Voting is now open for the 2020 Wisconsin Leadership Community Choice Awards!
Finalists were nominated by the community, and will be chosen by the community. We will announce the winners on Friday, October 2, and recognize them during the Wisconsin Leadership Summit presented by UW Credit Union, which will take place all online October 5-9.
Voting will close at 5 pm on Thursday, October 1.
Learn more about the finalists below, then click here to vote.
Woman of Excellence Finalists
Sequanna Taylor – Sequana is currently the 2nd District County Supervisor in MIlwaukee. Supervisor Taylor serves as Vice Chair of the Health and Human Needs Committee, and as a member of the Finance and Audit Committee and the Personnel Committee. Sequanna Taylor’s recent experience and community involvement include: CEO, Open Arms Inc., MPS Parent Engagement Specialist, President of the Milwaukee Educational Assistant Association, Executive Board Member of Milwaukee Teachers Education Association, National Education Association (NEA) Board Member, Ordained Missionary of COGIC and Wisconsin Counties Association Board.
Kristin WhiteEagle – Kristin’s main job is to represent District 2 in the Ho Chunk Nation’s legislature. She is also currently a Sauk County Board Supervisor of District 13, a Board Member of the Sauk County Historical Society, an Advisory Board Member for We Are Many, United Against Hate, and a member of the Baraboo Arts Coalition.
Marcelia Nicholson – Marcelia is chair of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors, representing District 5. She also serves on the board of the Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee Public Museum, Milwaukee Public Library, Continuum of Care (Eradicate Homelessness), Local Progress National Board, Wisconsin Counties Association and ALEGO.
Nasra Wehelie – Nasra is the founder of Empathy 4 Equity, a company launched this year to help organizations build a culture of empathy. Her work helps leaders and organizations nurture an environment in which people are encouraged to bring their whole selves. Before launching that business in May, she was the Director of Development and Communication at Second Harvest Foodbank from 2018 to 2020. She developed, implemented and evaluated a plan to ensure that her department met or exceeded annual development goals of raising $6 million. She was also the Development Director at Madison Area Urban Ministry from 2015-2018.
VanDora Monroe – VanDora is co-owner of Class A Cleaning in Madison. Over 10 years Dora has served at New Covenant Church of Christ Madison’s Ministry, serving those who need help identifying their God given Identity. In a time span of 3 months, Dora implemented a strategic approach to finalize the cleaning of the new construction of the Exact Science Corporate office and the new Pinney Library. While both major projects were in motion, Dora continued to minister to the women in the Women of Virtues Ministry, providing Godly wisdom in guidance, direction, devotions and inspirational messaging. Over 10 years, Dora has made a big impact on the women, youth, clients and businesses in Dane County.
Annette Miller – Annette Miller has lived in Madison since 1989 with her life partner, Mike, and three children they have raised together. Annette’s career spans decision-making roles across state and local government and as an executive in the private sector. She brings 25 years of strong professional policy and analytic skills, and a wide network of community, government, and business relationships, especially with Dane County’s diverse populations. Annette launched EQT By Design (EQT) to focus on developing diverse, inclusive, sustainable strategies in public engagement, equitable community development projects, and organizational cultural change management.
TeKema Balantine – TeKema is the reigning Miss Black USA. She currently works at Meriter Hospital. She is a board member of Capital City Theater and a committee member of P.A.T.C.H.
Man of Excellence Finalists
Ace Champion – Ace is an award-winning chef, cooking instructor and host of Cook Like A. Champion, an internationally syndicated television show airing on stations in 15 states, Canada and the Caribbean. He is active and involved in the community, donating time and money to charities and fundraising events throughout Wisconsin. He also volunteers in school culinary programs, giving advice, making appearances and helping to raise money.
Tehassi Hill – Tehassi Hill is Chairman of the Oneida Nation. He has provided leadership to the Oneida Nation through the COVID-19 Pandemic, including Safer at Home legislation that has been in effect since March and securing CARES Act funding for the Nation. His office led an initiative to engage youth as future leaders through a special project to bring nine Oneida youth from five local high schools to participate in the National Congress of American Indians Youth Commission. Hill served on the National Resources Damage Assessment Trustee Council and secured over $1,000,000 for the creation of an 18-acre Oneida Lake with additional 10-15 acres in 2020 and a 30 acre sustainable fishery. He also Serves as a designee on the EPA’s Regional Tribal Operating Committee focused on restoring wetlands on the reservation. He delivered the 2019 State of the Tribes address.
