Neighbors in the News
Mount Prospect resident Brian Gilligan was selected for promotion to captain in the U.S. Navy Reserve. Gilligan has held a variety of leadership positions during his 26 years in the Naval Reserves. He started out as an intelligence specialist in 1991; was commissioned as an officer in 1993; and in 2014 became a commanding officer of an Intelligence unit in Millington, Tennessee. He currently serves as the regional training officer for the Navy Information Force Reserve in Washington, DC. In 2013, Gilligan served an eight-month tour of duty as an intelligence officer in Kabul, Afghanistan. He was the chief intelligence officer to the information officer at the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) International Joint Command in Kabul. In civilian life, Gilligan is an instructor and chairman of the Department of Business Technologies at Morton College, Cicero. He also serves as the assistant treasurer and board member on the Mount Prospect Library Board.
• District 102 named Patrick Hoover director of Learning and Growth. Hoover, who began his new assignment on July 3, brings extensive school leadership experience, innovative curriculum development, and 21st Century learning tools integration to the department. He has more than 13 years of experience in education. Hoover has created numerous professional learning series, directed and opened a cutting-edge 21st Century learning model for grades six-12, facilitated systems learning and differentiated curriculum in mathematics. He holds a master of arts degree in educational leadership and policy studies from Roosevelt University and is completing the final phase of his doctorate of philosophy in educational leadership and policy analysis from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
• U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Ida Crawford, daughter of Nelson Stewart of Chicago and Patricia Crawford of Schaumburg, graduated from basic military training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, San Antonio, Texas. The airman completed an intensive, eight-week program that included training in military discipline and studies, Air Force core values, physical fitness, and basic warfare principles and skills. Crawford is a 2012 graduate of William Fremd High School, Palatine. She earned a bachelor's degree in 2016 from Illinois State University, Normal.
• Naomi Ecanow, of Long Grove, a University of Illinois at Chicago senior, was awarded a $2,500 scholarship from the Military Order of the Purple Heart, a congressionally-chartered organization of recipients of the Purple Heart medal and their families. Ecanow, a biochemistry major, is among the 80 winners of the organization's competitive scholarship, which is awarded annually to Purple Heart recipients and their spouses, children and grandchildren. Ecanow's qualifying Purple Heart recipient was her late grandfather, Bernard Ecanow, a longtime faculty member of the UIC College of Pharmacy and a recipient of both the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart for service in the Pacific during World War II. Ecanow, a graduate of Adlai E. Stevenson High School, is in UIC's Guaranteed Professional Admission Program in Medicine and plans to attend the UIC College of Medicine after graduation.
• Jessi Hersman, Buffalo Grove Park District's recreation supervisor, was selected to receive the Illinois Theatre Association's 2017 Award of Excellence in Community Theatre. The Illinois Theatre Association is considered the representative theatrical organization for Illinois. Its membership includes people from all theatrical areas who are involved with everything from education to creative dramatics, with both professional and community organizations included. The association will present Hersman the award as part of its annual Red Carpet Gala on Saturday, Aug. 26, at Harper College's Wojcik Conference Center in Palatine.
• Send your 'Neighbors in the News' items to Norrine Twohey at ntwohey@dailyherald.com.