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WORK TITLE: Perfect Strangers
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PERSONAL
Born in Winchester, MA; married Mike Materia.
EDUCATION:University of Massachusetts, graduated.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Corcoran Management Company, multisite manager, 1994-2003; National Development, general manager of residential properties, 2003-13; vice president of property management, 2013-15; Robostrong, motivational speaker, 2014-.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Motivational speaker Roseann Sdoia worked for years in real estate management. Then, on April 15, 2013, she was among the spectators at the Boston Marathon, where two brothers, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, set off two homemade bombs in a terrorist attack. She heard the first bomb explode and turned to run, but she ran into the bag holding the second bomb. When it exploded, it so badly damaged her right leg that she had to have it amputated above the knee. In the immediate aftermath, three “perfect strangers” came together to help—college student Shores Salter (who put a torniquet on her leg), police officer Shana Cottone (who found a transport vehicle to take her to the hospital), and firefighter Mike Materia. Materia lifted her into the vehicle and stayed by her side at the hospital and then through her grueling recovery. In October of 2017, the two married.
In the wake of the tragedy, Sdoia became a motivational speaker for injured and challenged athletes and wrote a book about the experience and the intersection of four lives on that fateful day in Boston. The book, Perfect Strangers: Friendship, Strength, and Recovery after Boston’s Worst Day, focuses on the positive aspects of this horrific experience. Whitney Scott, critic in Booklist, observed that Sdoia shows “how trauma shapes people differently and how their connection . . . has provided a key constant and comfort” in all their four lives. A contributor to Kirkus Reviews called Perfect Strangers a “moving testimonial to the transformative power of human compassion and connection amid catastrophe.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, February 15, 2017, Whitney Scott, review of Perfect Strangers: Friendship, Strength, and Recovery after Boston’s Worst Day, p. 6.
Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2017, review of Perfect Strangers.
ONLINE
Strong, http://robostrong.com/ (November 8, 2017), author profile.
ROSEANN SDOIA
Roseann Sdoia is a public speaker and advocate for challenged athletes. She was born in Winchester, Massachusetts, a suburb north of Boston. After graduating from the University of Massachusetts/Lowell, she moved to Los Angeles where she began her career in real estate management. After two years working in LA and then Florida, she realized that all of her vacations were spent traveling home to New England, so she returned to Boston. Dedicated to both her professional and personal lives, Roseann’s circle of friends and family is legendary – even her trauma surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital gave up on his “one guest for only fifteen minutes per hour” rule when he saw her line of visitors stretched down the hospital corridor. She is committed to one day running the entire 26.2 mile Boston Marathon. In November of 2014, she completed her first 5K race since the bombing so she is on her way. Perfect Strangers is her first book.
Roseann Sdoia
Roseann Sdoia
3rd degree connection3rd
Keynote / Motivational Speaker - Robostrong
Robostrong University of Massachusetts Lowell
Greater Boston Area 500+ 500+ connections
Send InMail Send an InMail to Roseann Sdoia More actions
Experience
Robostrong
Motivational / Keynote Speaker
Company NameRobostrong
Dates Employed2014 – Present Employment Duration3 yrs
Motivating and inspiring individuals through my life experiences relating to surviving the Boston Marathon Bombing.
www.robostrong.com
Media (1)This position has 1 media
Robostrong marketing brochure
Robostrong
marketing brochure
This media is a document
National Development
Vice President Property Management
Company NameNational Development
Dates EmployedJan 2013 – Mar 2015 Employment Duration2 yrs 3 mos
LocationNewton Ma
After the events of April 15, 2013 I have moved on and have chosen a different career path in public speaking.
National Development
GM of Residential Properties
Company NameNational Development
Dates EmployedSep 2003 – Jan 2013 Employment Duration9 yrs 5 mos
.
Corcoran Management Company
Multi-Site Manager
Company NameCorcoran Management Company
Dates Employed1994 – 2003 Employment Duration9 yrs
Education
University of Massachusetts Lowell
University of Massachusetts Lowell
Boston Marathon Bombing Survivor
For Roseann Sdioa, April 15, 2013 began much the same way every Patriot’s Day had for the past 15 years. Her plans were always the same— to see the Red Sox play at Fenway and then, head over to one of her favorite Boylston Street bars to watch the Marathon with friends. Everything seemed perfect, even the weather was cooperating on that beautiful sunny day. And then, the unthinkable happened. Two bombs exploded and Roseann was just steps from the second blast.
She remembers the flash by her feet and thinking it was too late to run. She remembers feeling that if she were to close her eyes, she may never wake up. And she remembers the selfless kindness of strangers, without whom, she may have lost her life instead of just part of her right leg.
Although not a marathon runner herself, Roseann avidly enjoyed running three to five miles a day. Today, as she works through her recovery, she is challenging herself to run again and hopes to inspire others to work through their own loss with courage and conviction. She hopes to raise awareness for those in desperate need of prosthetics.
Real Estate VP to Motivational Keynote Speaker
Boston Strong through and through, Roseann was born in Winchester, grew up in Dracut, graduated from the University of Lowell and, after a brief move to California, now proudly resides in Boston’s North End.
