Five Bloomington women will be honored by the city during Women’s History Month.
Mayor John Hamilton announced the award winners Monday morning.
Jessika Hane and Tashera Perry will receive the Woman of the Year Award; Beth Lodge-Rigal will be honored with the Toby Strout Lifetime Contribution Award; Shatoyia Moss will receive the Emerging Leader Award and Solveig Hicks will be honored as the Young Woman of the Year.
The women will be honored at the annual History Month luncheon on Wednesday, March 25. Journalist and author Elaine Weiss will give the keynote speech at the luncheon. Tickets for the event can be purchased at the BCT Box Office, 114 E. Kirkwood Avenue, or online at bctboxoffice.org before 5 p.m. March 23.
The Emerging Leader and Young Woman of the Year will be honored on Saturday, March 28, during the Women’s Leadership Development event at City Hall.
Below are the bios of the honorees provided by the City.
The Honorees:
Jessika Hane will receive the Woman of the Year Award for her service to mothers and children. Hann is the Director of Human Resources at Oliver Winery. She has served in leadership positions on the boards of multiple nonprofits in Bloomington including Cardinal Stage Company, where she served as Marketing Committee Chair and Board President, and the Community Foundation of Bloomington Monroe County, where she served as Scholarship Chair and co-chaired the successful Thrive By Five Endowment initiative. She is also an adjunct faculty member at the Indiana University O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
An active and passionate Rotarian, Hane is a 13-year member of the Bloomington Sunrise Rotary Club. In her club, she has served as Board Member, Fundraising Chair, and Club President in 2011-2012. She is currently the District Governor Elect in District 6580 and will serve as District Governor in 2020-2021. She also serves as co-chair for year two of It Takes A Village-A Resource Fair for Parents, Infants and Toddlers. A joint effort by the three Bloomington Rotary clubs, this event provides one-stop-shop access to resources, education and supplies for parents in Monroe County.
Dr. Tashera Perry will also receive the Woman of the Year Award for her dedication to women’s health. Dr. Perry serves as staff physician and Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology for the Indiana University School of Medicine, Medical Science Program, and an advocate for women’s health in a variety of positions both locally and nationally. Within the IU Health system, locally, Dr. Perry has served as Clinical Informatics Physicians Advisor, Physician Sponsor for the OB/GYN Clinical Effectiveness Council, and as representative for the Women's CORE uplift Governance Council. On a state and national scale, she serves as Fellow for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists; Member of the American Medical Association; Representative for the Indiana State Medical Society; and ISMA Alternate Delegate for the Monroe Owen County Medical Society.
The Toby Strout Lifetime Contribution Award recipient, Beth Lodge-Rigal was selected for her visionary work with Women Writing for (a) Change, a creative writing program that empowers women to discover their individual voice. As the founder (2004) and creative director of Women Writing For (a) Change, Lodge-Rigal’s leadership and vision over the past 15 years has impacted countless women in the community. By 2012, this social purpose business merged into the not-for-profit Writing for a Change Foundation, Bloomington. In addition to facilitating writing circles, outreach, retreats, and directing programs at the Bloomington school, she has designed and implemented next-generation Conscious Feminine Leadership Training in both Cincinnati, Ohio, and in Bloomington for women who are hungry to learn new paradigms for leadership in the 21st century. Leaders emerging under her guidance create ever-widening circles of empowered voice, vision, action, and compassion for our community and the larger world.
Shatoyia Moss, the recipient of the Emerging Leader Award, is the Safe and Civil City Director at the City of Bloomington. Moss is receiving the Emerging Leader Award for her work, including the creation of the inaugural Black Girl Summit in November 2019. The summit convened over 100 middle- and high school-aged girls and featured workshops dedicated to empowering young women of color. Moss is chairwoman of Delta Sigma Theta’s Delta Gems program and Academy program and a mentor to three young women, one working as an athletic director in Okinawa, Japan, as well as an IU student majoring in Speech and Hearing Science and an employee at Cook Incorporated in Bloomington.
Solveig Hicks is the inaugural recipient of the Young Woman of the Year Award, created to recognize a woman between the ages of 11 and 18 who has already impacted girls’ and women’s issues in the community. Hicks is the president of Young Democrats at Bloomington North High School, and founded the school’s National Organization for Women chapter. In June 2019, she was the primary organizer of the North-South High School reproductive rights rally to protest abortion bans being passed around the country. In 2017, Hicks helped spearhead the successful Tri-North Middle School protest of the school’s dress code which, according to the protestors, reinforced the idea that girls are sexual objects, discriminated against certain body types, took away from learning time, humiliated girls, and promoted rape culture.
