As an analyst for the Air National Guard, Paul Lauricella was tasked with tracking the spread of COVID in Illinois and helped to identify locations for testing centers and then vaccination sites. The older of two children, Paul Lauricella was born in Elmhurst, Illinois, to Paul and Christine Ackerman Lauricella. His paternal great-grandparents emigrated separately from Agrigento, Sicily, with their families, met in Chicago and married.
Lauricella grew up in Bloomingdale enjoying family gatherings and a combination of Italian, German and American cultures and foods. His paternal grandparents lived in Chicago Ridge. “For me, growing up in the suburbs and going to an Italian neighborhood, it was sort of a back and forth between cultures in a good way,” he says.
