Wisconsin Latino Leaders Series Profiles Scientist, Educators, Public Health and Housing Officials

Madison365 on Thursday published the fourth of five installments in its series recognizing 46 of Wisconsin's most influential Latino leaders. This segment profiles nine people whose work spans astrobiology, education, public health, housing, civil rights enforcement, broadcasting and community organizing. A final installment is due the following day.

Dr. Amanda Garcia is a paleobiologist and staff scientist with MUSE, a NASA astrobiology team at the University of Wisconsin. The name stands for Metal Utilization and Selection across Eons. The group studies how nitrogen fixation and the Earth's environment evolved together, hoping to learn what determines which chemical elements life selects. Garcia moved to Wisconsin after working on the same project at the University of Arizona. She holds bachelor's and doctoral degrees in geology and paleobiology from UCLA, where she was her department's undergraduate valedictorian in 2014.

Two honorees work in education leadership. Juan Jimenez is Associate Dean of General Studies at Western Technical College and president of the La Crosse School Board. He took his current post in 2017, after serving as associate dean for the Learner Support and Transition division, and previously taught math in rural Wisconsin. Maria Yturriaga Dyslin became elementary school principal at One City Schools in July 2022. She began teaching in the Madison Metropolitan School District in 1998 after graduating from the UW-Madison Teach for Diversity Program, spent 19 years there as a classroom teacher and literacy-focused instructional coach, and was principal of Sunset Ridge Elementary in Middleton from 2017 until June 2022.

Ana Simpson directs Community & Economic Development at the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority, a job she started in 2019. Before that she spent a year at the Wisconsin Women's Business Initiative Corporation's Veterans Business Outreach Center and had a long career in banking and insurance. She sits on several boards and advisory bodies, including TEMPO Milwaukee, La Familia de Arte, and the Governor's Council on Financial Literacy and Capability. Michelle McCoy, who spent more than four years as a program specialist at the same authority and nearly two decades in banking, joined Briarpatch Youth Services in January 2022 as coordinator of its Parent Support Program.

In public health, Dr. Lourdes Shanjani is Bilingual Health Education Coordinator at Public Health Madison and Dane County, where she leads staff and community partners in building health education programs. She earned her medical degree at Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and holds a master's in health sciences. She has more than a decade of experience with under-served communities in the United States and the Caribbean, and serves as communications secretary for the Medical Organization for Latino Advancement.

Jesús Villa administers the Equal Rights Division at the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development. A 1998 graduate of Duke University School of Law, he worked at Michael Best & Friedrich and Gonzalez Saggio & Harlan before joining Northwestern Mutual, where he served as a diversity and inclusion consultant and then spent 14 years as Equal Employment Opportunity Officer. He also holds a sociology degree from Princeton and a public policy master's from Duke.

Kenny Perez is assistant program director and afternoon drive-time host at Radio Milwaukee, where he also hosts "In the Mix with DJ Kenny Perez," featuring local talent and renowned DJs. He has performed as a DJ around Milwaukee for nearly 30 years, including regular Summerfest appearances, and has a long education career that began as a computer specialist teacher at La Causa Charter School.

Adriana Nanis Rodriguez is executive director of Public Allies Wisconsin, which oversees the Milwaukee and Racine/Kenosha programs. Born and raised in Milwaukee, she is an alumna of Public Allies and later worked as a program manager and volunteer facilitator. She is writing a doctoral dissertation on youth organizing in the city and has spent more than 15 years building anti-oppressive learning spaces. She earned a bachelor's in psychology from Marquette and a master's from UW-Milwaukee, where she is a doctoral candidate.