Mayor Katrina Foley relaunched the city’s Mayor’s Award on Tuesday March 7 and presented the honor to Paul Tomei, Managing Director of Costa Mesa’s renown South Coast Repertory theater.

Foley announced that the award will be presented quarterly with two in the month that the quarter falls in.

For the first awards, she is honoring women leaders as March is Women’s History Month.

“Paula’s love of the arts was fostered at a young age as a student of the Newport Mesa Unified School District and her career with SCR has been a dream come true,” Mayor Foley said of Tomei, who is a graduate of Estancia High School. “Paula has been instrumental in ensuring South Coast Repertory’s mission to advance the art of theatre in service of the community, and to extend that service through educational, intercultural, and community engagement programs.”

Tomei was presented with the Mayor’s Award as well as a Key to the City.

She thanked the mayor for what she called a “terrific honor” and credited her strong arts and education background at Estancia and UCI for her success.

“I am especially fortunate to have worked at SCR and in the City of Costa Mesa for almost 38 years,” she said.