Teacher Danielle Tricomi remembers watching her mother, Lucille Mauro, handle the difficult job of chapter leader at PS 197 in Midwood, Brooklyn, from 2010 to 2015, when she retired.

“She knew a lot about how to help teachers,” Tricomi says. “That’s what made me want to follow in her footsteps.”

Tricomi, who in September became the chapter leader at her mother’s former school, is one of three chapter leaders in District 22 who isn’t the first chapter leader in their family. Diana Pensabene, the chapter leader at PS 254 in Sheepshead Bay, and Jennifer Nezin, the chapter leader at IS 240 in Midwood, each had a father who was their role model.

All three chapter leaders carefully watched how their respective parent handled the role, and all three were inspired to take on the challenge themselves.

Tricomi recalls how her mother deftly managed relationships in the school.

“Teachers were comfortable going to my mother with any problem,” said Tricomi. “The principal and assistant principal listened to my mother, and they all came up with solutions by working together.”

When Tricomi became the chapter leader, she asked her mother for advice on a variety of things, including how to best schedule appointments with the school leadership team and meetings with individual teachers.

“I was very excited when my daughter decided to run for chapter leader,” said Mauro. “She gets it; she understands the role of chapter leader. You have to be fair and listen to everyone, the good and the bad. Whether you agree with members or not, you have to represent them.”

Tricomi had a second role model: Patricia Weiser, her aunt and her mother’s sister-in-law, was also chapter leader at PS 197, from 2002 until 2010, and she, too, helped prepare Mauro for the post. “I would attend my aunt’s chapter meetings,” Tricomi said. “I was impressed with how organized and informed she was, prepared for questions with information at her fingertips.”

Weiser was thrilled to see her niece step into the position at PS 197. “It’s a strong union school,” Weiser said. “Teachers work together, and you see how you can do things when you unite.”

Pensabene remembers when her father, Anthony, was elected chapter leader at IS 240 in Midwood, because it was the day she graduated from Brooklyn College in June 2000.

She remembers how her father avoided controversy to get things done. “I got to see how he ran things and helped teachers,” said Pensabene, who was a teacher there at the time. “He would meet with members and figure out how to make things work for the betterment of the school without creating unnecessary issues.”

Anthony Pensabene was chapter leader at IS 240 until he died in February 2006. The example he set stayed with his daughter, who became the chapter leader at PS 254 in September.

“That’s what pushed me,” said Pensabene. “I wanted to follow in my father’s footsteps. Seeing how my dad did it inspired me to go for it.”

Nezin, a 6th-grade math teacher at IS 240, holds the post her father, Richard Nezin, once held. Richard Nezin, who died in 1999, preceded Anthony Pensabene as chapter leader. “Our dads knew each other and worked together,” said Jennifer Nezin, who started teaching at IS 240 in 1996. In June, she won her second term as the school’s chapter leader.

“Being a chapter leader is a 24-hour-a-day job,” said Nezin. “You’re helping people with their problems, whether it’s about getting paid or trying to work with the principal to avoid conflicts. We work in a conciliatory and nonconfrontational way,” she said.

Her father stood up for what he believed. “He wasn’t easily swayed; he stood his ground,” Nezin said. He also dispensed practical advice, such as, “Never get the custodian angry, and always be nice to the payroll secretary.”

But what she remembers most is her father’s observation about the complexity of being a chapter leader.

“He said sometimes it’s not just about a teacher or the principal but the greater good of the school,” Nezin said. “And it’s a fine line between being able to advocate for the staff and doing what’s right for the school and the children.”