The United States Senator Mike Braun will be the City-County Observer keynote speaker for the “Annual Community Achievement Awards”  luncheon on October 25, 2019. Lieutenant Governor Suzanne Crouch will introduce United Senator Mike Braun

Former Vanderburgh County Sheriff, past United States Congressmen and  Vectren Executive Brad Ellsworth, will be the Master Of Ceremonies for this event.

The City-County Observer  “Outstanding Community Services Award” Winners For 2019.

MARGARET KOCH 

Margaret is a very personable person that is involved in every aspect of our community.

She was born and raised in Houston, Texas, and has her parents to thank for teaching her the importance of stewardship and working to make the world a better place.  She moved to Evansville in the spring of 2000 and worked as a registered nurse for Visiting Nurse Plus, HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital and most recently Deaconess Hospital.  She and her husband, Kevin, have two wonderful and busy daughters who are 11 and 9 years old.  They both attend St. Bens Catholic school. 

Due to the needs of her family, Margaret made the decision in 2013, to become a full-time house spouse and community volunteer.

She is a Junior League of Evansville Sustainer, and it was with this amazing organization that she began honing her fundraising skills while working on several money-generating committees.  Since completing her seven-year stint with the Junior League, she has served on the boards of Ark Crisis Child Care Center and the Reitz Home Museum.  With both of these boards, she cultivated relationships within our community working to build partnerships with these wonderful organizations and our many individuals and corporate champions.

Presently she serves on the stewardship committee and pastoral council at St. Ben’s Cathedral, and helps raise money for the Summer Social and Holiday Luncheon.  She also is very involved with St. Ben’s School Mardi Gras committee where she focuses on raising sponsorship dollars that go toward the ongoing upkeep of this outstanding school along with updating technology and educational tools.

She also is a member of the Evansville Museum board, where she helps with the annual gala and serves on the art committee.  She has been a member of the Vanderburgh Community Foundation Alliance Women’s Fund for the past two years and more recently joined 100+ Women Who Care.  She feels privileged to be a part of both of these groups of strong, giving women.

Her passions for animals, conservation, and FUN have been fulfilled with her role as a board member of the Evansville Zoological Society, which is the non-profit arm of Mesker Park Zoo and Botanic Garden.  She perhaps a little too enthusiastically participated in a feasibility study and was subsequently asked to chair our zoo’s first-ever capital campaign in 2014.  She is so pleased with the outcome of the campaign so far when she and the family enjoy the Engelbrecht Carousel and walk among the spectacular parakeets in the Evansville Convention and Visitors Bureau’s Budgie Walkabout.  She invites you to visit the zoo and see these spectacular additions, thanks to the generosity of so many individual and corporate donors.

Margaret thrives on helping others and strives to make the world a better place.  She is so proud of the progress happening throughout Evansville and feels honored to be a part of it.

Honorable Vanderburgh County Superior Court Judge Mary Margaret “Maggie” Lloyd

Judge Lloyd is very well respected. In 2000, Judge Lloyd was elected the first female judge in Vanderburgh County.

Judge Mary Margaret “Maggie” Lloyd was born in Evansville, Indiana and graduated from the McKinney School of Law in 1991.  After serving as a law clerk for then Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard of the Indiana Supreme Court, Judge Lloyd returned to Evansville to practice law in her hometown.  Her first position was as a law clerk for then Vanderburgh Circuit Court Judge, Richard L. Young.  Following her clerkship, she served nine (9) years as a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor’s Office litigating hundreds of felony cases.  In 2000, Judge Lloyd was elected the first female judge in Vanderburgh County.  Currently, Judge Lloyd has jurisdiction over Family Law matters and civil cases, and since 2001, has been the Supervising Judge of the Domestic Relations/Family Court for Superior Court.   In 2012, she was elected by her fellow judges to serve as Chief Judge of the Vanderburgh Superior Court.

During her nineteen (19) years of service as a judicial officer, Judge Lloyd was instrumental in the creation of the Vanderburgh County Family Court Project which assists divorcing parties without means to hire an attorney to resolve their cases, themselves.  She has served on the Domestic Relations Committee of the Judicial Conference of Indiana which created a Domestic Relations Bench Book to be used by all judicial officers throughout the State and helped update the Child Support Guidelines.  Judge Lloyd served as an At-Large Member of the Board of Managers of the Indiana Judges Association, and further serves or served as the Superior Court judicial representative to the Southwestern Indiana Mental Health Center, Inc. Board, the Evansville Bar Association Board of Directors, the Vanderburgh County Community Corrections Board, and the Evansville/Vanderburgh County Commission on Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault.  Presently, Judge Lloyd has been appointed by the Indiana Supreme Court to serve on the Protection Order Committee and has been selected along with two (2) other Courts in the State to initiate a Pilot Project for the electronic filing of Protective Orders for the State of Indiana.

