After being a fixture in the Chicago culinary scene for decades, Joe Monastero has taken his passion for the restaurant industry to a whole new level as an executive for the Texas Restaurant Association. As chief revenue officer of the Texas Restaurant Association, Joe Monastero knows the Italian dining scene in Texas like few others. Monastero also serves as trustee for the Catering Executives Club of America board (where he is past chairman and president) and is the immediate past co-chairman of the Milan-Chicago Committee of Sister Cities International. Now residing in Austin, Texas, Monastero grew up less than a …

Bianca Maldonado likes to say that the universe leads people where they are meant to be — and her life, in many ways, is testament to that. For one, if it weren’t for the abrupt closure of the Chicago radio station she worked for, it’s hard to know whether she would have found her life’s passion as a clinical mental health therapist. Maldonado, nee Ferreri, grew up in Burbank and graduated from Mother McAuley High School in Chicago. After studying at the Illinois Center for Broadcasting in Lombard, at age 19 she became the youngest woman — and one of …

Entering a dark period in his life, acclaimed restaurateur Bruno Abate battled his way back into the light by founding a groundbreaking program at Cook County Jail. After his mother taught him to deeply appreciate fresh, high-quality food, Italian native Bruno Abate became a successful Chicago-area restaurateur with a mission to help others. In 2010, Abate founded Recipe for Change, a nonprofit that provides culinary instruction, job skills training, fine arts enrichment and mentorship to detainees at Cook County Jail. Over the last 16 years, about 6,000 people have participated in the nonprofit’s programs. A resident of Winnetka in suburban …

When asked where her passion for singing opera comes from, Rose Guccione answers with one word: grief. She is referring to the untimely death of her father when she was 24, a tragedy that prompted her to question what she wanted to do with her life, she explains. “The answer was an immediate question,” Guccione recalls. “Could I make a living from music? I made a pact with myself to work hard on developing my voice in order to audition for Chicago’s classical music venues for the six years that followed. I lived as a musical monk. I would practice …

A retired university professor, Silvio Laccetti created a foundation to support educational and cultural initiatives, and to inspire others to do the same. The nonprofit Silvio Laccetti Foundation recognizes individuals and schools in a variety of academic areas and gives out unique donations like public statues. One of its awards, named after Italian general Giuseppe Garibaldi, honors high school seniors who have excelled in promoting the Italian-American legacy. There are also awards in classical studies, STEM, sportsmanship and leadership. The man behind the enterprise, Silvio Laccetti, taught history and social sciences at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, …

Stories can change the world. That’s the message that Sara Serritella, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist turned professor who co-built the science communication program at the University of Chicago, shares in her 2024 TEDx Talk. So, what is science communication? “It’s the art and science of distilling complex medical and research information to resonate with a non-expert audience, so that the general public can use the information to access care and live their best, healthiest, happiest lives,” Serritella explains. “Breakthroughs cannot help people if they don’t know they exist or how to apply health discoveries to their worlds.” A native of …

Now in his fourth year as an Italian teacher at Resurrection College Prep in Chicago, Francesco Campobasso credits a conversation with his cousins in Italy for steering him toward his true passion. After earning a bachelor’s degree of commerce in finance from DePaul University in Chicago, Campobasso worked for various banks for 15 years despite having always wanted to be a teacher. Then, during a visit to Italy in October 2019, he found himself having honest conversations with family about what he really wanted to do. On his final night there, his cousins gifted him a bracelet inscribed with a …

A veteran actor of stage and screen, Susan Vinciotti Bonito has made a name for herself in the burgeoning world of audiobooks. Growing up in Italy, Susan Vinciotti Bonito dreamed of becoming an actor but decided to study economics to please her father. Then, in the late 1980s, she decided to pursue her passion. Vinciotti Bonito now lives with her husband and son in Santa Monica, California, where she works out of her broadcast-quality studio voicing characters for audiobooks, video games and commercials. Her narration of Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel “Whereabouts” earned her an AudioFile Magazine Earphones Award in 2021. She …

Linnea McHugh knows that spearheading change in government is a slow process, but she’s up for the task. McHugh is the chief policy officer for the Cook County Board of Review’s District 2, playing a key role in shaping policies that improve transparency, efficiency and equity in property tax assessment appeals and ensure fair property valuations across Cook County. “I was brought on to help address the  consistent communication issues which exist between the factions of government that oversee the property tax system to become more manageable  and successful through interoffice relations, to make sure that the Cook County District …

When Italian teacher Alessia Defraia earned a scholarship for an internship at the Italian Cultural Institute in Chicago, she thought she’d spend about three months in the city. Eighteen years later, she is still there, having amassed an impressive breadth and depth of experience in her field. “I jokingly say I’m like the ‘Nutella of Chicago’ because I’m everywhere in the Italian teaching scene,” she says. Defraia is a part-time instructor at the University of Loyola Chicago, where she has taught elementary, intermediate and advanced Italian, teaching methodologies and Italian linguistics. She teaches Italian at the nonprofit ItalCultura, the Italian …