Madeleine Villanueva
Position: Interim Director of Higher Education
E-mail: madeleine@immigrantsrising.org
Madeleine (she/her) was born in the Philippines and immigrated to the United States with her family at a young age. She started her advocacy for and with the undocumented community as a member of UPLIFT, an undocumented Asian & Pacific Islander-led organization based in Los Angeles. Madeleine is a proud product of the California Community Colleges, earning an Associate’s Degree in Social and Behavioral Sciences from Los Angeles Pierce College. She later transferred to UC Berkeley, where she continued to advocate for resources and build community spaces with undocumented students. She obtained a B.A. in Political Economy in 2017, and after graduation, provided holistic support as an Academic Counselor for the Undocumented Student Program at UC Berkeley.
For the past decade, Madeleine has dedicated herself to equipping and empowering undocumented individuals and their allies to be changemakers in their communities. Throughout her time at Immigrants Rising, she has not only strengthened individual and institutional support statewide for undocumented students in higher education but has also helped build systems to help them thrive. She has built a thriving learning community of higher education practitioners through resource creation, monthly gatherings, and personalized trainings. In her community work, Madeleine mentors undocumented youth and leads spaces to foster undocumented connections and power. She energizes herself for this work by running, traveling, and sharing meals with loved ones.
