She is the daughter of hardworking Italian parents and grandparents who taught her that serving others is life’s greatest accomplishment. Marla’s father was Frank Gallo, an industrial arts teacher at Mohawk High School, and her mother, Alberta Bragalone, was a homemaker. The oldest of four children, Marla excelled in high school, where she was class president, homecoming queen, and a member of both the student council and the student newspaper. During high school she worked at the family business in New Castle, Rosy’s Italian Bakery. Additionally, the school chose her to represent them at the Junior Miss pageant for Lawrence County. After graduating from Gannon University in Erie with a bachelor’s degree in communications and marketing, Marla embarked on a career with United Parcel Service, joining its salesforce in Pittsburgh. Upon earning a master’s degree in organizational leadership, she rose further in the ranks at UPS, culminating with her becoming the head of its United Kingdom market based in London. After 15 years with UPS, Marla opened a medical spa in Georgia and grew her business and brand from the ground up for nine years before selling the spa. She then took a position as CEO with a non-profit Catholic prolife organization, the Pregnancy Aid Clinic, whose growth she tripled in only three years by adding locations and increasing funding for their mission. In 2018, after decades of success and rising to the top of her profession, Marla returned home to Lawrence County to be closer to family and help her community build back to its glory days. “I’ve worked in corporate America, owned my own small business, and worked for a non-profit. I’ve traveled the world and been exposed to various cultures and people. We have something very special here that you can’t find anywhere else. We need to keep our children and grandchildren from leaving the area by investing in the people and culture that makes it so unique.”
At home in New Castle, Marla is active with a range of prolife causes, works as a fitness instructor at the local YMCAs, holds a leadership role on her church’s pastoral council, the Holy Spirit Parish, and volunteers much of her time in the community, especially with the elderly, the poor, and the sick.
“This region has unlimited potential, but that potential can only be realized if we restore the personal freedoms lost to government overreach, and demand that our legislators serve us, not themselves,” she says. Politically, Marla’s profile fits the region in which she was raised: a conservative who
believes in the Second Amendment,
supports Pennsylvania’s energy economy,
opposes government engaging in social experiments in our schools and homes, and
believes that free markets make free people.
“The founders did not intend for elected office to be a permanent job. They understood that people from many walks of life would enrich our culture by bringing their unique perspectives to public office,” Marla says. “That’s why we need fewer career politicians and more people from the private sector who understand the real source of jobs and prosperity.”