Joaquin Altoro – Joaquin Altoro was appointed by Governor Tony Evers to head the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) in 2019, leading the state’s efforts to stimulate the economy by supporting home ownership and small business development. Prior to joining the administration, he was a vice president at Town Bank, heading the bank’s community business banking and commercial lending programs. Spending most of his career in Milwaukee, he serves the community as a member of the Plan Commission as well as the boards of SHARP Literacy, Forward Community Investments, Nativity Jesuit Middle School, and Public Policy Forum.
Michael Johnson – Michael is the President & CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of Dane County and led the agency on an amazing journey of change – transforming the organization from a local children’s charity to a change agent for children and families while driving high standards of excellence in financial transparency, community engagement and governance; all with the goal of making a significant, measurable impact in the lives of children and their families. In 10 years as their CEO, the Club made significant accomplishments: developed a five-year $15M plan that resulted in more than doubling the number of children and families being served in South Central Wisconsin, tripled the number of employees and grew their operating budget by 318% during his tenure. Johnson left Boys & Girls Clubs in June of 2018 to become President & CEO of United Way of Greater Cincinnati and resigned after four months to return to his role with the Club. Michael earned a BA in Business Education from Chicago State University and an MBA from the University of Phoenix. He also holds a certification in fundraising management from the Center of Philanthropy at Indiana University, a certification in human resource management from Cornell University and an Advanced Leadership Certification from the University of Michigan, Ross School of Business.
Marcus Allen – Rev. Marcus Allen is pastor at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Madison and president of the African American Council of Churches. He served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan as a patrol and supply specialist and has been involved in church leadership his entire life. Allen grew up in Milwaukee before settling in Virginia where he pursued his ministry calling. Since moving to Madison, Allen has been a vocal leader in the community. He has taken the lead on issues like justice reform, homelessness, education and unemployment. As a result, Dane County has tapped Pastor Marcus to lead a coalition of churches to pair mentors with teens to help improve mental health and reduce juvenile crime.
Business Executive of the Year – Small Business
VanDora Monroe – VanDora is co-owner of Class A Cleaning in Madison. Over 10 years Dora has served at New Covenant Church of Christ Madison’s Ministry, serving those who need help identifying their God given Identity. In a time span of 3 months, Dora implemented a strategic approach to finalize the cleaning of the new construction of the Exact Science Corporate office and the new Pinney Library. While both major projects were in motion, Dora continued to minister to the women in the Women of Virtues Ministry, providing Godly wisdom in guidance, direction, devotions and inspirational messaging. Over 10 years, Dora has made a big impact on the women, youth, clients and businesses in Dane County.
Annette Miller – Annette Miller has lived in Madison since 1989 with her life partner, Mike, and three children they have raised together. Annette’s career spans decision-making roles across state and local government and as an executive in the private sector. She brings 25 years of strong professional policy and analytic skills, and a wide network of community, government, and business relationships, especially with Dane County’s diverse populations. Annette launched EQT By Design (EQT) to focus on developing diverse, inclusive, sustainable strategies in public engagement, equitable community development projects, and organizational cultural change management.
Mike Moh – Mike is owner of Moh’s Martial Arts in Madison. He grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota and was inspired by one of his heroes, Jackie Chan, while working as a stuntman in Hong Kong on the film “Robin-B-Hood,” to pursue a career in acting. Mike relocated to Los Angeles and landed roles in numerous commercials, TV shows, and films like “Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist,” widely considered the best film adaptation of a video game. After nearly a decade in Los Angeles, Moh relocated his family back to the Midwest in 2013 to open Moh’s Martial Arts. While juggling a growing family and one of the most successful martial arts schools in the midwest, he has been able to book roles on primetime shows like FOX’s “Empire,” ABC’s “Marvel’s Inhumans,” and Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” in which he played Bruce Lee. Mike continues his martial arts training daily and holds the rank of 5th-degree black belt in Taekwondo.
Jesus Gonzalez – Jesus a Milwaukee native, is both an entrepreneur and chef. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, he started his first business, Mazorca Tacos, in 2017. Then, he co-founded Zocalo Food Park in 2018. Zocalo, the word for a public square in Mexico, is Milwaukee’s first food truck park, accommodating six food trucks. Customers can enjoy Asian rice bows, wings, burgers, tacos, ice cream, and bagels on an outdoor patio or rooftop. This year Gonzalez was recognized as one of Milwaukee Business Journal’s 40 Under 40.
