Profiles

Italian-born Marta Castella recently signed on as Italian programs outreach director at Scuola Italiana Enrico Fermi in Chicago, a job she describes as “equal parts cultural bridge and growth architect.” Founded in 2016, Scuola Fermi is the only full-time Italian immersion school in the Chicago area, offering bilingual education from preschool through K-1. The school integrates the best elements of both Italian and American education, giving students a rigorous, inquiry-based and multilingual learning experience, Castella explains. “Our innovative Dual Track System allows us to seamlessly integrate students from English-monolingual environments alongside native Italian speakers, ensuring that all children progress confidently …

Over the last two decades, Thomas P. Valenti has put his arbitration and mediation skills to use across the globe, traveling to places like Greece and India, and now helping young people in Afghanistan via online mentoring. Valenti is a Chicago-based dispute resolution specialist who has held a law license since 1977. He first worked as a trial attorney, primarily in Cook County, then over the last two decades shifted his focus to mediation and arbitration in civil, commercial, interpersonal and workplace matters. Valenti’s resume is extensive. Among other positions, he has served as a neutral arbitrator for the American …

Attorney Maria Gabriella Antoniolli works closely with individuals who are going through some of the hardest challenges of their lives while passing through the family court system. “We see people at their worst and try to get them out at the other side of the tunnel,” says Antoniolli, who goes by “Gabby.” “You have to deal with a lot of contentious and high stress situations, sometimes its people fighting over their kids or assets.” Antoniolli says the job can be emotionally draining, but she has found that she has the right temperament for the challenge. “There’s a need and it’s …

One of the select few to qualify for and successfully complete Navy SEAL training, Anthony Lanzillotti embarked on an illustrious career that spanned 37 years and included five deployments, tours of duty in 10 countries and an assignment at the Pentagon. The older of two children, Anthony Lanzillotti was born in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago to Carmen and Ann (Corbin) Lanzillotti. The family moved from the North Side to Deerfield, where Lanzillotti grew up. His great-grandparents emigrated from the Calabria and Abruzzo regions of Italy. Lanzillotti’s father, proprietor of Carmen’s Restaurant in Edgewater, worked six days a week. Sunday …

While other kids were batting, pitching and fielding their way toward careers on Major League Baseball’s fields of dreams, Wayne Randazzo’s sights were set a little higher. Countless young boys grow up following Major League Baseball on TV or the radio and dream of one day being part of the game. Wayne Randazzo wished for a life in baseball, but not as a player — he wanted to get to call the action. “Pretty much ever since I knew I needed a job when I got older, this has been the job I wanted,” says Randazzo, 40, who is in …

One of the architects of the iconic rock group Chicago, Danny Seraphine has never lost touch with his roots on Chicago’s Far Northwest Side. Danny Seraphine first picked up a set of drumsticks at 9 years of age, beginning a musical roller-coaster ride that gave the world some of the best-loved pop hits of our lifetime. Sixty years ago, the 17-year-old from the Far Northwest Side of Chicago was asked to be a drummer in Dick Clark’s road band, Jimmy Ford and the Executives. While in that band he met bassist extraordinaire Terry Kath and saxophonist Walt Parazaider. That chance …

“I always say I was born here, but my heart was truly born in Italy.” Those are the words of Anna Izzo, who studied in Italy, traveled the country extensively, and now teaches Italian at Elk Grove High School in suburban Chicago. Izzo, who calls herself “a student at heart,” holds several degrees. She has undergraduate degrees in Italian, Spanish and secondary education from the University of Iowa. She also has three master’s degrees: one in curriculum and instruction with an English Language Learning concentration from National Louis University; one in health and wellness from the American College of Education; …

During her senior year at the UIC College of Dentistry, Dr. Lauren Allegretti was granted a scholarship from the Arcolian Dental Arts Society. She joined the society after graduating residency in 2016, became a board member in 2020 and now will ascend to be the society’s president this April. “It’s cool,” Allegretti says. “It feels very full circle.” That she has become so involved with the Arcolian Society is even less surprising given her family’s professional history: She is the 11th member of the Allegretti/DiFranco clan to become a dentist. She attended society meetings while she was in a dental …

From the moment she stepped on U.S. soil at age 5, Giulia Feiza Voirol despised the name Roseanne, given to her by her adoptive mother. It was only recently that the now 71-year-old decided to once again go by her Italian birth name, Giulia. Feiza Voirol lives in La Grange, in suburban Chicago, with her husband of nine years, James Voirol. She has a daughter from her first marriage, along with two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. She grew up with her adoptive family in Cicero, also in suburban Chicago, and has been on a decades-long quest to find her birth …

A team-sport player from grade school through college, he felt drawn to the military because of the similar opportunity it provided to be a part of something bigger than oneself. The middle of five children, Mark Evangelista was born in Wheaton, Illinois, to Mark and Suzanne Logan Evangelista. His great-grandparents emigrated from the Abruzzo region. Evangelista grew up close to his large extended family. “We were always by family,” he says. “Sundays were either at our house, Grandma’s or my aunt’s house.” His aunt and grandmother wrote down their recipes and their descendants had the good sense to preserve them. …