The rockefeller university

Inna Piscitello, a Rockefeller-based HHMI employee who was administrative coordinator in Jeffrey M. Friedman’s Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, died on November 22.

Born on January 28, 1984 in Kyrgyzstan, Piscitello moved to the U.S. when she was nine years old. She joined the Rockefeller community in 2019 as a member of Friedman’s administrative team.

“Within weeks of Inna’s hiring, her professional acumen was on full display for all her HHMI and Rockefeller colleagues to admire,” says Dion Brown, HHMI Science Operations Manager. “Inna managed a large and complex lab funding portfolio with strict adherence to sponsors’ budgetary requirements and federal regulatory and reporting guidelines. She was a woman of high values and expectations, and her exceptional leadership skills kept everyone within her orbit on task and true to the missions for both HHMI and The Rockefeller University.”

“Inna was as fine a person as I have ever known and it was a privilege to have had an opportunity to work with her,” Friedman says. “Previously she held a senior position in the CIA and somehow found her way to my laboratory. She was vastly overqualified but we were all the beneficiaries. She was bright, immensely capable, hard-working and most of all decent and kind.”

“Inna was so many things to us all,” says Kristina Hedbacker, a research associate in the Friedman lab with whom she worked closely. “She was very levelheaded and calm, even in stressful situations, and a generous soul who made everyone feel heard, respected, and cared for. Inna was a really generous soul always putting others ahead of herself.”

Piscitello’s husband Vito Piscitello, whom she married in 2012, is a manager in Rockefeller’s housing department. Piscitello loved to travel and experience new things, including things others might be afraid of, Vito says, and she made friends wherever she went.

“Honesty meant everything to her. She never took it for granted. Her commitment to truth and authenticity was what made her truly remarkable—wonderful and fantastic in every sense,” Vito says. “‘Be true to yourself and to others,’ she would say. ‘Never let anyone treat you different than you treat them—with love compassion, honesty, and truth.’”

In addition to Vito, Piscitello is survived by their two children, Anthony, 10, and Daniella, 12.

“She tried hard to show them the right way in this crazy life,” Vito says. “They will both have a part of her inside, though they may not know it now.”

Donations in Piscitello’s name can be made to the Father Boniface Ramsey Scholarship Fund at St. Joseph’s School in Yorkville by calling 212-289-3057.