Nick LoMaglio – ABC Founder & Lead Instructor
Nick LoMaglio was born and raised on the Southside of Chicago and currently lives with his wife, three sons and daughter in Beverly. After attending Sutherland Elementary, Nick owes much of his educational foundation to the Chicago Public School system. Upon graduation, he attended St. Rita High School and later went on to study Finance at the University of Dayton. Many of his early career decisions can be attributed to sound advice from dedicated mentors that showed him the path to professional success. Nick is currently one of the youngest Vice Presidents in Wealth Management at a global financial services firm. He started at the firm when he was 18 years old and has now been there for over a decade. Nick says “dedicated mentors and internships are two of the most important factors in professional success.” Realizing that much success was built on the shoulders of generations before him, Nick used that as his inspiration to create Advice Beyond the Classroom in 2013. He is dedicated to educating and mentoring the next generation of professional leaders hailing from Chicago. Advice Beyond the Classroom was born a charity but has since grown into a way of life.
Maura Finn – Lead Instructor / Board Member
Maura Finn studied electrical engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. During her senior year, she was recruited by Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector for a Sales Engineering Rotation. Merging her technical expertise with strong interpersonal skills, she built a successful 15-year career working with highly-visible, large revenue customers as well as smaller accounts served in partnership with distributors. She developed and nurtured strong working relationships with both customers and other organizations within her company over these years. A lifelong resident of the Beverly neighborhood on the South side of Chicago, she took time off In 2016 to raise her four children. She served in various volunteer capacities, including as chair of her local school advisory board. Maura returned to her alma mater, Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School, in 2021 to teach Math, and she is also contributing her talents to the school’s ABC program. She is passionate about instilling confidence in young women, encouraging them to break down barriers.
John Loehr is a life-long educator committed to providing impactful learning
opportunities to students. He holds a B.S. in biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; a M.S. in biochemistry from the University of Illinois at Chicago; and a Ph.D. in science education from the University of Virginia. John is the Vice President of STEM Education at Science Olympiad, where he works with the programs’ volunteers across the country to support the ongoing administration, development, and evolution of the program. He also has served as a classroom teacher, educational researcher, science leader, district administrator, test developer, and school principal. He became involved with Advice Beyond
the Classroom when his oldest son joined as a freshman at St. Rita of Cascia High School. John brings his experience in curriculum development, out-of-school-time programming, and social-emotional learning to ABC. This skill set ensures that ABC’s in-school activities are based on educational best practices and grounded in educational research.
Nick Adent – Head of School Membership / Instructor
Nick graduated from St. Rita highschool as Valedictorian, Mr. Mustang, and lettered in three varsity sports. He joined Advice Beyond the Classroom as one of the first sophomores, was promoted to Vice President junior year, and President senior year. Nick is currently playing football and studying Business Economics at The University of Chicago while also serving as Director of the ABC program. His role includes acting as liaison for class presidents, building curriculum, organizing networking events, supporting alumni, and much more. Nick is passionate about the program and continues his involvement because he says it has given him such a positive advantage and he wants to help provide these same opportunities and experiences to the future ABC students.
Stephen Viz – Special Events & Alumni Outreach
Stephen Viz is a MBA Candidate at the University of Notre Dame who holds a BA from Holy Cross College and a M.S. in Management from the University of Notre Dame. Stephen has spent time working at the investment banking companies UBS and RBC, as well as the Boeing Company in Private Wealth Management and Global Treasury Operations. He first demonstrated a strong work ethic in 2013, when he became a golf caddie at Midlothian Country Club on the South side of Chicago. He joined ABC as a student associate in 2016 during his junior year at St. Rita of Cascia High School and rose to become Vice President the following year. He continues to serve as our special events coordinator and alumni outreach officer. Stephen attributes his only metric of success, paying it forward, to the invaluable lessons he learned from the Professional ABC’s. He looks forward to working with the next generations of young professionals for years to come.
Katie Hawking – Board Member
Katie graduated from the University of Iowa with honors in Political Science. She started her career as an executive recruiter in Washington DC working on high-level government technology searches with the FBI and CIA. In 2011 she founded one of Chicago’s premiere sales recruiting firms; Bottomline Recruiting. Katie manages national accounts and recruits high level sales professionals across the United States; she also trains and manages new hires. Her experience as both a small business owner and professional placement specialist gives the students of ABC a competitive advantage over their peers as they enter the workforce. Katie also works closely with the program alumni on attaining internship placement, salary negotiations, and benefits explanations. Her experience and area of expertise is invaluable to our ABC students and alumni.
John “Gus” Miller – Board Member
Gus graduated from the University of Mississippi with a degree in Finance. While in school, he worked as a Student Business Consultant where he led a team of students who provided free business advice to distressed Mississippi business owners as well as held internships during summer and winter breaks. These experiences not only sparked his passion for client service but also giving back to the community. Gus now works as a financial consultant for a locally owned wealth advisory firm where he is responsible for intern and new hire placement within the company. His knowledge of the entry level application and interview process gives ABC students a valuable insight into expectations of companies hiring. He credits all of his success to the advice and guidance his mentors have given him along the way. Recognizing the importance of the people who influenced him, Gus joined ABC to give back to the community and provide some of the same advice that got him to where he is today.
Dave Conrath – Board Member
Dave grew up on the Southside of Chicago where he currently resides with his wife and children. Before following his passion for teaching, Dave completed a successful 25 year career working at the Chicago Board of Trade. His career began at 18 years old directly out of high school. This experience at such an early age taught Dave many things about business, economics, and competition. After working his way up from runner, Dave became a full member of the Chicago Board of Options Exchange as an independent trader. After a successful career, Dave left the trading floor in 2005 and went back to school to obtain a degree in secondary education. Like many other Advice Beyond the Classroom board members, teaching the rising generation of students has always been a passion of his. Leveraging his successful career in finance and business, Dave currently teaches Economics and Accounting to the participants of Advice Beyond the Classroom. Dave also currently serves as a coach on both the baseball and football teams at St. Rita High school. The main driver for Dave’s involvement is to give back to the community for all that it has given him.
Ashley LoMaglio – Instructor & Administrative Officer
Ashley graduated from University of Dayton with a double major in Marketing and Business Management. Internships each collegiate summer as well as involvement with UD’s profitable student-run businesses, one of the largest in the country, lead Ashley to a position at Groupon after graduation. While working at Groupon for 10 years as a sales and training manager, she was responsible for teaching hundreds of entry and management level sales and account managers. Ashley’s involvement in ABC comes from a passion for supporting the next generation. Help students find a passion and make it happen.
Bernie DelGiorno – Board Member
Bernie DelGiorno is proud to state that he was born, raised, educated, and employed all on the South Side of Chicago. Combining this with his philanthropic passion for educating the next generation, his mission to create opportunity is what drives him to mentor young professionals. His journey began on the South Side of Chicago in the Hyde Park neighborhood, where he has lived all his life. While at the University of Chicago, Bernie received both his BA and MBA, after graduating from Calumet High School. Over the years, he has mentored thousands of high school and college students through internships and dedicated his life to numerous philanthropic endeavors benefiting educational institutions on the South Side. Bernie specializes in stock valuation and macroeconomic trend analysis for a global financial services firm. His involvement with Advice Beyond the Classroom is broad but mostly focuses on mentoring the students for internship placement and professional behavior guidelines. Bernie plays an integral role in the growth and development of ABC’s most outstanding participants.