In 2017, Judge Lloyd led a collaborative effort which culminated in Vanderburgh County Superior Court being awarded $546,344.00 through a Justice for Families Grant from the Office on Violence against Women.  These funds have been used to supply free supervised visits and exchanges at the Parenting Time Center to benefit children affected by domestic violence, and to create a Protective Order Assistance Office which assists victims of domestic violence or sexual assault in seeking protective orders and teaches these parties about their available community resources.  The Grant further provides a free Guardian ad Litem to represent children in paternity and divorce cases where domestic violence has occurred between the parties, there parents.

CHRISTINE H. KECK  

With the February 2019 acquisition of Vectren Corporation by CenterPoint Energy (CNP) Christine leads Federal advocacy and policy engagement for CNP, enterprise-wide, covering the regulated gas and electric utility operations which now encompass 8 states as well as the company’s non- regulated subsidiaries which have a nation-wide footprint.  With the Vectren acquisition, CNP is now the 2^nd largest natural gas utility in the United States, serving more than 7 million metered customers.

This builds upon Christine’s efforts since 2008 leading public policy, strategy and external engagement initiatives for Vectren and its subsidiaries, advancing public policy critical to addressing and improving our Nation’s pipeline infrastructure, the nexus between domestic energy production and independence with defense and national security, energy efficiency, regulatory regimes, and tax policies.

In 2015 Christine was recognized with the national “Energy Champion” award by the Energy Services Coalition, in recognition of her efforts to advance the use of performance-based contracting and for her efforts in successfully securing a 3-year cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy.

Christine is active in energy industry associations, including the American Gas Association, the Edison Electric Institute,  the Federal Performance Contracting Coalition,  the National Association of Energy Services Companies and the Energy Services Coalition, for which she is the past board president.

Prior to joining the company in 2008, Keck served as Senior Vice President, Southern Region Corporate Lending Executive for Evansville, Indiana based Old National Bank. Christine began her career with Old National as part of the Bank’s Management Training program, and worked in a variety of capacities, primarily in the Commercial and Corporate Lending groups.

In October of 2018, Christine was elected as Chairman of the Southwest Indiana Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, serving in this capacity to October 2020. In July 2019 Christine became the Chairman of the St. Vincent Hospital Foundation Board of Directors.

In recognition of her community service and leadership, Christine was recently awarded the Sara B. Davies Award by Leadership Evansville. She has also been a finalist for the Athena award in 2018, 2014 and 2012.

EDUCATION

Christine attended McGill University in Montreal, Canada and graduated from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. She has received several professional certifications including the prestigious designation of “CRC”, Credit Risk Certified, by the Risk Management Association, a national organization dedicated to the use of sound credit and lending practices in the financial services industry.

LEADERSHIP, PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS, AND RECOGNITIONS

1. Chairman, SW Indiana Chamber of Commerce of Board
2. Trustee, University of Southern Indiana
3. Chairman St Vincent’s Hospital (Ascension Health) Foundation Board
4. Board Member, University of Evansville Schroeder School of Business Dean’s Advisory Board
   

   EPD SERGEANT JASON CULLUM 

   Jason Cullum is an extremely likable person and is involved in every aspect of our community.

   In 2013, Sgt. Cullum founded Cops Connecting with Kids. To date, this unique partnership between law enforcement, schools, and the community has provided all-expenses-paid trips to Walt Disney World for 166 underserved kids from Evansville.

   Sgt. Jason Cullum is a 20 year veteran of the Evansville Indiana Police Department. He has served in many assignments that include co-founding the first-ever EPD Bike Patrol Unit, SWAT team member, Filed Training Officer. He also served as the Crime Prevention Unit supervisor for 3 years.

   He is currently assigned as the agency’s Public Information Officer and also coordinates the department’s Speaker’s Bureau program.