Steve Ninham – Steve Ninham, the general manager at Radisson Hotel & Conference Center in Green Bay, has been working at the Radisson for more than seven years. The Radisson is owned by the Oneida Nation. Ninham, a member of the Oneida Nation, is responsible for managing the hotel and brings more than $20 million in hotel revenue to the Nation. Under Ninham’s management, Radisson Hotel’s sales team won Sales Team of the Year at the Aimbridge Hospitality Awards in 2016. Ninham himself was a finalist for the General Manager of the Year, which he had won twice previously.
Business Executive of the Year – Large Business
Cedric Ellis – Cedric Ellis is executive vice president and chief enterprise officer at CUNA Mutual Group. A native of Waterbury, Conn., Ellis cares deeply about making a positive impact in the community and donates his time and talents to several local organizations including Big Brothers & Big Sisters of Dane County. He is also a member of the Governor’s Council on Workforce Investment (CWI) and the CWI partnership development committee. Before joining CUNA Mutual Group, Ellis served as senior vice president of HR for the Atlantic region of Wachovia. Ellis joined CUNA Mutual Group in 2005 and previously served as a senior vice president. He was also recognized on Our Lives Magazine’s inaugural “Queer People of Color” list.
Ana Hooker – Ana is senior vice president for Exact Sciences, one of the top executives in Madison’s burgeoning biotech sector. She brought more than 20 years of lab experience when she accepted the position overseeing all laboratory operations. With an undergrad degree from Kansas State and an MBA from Westminster College in Salt Lake City, she spent 15 years in a variety of positions with ARUP Laboratories in Utah.
Ric Ransom – Frederic “Ric” Ransom serves as Vice President and President, UW Hospitals, Madison Region, where he provides overall direction for American Family Children’s Hospital, UW Health at the American Center and University Hospital. Previously he served as Chief Operating Officer at Greenville Memorial Hospital, a part of Prisma Health, the largest integrated health system in South Carolina. Ransom provides primary oversight for the Joint Operating Agreement with UnityPoint Health – Meriter and multiple clinical programs and services.
Dr. Ashok Rai – Dr. Ashok Rai has served as Prevea Health’s President and CEO since 2009 and currently sits on UW-Green Bay’s Council of Trustees. While Prevea has been a partner with Green Bay Athletics since 1985, Dr. Rai led the charge starting in 2012 what was then a unique model with an exclusive healthcare provider with a Division I program but is now quickly becoming the recommended NCAA best practice public-private relationship. Dr. Rai and his team of physicians, athletic trainers and other specialists provide full medical coverage for UW-Green Bay student-athletes both at the Kress Center and on the road. The public-private partnership allows for a separation of medical decisions from the University and places the student-athlete first in all decisions and care.
Michelle Nettles – Michelle Nettles is the Chief People & Culture Officer at ManpowerGroup. Prior to serving in her current role, Ms. Nettles served as Chief People & Diversity Officer at MolsonCoors. From October 2014-2016 she served as the Chief Human Resources Officer of MillerCoors. She also served as senior director of diversity and integrated talent management for MillerCoors from June 2012 to September 2014. Before joining MillerCoors, Ms. Nettles served as the executive director for Quest Milwaukee, a K-12 program at Marquette University that provides services and support to private and charter schools in the City of Milwaukee from April 2007 to August 2009. Prior to joining Quest, Ms. Nettles worked for Miller Brewing Company in a number of capacities including Director, HR Strategic Projects and Assistant General Counsel.
Nonprofit of the Year
Dominican Center – Dominican Center is in the heart of the Amani neighborhood, providing numerous resources (food pantry, water filters with installation if needed, small/minor home repairs for senior population, neighborhood clean-ups, youth engagement just to name a few) and assisting the neighborhood group to carry out the revitalization plan for Amani, by equipping and nurturing the residents ability to voice their needs and wants for the neighborhood they reside in. There is an adult education program also available to anyone that needs to and wants to aquire a high school diploma or equivalent
Freedom, Inc – Freedom, Inc is a key force behind some of the powerful demonstrations this summer and the longer-running campaign to get cops out of schools. Freedom, Inc is now poised to build on this historic moment and deepen their community power-building before the November elections. Freedom Inc has a food pantry, offers leadership development and their programs include the following: Black Girls Matter, Anti-violence program that is culturally specific for Black girls; Books and Breakfast, A weekly program for youth of color designed to promote literacy, learning and life skills; Lotus Youth Group, this program for Cambodian youth helps educate and build healthy relationships with families and communities through dance and cultural arts, to name a few.
