Rosa Riccio Pietanza started her career as a teacher of Italian, French and ESL at John Dewey HS and then served as Assistant Principal of Foreign Languages and Bilingual Programs at Murry Bergtraum HS. She is also the founding Principal of University Neighborhood High School, a New York University Partnership School located on the Lower East Side.
Rosa recently retired from her role as Clinical Assistant Professor at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, Dept. of Teaching and Learning, where she also served as the Coordinator of NYU Partnership Schools.
Rosa currently serves as an adjunct professor and she coordinates the Social Responsibilities of Educators Course and the NYU Summer Institutes for Teachers of World Languages. She is also co-chair of the NYU MLL Think Tank with Miriam Ebsworth
Rosa also served as president of the Italian Teachers’ Association Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of Italian and soon after became one of the founders of Italian Culture Week in 1976- later to become Italian Heritage and Culture Month. She also served as president of the Italian Culture Week Board of Directors.
Among other initiatives, Rosa is currently the ITA historian and coordinates the ITA listserv. She also coordinates the NYSAFLT Travel Study Grant to Italy; she serves on the Executive Committee of the NYC Association of Foreign Language Teachers-UFT; and, she is a Board member of the Association of Italian American Educators and is currently the Italian Language Ambassador for NABE and Interim Chair for Publicolor, a youth development not-for-profit organization.