Board of Visitors Biographies
Walter Sava
Executive Director
Latino Arts, Inc.
(Milwaukee)
Walter Sava assumed the leadership of Latino Arts, Inc., in 2003, after serving as the Executive Director of the Centro de la Communidad Unida/United Community Center (UCC) from 1983-2003. Latino Arts, located in the center of Milwaukee's growing Latino community, offers cultural awareness, artistic educational experiences and the work of a diversity of Hispanic artists. Sava previously held positions as General Supervisor of Community Services at Wisconsin Electric Power, Executive Director of La Casa de Esperanza, and Assistant Professor of Spanish at Carroll College in Waukesha.
Under Sava's leadership the UCC became one of the largest Latino center in the United States, based on the number of services offered. The Center encompasses Café El Sol, Bruce Guadalupe preschool and elementary school, a senior living center, Centro del Nino day-care center, a health clinic, Ted Friedlander Gymnasium, the UCC Middle School, a bank, and the Latino Arts Auditorium and Gallery. All are housed in a complex of buildings located on a triangle of land bordered by I-94 and Walker's Square Park. Nearby, the UCC operates a charter alternative middle school and a human services center offering counseling for drug, alcohol and family problems. It is a $10-million operation with 200 employees.
Approximately 620 students, enrolled at UCC's preschool through middle school, enjoy a rich arts curriculum of dance, theater, music and the visual arts. The goals of Latino Arts are to bridge the cultural divisions among Milwaukee's Latinos as well as to bring Latinos and non-Latino's together. José Vásquez, UW-Extension's Southeast District Director, serves as President of the UCC Board.
Sava's civic involvement includes work with the Greater Milwaukee Education Trust, Latinos United for Political Action, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Wisconsin Strategic Development Commission.
Sava, who came to the United States in 1963 from Argentina, holds a bachelor's degree from East Texas Baptist University, a master's degree from the University of North Texas and a doctorate from UW-Madison.