Dominic Calabrese is Public Relations Director at The Chicago Lighthouse for People Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired and an Adjunct Professor at Columbia College Chicago.  

Calabrese, who joined the Lighthouse in 2004, supervises a department of three people responsible for media relations, publications, tours and maintenance of the agency’s website.

Among his major accomplishments was placing a front-page profile of the Lighthouse’s clock-making operation in the Wall Street Journal. He also generated coverage about the agency in the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, ABC Evening News, CBS Evening News, Chronicle of Philanthropy, Associated Press as well as all major Chicago media outlets.

Under Calabrese’s leadership, the Lighthouse’s Public Relations Department has won four Golden Trumpet Awards and one Silver Trumpet Award during five of the last seven years from the Publicity Club of Chicago (PCC) for outstanding achievement.   The most recent Golden Trumpet was presented in May of this year for the Lighthouse’s exemplary media coverage.

Previously, he served as deputy press secretary with the Illinois Department of Human Services and director of public relations for both the Gateway Foundation and Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine in Chicago. 

At Scholl, Calabrese earned his first Golden Trumpet Award for promoting the college’s “Share Your Soles” campaign, which garnered over 50,000 pairs of shoes and boots to benefit the needy.  He is also a co-recipient of two other Silver Trumpet Awards as well as two Distinguished Service Awards from the PCC.

In addition, Calabrese has done free-lance writing for the Council of State Governments Magazine, Inland Shores Magazine, Pioneer Press/Lerner Newspapers and other publications.

A former VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) volunteer engaged in anti-poverty work, he continues to serve the community through membership in Chicago Cares and the Chicago Central Lions Club.

Calabrese earned a B.A. degree (cum laude) from Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois and also did graduate study at the University of Cincinnati.