Meet the IAVM Board of Directors

RENATO (RON) BACCI
Retired U.S. Army Colonel Renato (Ron) Bacci served 30 years as an infantry officer, armor officer and civil affairs officer. Duty tours included Bosnia, Croatia, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. Foreign assignments involved automating banking units in Europe and South America. His last major assignment was executive liaison/manager of information technology integration in Padua, Italy. He is a retired bank senior vice president with extensive managerial experience in all aspects of financial services. A volunteer for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve since 1999, he is outgoing chair of the Illinois ESGR Committee and former chair of the Information Technology Subcommittee and member of the ESGR board of directors.

PAUL BASILE
Paul Basile is the editor of Fra Noi, the Chicago-area Italian-American magazine, a position he has held for nearly three decades. He currently serves as president of the corporation. He is a founding member and president of the Italian American Veterans Museum as well as a founding member and secretary of Casa Italia, where the museum is located. He served as volunteer executive director of Casa Italia in 2002, spearheading the creation of a Christmas festival, wine festival and summer festival during his tenure. His brother, father, uncle and grandfather all served in the military.

STEVE CORBO
A founding member and corporate secretary of the Italian American Veterans Museum, Steve Corbo is the museum’s curator and a military consultant for Fra Noi. He has served for 25 years as president of S.A. Corbo & Associates Inc., providing professional liability insurance to health care providers. The son and nephew of World War II veterans and a passionate military historian for over 50 years, he has written and published articles on a variety of topics, including military history, and serves as the military consultant for Fra Noi, the Chicago-area Italian-American magazine.

MARK DISANTO

Mark DiSanto retired as a police sergeant after a career in law enforcement that spanned 35 years. He is dad to a son and daughter and grandpa to six wonderful grandchildren. He served in the Military Police from 1975 to 1982. He currently advocates for veterans as the state vice commander of the Italian American War Veterans and a member of the board of directors of the Combined Veterans of Berwyn. His passion is and has long been working with the Scouts. He owns MDS Systems Safety Training, which teaches firearms safety to everyone from beginners to security and police professionals

DIANA FECAROTTA
Diana Fecarotta is the commander of the Guido Belmonte Post #4 of the Italian American War Veterans, and the first female post commander in the history of the organization. With a great-uncle, two uncles and two cousins who served in the military, she proudly volunteered to serve in the U.S. Marines from 1966 to 1968 and the Air Force Reserve from 1972 to 1975. She is a charter member of Women in Military Service for America, a longtime member of the American Legion’s Post #919 and the Honorary Women Legionnaires, and the former editor of Red Clay, an international magazine of The Khe Sanh Veterans. She’s a retired educator, having students K-12 as well as adults.

LORENZO FIORENTINO
A supervising probation officer with Cook County Juvenile Probation, Lorenzo Fiorentino, is a retired Military Police major with the U.S. Army. In 2005, he completed a deployment to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and to New Orleans in support of Operation Crescent Relief. He is a retired auxiliary lieutenant with the River Grove Police Department, and over the course of his career worked as a police officer for Elmwood Park, Bellwood and the Maywood Park District. He received a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a master’s degree in Human Services Administration from the Concordia University in River Forest.

STEPHEN FIORENTINO
The founder of Fiorentino Law Offices in Chicago, Stephen Fiorentino serves as corporation counsel for the Italian American Veterans Museum. He began his legal career as Assistant State’s Attorney for the County of Cook, going into private practice in 1978. A longtime leader of the Chicago-area Italian-American community, he is a past president of the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans and one of the founders of the Society of St. Joseph. He has helped countless non-profits attain and maintain their non-profit status.

EUGENE GIUDICE
Museum archivist Eugene Giudice is a research and training librarian with the Dentons law firm in their Chicago office. He is a member of the Special Libraries Association and the Military Library special interest section of the American Association of Law Libraries. He has an MBA from DePaul University and a Master of Library and Information Science from Dominican University. He has presented at the 2014 Special Libraries Association conference and has been published in the SLA Legal Division publication, The Docket, and the Chicago Association of Law Libraries journal, The Bulletin. He brings more than 20 years of technology and consulting experience to his role as a board member.

LINDA GRISOLIA
Linda Grisolia is a correspondent for  Fra Noi, writing her first article in the March 2004 issue. She currently interviews Italian-American veterans for the monthly feature, War Stories. Many of the veterans she interviewed are featured in the documentary, “5000 Miles from Home” which aired on PBS. Please visit https://iavmuseum.org// and click on the Documentary tab to order a copy of the DVD. She served as secretary for Immaculate Conception Parish in Elmhurst for 12 years, authoring their parish bulletin for 10 of those years. She is proud to be a founding member of the Italian American Veterans Museum board.

