On Jan. 11, the Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana announced the addition of Brookfield resident Veronica Villalon Pinela to its board of directors.
Villalon Pinela is senior manager global brand marketing at Amazon and a seasoned communications professional with over 20 years of experience working on marketing strategies and efforts.
She manages global inclusive marketing and diversity PR initiatives both internally and externally for the company. Her leadership and talent as the Midwest regional director for the Hispanic Scholarship Fund resulted in nearly $1 million dollars in scholarship money raised to benefit local Latino students.
Board members are elected by the full Delegate Assembly of the Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana during its annual meeting and can join the board in either two- or three-year terms. Directors can also be nominated to fill open positions during the year.
Welcome aboard
Riverside resident Steven Slivka in December was named chief experience officer of Aisle Rocket, a Chicago marketing agency “that unifies creative services, data and technology.”
Slivka spent seven years as chief creative officer at Edelman Chicago and earlier served as senior VP of digital innovation at Mullen and co-founded the boutique agency Colossal Squid Industries.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Jan. 4 appointed former Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel to the Illinois Domestic Violence Fatality Review Commission, which was created last August when Pritzker signed the bill into law.
The commission was created to provide guidance, leadership, technical assistance, research and other support to regional domestic violence fatality review teams in carrying out their responsibilities.
Weitzel, who served as Riverside’s chief for 13 years and as a police officer for 37 years until his retirement last May, was nominated to serve on the commission by Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police President Mitchell Davis and ILACP Director Ed Wojcicki.
Promoted
Christopher B. Burke Engineering, Ltd. (CBBEL) earlier in January announced the promotion of Senior Project Manager Orion Galey to vice president of the 200-person firm. Galey serves as CBBEL’s principal engineer for the village of Riverside.
He joined CBBEL in 2003 and has managed complex transportation, streetscape, water and storm water management projects. In addition to Riverside, Galey serves as CBBEL’s main point of contact for multiple municipalities, including Elmwood Park, Bloomingdale and Oak Brook.
Galey earned a B.S. in civil engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2002.
Well done
Lyons Township High School boys soccer coach Paul Godinho was recently named Assistant Coach of the Year by the Illinois High School Soccer Coaches Association. Godinho, who coaches at the sophomore and junior varsity levels, will be recognized at the 2022 United Soccer Coaches convention in Kansas City.
“Coach Godinho understands how little details matter and he makes the entire season an event,” said LTHS head coach Paul Labbato in a press release. “His sophomore/JV1 level usually has 30+ players and plays as two teams. Both teams are treated equally and no matter what the individual skill level of the player they get all the benefits.
On campus
Brookfield resident Jill Lojas graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin, at the school’s winter commencement ceremony is December.
Jack Sagan, a Riverside-Brookfield High School graduate and now a senior at Central College in Pella, Iowa, was presented with the Dutch Spirit Award for his contributions to the cross-county team during his college career.
One of the team’s captains, Sagan earned his second varsity letter and ran a career-best 27:23 at the Jim Drews Invite in October and had his career-best finish at the Loras Duel in September, where he placed 13th overall.
Riverside residents Hope Clark and Daniel Hillyer and Brookfield resident Kylee Hernandez were named to the 2021 fall semester dean’s list at Wheaton College for achieving a semester grade-point average of at least 3.5 on a 4-point scale.
Alyssa Cabrera, of Riverside, was named to the 2021 fall semester dean’s list at the College of Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts by earning a semester GPA of at least 3.5.
Jamie Vega, of Brookfield, was named to the Southern New Hampshire University president’s list for the 2021 fall semester earning a GPA of at least 3.7. Meanwhile, Brookfield resident Victor Janusz was named to the school’s dean’s list for attaining a GPA of at least 3.5.
Brookfield resident Jeremy Kolasa has been named to the 2021 fall semester dean’s list at Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais for attaining a semester GPA of at least 3.5.
Riverside residents Haley Hutchings (user experience design), Jocelyn Navarro (advertising and PR) and Victor Tierrafria-Marte (management information systems) and North Riverside resident Amaya Gonzalez (marketing) were named to the 2021 fall semester dean’s list at Bradley University in Peoria for achieving a GPA of at least 3.5 for the semester.
Louie Marcou, of Riverside, was named to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater dean’s list for the 2021 fall semester dean’s list. Marcou attained a semester GPA of at least 3.4.
Riverside residents Abigail Freel and Katarina Dixon were named to the 2021 fall semester dean’s list at Belmont University in Nashville for achieving a GPA of at least 3.5 for the semester.
Kathleen M. Schereck and Carole Twomey, both of Riverside, were named to the 2021 fall semester dean’s list at St. Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana. Each earned a GPA of at least 3.6 for the semester.
DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, announced recently that Brookfield resident Emilio Pizana and Riverside resident Nathan Sanchez had been named to the 2021 fall semester dean’s list for achieving a GPA of at least 3.5.
Luke Malovic, of Riverside, a software engineering major, was named to the Milwaukee School of Engineering’s dean’s list with high honors for the 2021 fall semester. Students who have maintained a GPA of at least 3.7 receive “high” honors. Clayton Stewart, a Brookfield resident who is a mechanical engineering major at the school, was named to the honors list for attaining a GPA of at least 3.20.
Several area residents were among the roughly 12,000 students named to the 2021 fall semester dean’s list at the University of Alabama for attaining a semester GPA of at least 3.5, including Brookfield residents Samuel Gomez, Ryan Kudia and Lydia Olson; North Riverside resident Eric Watson; and Riverside residents Lauren Dvorak and Catherine Glawe.
Katie Culloden, Riverside, was named to the Emerson College (Boston) dean’s list for the 2021 fall semester for attaining a GPA of at least 3.7 for the semester. Culloden is majoring in business creative enterprises.
Two Brookfield residents were part of the Lyons Township High School varsity speech team that placed first at the Grant Community High School tournament in Fox Lake earlier in January.
Freshman Amaya Davis placed sixth in the Poetry Division while junior Nina Issel was a finalist in Extemporaneous Speaking. In December 2021, Davis also placed sixth in Poetry during the Willowbrook Winter Invite, which included students from 20 schools
