THE MOMENT OF CALM: The only time you can find Myra Magaletta in repose is when she’s at home with her children, Ava (left), and Alexander.

Nancy Y. Taylor already knew she wasn’t participating in the American Cancer Society’s gala when she agreed to meet with its director of special events and distinguished gifts.

“It was a courtesy meeting. I’m co-chairing another huge gala and am committed to something in the spring, so I had no intentions of picking up something else,” says Di Modolo's senior vice president. That is, until she met Myra Magaletta.

Taylor’s overloaded agenda was no match for Myra’s tenacity. Myra, then nine months pregnant, schlepped up stairs to show Taylor a prospective venue. “I’m not the motherly type, but here she was pregnant, and I said to her ‘Do not come up these steps,’ but she did and then gave birth a week later.” Today Taylor is the gala’s vice-chair.

When Myra headed public relations and special events at Billboard magazine's subsidiary Billboardlive—a 60,000 square-foot music venue on Ocean Drive—her connections to Miami’s movers and shakers inspired her nickname the “First Lady of South Beach.” “We had about 10,000 people at the opening,” says Christian Dickens, Billboardlive’s senior executive vice president. “Everyone seemed to know Myra.”

No one would have guessed the First Lady of South Beach would end up in New Jersey. The jet-setting event planner lived in New York, Miami, and the Calabria region of Italy where she worked as a buyer for an upscale boutique. She hopped through Europe, frequenting fashion shows and parties in Germany, Switzerland, Spain, and Greece. “My friends thought I’d be in some other exotic country,” says Myra, now a Morris Plains resident. “But here I am in the ‘burbs with my husband and babies.”

As director of catering and special events at the Tribeca Grand in 2003, she worked with Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro to produce private screenings and parties for the Tribeca Film Festival. “I’ve never really been starstruck,” she says. “I’m able to work with a lot of people without feeling in awe of them.” Which helps when you’re producing concerts for hip-hop mogul Jay-Z or salsa legend Celia Cruz.

Known as “the girl in red when everybody is wearing black,” Myra’s been known to walk potential clients through construction zones in an Armani suit without a hard hat. Why? “It didn’t match the outfit,” says Dickens. She doesn’t care what other people think, Myra just wants to feel good about herself. “She’ll go to get milk in her Prada shoes and Jimmy Choo bag,” says Anetta Nowosielska, a journalist and travel companion.

Myra, Ava, and Alexander look ready to get moving.

People gravitate toward Myra because they tune into her energy and connect with her warmth and unflappable disposition. “When Myra walks into a room, you know everything’s okay, even if everything is falling down around her,” says Dickens. “Even in the most chaotic situation, you’d look over at Myra and she’d be smiling. She makes it look effortless.”

While her accessible persona draws crowds; it’s her drive and methodical planning that make her a success. “She’s sort of a paradox,” Taylor says. “She’s low key, yet high energy. She comes across very calm, yet she’s in control.” Myra’s the type who will plan for the future five, six, seven years in advance, but unlike most, she actually follows through. She even planned her pregnancy nearly to the day. “It was almost like clockwork,” Taylor says, recounting her last meeting with Myra before the delivery.

“I couldn’t think of a better person to be a mom. She was a little bit motherly to all of us,” Dickens says, recalling a particularly bad day he had and how Myra took him for ice cream to make him feel better. “I’m a grown man, and there we were sitting on the steps of Häagen-Dazs eating dulce de leche. But you know what?” he laughs, “After I finished everything was okay.”

While orchestrating music producer L.A. Reid’s birthday party for the Soho Grand six months into her first pregnancy, Myra’s demanding social life began losing its luster. “It wasn’t as glamorous to me,” she says. “I didn’t feel like I needed to be in the scene at three or four in the morning.” After the birth of her son, Alexander, 2, she took time off, but the hiatus from work was short lived. After fourteen months, she accepted a job working four days a week as a consultant with a private aviation company. She quickly realized the strain of commuting to New York was too much. “There was just so much traffic,” she says. “Even if I left work at six, I got home at eight, and my son was already in bed.”

Myra took time off to reevaluate her work life. “I wanted something where I could parlay my event planning skills, but be with an organization that I felt a close connection with,” she says. And she wanted to be close to home. Because she lost three grandparents to cancer, the American Cancer Society was first on her list.

She didn’t expect to be hired when she walked into ACS’s Northern New Jersey office six months pregnant with Ava. “It was purely exploratory, but the president didn’t bat an eyelash,” she says, and hired her on the spot.

Myra gave birth to her daughter, Ava, in late July 2007. With only six weeks of maternity leave under her belt (and more available to her), she went back to work. “I’m a driven person,” she says. “When I’m passionate about something, I like to fulfill it."

Her current project—a gala for the ACS—aims to attract younger patrons with her signature "over the top" vision. “It’s not going to be your cookie-cutter black tie gala,” she says. Myra’s mum about the entertainment, but she may be dusting off her star-studded Rolodex. “She’s really taking some of that premiere New York flash and bringing it to New Jersey,” says Meghan Perrin, ACS's senior director of special events in Northwest New Jersey.

Even with two children now in tow and a full-time job planning ACS events, Myra’s not afraid of losing the wanderlust that carried her through her twenties. “I’m a bit more grounded now. Your twenties are for discovering who you are. Your thirties are when you find yourself, and I’ve definitely found a happy, comfortable place for myself.”