ANGELINE IMBROGNO
Angeline Imbrogno is a founding member of the Italian American Veterans Museum. She was National President of the Italian American War Veterans Auxiliary in 2005 and is currently state president of that organization for the eighth time. She spent her professional career in banking, working at Union Bank of Switzerland for 15 years as an executive secretary and overseas account administrator, and at U.S Bank for 12 years as an executive administrative assistant for the trust department. She is a member of the Calabresi in America Organization and the Italian American Executives of Transportation.

RALPH IMBROGNO
Ralph Imbrogno is a founding member of the Italian American Veterans Museum. He was state president of the Italian American War Veterans, Junior Vice Commander of the National Italian American War Veterans Association, Commander of the Combined Veterans Association of Illinois and board member of the Italian American Police Association. He worked at Marshall Field’s for 40 years, and as a process server for the Sheriff’s Department for 10 years. A longtime member of the American Legion, he was a combat engineer who built roads, bridges and drainage systems for the U.S. Army in Korea.

CARL LITURE
Carl Liture served in the U.S. Navy during World War II as a machinist mate 3rd class on the USS Shangri-La. After the war, he worked as a streetcar conductor for the Chicago Surface Lines for 10 years and then for 30 years as a patrolman for the Chicago Police Department. He began working for Thillens as a check cashier in 1953 and still drives a truck for the company at the age of 93. He is a longstanding member of the Italian American Police Association and the Filippo Mazzei Post No. 1 of the Italian American War Veterans, and a longtime volunteer at Hines Memorial Hospital. He’s also a member of the Disabled American Veterans and the American Legion.

JOSEPH MATTY
An expert in the areas of non-profit leadership, philanthropy, marketing, board and volunteer management and political advocacy, Joseph P. Matty served as a CEO of an association, COO of a higher education foundation and president of a healthcare foundation. Over a 20-year period, he has developed countless strategic plans, overseen capital and comprehensive campaigns and educated many non-profit leaders. He served six years in the U.S. Air Force, worked at Central DuPage Hospital, and was one of three founding members of a national consulting organization focused on non-profit management. He has served on the national boards within the higher education and healthcare sectors.

RON ONESTI
Ron Onesti is the president of Onesti Entertainment Corp., which produces concerts, special events and festivals nationwide, and the owner of the following Chicago-area entertainment venues: the Arcada Theatre, Club Arcada, Rock ’N Ravioli, Bourbon ’N Brass, Evanston Rocks, Wild West Town, Be Bop a Lula’s Rockabilly Cafe, 210 Live and the Des Plaines Theatre. He has produced several projects for television, appeared on numerous radio shows, and donates his time and talents to countless Italian-American organizations. He was awarded the prestigious Ellis Island Medal of Honor and was recently honored as a Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia by the Italian government.

FELICIA REILLY
With nearly three decades of experience in public and special libraries, archives and museums, Felicia Reilly earned a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science from Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois. She maintained the Passionist Research Center’s website during the beginning of the public’s access to the World Wide Web, later creating and maintaining online web-based finding aids to archival collections at a medical society museum and library. Her family has served in the military, firefighting and police services. She worked in the music business and has been researching Chicago’s music history for many years.  She contributed articles and biographies to the Chicago Music Hall of Fame, has written for Fra Noi and was the researcher and author of the biographies and background material showcased in the museum’s Medal of Honor exhibit. She was also a contributor to a music encyclopedia and co-editor of a medical bibliography. She currently manages the Resources page on the website.

JAMES SCALZITTI
James Scalzitti is director of communications for the Cook County Clerk’s Office since January 2019, having served as deputy director for five years prior. He has worked as a reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune and City News Bureau of Chicago, and has written extensively for Fra Noi. He serves on Cook County’s Committee on Addressing Bias, Equity and Cultural Competence. He won a 2015 DePaul University Writing Showcase award for his paper examining the history and evolution of Italian-American political power in Chicago and Cook County, and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in public policy at DePaul.

PHILIP TENERELLI
Philip A. Tenerelli recently retired after 40 years in law enforcement. He served as an officer with the Willow Springs Police Department for a decade, later rising through the ranks from officer to lieutenant with the Bedford Park Police Department. He is a longtime member of the Italian American Police Association, serving on the board of directors and as vice president and president. He has served as president and secretary of the Bedford Park Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 121, and has held positions of responsibility with the  Illinois State Lodge and Grand Lodge of the FOP.

JOSEPH TROIANI
Retired U.S. Navy Commander, Joseph E. Troiani, Ph.D., is proud to serve on the board to honor his grandfather Joseph Troiani who served in the U.S. Army during World War I, and his father, Edward H. Troiani, who served with the U.S. Army in the European theater, and his uncle/godfather, John Troiani, who served with the U.S. Marine Corps also during World War II. The family is from Western Avenue and Taylor Street. Commander Troiani served 32-1/2 years in the Naval Reserve Intelligence Program. He is the founding director of the Military Psychology Programs at Adler University, where he is also an associate professor of clinical psychology.

 

If you haven’t already done so,
please join our email list.


close