This is the third of a five-part series. Part One is here and Part Two is here.
This week we highlight some of Wisconsin’s Most Influential Latino leaders. Previous lists of the state’s most influential Black, Latino, Native American and Asian American leaders are published at Madison365.org/MostInfluential.
Allison Mead
Allison Mead is a convention sales manager at Destination Madison, where she leads the organization’s work in the multicultural market, a position new to the organization. She joined Destination Madison in 2022 as partnership development manager, a role in which she added 135 new partner businesses. She is also an independent Aflac agent who works in English and Spanish with small business owners and their employees on supplemental benefits. She founded TrainConAllison, a bilingual personal training business focused on women, particularly women of color. She also founded Pickléros Madison, a group that brings Latino residents together through weekly bilingual pickleball meetups and larger events. Earlier in her career, she was associate director of the Wisconsin Latino Chamber of Commerce, where she worked with Latino-owned businesses. She also helped lead the Culture Collective, a pop-up shop program run by the Black, Hmong and Latino chambers of commerce with the City of Madison. She mentors with Big Brothers Big Sisters and previously served on the board of conNEXTions, where she was once a mentee. A Madison native of Peruvian descent, she is bilingual in English and Spanish.
Fernando Cano Ospina
Fernando Cano Ospina is director of administration and inclusion at RISE Wisconsin, a Dane County nonprofit that provides community-based mental health and wellness services to children, families and adults. He represents RISE on the Latino Health Council of Dane County and has been involved in the BIPOC Mental Health Coalition, a Dane County-supported effort to address mental health disparities among communities of color. La Movida named him Community Leader of the Year at its 14th annual Hispanic Heritage Luncheon in 2024.
Dr. Daniel Tataje
Dr. Daniel Tataje is founder and CEO of Mercy Dental Group, which operates a dozen dental practices in Madison, Middleton, Fitchburg, Sun Prairie, Lodi, DeForest, Stoughton, Cottage Grove and Evansville. Originally from Peru, he has practiced dentistry for nearly three decades. Mercy Dental Group was named to the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S. in 2021, and Tataje was named Entrepreneur of the Year in 2017 by Midwest Family Broadcasting and the Latino Chamber of Commerce of Dane County. He also founded Mercy Dental Missions, a nonprofit that provides affordable and free dental care locally and runs mission trips to underserved communities abroad, and Lumen Enterprises. He is an author and speaker on leadership. He earned his doctorate in dentistry from Inca Garcilaso de la Vega University in Peru and completed advanced training in prosthodontics, TMD and orofacial pain through the University of Minnesota and the University of Kentucky.
Dr. Jorell Meléndez-Badillo
Jorell Meléndez-Badillo is an associate professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and co-director of the university’s Puerto Rican Studies Hub, which launched in October 2025 with a $3 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and is the first initiative of its kind in the Midwest. He wrote the Spanish-language historical texts that accompany the 17 visualizers for Bad Bunny’s 2025 album “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” covering Puerto Rican history from Indigenous resistance to the present; the visualizers have drawn more than 230 million views. He is the author of “Puerto Rico: A National History” (Princeton University Press, 2024) and “The Lettered Barriada: Workers, Archival Power, and the Politics of Knowledge in Puerto Rico” (Duke University Press, 2021). Before his doctoral studies, he taught high school history in Puerto Rico. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico and a doctorate from the University of Connecticut.
Dr. Ida Balderrama-Trudell
Dr. Ida Balderrama-Trudell is director of belonging, culture and impact at the Overture Center for the Arts in Madison, where she has worked since January 2022, joining as director of equity and innovation. She previously spent more than 20 years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in roles including director of student engagement in the School of Education’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; chief of staff in the Dean of Students Office; interim director of the Multicultural Student Center; and assistant director and academic adviser for the Posse Scholars program. She is also founder and principal consultant of Ida B Tru Consulting. She grew up in West Texas. She earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and human development and family studies from Texas Tech University and a doctorate in education from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
Part Four coming tomorrow!
