Profiles

Casa Italia honored transportation construction dynamo Joseph Dote as Man of the Year at its 2022 gala.  The following profile was provided by the organization. Joseph Dote currently serves as senior vice president for R. M. Chin & Associates Inc. and general manager of facilities and construction for the O’Hare Airport Transit System as part of a joint venture that has operated and maintained the system since 1994. Since 1988, he has been responsible for the conceptualization, planning, design oversight and construction of more than $12 billion in capital improvement projects at O’Hare and Midway International airports. At each, he …

A journalist on an incredible journey, Nicola Orichuia parlayed his passion for reading and knowledge into the first bricks-and-mortar Italian bookstore in the United States. There are two things you need to know about Nicola Orichuia. Though he was born in Italy to Italian parents, his dad’s globetrotting career gave him an international perspective. Still, he is thoroughly Italian, transmitting the love of his native land to his new home in America. Also, he loves to read and share knowledge. OK, that’s four things, but from those characteristics flow many of his achievements, from a journalism career in Rome, to …

  Fueled by a lifelong passion for education, Ralph L. DeFalco III enjoyed a stellar 25-year career in Naval Intelligence that took him from the Midwest to the Middle East and our nation’s capital. The eldest of five children, Ralph L. DeFalco III was born in Connecticut to Mary Ann Mueller and Ralph L. DeFalco Jr. The family moved to Chicago when DeFalco was an infant, returned to the East Coast and eventually settled in Oak Lawn, Illinois. DeFalco’s paternal grandparents emigrated from the Abruzzi and Napoli regions in Italy, and his maternal grandparents were born in Germany. As first-generation …

Never inclined to take the wheel of a rally sports car, Alex Gelsomino has thoroughly enjoyed his view from the passenger seat as a professional co-driver. Rally co-driver Alex Gelsomino says he’s lucky to have had a nearly three-decade career in a sport that has allowed him to travel the world and given him the gift of meeting his wife. The 48-year-old started his professional journey at age 18 when he took a co-driver course in his hometown of Palermo, Sicily. He did his first rally race a couple of weeks later and spent the next three years learning the …

With 11 albums, four PBS specials and a host of world tours under his belt, the popular crossover crooner has devoted his career to fanning Italy’s brilliant musical flame. He was born in Naples, Italy, but has become a favorite son of Americans from all ethnic backgrounds. Pasquale Esposito is a pop-opera tenor, a PBS superstar, and a successful recording and touring artist. For more than two decades, he has kept the classic songs of Italy and the nation’s vocal icons relevant and exciting for today’s audiences. The youngest of five siblings, Pasquale grew up listening to Enrico Caruso. He …

Nick Smeriglio’s career has taken off since his TikTok impersonation of Sebastian Maniscalco blew up the internet in September 2020. Back then, he earned reviews from Maniscalco himself plus invaluable screen time when the fellow Arlington Heights native spotlighted Smeriglio’s video on the Jimmy Kimmel show. In October 2021, Smeriglio packed his bags and moved to New York, immediately making the rounds at East Coast comedy clubs. An 11-day, nine-show tour paved the way for a headlining gig at the famed Caroline’s on Broadway in Times Square. Then, it was back to Chicago for six shows at the Chicago Improv …

North suburban cosmetologist Filippo Aliperta has been plying his profession for decades, all the while pursuing his passion for the visual arts. The owner of Estetica Hair Design in Glenview, Aliperta is currently showing his work through June at the Northbrook Court shopping center and on an ongoing basis at the LG Gallery in Lake Geneva. “I like doing abstract work in mixed media the best,” Aliperta says. “I love combining paint with stone, metal, etc.” Born in Somma Vesuviana, Italy, Aliperta started painting at an early age and took private lessons in nearby Napoli. He continued to create after …

The Sarah Siddons Society bestowed its 2021 Leading Man Award upon local theater luminary Dominic Missimi. The society funds scholarships to promising theater arts students at top Chicago-area universities, including the Theater Department at Columbia College, Theatre School at DePaul University, Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University and Northwestern University School of Communications. Missimi is professor emeritus at Northwestern University. Founder and former director of the university’s nationally recognized Music Theatre Program, he recently retired as executive director of the American Music Theatre Project, which he founded. He has also served as director of the famed WAA-MU student …

A communications specialist for the Army, Michael Pesola served in Germany during the Vietnam War as part of the team that kept the Soviet Union at bay. The older of two sons, Michael Pesola was born in Chicago to Frank and Rose (Mancini) Pesola. His maternal grandparents emigrated from Calabria and his paternal grandparents from Bari. Pesola lived in the Taylor Street “Little Italy” enclave, close to his grandparents and extended family, who were right across the alley in a three-flat. He has vivid memories of the wonderful taste of his grandmother’s ravioli and of pressing grapes for his grandfather’s …

An All-American softball player in college, Maria Vallone is now excelling at a sport with an obscure past and a promising future. Like most people in the United States, Maria Vallone’s only experience with handball had been playing a little bit during gym class. Then, at age 25, she fell in love with the sport and ended up excelling at it. Vallone, now 30, plays left wing for the U.S. national women’s team. Her resume includes a team fourth place finish at the 2019 Pan American Games — the best result for an American team, men’s or women’s, in many …