This is the second of a five-part series. Part One is here.
Victoria McNeal is Assistant Director for Black Student Support at St. Norbert College in DePere. Her duties include student support programming, community relations and education and individual and group meetings for student assistance and mentoring. She is a 2015 alumna of the college she now serves.
Quartell Roberson is cultural liaison for the School District of LaCrosse, where he serves as an advocate for Black and Latinx students, their families, and the schools, primarily serving the middle schools. He is also head girls basketball coach for LaCrosse Central High School, where he graduated in 1998. After serving in the US Air Force, he earned a degree in social studies education from Viterbo and returned to the LaCrosse school district as a social studies teacher.
Richard Jones, Jr. was named the Executive Director of the Vera Court Neighborhood Center, Inc. in November of 2022. Vera Court Neighborhood Center, Inc. is the parent agency of Vera Court Neighborhood Center on Madison’s north side and the Bridge Lake Point Waunona Neighborhood Center on Madison’s southeast side. In 2015, he helped create WWMV-LP 95.5FM, a low-power community radio station, of which he was the first Radio Station Manager. When schools closed in the pandemic, Richard helped create and run the SMARTLY in the Park and School Without Walls Initiatives at Mt. Zion Baptist Church. Both programs focused on agile educational and social emotional support for elementary aged students while they were displaced from in-person school. An entrepreneur, Richard owns and operates Oddly Arranged Media – a digital media company that creates content for creative artists and small businesses. He is also the Youth & Young Adult Minister of Mt. Zion Baptist Church. He received his bachelors of arts in African-American/Black Studies from UW-Madison in 2015 and was a First Wave Scholar.
Martinez White is a director of development for the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association, where he works to cultivate support for the University of Wisconsin’s School of Education. He joined WFAA two years ago after a year in a similar role at United Way of Dane County. He spent several years before that working in finance at both UW Credit Union and Northwestern Mutual. He is also a renowned entertainer, performing as DJ M White and producing events through his company, Intuition Productions. He is a 2010 alum of the UW-Madison.
Terrence Thompson is community services manager for the City of Madison’s Parks Department, where he oversees the department’s community services and public facilities. He also directly oversees the Warner Park Community Recreation Center and Goodman Pool. He took on the community services management role after four years as manager of the WPCRC and four years as sports specialist with the Madison Metropolitan School District. He has previously worked in sports recreation management for the YMCA or Greater Charlotte and YMCA of Dane County. He is an alum of Appalachian State University and holds a public management certification from the UW-Madison.
Alex Booker is manager of the Badger Rock Neighborhood Center on Madison’s south side. He recently returned to Badger Rock, where he previously worked as assistant farm and education manager, after some time away to run Booker Botanicals, where he grew and sold produce and herbs. He has attended and led groups to attend the Black Urban Growers Conference. He also previously served as communications specialist for Urban Triage.
Ashley Johnson is manager of global community relations and contributions at Rockwell Automation in Milwaukee, where she leads Rockwell Automation’s philanthropic strategy, implementing the company’s community relations and global charitable contributions programs. She has a passion for equity work and creating valuable learning opportunities and career exploration for young people, with a focus on engaging girls and other underrepresented groups in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) curriculum and programs. She joined Rockwell in 2020 after several years as program director at West Suburban YMCA in Wauwatosa. She is a member of the board of City Year Milwaukee and the advisory board of the Nonprofit Management Fund.
Christy Brown is president of Alverno College, a role she took on last year. Previously, she was chief executive officer of Girl Scouts of Southeast Wisconsin, which serves more than 17,000 members in the Milwaukee Metropolitan area. Prior to this role, Christy was vice chancellor, finance and administrative affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, overseeing all non-academic operations including business, finance, police, facilities, legal affairs, campus planning, internal audit, HR and IT. Other previous positions included executive vice president and general counsel at Milwaukee Area Technical College, vice president and corporate counsel at Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, Inc. and associate attorney with Michael Best, LLC, in the Labor and Employment Relations and Higher Education Law Practice Groups. Christy has served on the board of trustees of Carroll University, she currently serves as a trustee for the Medical College of Wisconsin, and she is a member of the Duke Law Alumnae Council. She was a gubernatorial appointee to the Wisconsin Educational Approval Board and an active member on the research council of the National Association of College and University Business Officers. A member of the Wisconsin State Bar, she has held leadership positions in state, local, and specialty bar associations, including vice president of the local and specialty bar associations committee for the Wisconsin State Bar, president, Wisconsin Association of African American Attorneys, and Chair of the Judicial Selection Committee of the Milwaukee Bar Association. Christy has served as Chair of the Board for Pathfinders and Future Milwaukee, Vice President for the Milwaukee Forum, and as a member of the St. Francis Children’s Center Board. In addition, she has been a member and secretary of the board for Professional Dimensions, a member of TEMPO Milwaukee, as well as a TEMPO Mentor Awardee; and a member of the International Women’s Forum. She has been honored as a Woman of Influence (Inspirational) by the Milwaukee Business Journal, A Woman of Distinction by the Waukesha County Women and Girls Fund and has received a Black Excellence Award from the Milwaukee Times. She earned a B.A.in Psychology from Stanford University, and a J.D. and M.A. at Duke University.
David Bready is market president for BMO Harris Bank in Milwaukee, with responsibility for 13 offices and nearly 100 employees. He was promoted to that role in 2020 after six years as a vice president in the region. He is an alum of Cincinnati State Technical and Community College.
Joshua Parish is assistant chief for the Milwaukee Fire Department, where he’s worked his way up over a nearly 20-year career. He’s served as director of community relations, fire cadet program director, battalion chief, deputy chief of emergency medical services, and assistant chief for EMS training and education. He holds a bachelor’s degree in public health from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, a master’s degree in public health from Northern Illinois, and a master’s degree in behavioral sciences from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Jamie Haack is the director of diversity, equity, and inclusion at John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan. She has been with the Arts Center since May of 2012, when she started as the Marketing Director. In October of 2021, Jamie was promoted to her current role and is now responsible for leading the Arts Center’s efforts to create a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment for employees, volunteers, guests, and the greater community. Prior to joining the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Jamie worked in marketing for several different organizations. Jamie has a passion for marketing and believes that it is a powerful tool that can be used to engage people from all walks of life. Haack holds a master’s degree in business administration from Lakeland College with a focus in project management and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota in Communication Studies/Mass Communication.
Part Three coming tomorrow!
