Game-Changers

By Naperville Magazine
August 2025 View more Featured

By Jeff Banowetz

In art, science, philanthropy, and business, these locals are using their creativity to build something new

Taking Her Shot

Photographer finds international success in the fine arts

Alicia Staley Johnson hopped on a plane to London last month to see an art exhibit. The reason she went probably would shock her younger self—she traveled to see one of her own photographs on display in England.

Johnson’s work was accepted at the London Biennale, an internally curated exhibition that showcases work from 300 artists representing more than 60 countries. Not only was the acceptance a surprise to her, but the fact that she’s joined the world of fine-art photography is still something that makes her pinch herself. “It was just last year, maybe just over a year ago, that I decided to try it,” Johnson says. “I’m 59 years old, and I’ve been running a business in Naperville for more than 30 years now. I take pictures of children and families and headshots, you name it. But I felt like I needed something that was going to be for me that didn’t involve people. I’ve always loved art, but I never really felt like I was an artist.”

She began working with a friend, florist Andrew Parravano (former proprietor of Andrew’s Garden in Wheaton), who created flower arrangements for her. She would photograph them and turn them into photos that to her resembled the “Dutch-inspired masters.”

“It was just a peaceful, relaxing time,” she says. “I enjoyed doing them, and I thought they were cute. So what do we do now? I started putting them up on Instagram [@aliciasfineart].”

She began following other artists and photographers, and to her surprise her numbers skyrocketed. “I was soon up to 25,000 followers, which is just crazy to me,” she says. “I started seeing requests for submissions into galleries and contests. And I’m going to be honest, I had no idea what the London Biennale was. But it sounded lovely, so I thought, I’ll try that one.” Her still-work piece titled Golden Elegance [on the cover] was accepted and displayed during the festival in July.

Her Instagram feed is also followed by a gallery in Barcelona, Spain, which reached out to her to see if she was interested in having some of her works displayed there. Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising, as her followers tend to be largely from overseas, especially Spain, Italy, and South Africa. “It’s still crazy to me that all this is happening,” she says. “Who would have guessed that South Africa is where I have the most followers?”

For most of her still-life images, she spends four to six hours setting up and taking the shots. But the majority of the work is done after the photo is taken, on her computer, where she edits everything to her liking, which can take weeks of additional work. “I basically paint with light,” she says. “It’s hard to describe, but I literally go in and fine-tune all the highlights and shadows. It just gives the image more depth and more of a painterly feel.”

She’s also started taking more travel photos and outdoor shots—without people—as part of her collection of fine-art images that are available through her website, aliciasfineart.com. As for selling her works, she’s still figuring it all out. “This is all new to me,” she says. “I’m learning how things work in the fine-art world and getting an education.”

She works now primarily in her studio at her home in Warrenville, where she lives with her husband after several decades in downtown Naperville. She’s still running her photography business, but she’s excited that fine-art photography has become such a part of her life. “I’m the real-life example that you should always follow your dreams,” Johnson says. “I only did this because I wanted to try something new. I didn’t expect any of this to happen. Now I’m flying to London and France and talking to galleries all over the world. It’s been a wonderful experience.”

A Tequila Designed for Women

One Naperville entrepreneur is changing the way people think about this spirit

Ingrid LaVon, a longtime Chicago-area corporate exec, rediscovered tequila in an unusual way—because of a pregnancy.

“It was about 14 years ago when I had my son at, as they call it, a seasoned age,” she says with a laugh. “And postpregnancy, it was very tough for me to lose weight. I started working with a personal trainer, and they started looking at everything that I was eating and drinking. And a very long story short, someone recommended that I try tequila.”

Her first thought on the recommendation?

“Absolutely not, because I remember in my college days and what tequila did to me, and that wasn’t something that I wanted to relive,” she says.

But LaVon has built a career as a savvy business person and wanted to try to understand what she was missing. “I wasn’t educated enough around tequila,” she says. “It’s gluten-free, sugar-free, all these [healthier] things if you are drinking the right types of tequila. And it became my spirit of choice. And literally, I’ve not had a sip of anything outside of tequila for about 12 years.”

Her interest in the spirit went beyond changing her drinking habits. It quickly became a passion project as she dived deep into the beverage industry. Her background is in finance, so this was all new to her. “I’m literally self-taught,” she says. “After I made a decision that this was something I wanted to do—I would say about seven or eight years ago—then I got serious beyond the consumer and just started really educating myself on the history of tequila, and how it can become a tequila, and in what parts of Mexico, the types of tequila and what are additives and what does it mean to be free of additives and how it’s distilled and the agave farms and the different regions. And so I just asked a ton of questions to people that were in the industry.”

