Southington Honors Its Leading Lady of 2026, Terry Gomez Lombardi
Each year the committee of Southington’s Leading Ladies organization is tasked with selecting a woman in town who has been, as its name implies, a leader in volunteer and community-building work.
“We want to recognize someone who has benefited the community, primarily women in the community, but also we want that recognition to be for work that they do outside of their jobs. So, not something that they're getting paid to do on a daily basis, but outside on a volunteer basis. It's not necessarily quantity of the different events that they're volunteering or organizations, but really the substance and the quality of their volunteer work,” said committee member Sherri DiNello.
This year’s leading lady fit those criteria easily: Terry Gomez Lombardi.
Gomez Lombardi has been a leader in town. Her volunteer resume is extensive. She’s served on committees and boards at the Southington Public Library, the YMCA, the Main Street Community Foundation, Safe Harbor of Southington, the Southington Veterans Committee, Southington Community Services, Bread for Life, St. Luke’s Church and The Karen Smith Academy. A Board of Education member from 2011-2017, she has also tutored multilingual students in town and worked to support new immigrants and refugees arriving in the United States.
In her speech at the Leading Lady Luncheon on October 16, Gomez Lombardi said her dedication to volunteer work is inspired by her Catholic faith and life experiences. As a child, she said, she was a part of something “historic” when she was one of over 14,000 unaccompanied and undocumented child refugees who arrived in the United States from Cuba after fleeing Fidel Castro’s regime.
“You see, by 1960, my birthplace of Cuba had become a communist country after saying it was socialism. Fidel Castro and his government confiscated my father's land, his businesses, our home. They took our money from the bank. They closed all the churches and threatened to take custody of the children at age 10. My brother was nine,” said Gomez Lombardi. “At the age of six, on February 2, 1962, my brother and I were exiled out of Cuba to the United States under a covert operation that was led by the United States CIA and the Catholic Charities. It was later called Operation Pedro Pan.”
Along with her brother, Gomez Lombardi spent years bouncing around foster homes before being joined by her mother in the United States. Her father died in Cuba, having never reunited with his family.
These experiences were, to say the least, traumatic. But Gomez Lombardi grew into a successful woman with a career in business, becoming a wife, mother and grandmother.
As an adult, Gomez Lombardi was determined to give back to those who helped her grow from her rough start, and began volunteering in numerous roles across town.
“It was my faith, the hardships, and the help and support I received from others, including many of the people here, that gave me purpose and direction. The hardships were hard to forget, but I finally realized that they had the most impact in my life in setting my goals and setting direction and making the right decisions. They also served as a catalyst to help others. I knew I needed to show my gratitude for the good and the bad,” said Gomez Lombardi.
The importance of giving back to the community was a central theme of the Leading Ladies Luncheon. The guest speaker was Andrea Hurley. Hurley is the wife of UConn Men’s Basketball coach Dan Hurley and a philanthropist in her own right. She is involved in assisting with volunteer efforts at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center along with Southington’s own Valentine the Clown.
DiNello said that choosing a speaker who will stress a similar theme as the recognized leading lady is an important task when preparing for the luncheon. The women of the committee work all year to prepare for the big day.
“We meet throughout the year. We'll have a post-event meeting to try to see what worked, what we could do better next year. I think our biggest challenge every year is to find a really good speaker that we think people will love to listen to and have a message for our audience,” said Dinello.
The message that Gomez Lombardi wanted guests to take away is to work hard to be a leader. Do not be afraid to speak out, she said, and learn from the experiences that have tried you.
“These early life experiences taught me many lessons. Speak up. Ask questions. Be resilient. Work hard. Don't depend on anybody for your financial security. Help others and lead,” said Gomez Lombardi. “I encourage each one of us to assess our own lives, challenges, hardships, reflect on our burdens, reflect on our positive outcomes and the knowledge that we gained in life.”
