There are rooms you walk into and immediately feel the weight of what is happening. The 19th Annual Champions of Impact Awards at the JW Marriott Indianapolis on January 16, 2026, was one of those rooms.
I was there in a capacity that meant a great deal to me personally. Boss Ladies Magazine collaborated with the Indianapolis Recorder to set up a dedicated media interview station at the event, where I had the privilege of sitting down with several of the evening’s honorees as they were recognized for work that has shaped this city in ways that do not always make headlines but always make a difference. To be invited into that space, alongside one of the oldest and most respected Black publications in the country as it celebrated its 130th anniversary, was not something I took lightly.
The Champions of Impact Awards, produced by Recorder Media Group, have spent nearly two decades doing something that matters deeply to me as a publisher: documenting leadership. Robert Shegog, president and CEO of Recorder Media Group, set the tone for the evening with words that stayed with me long after the room cleared. He said that legacy is not given. It is built, decision by decision. That one sentence captured everything I witnessed that night.
And what I witnessed was extraordinary.
The women honored that evening represented every sector of Indianapolis life. They were founders, executives, advocates, preservationists, and community builders. They were women who had been doing the work quietly for years, in some cases decades, and who stepped into that ballroom not chasing applause but carrying the accumulated weight of real impact.
Eunice Trotter, recipient of the Amos Brown Community Advocate Award, spoke about receiving an honor named for someone she had worked beside, someone she called her sparring buddy. Amos Brown was a community voice, a columnist and what she described as an influencer of his time. To receive an award in his name carried a spiritual significance that you could feel when she talked about it. Trotter currently serves as director of the Black Heritage Preservation Program at Indiana Landmarks, and her life’s work reflects exactly that, preserving what matters before it disappears.
Janmarie Connor, president and CEO of Connor Painting and recipient of the Industry Leader Award, spoke about what it means to build a family-owned business in the construction and coatings industry with both integrity and longevity. She and her husband purchased the business in 1997, and nearly three decades later she stood in that room being recognized not just for the contracts won but for the way she invested in her people and her community along the way. She said something that I keep returning to — that doing the right things, systematically, for many years, has an impact. That is a quiet kind of leadership that does not get enough credit.
Kristian Stricklen, president and CEO of the Madam Walker Legacy Center, received the Legacy Award on a night that felt almost designed by history itself. The Madam Walker Legacy Center is celebrating its 99th year. The Indianapolis Recorder is celebrating its 130th. And Stricklen stood in the middle of all of that legacy having just secured an $8 million endowment that ensures the Center’s sustainability for the foreseeable future. She talked about legacy being all around her, and she was right. She is actively building it.
Marianne Glick, board chair of the Glick Family Foundation and recipient of the Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Award, is a woman whose name I have admired long before that evening. She reminded everyone in that room that the work is not about accolades. She said she does it because she believes in it. That kind of conviction is rare, and it is exactly the energy that an award bearing King’s name deserves.
Tonya Sisco, executive director of Corporate Responsibility at Cummins Inc. and recipient of the Changemaker Award, said something that stopped me. She shared that she spends so much time working in the background that it genuinely felt good to finally be seen. I think many of the women in that room, honorees and attendees alike, felt that in their bones.
Tracey C. Jackson, vice president of Workforce Development and Community Impact at 16 Tech Innovation District and recipient of the Empowerment Service Award, spoke about her work with a clarity and a servant’s heart that was impossible to miss. She described her purpose as providing real access to real people and making sure they have real opportunities. In a city that is growing as fast as Indianapolis, that kind of intentional pathway-building is not optional. It is essential.
Charlotte Hawthorne, executive director of Social Impact at Eli Lilly and Vice President of the Lilly Foundation, received the Trailblazer Champion Award. Her work sits at the intersection of corporate power and community investment, and the recognition she received that evening reflected years of showing up for Indianapolis in ways that extend far beyond a job description.
Malina Simone Bacon, co-founder and creative director of GANGGANG, received the Voices of Culture Award alongside her co-founder, Alan Bacon. GANGGANG has become one of the most distinct creative forces in Indianapolis, and Malina Bacon’s vision is a significant part of why. Culture does not build itself. It takes people who understand both the art and the infrastructure behind it.
Brandi Davis-Handy, president of AES Indiana and recipient of the Rosa Parks Trailblazer Award, carries a name that speaks for itself. To receive an award in Rosa Parks’ name is to be held to a standard of courage and conviction that goes beyond professional achievement. Davis-Handy has earned that standard.
Dr. Cameual Wright, president of CareSource Indiana and recipient of the Bridge to Impact Award, rounds out a group of women whose collective work touches nearly every corner of this city, from health care access to workforce development, from cultural preservation to corporate philanthropy.
Anita Williams, co-founder of the Indy Black Chamber of Commerce and recipient of the President’s Choice Award alongside her son, Larry Williams, represents the kind of entrepreneurial community leadership that quietly holds entire ecosystems together.
What struck me most about the evening was not any single speech or single moment. It was the cumulative effect of being in a room where excellence was not the exception. It was the standard. These women did not arrive at the JW Marriott that January evening to be introduced to greatness. They brought it with them.
The Indianapolis Recorder has spent 130 years making sure that stories like these are not lost. LiMStudios and Boss Ladies Magazine exist for the same reason. Because the work of documenting leadership, of putting names and faces and real stories to the impact happening in our community is not ceremonial. It is necessary.
That night reminded me why I do what I do. And I am grateful I had a front-row seat.
Victoria Odekomaya is the publisher of Boss Ladies Magazine and the founder & CEO of LiMStudios.
