Attorney Mary Ellen Pisanelli is a recognized leader in Northwest Ohio, not only in the legal profession but also for her community service.
The Vermont native holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Vermont and a master’s from the University of Chicago. She earned her Juris Doctor from Temple University School of Law.
Last June, she joined Welltower Inc. as senior vice president coming from a career at Toledo law firm, Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, LLP where she was a partner and a member of the firm’s management committee. In her new role, Pisanelli provides legal support across Welltower’s portfolio of U.S.-based real estate assets and will oversee a number of corporate administrative functions. For the past 10 years, she has been listed in The Best Lawyers In America and has authored a number of publications.
Pisanelli serves on the board of directors of the Toledo Museum of Art and the Board of Trustees for the University of Toledo and was recently nominated to become its vice chair. She is a past president of the board of directors for the Toledo Zoo, where she chaired the 2015 Capital Levy Campaign.
Where do you call home? I was born and raised in Rutland, Vermont and studied and traveled all over, but I call Toledo home— that’s where I have lived for the past 35 years.
What was your first job? Lunch counter waitress, Rutland Hospital in Rutland, Vermont.
What health or lifestyle tips do you support? Exercise three times a week, eat reasonable meals and portions and try to surround myself with people I trust who have enthusiasm and energy.
Your biggest self-indulgence? Lou Tosi’s homemade meatballs and Twizzlers (but not together)!
Favorite book? How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life by Massimo Pigliucci.
I have always wanted to…? go on an anthropological dig.
What trait do you admire in others? Loyalty.
Something most people don’t know about you? I love Yogi Berra and the New York Yankees of the 1960s.
Words you live by? “If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.” – Marcus Aurelius, Meditations.
Your proudest accomplishment? Raising my daughters, Eleni and Lia.
Person you most respect? My parents, Victor and Dorothea Pisanelli.
Bonus Facts:
Favorite seasonal food?
Corn, freshly cut off the cob.
People would be surprised to hear? Growing up, I always wanted to be a surgeon.
Favorite movie? La Vita é Bella (“Life is Beautiful”).
