Carlina Tapia-Ruano and Jeffrey Gunn are expanding their immigration law practice.  They have opened a second location on Logan Square:  2407 N. Milwaukee Ave. Suite C 103, Chicago, IL 60647.  Carlina Tapia-Ruano has been concentrating her practice in the field of immigration law for over three decades. She has handled a broad range of family and employment based immigration matters and has extensive experience in immigration related litigation. Ms. Tapia-Ruano is a past President of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), a national bar association of over 11,000 attorneys and law professors.  JEFFREY W. GUNN was admitted to Illinois State bar in 1984; admitted to the United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit; to the United States District Courts for the States of Illinois (Northern and Central Districts), Michigan (Eastern District), Indiana (Northern District), and Colorado; and to the Trial Bar for the Seventh Circuit.

I am currently the director of media relations for Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger relief organization. We are a network of more than 200 food banks that provide food to more than 5.7 million low-income Americans each and every week through 61,000 food pantries, soup kitchens, and other emergency feeding sites. This year we will distribute more than 3.5 billion pounds of food and groceries. We serve every community in the nation. Forbes’ Magazine lists Feeding America as the fourth largest charity in America, noting that we received $1.2 billion in donated food and funds in 2011. We also have a four star rating from Charity Navigator.

I oversee strategy and partnerships with a number of national media organizations. Some of the highlights of my work include:  The “Idol Gives Back” campaign on FOX’s American Idol, which raised more than $15 million for Feeding America; a partnership with ABC News,“Crisis At Home: Hunger in America” a multi-platform series which featured stories on “World News Tonight with Diane Sawyer,” “Nightline” and “Good Morning America, which also partnered with Feeding America on the “Million Pound Food Challenge;”  and The National Association of Letter Carriers Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive,which collects 70 million pounds of food annually. This month (June, 2013) we partnered with NBC News properties for the release of our “Map the Meal Gap” study, which provides estimates of food insecurity at the county level for the entire nation: http://www.multivu.com/mnr/62036-feeding-america-map-meal-gap-documents-americans-living-at-risk-of-hunger  I also oversee our official partnerships with ABC’s daytime program “The Chew,” the CMT Network and TLC. Feeding America is currently partnering with Fox Sports, which airs our psa’s during NASCAR races and Major League Baseball games.  Visit http://www.feedingamerica.org/. Find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/FeedingAmerica or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/FeedingAmerica.

Here’s Ross on Fox News http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/2542500298001/

A team of Intel Corporation computer experts that included Illinois Wesleyan graduate Jeff Morriss has won the European Inventor Award 2013 for the development of Universal Serial Bus (USB) technology that is used to easily connect computers to other electronic devices. Morriss was part of the five-member Intel team that developed the USB. After majoring in physics at Illinois Wesleyan, Morriss earned a master’s degree from Northwestern University before joining Intel. Ajay V. Bhatt led the Intel team, which included Morriss, Shaun Knoll, Shelagh Callahan and Bala Cadambi.

The award is Europe’s most important prize for innovation and is presented annually by the European Patent Office to outstanding innovators in five categories for their contributions to technological, social and economic progress. The USB team won in the category “Non-European Countries.” The 2013 winners were announced May 28 in Amsterdam.

I received my PhD in Psychology, speciality in Organizational Psychology, in July, 2012, from Walden University. My dissertation was “The Effects of Age and Emotional Labor on Decision Making”. It is one of the few, possibly only, dissertation using nuclear power plant supervisors as the population of interest.

The Illinois Woman’s Press Association presents the Communicator of Achievement award each year to a member who has exhibited outstanding communication skills. This year’s Communicator of Achievement is Marianne Wolf-Astrauskas, IWPA’s immediate past-president. She will be Illinois’ nominee for the National Communicator of Achievement Award presented by NFPW at its Salt Lake City confab.

During the awards ceremony of the Mate E. Palmer Professional Communications Contest, Wolf-Astrauskas  took two 1^st place honors, two 3^rd place awards and two Honorable mentions for her writing.

Wolf-Astrauskas, who also serves as executive board secretary of the National Federation of Press Women (NFPW), has been a historian, storyteller, author, editor, administrator, recruiter, collaborator, mentor, listener, and volunteer for and to IWPA members over the years. Her 30+ years of award-winning professional experience include working for an Illinois U.S. Senator and the City of Chicago in administrative capacities. Wolf-Astrauskas is also a long-time alumni regional board member for her alma mater, Illinois Wesleyan University, where she was a member of Epsilon Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma, in which she develops networking and support programs for IWU’s students and alums.

Following her two terms as IWPA president, Wolf-Astrauskas plans to continue her research on the history of the IWPA and NFPW and publish her findings in book form sometime in 2014.