MILWAUKEE — The respected community leader and longtime president and CEO of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin, Maria Monreal-Cameron, passed away on Monday. She was 75.
Our news partners at the Milwaukee Business Journal write that Public Service Commission of Wisconsin chairperson Rebecca Cameron Valcq, who is Monreal-Cameron's daughter, said she died after a seven-month battle against leukemia.
Monreal-Cameron led the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin for 24 years, during which she transformed the organization from a little-known group to a respected force among Milwaukee-area businesses.
Monreal-Cameron was ninth among thirteen children born to Mexican immigrants. Her parents first lived in Texas before moving as part of one of the first waves of Mexican immigrants to Milwaukee, where Monreal-Cameron was born.
The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin represents more than 10,000 Hispanic-owned companies in Wisconsin as it promotes their interests in local, state and federal government.
Her daughter, Valcq, tellsthe BizJournal that Monreal-Cameron always strived to make a positive impact in the community.
"She could bring together people from diverse backgrounds and get them to collaborate around a common goal — the upward mobility of the Hispanic community," Valcq tells the BizJournal. "She believed in doing what is right and just, no matter how much work that took. And she was a fierce champion of building up the next generation of leaders."
