By Jonathan Turner, Hola America
Angelica Villarreal not only exudes compassion and dedication, but her work in the Quad Cities reflects her community zeal.
A 38-year-old native of Monterrey, Mexico, she’s a project manager at Iman Consulting (since early 2025), bringing over 15 years of experience working with diverse youth and families.
Villareal is a facilitator for the 17-member Clean River Advisory Council (CRAC), which is funded by the Walton Family Foundation and meets monthly with a goal of prioritizing environmental action, creating cultural connections to the Mississippi River, and centering perspectives of underrepresented residents in environmental decisions.
She led a community survey last year (465 responses) seeking input on top river-related concerns, including trash along the river, and preserving habitats for wildlife and plants.
“A lot of what we heard was planting trees along the river. We want to see more green spaces and walking spaces,” she said.
Villareal first got involved in CRAC in 2023 as a volunteer on the communications and community engagement committee.
“My superpower is I’m bilingual. I’m passionate about learning,” she said. “I’m passionate about helping folks that look like me. Where can I feed this into? And so the opportunity at Birth to Five Illinois was so helpful because that’s how I really got more involved in collective impact work and understanding how I’m really drawn to understanding more about community-based collaboration systems, but also wanting to have a part in that decision-making piece too.”
Villareal earned her master’s in educational studies from WIU-Moline in 2024, after getting her bachelor’s in education there in 2015. She’s committed to equity, social justice, and advocacy, focusing on serving culturally and linguistically diverse populations.
Her experience includes being an English Language Learning Instructor, Dual Language Spanish Teacher and Instructional Coach, and Family & Community Engagement Specialist with Birth to Five Illinois.
Since 2023, CRAC has distributed $682,000 in QC River Connections grants to local nonprofits, administered by the QC Community Foundation, Villareal said. CRAC also has committees for special projects and education, and government relations.
The grants supported programs to strengthen neighborhood-level collaboration and partnerships in priority neighborhoods; advance physical improvements to the landscape through use of nature-based solutions; and promote education, engagement, and stewardship connected to the river.
Since CRAC formed, it’s prioritized working with youth and communities of color, she said. “This is your community too. We know that those that are closest to the problem are those that are closest to the solution.”
From Mexico, she first moved with her family to Rock Island when she was in second grade, and after a few years, moved to Tucson, Ariz., where she graduated high school. Angelica became a single mother at 16; her daughter graduates this year from Southern Illinois University.
“At a young age I had to learn a lot more about how to be responsible, how to think long-term, how to navigate systems,” Villareal said. “Being a single teen parent taught me a lot about perseverance and community.”
Only about 8% of Latinas have their master’s, so that was a big goal for her to accomplish.
Her husband Ethan is greenhouse operations manager at Corn Crib in Coal Valley, and one of her two sisters is Dora Villareal, Rock Island County State’s Attorney.
Angelica remains an active leader in her local community where she currently serves on the Human Rights Commission in Moline. In 2024, she graduated from the first cohort of the QC Regional Lideramos Leadership Program.
“It’s the only kind of professional development and training and just leadership focus I’ve ever been in where there’s not a single person in the room that’s white and it’s all people that look like me,” Villareal said of the Latino focus. “And it was honestly such a cool feeling.”
“It’s so cool to see my peers that were in that program be launching and where they are now,” she said of the group of 30. “That program helped motivate me to get back on my master’s and finish it up. It motivated me to network and try different things with people I felt safe with. It helped me recognize where I am and what I can do because I do try to live in the place of servanthood and that can sometimes be an exhausting place.”
The program featured understanding about Latino history and culture, and relationship building, Villareal said.
“How do you feel when you’re feeling the deep imposter syndrome or this feeling of being othered or not included in something,” she noted. “The program has different focal points. One of them, it’s building a better understanding of where Latino communities have historically come from and are going to.”
Villareal also is helping organize the second GLOW Women’s Empowerment Conference (April 11), which celebrates and supports women in leadership and business, fostering growth through mission-building, financial empowerment, and authentic representation.
“That really focuses again on amplifying and supporting also Black and brown women, minority women who are at different stages in their career or simply wanting to start their own business, to expand their current business,” she said.
At her Moline home, Villareal and her husband like growing their own vegetables (tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and pumpkins), and have a certified native plant and wildlife habitat (from Wild Ones).
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