This is the third of a five-part series. Part one is here and part two is here.
Arturo ‘Tito’ Diaz is director of the University of Wisconsin School of Business Multicultural Center, a center he helped launch in the fall of 2021 as an inclusive gathering place for students in Grainger Hall, making Wisconsin one of the first business schools in the nation to offer a dedicated space to support underrepresented students. He started that role after five years as a program coordinator and organizational development specialist at the UW Multicultural Student Center. He graduated from UW in 2015 with a degree in community and nonprofit leadership and earned a master’s degree in organizational leadership and change from Edgewood College in 2022.
Christian Chaney is a striker for Forward Madison, the city’s professional soccer team. One of the splashiest off-season signings in USL League One, Chaney joined Madison after a season with Central Valley Fuego in his hometown of Fresno. It took him just 21 games to become Madison’s all-time leading scorer with 11 goals. His eight-year pro career has included four years in the second-tier USL Championship with Sacramento Republic and Fresno FC and a year in the National Independent Soccer Association with LA Force. As we go to press, Chaney is one of the key components that has Forward Madison poised to make the playoffs for the first time since 2019.
Dominique Hyatt-Oates is public health nurse coordinator for the City of Milwaukee’s Health Department. Prior to becoming a nurse she got a bachelor’s degree in athletic training at Washington State.She returned to the Midwest to work at a bilingual physical therapy clinic and then joined Marquette University’s Direct Entry Master’s of Science in Nursing program, graduating in 2018. She started her nursing career in a post-op orthopedic unit. She has also served as an adjunct instructor for Alverno College and initiated a Black African American Employee Resource Group for the City of Milwaukee. She is on the board of the Greater Milwaukee chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses.
Joseph Rosas is interim principal at Badger Rock Middle School on Madison’s south side. A product of Madison schools – he attended Lake View Elementary, Black Hawk Middle, and Madison East High – he went on to Madison College and the University of Wisconsin. He spent the second year of his master’s degree in social work as an intern at East, then served Wright Middle School as school social worker. He earned a graduate degree in educational leadership at Edgewood College and was named to the top job at Badger Rock this fall. He said he was most attracted to the job due to the school’s commitment to social justice and urban agriculture.
Megge Casique is coordinator of the Milton Youth Coalition in Rock County. The coalition aims to establish and strengthen community collaboration to support local efforts in helping Milton children avoid using illegal substances, and to improve children’s mental health and wellness. She took the helm in 2022 after 11 years of working with the coalition specifically on substance abuse and misuse. The coalition was able to bring her on as full-time coordinator thanks to a grant from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. She is a certified health education specialist and earned a bachelor degree in community health education at UW-La Crosse.
Zianya Saldaña is Director of Equity and Community Initiatives at the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation, a role she took on this past summer after more than 13 years at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College. Starting as a multicultural intern and then as a part-time grants assistant, she moved into full-time roles in student support and advising. In 2020, she led the creation of NWTC’s Women of Color Network Employee Involvement Group. She serves on the board of the NWTC Alumni Association and previously volunteered as a tutor with Literacy Green Bay. She graduated from UW-Green Bay with a double major in political science and public administration and expects to graduate from UW-Milwaukee with a master’s degree in higher education administration later this year.
Erika Rosales Garcia is an undocumented immigrant and a DACA recipient. She is also an immigration activist, an artist, and dancer who believes that art is medicine that heals us. Currently, she is the Director of the Center for Dreamers at UW-Madison where she supports undocumented individuals throughout the state of Wisconsin. She also currently works at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research leading organizational social justice work. Additionally, Erika is a 4W Director of Immigration and Human Rights. Erika is also passionate about supporting folks, especially BIPOC folks, with their individual healing and decolonizing journey through a community-centered approach, weaving her somatic healing practices, mind-body knowledge, spirituality, and social justice expertise. She most recently joined the nINA Collective as an affiliate to enhance this work.
Diana Gutierrez is a journalist and weekday morning anchor at WISN, Milwaukee’s ABC affiliate. She started her career in 2016 as a general assignment reporter in South Bend, Indiana before returning to her hometown of Chicago as an on-air reporter for WCIU. She is secretary of the Chicago chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and as a student at DePaul University, served as publicity coordinator for the school’s Society of Professional Journalists and Online News Association chapters. She is also a member of the executive board of the Daisie Foundation.
Part Four coming tomorrow!