Roseann has more than 23 years of experience working within the real industry both on a local and national level. Her career began in California at R&B Realty Group as an Account Executive. After relocating back to Boston, Roseann went to work for Oakwood Corporate Housing where she helped to launch one of the area’s first corporate housing projects. In 1995, she became the multi-site Property Manager at Corcoran Management Company in Braintree and in 2003, Roseann joined National Development Corporation, New England’s third largest real estate company, where she became Vice President of Property Management of their entire residential portfolio.
Roseann believes that her professional background in real estate has helped to build the foundation for her new path as a motivational keynote speaker. Her ability to manage and motivate staff, train fellow associates, lead board meetings and maintain an excellent rapport with outside vendors and contractors speaks to her overall ability to engage and connect with people and foster success. Her professional experience, coupled with her personal story of overcoming fear and loss, taking risks and ultimately, turning tragedy into triumph, makes Roseann an exceptionally moving choice for any speaking event.
Perfect Strangers: Friendship, Strength, and
Recovery after Boston's Worst Day
Whitney Scott
Booklist.
113.12 (Feb. 15, 2017): p6.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
Perfect Strangers: Friendship, Strength, and Recovery after Boston's Worst Day. By Roseann Sdoia and Jennifer
Jordan. Mar. 2017. 256p. PublicAffairs, $26 (9781610397001). 363.325.
The 2013 Boston Marathon's terrorist bombings reverberate still. Four people--strangers thrown together by the 118th
Marathon bombs that killed three and injured 264--formed strong bonds and now consider themselves "family."
Marathon runner Sdoia, who lost a leg in the attack, with award-winning Jordan (Last Man on the Mountain, 2010),
shares not only her own story but the group's. College student Shores Shelter ran into the mayhem and saved Sdoia
with an improvised tourniquet; BPD's Shana Cottone got her into a paddy wagon for transport to Mass General, riding
up front; and BFD's Mike Materia, who loved working race day and was experienced from his service in Iraq, rode in
back with Sdoia, providing comfort, eventually establishing a GoFundMe social-media page for her medical expenses
and helping locate Shores. Sdoia and other marathon casualties were the Spaulding Rehab Center's first patients, and
their visitor list became "something of a legend." Sdoia expresses her understanding of how trauma shapes people
differently and how their connection, strengthened by loss, has provided a key constant and comfort in four lives.--
Whitney Scott
YA RECOMMENDATIONS
* Young adult recommendations for adult, audio, and reference titles reviewed in this issue have been contributed by
the Booklist staff and by reviewers Poornima Apte, Michael Cart, Laura Chanoux, Carissa Chesanek, Courtney
Eathorne, Kristine Huntley, Biz Hyzy, Jesse Karp, Bethany Latham, June Sawyers, and Bridget Thoreson.
* Adult titles recommended for teens are marked with the following symbols: YA, for books of general YA interest;
YA/C, for books with particular curriculum value; YA/S, for books that will appeal most to teens with a special interest
in a specific subject; and YA/M, for books best suited to mature teens.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Scott, Whitney. "Perfect Strangers: Friendship, Strength, and Recovery after Boston's Worst Day." Booklist, 15 Feb.
2017, p. 6. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA485442437&it=r&asid=aaee1df07eb4f6b34c6c5031e69c6f30.
Accessed 22 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A485442437
10/22/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1508713563442 2/2
Sdoia, Roseann: PERFECT STRANGERS
Kirkus Reviews.
(Feb. 1, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Sdoia, Roseann PERFECT STRANGERS PublicAffairs (Adult Nonfiction) $26.00 3, 28 ISBN: 978-1-61039-700-1
A survivor of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing attacks reflects on the trio of fearless individuals who saved her life
and rescued countless others.Sdoia passionately recalls the events leading up to and immediately following the terrorist
attack, a day that "went from being pure celebration to desperate survival." She shares her history as a family girl
drawn away to California for several years but always returning home to Massachusetts to friends and family, and she
describes herself as having a "complicated relationship with running." Yet standing on the sidelines of the Boston
Marathon that day, the seasoned 5K runner became so energized and rejuvenated by the runners' excitement and sheer
determination, she promised herself to enter the race the following year. After her right foot was blown off by one of
two pressure-cooker bombs planted near the finish line, she was immediately tended to by Northeastern University
student Shores Salter, Boston police officer Shana Cottone, and a nearby physician, all who assisted in tying a
makeshift tourniquet around her mutilated leg. She was raced to the hospital by firefighter Mike Materia, who stayed
with her throughout the entire ordeal and beyond. With her leg medically amputated just above the knee, the author's
agonizing physical and psychological recovery began. She also established a significant connection with Materia, who
stayed in constant contact as she was rehabilitated back to health, and they became swept into an enduring romantic
relationship. Each of the three who participated in Sdoia's valiant rescue is fondly profiled, showing his or her
personality as an honest, hardworking, and unexpectedly heroic Bostonian. The author considers all three as "family,"
and her book spins the events of that tragic afternoon into a tapestry of solidarity, unity, love, and selfless humanity.
Aside from instances of repetitiveness, the book is heartfelt and honest. Though the bombers "took away that day," she
writes, "we're taking it back." A moving testimonial to the transformative power of human compassion and connection
amid catastrophe.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Sdoia, Roseann: PERFECT STRANGERS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Feb. 2017. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA479234537&it=r&asid=dbcdcf2600064f337699cdbc3d2e0c48.
Accessed 22 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A479234537