And after years of work, this February LaVon launched Geneba Tequila, named after her mother, Geneva. It’s crafted and marketed specifically for women, and in its first few months, it has gained quite a bit of attention. It was recognized as one of the “10 Black-Owned Brands to Watch” by The Spirits Business, served at the 2025 Academy Awards signature gifting lounge, and featured in Vanity Fair’s summer gift guide. Locally, it’s available at 25 Binny’s Beverage Depot locations, as well as several area restaurants, including Potter’s Place in downtown Naperville.

“It’s a very-male dominated industry, and a majority of consumers are men,” LaVon says. “Because of the bite, because of the earthiness, it just wasn’t something that women would drink. And so I wanted to create something that women could join me in. And that meant really tailoring the aroma to start, tailoring the taste, tailoring the smoothness, tailoring the entire profile, including the packaging, making it luxurious and sexy for women to actually go in and ask for tequila and not be embarrassed by it.”

LaVon hopes that more women discover there’s a wide variety of experiences that can be found with tequila. “There are some that you only want to mix because of different profiles,” she says. “People have different palates. Just like when you’re selecting a Cabernet, there are different levels and different types of Cabernet. There are different regions that Cabernets come from. It’s the same with tequila.”

She held her first tasting event at a Binny’s location in Naperville, where they sold out in about an hour. “It was so beautiful because that’s a place where I’ve shopped at for years. And to walk in there, and see our brand on the shelf next to brands that have been around for 10 or 20 years? It was very fulfilling.”

LaVon grew up in the western suburbs with her mother, who moved to Naperville and lived there until her death six years ago. “Her name was Geneva, so the company’s name is Geneva in Spanish,” LaVon says. “She was all things grace and class, a single mother. It was just her and I. And so for me to be able to honor her in this way is special.”

LaVon adds: “She was all about bringing women together. Her saying was, ‘Ladies, it’s cocktail time.’…I do hope that I’m making her proud.”

Providing Pet Care for All

Formerly known as Spay Illinois, Paws for a Cause Vet Care is a nonprofit provider that moved into a new facility This year in Naperville

The nonprofit Spay Illinois began in Naperville about 15 years ago to help those who couldn’t afford vet care, with an emphasis, as its name suggests, on pet birth-control procedures. But that was always just a part of what the organization did, and as its number of veterinary services expanded, the name of the organization no longer matched what was going on day-to-day in the clinic. So when it moved into its new 16,000-square foot pet hospital earlier this year, it seemed like the perfect time to choose a name that reflected its mission. Spay Illinois became Paws for a Cause Vet Care, offering a full spectrum of veterinary services in one place.

“We decided to change the name now that we are considered full-service,” says Ashely Hare, the social media and marketing coordinator at Paws for a Cause Vet Care. “A lot of people just thought we do spaying and neutering, and we wanted to just expand on the name to reflect what we can do now.”

That includes just about anything you would find at a for-profit veterinarian. “We pretty much see everything that your regular veterinarian will do,” Hare says. “We don’t take emergency cases, but with the new facility we are doing exploratory surgeries, diagnostics, dental care, and treatments for chronic diseases.”

The facility, located at 1620 Bond St., also has brought the entire operation under one roof. At its previous location, at Maple Avenue and Naper Boulevard, the organization operated in two different spaces in the shopping center.

“It was a challenge having two locations in the strip mall that weren’t connected, so our spay and neuter was done at one end of the strip mall, and then our wellness clinic was on the other side,” Hare says. “To have us all here together has been amazing.”

Since its founding, Paws for a Cause Vet Care has provided care for more than 252,000 pets, and last year alone the organization tracked more than 27,000 pet visits.

“We want to let everyone know that we’re all still the same people with the same mission,” Hare says. “We weren’t bought out by anyone. We’re now a full-service nonprofit veterinary clinic. We’re here to give people an affordable option to be sure that everyone can give their pets the treatment they need.”

Making a Difference Through Theater

Theatre for Charity puts on a show each year to raise money for a local cause

Lynn Hodak’s idea of creating a theatrical performance to raise money for charity dates back to 2006, when the death of her stepfather inspired her to do something for the community.

“He was the one who introduced me to theater, and I wanted to do something to honor him,” she recalls. “Into the Woods was one of our favorite shows, and I thought that if we could perform that and donate the profits to a cause that he admired, that would be a good way to do so.

