Christine Neumann-Ortiz

Christine Neumann-Ortiz is the founding Executive Director of Voces de la Frontera and Voces de la Frontera Action. Ms. Neumann-Ortiz is recognized as a national leader in the immigrant rights movement.

Ms. Neumann-Ortiz serves on the board of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM). FIRM is a national coalition comprising 47 grassroots organizations in 35 states, which work together to fight for immigrant rights at the local, state, and federal levels.

In August 2020, she was recognized by USA Today as one of the ten “Women of the Century” in Wisconsin, and she was also awarded the 2020 National Education Association (NEA) César Chávez Acción y Compromiso Human and Civil Rights Award.

She was named by The Huffington Post in its list of “50 Young Progressive Activists Who Are Changing America” and has received numerous awards, including the Community Change Champion Award for Community Organizing and Leadership from The Center for Community Change and the Equal Justice Medal from the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee.

Through her leadership, Voces has grown from a small, grassroots worker center to a state and national leader in the immigrant rights movement. In 2016, The Nation magazine awarded Voces the “Most Valuable Strategy” award in honor of the February 18th statewide general strike, which took place on Day without Latinos & Immigrants, and defeated a state anti-sanctuary bill. In 2012, The Nation named Voces the “Most Valuable Grassroots Organization” in the country. In 2009, the Wisconsin State Assembly recognized Voces for its role in achieving passage of in-state tuition rights for immigrant students as part of the 2009-2011 state budget.

Ms. Neumann-Ortiz earned her Master’s Degree in U.S./Chicano History at the University of Texas at Austin and her Bachelor of Arts degree in English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.