By Gabriella Bancheri
We’ve all heard of Miss America, Miss World, Miss Universe, etc., but what about the women who have dedicated years to their education and career, honing their craft and professional skills while contributing research and working within their field?
Well, there’s a pageant for that.
Just a few months ago, psychologist and Egg Harbor Township native, Dr. Anna Pecoraro, was crowned Dr. New Jersey America, 2024, a title awarded by Dr. World Productions.
The Dr. America pageant will be held in October 2024. If Pecoraro comes out the victor, she will go on to compete for the Dr. World title.
Pecoraro is a licensed psychologist, registered nurse and associate professor. She is also a trained classical vocalist and a competitive figure skater.
Her educational background includes a master’s and doctorate in clinical psychology from Widener University and a NRSA addictions post-doctoral fellowship from the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. She specializes in trauma, PTSD, and addiction, and works with a variety of patients.
While Dr. Pecoraro has a residence and license to practice in Pennsylvania, she has been named Dr. New Jersey America rather than Pennsylvania because she wanted to represent the place where she grew up and with which she most identifies.
I was curious about much of her education, but mostly about her decision to become an RN, since it seemed a bit of a shift from psychology.
“I was inspired to go back to school to become an RN after helping care for my dad, who had glioblastoma (an aggressive form of cancer),” she explained.
Her choice to pursue a career as a psychologist also piqued my interest, since she was classically trained as a musician, earning a bachelor of music degree from Westminster Choir College in Princeton. Dr. Pecoraro explained that she had always wanted to be a psychologist, even from a young age, but one day when she was auditioning for an opera festival at Egg Harbor Township High School, a professor from Westminster Choir College heard her sing and invited her to apply to the program.
A few years later, while performing in the Westminster Symphonic Choir and alongside the Philadelphia Orchestra, she had what she called an “existential moment.” While she was “creating beauty” with her voice, she was reminded of her true calling: to help people change their lives.
With the aid of her Dr. New Jersey America platform, she aims to help people change their lives through the healing powers of art, spirituality and mental health.
Her drive to accomplish creatively started as a young girl, having participated in artistic roller skating, vocal lessons and competitions.
She has been competing in pageants since childhood. She was Little Miss Pigtails, and as a teen, Miss Pigtails in Atlantic County. This, however, is only her first year in the Dr. America pageant. She said she has lots of plans for her platform.
Wearing the sash comes with much more than the title in Dr. America. Dr. Diana Lawrence, founder and president of the pageant, explained that it’s about “setting the stage” for the right candidate, one who participates for the right reasons: to lift up other women, to create a comprehensive and genuine platform and to grow both in their field and as woman.
Title holders are expected to seek out and organize speaking engagements about their specialty, first within their own health system, university and/or personal organization, and then working outward to expand their network of possibilities.
In Dr. Pecoraro’s words, the organization “completely promotes being educated, mentoring women and changing society, because that’s what a truly strong woman can do.”
One person per state is accepted to compete in the Dr. America pageant. They must be under 45 and hold a doctorate in any field. Title holders have a number of responsibilities including community service, mentoring and “spreading goodness through knowledge,” as Dr. Pecoraro puts it.
Interviews for the candidacy include a comprehensive evaluation of intentions and assessment of online and physical community presence. To be a part of Dr. America, it’s imperative that candidates put their words into action.
From writing books to giving regular talks to discovering new genes while studying at MIT (yes, this really happened), these women are working hard to constantly better themselves and give back to their communities nationally and, in some cases, internationally.
Dr. Lawrence says she was inspired to create a pageant that offered a more genuine, comprehensive overview of its candidates. Dr. World Productions offers more speaking time, more focus on personal experiences and puts an emphasis on interviewing.
Lawrence believes that pageants in general underemphasize education. So she created one that would not only celebrate education, but emphasize it to create communities of women that bring each other up and, in turn, lift their communities up. While they’re competing, they’re also supporting each other in each woman’s individual work and goals.
When I asked Dr. Pecoraro about her passions and what drives her to do this work, she said, “There are two ways of thinking about the world: we can either turn the news on and get depressed, or look at it and say the world is in need of help; what can I do today to make it better?”
After speaking with both women, the values of the pageant became clearer based on their passion to promote wellness and positivity, to lift up each other, and use their platforms and voices to do good. The pageant brings many high-achieving, brilliant women together to promote growth and change within themselves, their communities and across many places and cultures.
Dr. Pecoraro emphasized that just a brief exchange of kindness in a supermarket can make all the difference in someone else’s day, and that we “cannot underestimate the impact we have on others,” especially in times of crisis.
Her focus comes from inner peace with an emphasis on what that can do for those around us. “If we are fulfilled and happy,” she says, “then we can be the spark that helps change the world.”
To stream the results of the pageant and keep up with Dr. Pecoraro and the rest of these wonderful, talented, and intelligent women, the pageant will be uploaded to YouTube and Facebook.
Pecoraro is a licensed psychologist in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Virginia. She is a registered nurse in Pennsylvania.
She is an associate professor at the Institute for the Psychological Sciences (IPS) of Divine Mercy University in Arlington, Va., where she is a faculty member in the master’s in psychology program and a doctoral dissertation chair.
Gabriella is a Ventnor City resident and graduate of the University of London with an MA in Creative Writing and Publishing. Her writing is featured in a variety of digital publications ranging from food and beverage to literature to ecotourism.
