Since Linda Edelstein took her first piano lesson at 5 years old – she’d later add oboe and English horn to her repertoire – she’s known music would be part of her life. What she didn’t know was that her talent and passion would inspire thousands of young people.

Now the CEO of the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra, Edelstein lives out her belief that the arts aren’t a luxury, but a lifeline. “What motivates me is the opportunity to provide a thousand students with 80,000 hours of programming every year, which is the opportunity to literally change their life,” she says.

Laura Gutiérrez’s parents grew up in Mexico with dreams they couldn’t afford to chase – her mother wanted to be an optometrist, her father a mechanical engineer. When they moved to Milwaukee in the 1970s, they worked minimum-wage jobs to give their five children opportunities they never had.

Now CEO of the United Community Center, a social services nonprofit on the South Side, Gutiérrez carries that legacy forward, ensuring Hispanic families can imagine brighter futures through expanded access to education, housing, health care and economic mobility. “Knowing the sacrifices my parents made, how can I not create a path for others to have the same opportunities?”

Those of us lucky enough to call Cream City home know all the things that make it special. But for visitors, the region’s magic – beyond breweries, cheese curds and German nosh – often comes as a surprise. Peggy Williams-Smith, the first female president and CEO of Visit Milwaukee, wants to change that. Her approach? “I tell the stories of the people who make Milwaukee a great place to live and visit.”

Williams-Smith grew up in Milwaukee and has been a fixture in the city’s hospitality scene since her career began at local bars and restaurants. Driven by the desire to help people turn moments into lasting memories, she took on leadership roles in country clubs and hotels – most recently, as a senior vice president for Marcus Hotels & Resorts.

When Ellen Friebert Schupper’s father was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2013, friends and family stepped up with support. But one important puzzle piece was missing amid the casseroles and offers to drive her kids to school. “I couldn’t find anyone to talk to about how I was really feeling,” she says. Now, as executive director of ABCD: After Breast Cancer Diagnosis, Friebert Schupper has the opportunity to give others what she wished she had.

Growing up at 12th and Locust, Bridget Whitaker had a front-row seat to many of Milwaukee’s most pressing problems – and to the power of community. In fifth grade, after her family’s home was destroyed in a house fire, neighbor after neighbor showed up to offer condolences and support. “I had this idea that we were all in it together,” she says.

Whitaker has dedicated her career to bringing together Milwaukeeans. As the first Black woman to be executive director of the nonprofit Safe & Sound, she spearheads efforts to build safer neighborhoods in Milwaukee and Racine by uniting residents, young people, police and community partners to foster trust and connection. Through door-to-door outreach, youth programs and neighborhood organizing, Safe & Sound works to strengthen community bonds that help every resident feel safe.

Before a career that generated millions of dollars for community organizations in Milwaukee, Linda Mellowes’ first fundraising job was earning money for college. She left small-town Arkansas for Washington, D.C., where she lived with her aunt and uncle and worked on Capitol Hill to save for her education. After earning a biology and chemistry degree and working as a researcher at the National Institutes of Health, she married John Mellowes. The couple settled in Milwaukee, where she quickly became a force in the city’s nonprofit and philanthropic life.