Administrative Assistant
I was born and raised in Elma, New York, a small suburb 20 miles south of Buffalo. My parents, Ralph and Sandy, still reside at our family home. I am the middle child of three girls, my sisters Jill (two years younger) and Nicole (two years older). As kids, we were known as “The Gmerek Girls!”
I attended college at Alfred State, where I received my associate’s degree in marketing and then continued my education at Buffalo State, where I received my bachelor’s degree in business administration.
After working in my chosen field for several years, I married my husband Ross in July of 2000. We bought a home and raised our family in East Aurora, New York. Ross, a middle school principal at Iroquois Central School District, our children- Brittany, who will be going into her senior year at Cortland for physical education/health, Natalie will be going into her sophomore year at St. John Fisher University studying nursing and Andrew is a sophomore in high school. While raising our children, my full-time job was being a Stay at Home Mom, volunteering at the kids’ school, attending all field trips and working for my independently owned cleaning business.
In 2022, I suffered a severe stint with COVID, and was hospitalized for 10 days, along with a lengthy recuperation time including full oxygen for several months following. I had to amend my life and work choices and my children, mostly grown and needing me a bit less, decided it was time to re-join the workforce and finally put my college degree to work!
I found and applied to Buffalo Financial. At first, I was terrified, acclimating to an office environment, but I quickly grew to understand how lucky I was to have found a workplace environment that treated its employees with patience, care, and a fun and family-like culture, the same way in which I’ve learned they treat their clients.
When I am not in the office, I’m at my sons’ lacrosse games, hanging out with my girls, enjoying the pool and yard (that my husband takes care of so nicely), tending to my flowerpots and gardens or running my two golden retrievers. I enjoy many crafts – painting rocks to put in my garden or creating art pieces with the dozens of seashells collected during our yearly Siesta Key family vacations.
