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Area works for working moms

Forbes ranks Buffalo best for those juggling children and a career

By Maki Becker

BUFFALO NEWS STAFF REPORTER

Published: October 12, 2011

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Working mothers across Western New York, take a second out of your hectic day of schlepping kids to and from school, removing spit-up from blazers, answering voice mail, eating lunch at your desk, fixing dinner, helping with homework and brushing teeth to give thanks that this is where you live.

Forbes magazine has declared the Buffalo Niagara region the best place in all of America for working moms.

"This year's No. 1 is a real surprise," said the article, which appeared online Tuesday. Buffalo, which had been ranked 10th overall last year, took the title from New York City, which fell to 20th place.

Forbes' ranking was based on an array of criteria: the area's relatively low unemployment, low cost of living, "lower-than-average crime rates," what the magazine determined was the "highest per-pupil expenditure" of any area on the list and an easy commute.

Buffalo's working mothers Wednesday said they couldn't agree more.

"I couldn't think of a better place to raise my family and to grow a really exciting career," said Dr. Mara Huber, director of the University at Buffalo Center for Educational Collaboration, who is the mother of four children.

"I'm one of the luckiest people I know," she said in a interview on her cellphone. She pulled her car over while she was on her way to her Elmwood Village home from work, having just picked up 10-year-old daughter Elena from religious education. Next, she planned to prepare "a quick dinner, then off to travel hockey."

Huber said with a laugh: "It's a glamorous life, I tell you."

But she said she couldn't be happier. "I wouldn't change it for the world. I really, really am blessed," she said.

Forbes singled out UB as an especially good employer for working moms. It was recently named one of the nation's top 100 companies by WorkingMother.com.

UB is "very supportive of working parents," said Amy Myszka, director of wellness and work-life balance at UB.

Huber concurred. "I have never felt I have had to choose between my career and my family at all," she said. "I have felt very supported and valued as a mother, a woman and a professional."

Departments throughout the university system are encouraged to offer flexible work schedules to employees, Myszka said, including voluntary reduction of hours, job sharing and telecommuting.

Myszka also noted the university's two child care centers: one on each campus. "They were both recently renovated," she said, to accommodate more infants and toddlers at the request of the faculty, staff and students.

Carrie Andruszko, a clinical researcher at Roswell Park Cancer Institute and mother of a 19-month-old toddler, also was happy to hear Buffalo being recognized by Forbes.

"I made everyone immediately aware of that," she said.

She cited her employer's family-related benefits and resources.

Roswell Park offers up to seven months of maternity leave and also has a dependent-care flexible spending plan, which allows parents to set aside up to $5,000 in pretax funds to help pay for day care. It also has a working parents networking group for mothers — and fathers — which Andruszko leads. This month, a speaker is coming to explain college savings plans.

Andruszko also loves what the region has to offer her family. "It seems every weekend, there are family events to go to," she said. "It doesn't matter what time of year. And that just reinforces the positives."

Krista Schneider, an administrative assistant to the Hamburg town supervisor, had left Western New York for Florida when she got married.

"We didn't like it," she said. "I missed home. I just couldn't picture myself raising a family down there."

They moved back to Hamburg. Schneider worked at first as a financial officer with HSBC Bank. She loved the on-site day care center where she brought her daughter. "I could just go down and see her," she said.

She started working for the town about five years ago.

"This is a great area, especially for kids and families," she said. "It's not a huge city. It's big enough."

Tereea Gordon, a housekeeper at the Hyatt Regency Buffalo, said the city is good "for single moms as well."

Her daughter, Rickiyah, is a 4-year-old kindergartner at Grabiarz School 79.

She said her employer's flexibility has been very helpful. "The school bus comes at 7:40, and that's not enough time for me to leave home" and be at work by 8 a.m., she said, so she arranged to start at 8:30 a.m.

Gordon said she wouldn't be able to work without the help of a local community leader and gardener, Elizabeth Triggs, who helps watch Rickiyah when she gets off the bus.

"She'll find something for her to do," Gordon said.

Melinda Rath Sanderson, executive director of the Women's Business Center at Canisius College and the mother of three teenagers, believes Buffalo's affordability, easy commutes and good schools played key roles in getting it at the top of the list.

"I've talked to friends who have lived in Washington, New York, Chicago and L.A., and they say it's really hard to have the same quality of life" as they do here, said Sanderson, who lives in Snyder.

She also said the region has a tradition and reputation for supporting women.

"I look at women like Donna Fernandes [president of the Buffalo Zoo] and Joanne Falletta [music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra]," along with her own mother, former State Sen. Mary Lou Rath, Sanderson said. "This is a place where women can excel."