Christina Vitagliano is the founder of Monster Mini Golf, a chain of monster-themed entertainment centers. Founded in 2004, the company has 30 18-hole miniature golf courses across the country with two locations in Las Vegas.
Q: What is the biggest challenge facing Las Vegas in the next five years? A: Personally, I feel the biggest challenge facing Las Vegas is the education system at all levels from early education of our children to higher education of professionals. We are missing the mark on preparing future generations — who will one day be our next leaders.
Q: What do you like most about Las Vegas? A: Philanthropy. Vegas is a small town and definitely supports its own as we all want to strive to build the best community we can for our children. Being involved with a lot of charities myself, it is fulfilling being surrounded by so many compassionate Vegans willing to volunteer time and services.
While the city is thriving with the arrival of professional sports and new technology-based businesses, our public education system needs additional attention. Our youth are our future. I’m hopeful as a community we can come together to work on solutions to help improve public education across the valley.
Utah-based Henriksen/Butler is an office furniture distributor and commercial space designer with offices in Utah, Idaho, Nevada and Western Wyoming. In Las Vegas, its showroom occupies the renovated site of Gamblers Book Shop at 630 S. 11th St. Heather Bressler is the vice president of Henriksen/Butler Nevada.
Q: Where do you work out or play your favorite sport? A: The Grateful Yogi
Q: What is the biggest challenge facing Las Vegas in the next five years. A: Developing our health care landscape to establish Las Vegas as a world-class destination for medical care.
Q: How do you decompress after a hard week? A: Recently, I’ve been playing Lego Star Wars on the Wii with my 5-year-old son. He’s really good at it, and alternates between hilarious trash talk and telling me I’m the best daddy ever when I help him get past an obstacle he’s struggling with.
Q: What is the biggest challenge facing Las Vegas in the next five years. A: This is a difficult question to answer. In my opinion, Las Vegas, like many other growing cities, faces multiple challenges that are in need of constant attention. They vary from diversification of our economy so we can better weather the economic slowdowns, unemployment, homelessness, potential water shortages and education, to name a few. All of which require focused attention to keep the community healthy and to foster its ability to attract strong new industries.