“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.” —Coretta Scott King
Ours is a great community, widely known as a welcoming and collaborative environment. A hint to the source of that greatness lies in these words from Coretta Scott King.
And this is the common theme running through every profile on the following pages, as each of these leaders talks about encouraging and uplifting others and strengthening our community.
Our Women of Achievement awards this year celebrate women whose leadership illustrates what it means to truly go over and above the call in business and include doing well by our community through board work, mentoring and philanthropic work. Their success illustrates and amplifies the power of community engagement.
This issue presents our 2026 Women of Achievement, including our 2026 Linda M. Herold Lifetime Achievement awardee and our Arizona Leader awardee — 16 women from different segments of our economy. To honor and celebrate these women, we present their profiles on the following pages and let them share their stories in their own words so that we can get to know them.
And they will share the spotlight at our Women of Achievement luncheon event on Oct. 23, when we will come together to celebrate them.
Please meet our 2026 Women of Achievement.
- Sybil Francis, Ph.D. Chair, President & Chief Executive Officer, Center for the Future of Arizona, Attorney General Kris Mayes State of Arizona — Linda M. Herold Lifetime Achievement
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Attorney General Kris Mayes, State of Arizona – Arizona Leader Award
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Dayna Badhorn, President, Avnet Americas
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Tess Burleson, CPA, MBA, Chief Operating Officer, TGen; President, TGen Health Ventures
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Julie Friedly, Principal & Senior Vice President, Marsh McLennan Agency Arizona
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Melinda Morrison Gulick, Chief Executive Officer, First Things First
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Vice Mayor Kesha Hodge Washington, City of Phoenix
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Amy L. Hysell, President & Chief Executive Officer, Arizona Financial Credit Union
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Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, Vice President for Cultural Affairs, Arizona State University;
Executive Director, ASU Gammage -
Julie A. Johnson, CCIM, Executive Vice President, Colliers
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Heather Kane, CEO, UnitedHealthcare of Arizona & New Mexico
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Vanessa Kisicki, Associate General Manager & Chief Customer Executive, SRP
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Barb Kozuh, Executive Director, Delta Dental of Arizona Foundation
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Olivia Lemorrocco, Vice President of Operations, Phillips Law Group
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Regina Nixon, Executive Director, Phoenix Conservatory of Music
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Torrie A. Taj, CFRE, Chief Executive Officer, Child Crisis Arizona
