Oyster Bay Honors Island Park Pastor for Women's History Month

Pastor Debra Valentin Spagnoletti was not looking for a spotlight. But on a recent evening at Oyster Bay Town Hall, she got one anyway.

The Town of Oyster Bay honored Valentin Spagnoletti during its Women’s History Month recognition ceremony, celebrating her decades of ministry, advocacy, and community service across Long Island. As associate pastor at Full Gospel Church of Island Park, ordained minister with the Assemblies of God, and adjunct professor at Lancaster Bible College, she has built a life defined by showing up for people others tend to overlook.

At the center of that work is Women of Worth, the parachurch ministry she founded to serve what she describes as the least, the last, and the lost. The organization focuses on uplifting women in difficult circumstances, offering community, resources, and a path forward.

Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino spoke directly to the weight of that mission during the ceremony. “Pastor Debra’s ministry shines as a beacon of hope for those who feel forgotten,” he said. “Through her tireless efforts to uplift women, as well as fighting human trafficking, she is restoring dignity, freedom and faith to countless lives across Long Island.”

That fight against human trafficking has become one of the most urgent chapters of Valentin Spagnoletti’s advocacy work. She is an active voice with the Church and Community Abolition Network, a Long Island coalition that builds partnerships between schools, businesses, faith communities, and law enforcement to raise awareness and sharpen the public’s ability to detect and report trafficking activity.

The numbers that have come from that collective effort are striking. Working alongside fellow advocates, law enforcement, and community partners, the network has helped contribute to the recovery of more than 300 missing and exploited children in the United States already in 2026. Since 2021, more than 9,000 children have been recovered nationally through coordinated efforts that organizations like the Church and Community Abolition Network support.

Council Member Laura Maier put it plainly during the ceremony. “Our communities are stronger and safer because of leaders like Pastor Debra, someone who serves not for recognition, but for the chance to uplift and protect the most vulnerable among us.”

For residents of Island Park and the broader South Shore, Valentin Spagnoletti is a familiar face. Her work threads through churches, classrooms, and community meetings. She is the kind of local leader who makes phone calls, attends the meetings, and builds the relationships that allow change to actually happen at the neighborhood level.

Women’s History Month recognitions can sometimes feel ceremonial, a brief pause before the calendar moves on. What makes this one resonate a bit differently is the specificity of what is being honored. This is not a career built on titles or institutional prestige. It is built on consistent, unglamorous, brick-by-brick community work that has unfolded across years and across Long Island’s diverse communities.

The trafficking awareness work is particularly worth understanding in context. Human trafficking thrives on silence and public ignorance. Advocacy organizations like the Church and Community Abolition Network push against that by making sure more people know the warning signs, know who to call, and know that someone in their community is paying attention. Valentin Spagnoletti has made herself part of that infrastructure.

Women of Worth, meanwhile, continues to operate with the same foundational purpose it was built around: meeting women where they are and helping them find their footing. Whether that work happens in a church hall, a community center, or a conversation after a service, the organization reflects its founder’s belief that dignity is not something people have to earn back. It is something worth restoring.

The Town of Oyster Bay’s recognition this March puts a name and a face to the kind of quiet, sustained leadership that does not always make headlines. For Debra Valentin Spagnoletti, the recognition is meaningful. But the work, as it has always been, comes first.