Hope Street Ministry – Hope Street is the Greenhouse for People on 26th and Capitol. They help broken men, women and children cultivate hope. We protect from outside elements but most importantly we grow together in a relationship with Jesus Christ. Hope Street is home to about 40 Men, Women, and Children whose lives have been profoundly affected by the toxic environment they grew up in, their own poor choices, or drug and alcohol abuse. Empowered by the active Grace of Christ, the staff, volunteers and members cultivate a nurturing community in which we can live, learn and develop new habits that help people flourish.
Brown County United Way – Brown County United Way, based in Green Bay, Wisconsin, is a non-profit organization that works with a broad coalition of charitable organizations to pool efforts in fundraising and support. The Brown County United Way is focused on identifying and resolving pressing community issues, as a trusted advocate for making measurable changes in communities throughout Brown County through thorough needs assessment and partnerships with schools, government agencies, businesses, community development corporations, the faith community and others. The ongoing and emerging issues that the Brown County United Way focuses on are determined locally, with the funds raised invested in valuable community programs for maximum effect.
United Community Center – UCC provides programs to Hispanics and Milwaukee south side residents of all ages in the areas of education, cultural arts, recreation, community development, and health and human services. UCC assists individuals in achieving their potential by focusing on cultural heritage as a means of strengthening personal development and by promoting high academic standards in all of its educational programs.
We are Many – United Against Hate – WAM-UAH is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization of common people—urban and rural, spiritual and secular—seeking equal protection for all, united against hate, bigotry and racism. The organization does outreach and intervention in communities to promote understanding, healing, reconciliation and redemption. Instead of simply condemning the latest eruptions of hate-inspired violence, they dig down to the root causes of division, fear and hate. And they advocate policies creating greater economic security, promoting religious tolerance, celebrating differences and honoring America’s heritage of openness to foreigners.
Social Justice Leader of the Year
Jeremy Payne – Jeremy is a part of and major head component of Black Platteville Community. This is a new group that has been created in Platteville, WI to bring about more awareness to the Black individuals’ experiences, opportunities to students of color and a great deal of allyship within the community.
Shahanna McKinney-Baldon – Shahanna is the Founding Director at Edot Midwest Regional Jewish Diversity Collaborative, and the Special Assistant for DEI, WEC Evaluation Implementation, and Fair Play Trainer at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research. During a time when groups are more divided than ever, Shahanna works to bring people of color and the Jewish Community together. Shahanna is also helping the Baraboo Acts Coalition gather and facilitate focus groups of under-represented voices in the Baraboo Community so we can hear from them how Baraboo can become a more equitable community. Through this process, we have gained more diverse voices sitting at the table in our Baraboo Acts Coalition, and are starting to form relationships between diverse communities.
Karen Menendez Coller – Dr. Karen Menendez Coller was a relative unknown when Centro Hispano of Dane County’s board of directors chose her as its new executive director in the summer of 2013. The El Salvador native has made a name for herself at the county’s largest Latino agency, whose mission is to empower Latinos through quality social, cultural and educational programs. Menendez Coller’s ambitious approach to Centro’s fundraising has enabled the agency to expand and develop more programming, serve more people and become a force in the overall Madison community.
The Milwaukee Bucks – The Bucks brought the entire professional sports world to a halt in August, going on strike in the middle of a playoff run to demand racial justice in the wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha. When they refused to take the floor for Game 5 of the first round of the playoffs, apparently willing to forfeit the game, they demanded to speak to people in power in both the NBA and the state of Wisconsin and express the immediate need for police reform and more. They were able to secure Fiserv Forum, their home arena, as an early voting location. Following their lead, the other four NBA teams scheduled to play that night called off their games, as did the Milwaukee Brewers and several other MLB teams, as did the entire slate of MLS teams scheduled to play that night. It was an unprecedented show of solidarity from professional athletes and organizations across the country.