This is the fourth of a five-part series highlighting the Most Influential Latino Leaders in Wisconsin. Part One is here, Part Two is here, Part Three is here and Part Four is here. For previous lists, visit Madison365.org/MostInfluential.
Luis Velasquez
Luis Velasquez serves as the Statewide Organizing Director at Voces de la Frontera, Wisconsin’s largest grassroots Latine membership organization. Luis leads a dynamic, statewide coalition of immigrant communities, university students, and allies across chapters in urban and rural areas to win bold, progressive policy changes. He has been a grassroots organizer since his high school days where he led ESL & GED classes at Mi Familia Center INC and led voter education and engagement with Georgia’s GALEO and Georgia Latino Alliance For Humans Rights. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Reinhardt University and a master’s in divinity from Emory.
Roberto Moreno
Roberto Moreno is the principal of Cherokee Heights Middle School in Madison, where he has served since 2022. He previously worked as the school’s assistant principal, following two years in the same role in the Beloit School District. From 2013 to 2019, he was a bilingual resource teacher in the Middleton Cross Plains School District, where he also took on teacher leadership and dean of students responsibilities. Moreno grew up in Mexico and immigrated to the United States more than two decades ago. A graduate of the Mexican Air Force Academy, he later earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, along with advanced certifications from Edgewood College and Viterbo University.
AJ Juarez
AJ Juarez is founder of Barrio Dance and cofounder of Art House 360, a cooperative and multicultural art space that opened earlier this year in Verona. He began training in Latin ballroom in his native Buenos Aires, but quickly discovered a love for lyrical jazz, musical theatre, hip hop, and modern contemporary styles. He studied dance at the Julio Bocca School of Musical Theatre and immediately began performing in productions of “Applause” and “Aladdin” in Argentina’s Broadway. He was later a member of Chet Walker’s Fosse company, a featured dancer on Royal Caribbean Cruises and Celebrity Cruises, and has danced and choreographed for Argentina’s “Dancing with the Stars,” “Singing for a Dream,” and “Dreaming to Dance.” In the states, I’ve choreographed commercials, choreographed for Carnival in Los Angeles, and connected with some of the best dance leaders in the Midwest. He opened Barrio Dance on Madison’s east side in 2019, offering everything from dance classes for beginners to national champion dance crews. He opened a second studio in Verona this summer as one of the founding artistic companies at Art House 360.
Brandi Gonzalez
Brandi Gonzalez is strategic people director at UW Credit Union, which she joined in 2022 as the next step in a long career in human resources. Over the past 25 years she’s worked her way up through roles at Milwaukee firms like CapTel, Huf North America, Horizon Home Care and Hospice, and Fiserv. She holds a degreein management from Cardinal Stritch University.
Norma Nanette Oliveras
Norma Nanette Oliveras is Hispanic Outreach Specialist at the Appleton Public Library, a role she’s held for 10 years. She began her career as an inspector for the United States Department of Agriculture after earning a degree in chemistry from the University of Puerto Rico. After moving to Wisconsin in 2005, she went back to school to become a teacher and spent eight years as a Head Start teacher, family support specialist and home visitor at UW-Oshkosh. White working at Appleton Public Library she earned a master’s degree in social work from UW-Green Bay.
Yadira J. Rein
Yadira J. Rein is a judge on the Outagamie County Circuit Court. She was appointed by Governor Tony Evers on June 24, 2021, and was elected to a full term in 2022. Judge Rein’s legal background includes extensive work in family law, dealing with divorce, custody and placement, child support, paternity, guardianships, and guardian ad litem appointments. She also has experience in personal injury law. Before her appointment, she practiced as an attorney with McCarty Law, LLP in Appleton. She was born in El Paso, Texas, spent part of her childhood in Guerrero, Mexico, and moved to the Fox Valley area of Wisconsin around age 9. Judge Rein earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and her law degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Who’d we miss? Email [email protected] to let us know who in your world should be on the list next year!