Hodak followed up with another show the following year, but then her own health issues caused her to step back. But a few years ago, she started talking with her daughter, now an adult, about resurrecting the idea. “She always thought it was a good idea to use the arts to help the community,” Hodak says. “I had more time now, and it seemed like a good time to see if we could do it again.”

Hodak and her nonprofit Theatre for Charity produced High School Musical in 2023, followed last year by Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. This year, they will be producing the Disney musical Freaky Friday at the Matrix Club (808 S. Route 59 in Naperville) the weekends of Sept. 19 to 21 and Sept. 26 to 28. “It’s an absolutely stunning environment,” Hodak says of the Matrix Club. “I’m so happy they want us to be part of their program. The theater seats a little over 200 people, and it’s got great sound. The whole facility is very nice, and it’s going to give us what we need to do a nice performance.”

Hodak first took to the stage herself at about 8 (she was a member of Fagin’s gang in Oliver!) and then continued to spend much of her adult life involved with regional theater as her daughter grew up involved with it as well. She touts the support of the 10-member board behind Theatre for Charity with its success this time around. “I can’t sing their praises enough,” she says. “They are all so skilled, and they’re all involved in the production in so many ways. It’s been a joy to be able to work with these people to put on something that we can all be proud of.”

This year’s performances will benefit Metropolitan Family Services of DuPage County, which provides a wide range of programs to support vulnerable families in need. “It’s a wonderful organization to work with, and we’re proud to be doing this to help them with their mission,” Hodak says.

She’s also happy they’re able to draw more local actors. “We are auditioning for all the roles, and you just find so many talented people in this area,” she says. “I feel that we’ve spent the time to do things right. We now have additional fundraisers throughout the year to help raise more money to put on a good show and raise more money for charity. It’s something we’re all passionate about, and I’m so happy to see it coming together.”

The Sci-Fi Future Is Here

RobotLab helps local companies implement robotic technology to improve their businesses

Ryan Krajecki knows that most people still think of robots as characters from science-fiction movies. But more and more businesses are using the technology in ways both seen and unseen by customers.

“We assist companies in taking advantage of the emerging technology of service robotics,” says Krajacki, describing his business, RobotLab, a franchise that he owns and operates with son Andy. “Service robots are robots that can be around humans. It’s always safe to be around them. It is a transition from industrial manufacturing robots, and the technology that was developed in that space, and just bringing it into the space designed to be around humans.”

You could describe Krajacki as a robot consultant working with businesses to provide robotic solutions for their businesses. “There are so many different brands with all these different technologies it is really incumbent upon us to be the experts,” he says. “A lot of people are interested in robots, but there’s a gap between them being interested in being able to use them in a way that adds value to their business. We bridge that gap.”

Krajacki has spent close to 30 years in industrial automation—starting with behind-the-scenes robots—but he sees more and more companies looking for ways to incorporate the latest technology to interact with humans. “You can find lots of robotic carts, which, depending on the product, can move items to where you need them,” he says. “It can be moving food to and from a kitchen so that a server doesn’t have to leave their section or carry heavy trays. Or a warehouse where you move inventory around. We just did a demo with a car dealership to take parts to the technician who needs them, so they don’t have to get up and walk to find the part themselves.”

For some uses, robots take preexisting technology and automate it, say a floor scrubber or vacuum that used to require a human to operate it can now be done without any guidance. “Floor cleaning seems to be very popular right now because it’s something that people understand,” he says. “We can be grateful to the Roomba people for educating everyone.”

More difficult and dangerous jobs also are becoming automated. “We have a firefighter robot that can go into buildings and climb stairs. It’s got thermal sensors to identify the hot spots in the building and a hose with both water and foam,” Krajacki says. “With security robots, we mount like 16 different cameras and thermal images to patrol a facility. There are cooking robots where you load food—basically proteins and starches and then all the ingredients—and it can do the cooking.”

Robots are now taking advantage of machine learning, which means they teach themselves how to get better at their jobs. For example, robots delivering parts in a warehouse “will find the most efficient route on its own, without us having to tell it where to go,” Krajacki says.

As for when the market will have humanoid robots like C3PO walking around town? “I think most people are shocked to find out there are over 40 manufacturers of humanoid robots all over the world,” he says. “BMW has humanoid robots in its factory. Tesla has humanoid robots that they make in their facilities. Mercedes has them. Amazon has them. These are full-blown humanoid robots with arms and legs that can walk around with very advanced sensors in their ‘eyes.’ I think we’re actually much closer than people realize to seeing them in everyday life.”

Photos: Alicia Staley Johnson; Geneba Tequila; Paws for a Cause Vet Care; Theatre for Charity; Jen Banowetz (robot); RobotLab