. The diary has become material for novels, histories, television and even a comic book. Sister Blandina’s cause for Canonization has been received by the Vatican and she now bears the title Servant of God.

2022 Contemporary recipient - Alisa DiGiacomo

Alisa is a fifth-generation Italian-American woman. Since 1999 Alisa has been employed by History Colorado, and since May 2018 as Director of Curatorial Services and Senior Curator. Alisa was the founder of the Colorado Italian-American Preservation Association (CIAPA) in 2002. The primary goal of this organization is to develop research archives that document the history, people and traditions of the community. Alisa is the author of Italy in Colorado: Family Histories from Denver and Beyond. The book is currently in its third printing. Additionally, Alisa was the curator of The Italians of Denver exhibit at the Colorado History Museum from April 2007 to July 2008. She has also made a significant impact on our Italian community by writing several books and articles on the history and culture of the community. Alisa provides the monthly features of A Page in Time and Community Story in Andiamo!, Colorado’s Italian-American newspaper.

Other achievements include being the co-founder of the Cabrini Day Holiday Commission from 2018 to the present. Since 2008, Alisa has been processing the CIAPA Research Archive for History Colorado. This will ensure that future generations will be able to access the information at the History Colorado library. People are able to listen to oral histories and view photographs that are part of the archives. She is an active member of numerous Italian organizations and Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church. She is a frequent lecturer and presenter on Italian culture and history.

2021 Contemporary recipient - Prof. Roberta Waldbaum

Roberta is Teaching Professor of Italian, the Anna Maglione-Sie Endowed Chair in Italian Culture, and Associate Chair in the Department of Languages and Literatures at the University of Denver (DU) where she teaches Italian language, literature, film and culture in the Italian Program and in the common curriculum. She co-founded and co-directed the DU/Bologna International Center for Civic Engagement in Bologna, Italy, and serves on the advisory board for the annual Maria and Tommaso Maglione Italian film award and the Showcase on Italian Cinema at the Denver Film Festival.

Additionally, Roberta has published book chapters, translations, journal articles and has given conference papers in Italian Studies in the areas of international civic engagement, cinema, and the teaching of language, Italian Jewish Literature and Film, and food studies. She is the guest editor of the international journal of European Popular Culture, "Soggiorno in Italia-Sojourn in Italy", (May 2019) that contains articles written by DU CAHSS faculty who have received travel grants to Italy.

2021 Historical recipient - Genevieve Fiore (1912-2002)

Photo courtesy of Colorado Women's Hall of Fame.Genevieve Fiore dedicated her life to humanitarian and peace activities. For over fifty years, she worked with other nonprofit organizations, focusing on human rights and women’s rights. Referred to as Colorado’s “First Lady for Peace and International Cooperation,” she gave over 4,000 talks on various aspects of the United Nations, international issues, and women’s issues.

Genevieve was appointed by Governors Lamm and Romer as the Colorado Chair for United Nations Day. In 1947, she organized the Steele Center UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization), a small community group working to establish international understanding. She established the Genevieve Fiore Educational Trust Fund and received numerous honors for her peace activism, including the George Washington Bronze Medal from the Freedom Foundation at Valley Forge and the UNESCO Michelangelo Medal. Genevieve was a co-founder of three Sister Cities Committees including the Denver Potenza Lodge.

In 1975, she was knighted by the Italian government for promoting the understanding of Italian culture. She participated in at least eight international conferences throughout the world from Italy to Kenya to Japan. In 1969 she received the prestigious Amita Award presented to outstanding women of Italian lineage. Genevieve is an inductee in the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame. Genevieve’s son Philip accepted the award on behalf of his mother.