Home Wisconsin Wisconsin’s 52 Most Influential Black Leaders, Part 5

Wisconsin’s 52 Most Influential Black Leaders, Part 5

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This is the fifth of a five-part series. Part one is here, part two is here, part three is here and part four is here.

Willie R. Glenn Sr. is the first Black teen librarian at Madison Public Library, where he also previously served as youth services librarian assistant. He began his journey here in Madison as Student Support Service Coordinator for UW-Madison’s PEOPLE program, and later as the Assistant Director at Meadowood Neighborhood center. He has served in several capacities in youth and adult education, including as a lead instructor with UW-Madison’s Odyssey program, Out of School Youth Coordinator for Madison Metropolitan School District and a program coordinator for the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee. One of his proudest moments is helping spawn Madison’s “Parks Alive” from his “It Takes A Village Community Resource Fair” which brings people together over the summer months.

Ashley Morse is Rock County Circuit Court Judge, the first Black woman to servein that position. Morse worked for the Wisconsin State Public Defender’s Office beginning 2010, and was based in Janesville since 2014, representing indigent clients as an assistant state public defender in a variety of criminal and civil proceedings in several counties across the state. Locally, she has served on the Rock County Trauma Task Force, the Rock County Youth Justice Racial Disparities Committee, and has coached the Turner High School Mock Trial Team. She is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and of the University of Wisconsin Law School. She has worked extensively with the National Juvenile Defender Center (now The Gault Center), including her selection as an Ambassador for Racial Justice.

David Wilson is diversity and inclusion specialist at Prevea Health in Green Bay, where he helps to develop, implement, monitor, and measure diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in alignment with Prevea Health’s commitment to supporting an inclusive community. Before relocating to Green Bay last year, David served three years on the Beloit Area School District Board of Education and worked as director of visitor services at Visit Beloit. He also spent 12 years as program director and unit director for the Beloit unit of the Stateline Boys and Girls Club. He previously served on the Beloit School District (E)Quality Committee, the United Way Blackhawk Region community impact council, and the NAACP Youth Chapter. He has been affiliated with Rock County Youth2Youth, the Rock County Resource Center, and the Beloit Memorial High School’s booster club. 

Tanya McLean is the Executive Director & Founder of Leaders Of Kenosha, an organization that acts as a conduit for social, transformative, and restorative justice. Under Tanya’s leadership, the group was named Kenosha County Democratic Party’s Community Organization of the Year for 2022. She is a veteran of the United States Army, and originally from Kenosha. After serving time in the military, she moved back to raise her family and has continued her community engagement for the last 18 years. She previously served as a United Way “Readers are Leaders” tutor at Brass Elementary, a member of Coalition for Dismantling Racism, and a member of Building of Future “Brass Community Conversations. She was named Kenosha Women’s Club’s 2016 Woman Veteran of the Year. A former educator in the Kenosha Unified School District, Tanya holds a master’s degree Social Work, a master’s degree in Urban Education and Social Policy and a bachelor’s degree in Sociology.

Alnisa Allgood the founder and executive director of Nonprofit Tech, a company that helps nonprofits use technology to work more efficiently, and Collaboration for Good, a  Madison-based company focused on building the capacity of for-profit or not-for-profit community service organizations. Collaboration for Good plans the annual Madison Nonprofit Day Conference, the Social Good Summit, and partners with Forward Fest, Madison’s premier tech and entrepreneurship festival. In the early 1990s, she was the founder and inaugural director of the LGBT Campus Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Dr. Angela Hawkins is assistant superintendent at Verona Area School District, where she oversees academics for students grades 4K-12, as well as bilingual literacy, equity leadership and technology services. She first joined the district in June 2020 as its first elementary school education director. Prior to joining the district, Hawkins was the director of elementary learning for Indianapolis Public Schools, and has taught at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis. She has also been an elementary school principal and teacher for two decades.

Spencer Johnson has been a barber in Madison for over 20 years, recently opening his own salon located at Foxy Salon Suites on the west side. He started cutting his own hair, then his college roommate’s as a student at UW-Whitewater. That roommate let fellow UWW alum Jeff “JP” Patterson know Spencer was pretty good at this barbering thing. JP was able to get Spencer to commit to take a break from his burgeoning career in banking to work for one year and help get JP Hair Design off the ground. That was 1999; more than two decades later, Johnson has given haircuts to thousands of community members, from elementary school students to NBA stars.

Chantell Jewell is the first Black woman to serve as superintendent of the Milwaukee County Community Reintegration Center, formerly known as the House of Corrections. A Milwaukee native, Chantell Jewell brought over 25 years of experience to her role when she was appointed by County Executive David Crowley in November 2020. For 20 years, Jewell served in various positions within the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC), including roles as a youth counselor, parole agent, and field supervisor. During her tenure at DOC, Jewell Co-Chaired the Regional Diversity Committee to improve organizational culture, educate staff on implicit bias, and review hiring practices to increase staff diversity. Jewell also participated in a statewide committee that developed evidence- based responses to violations in order to improve consistency and decrease racial disparities in the system. In 2019, Jewell has served as a Deputy Administrator for Milwaukee County’s Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS). Prior to joining Milwaukee County, Jewell worked as a Reentry Services Manager for EMPLOY Milwaukee where she developed EMPLOY Milwaukee’s long-term policy agenda of reentry programming, increased employment opportunities and placements for people in the system in Milwaukee County, and led systems integration between the Workforce Board, Department of Corrections, and community based organizations.

Erickajoy Daniels leads system-wide diversity and inclusion efforts at Advocate Aurora Health, Wisconsin’s largest private employer and the 10th largest not-for-profit health system in the nation. Previously, Erickajoy was responsible for organizational development and global talent management at Brady Corporation in Milwaukee. She also held progressive employee development positions at the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington, D.C. An active community leader, Erickajoy serves as a trustee at Mount Mary University and vice president of the board of Milwaukee Athletic Club. Additionally, she is active in TEMPO Milwaukee Professional Women’s Network. She is cofounder and board member of One MKE, an organization dedicated to addressing cultural divides in the Milwaukee community. Erickajoy also serves on several boards including Penfield Children’s Center, Cultural Commons for 88Nine Radio Milwaukee, Raynor Memorial Library for Marquette University, A.L.I.V.E Milwaukee, Links Inc. of Milwaukee and is seated on the leadership team as chaplain for the Milwaukee chapter of Jack and Jill of America. Erickajoy has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and earned her master’s degree in management through Marian University.

Who’s we miss? If you know of someone who should be on this list next year, email us!