title
PROPOSED RESOLUTION
CONGRATULATING HON. GLORIA COCO FOR RECEIVING THE SICILIAN AMERICAN CULTURAL ASSOCIATION’S MEDAL OF MERIT
WHEREAS, the Sicilian American Cultural Association will present Gloria Coco with its coveted Medal of Merit on September 27, 2015; and
WHEREAS, Gloria, the daughter of Samuel and Graziella Coco, earned her B.A. from Mundelein College and her J.D. from Northern Illinois University, which she worked on for eight years while teaching grade school; and
WHEREAS, Gloria Coco began her legal career as a prosecutor for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and was an attorney with the Department of Buildings for the City of Chicago, where she created and directed the department’s Code Enforcement Bureau; and
WHEREAS, Gloria Coco also served as Deputy Chief of the Illinois Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division, as well as Special Assistant Attorney General, creating the state’s first felony prosecution system to combat unemployment insurance fraud; and
WHEREAS, Gloria Coco was appointed Judge of the Circuit Court in 1991, serving in the Domestic Violence Division beginning in 1994, and as supervising judge of the division from 1997 until her retirement in 2007; and
WHEREAS, Judge Coco has been extremely active in the legal community, holding countless positions of importance on local and national levels, and actively participating in the education of judges and members of the legal profession; and
WHEREAS, while serving as judge, Gloria Coco pursued her interest in the arts, graduating Summa Cum Laude from Northwestern University’s School of Communications with a degree in Radio, Television, Film, and Theater Performance in 2004; and
WHEREAS, among the plays she has written is The Passages of Grace about her family’s harrowing experiences on Ellis Island; and
WHEREAS, Gloria Coco’s numerous television credits include roles in “Southland,” “The Defenders,” and “Parks and Recreation”. She has acted in several films and has done commercial work for companies and brands, such as Coca Cola and Tropicana; and
WHEREAS, Gloria Coco currently serves as chair of the Chicago Bar Association’s Media and Entertainment Law Committee and as Assistant Course Director for the National College of District Attorneys’ Annual Conference of Family Violence and is a co-founder and partner in Law and Order Consulting, which shares legal expertise with film and theatrical projects.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Cook County Board of Commissioners does hereby congratulate Hon. Gloria Coco for her distinguished, multi-faceted career and for receiving the Sicilian American Cultural Association’s Medal of Merit; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that a suitable copy of this text be tendered to Gloria Coco to commemorate her achievement.
end