   Sgt. Cullum is an Evansville native and returned home to serve his community after a 4-year enlistment in the United States Air Force, where he served as a Military Working Dog handler and a Korean National Police Liaison.

   In 2016, Sgt Cullum also served as a Fellow for the Office of Community Policing (COPS office) in Washington D.C. where he served as a subject matter expert for community policing development and law enforcement social media.

   STEVE HAMMER 

   He is a  Principal Partner of the Ohio Valley Properties, LLC-Evansville, Indiana, also a  Principal Partner with Roca Bar North, LLC-Evansville, Indiana and is the  Evansville Region Representative the United States, Senator Mike Braun

   He has a BBA-Management degree from the University of Kentucky-Lexington, Kentucky and is a graduate of Central High School-Evansville, Indiana.

   Mr. Hammer Community Involvement:

   Was a Community Emcee at various events & organizations including St. Ben’s Mardi Gras Gala, Multiple Sclerosis Gala, YWCA Legacy of Style and Wesselman Woods Wandering Owl.

   Former Candidate for Vanderburgh County Commissioner, District 2 in 2018.

   Weekly Volunteer at St. Anthony’s soup kitchen since 2017.

   Chef at A Hundred Men Who Cook annual charity event since 2014.

   Basketball Coach for St. Ben’s Catholic School 3^rd Grade Girls team in 2018.

   Builder at Mickey’s Kingdom Community Construction Project in 2018.

   Member of A Hundred Guys Who Care charity group since 2017.

   Member of Evansville Country Club since 1999.

   Member of Ziemer Society of St. Vincent Hospital since 2017.

   Volunteers his service as the Chairmen of the CCO ‘Living Outside THe Box” speakers series.

   He is also a  supporter of numerous charity events to numerous to mention.

   He is married to Ashley, a Cardiology Nurse Practitioner at St. Vincent Hospital and they have two wonderful children, William, 22 & Addison 9.

   COUNTY COMMISSIONER BEN SHOULDERS

   Three years ago Democrat Benjamin Shoulders ran for the Vanderburgh County Commissioner and was elected by a comfortable margin.

   Since his election, he has been extremely effective in promoting good public policy and has seemly been a voice of reason and compromise. Mr. Shoulders has demonstrated that he can face difficult governmental challenges with an open mind.

   Commissioner Shoulders is extremely outgoing and is from a well respected and prominent political family of this area.

   He is currently the Commercial Lender ll at Banterra Bank and has been in banking for 16 years.

   Ben received his college degree from Indiana University (Bloomington) – Bachelor of Arts ’02 CJUS (College of Arts and Sciences). He was graduated from Harrison High School–Magna Cum Laude (College Prep).

   He received his certification from Indiana Bankers Association – Bank Management Series in 2010 and the Indiana Bankers Association – Commercial Lending School (2011 Graduate).

   Ben is married to former Shannon Perrette of Evansville for 11 years and they have three (3) children.  Emma who is 9 years old and 6 years old twins Parker and Sadie and they reside in Evansville.

   Some of Bens’s favorite things he enjoys doing are coaching youth basketball and taking his family out to eat fish Tacos and drinking slushies.

   His Community Involvement Is Very Impressive.  Listed Below Are Some OF Them.

   Vanderburgh County Commissioner – District One (Elected – Nov 2016; took office – Jan 1, 2017). Elected President in -2019.

   GAGE (Growth Alliance of Greater Evansville) – Board Member (2018 – present)

   Commission on Homelessness – Board Member (2017 – present)

   Past Community Corrections – Board Member 

   Old Courthouse – Board Member (2017 – present)

   Domestic and Sexual Violence Commission – Board Member (2017 – present)

   IU College of Arts and Sciences Alumni Board (2014 – present)

   Boys and Girls Club of Evansville – Board President (2018 – present); Vice President (2016 – present)

   EVSC Foundation Board of Directors – Vice President (2013 – 2018)

   Darrell Ragland Foundation Board of Directors – Board Development Chair (2014 – present)

   United Way – Keel Club (2014 – 2018); Southern Indiana Campaign Cabinet Member (2016)

   Past “EVSC Hall of Fame” – Co-Chairman 

   IU Alumni Association of Greater Evansville – Past President / Board member 

   Convention and Visitors Bureau Board of Commissioners – Board Treasurer (2014 – 2015)

   Past member of the Habitat for Humanity of Evansville – Development Committee 

   Current Leadership Evansville Board of Directors – Recruitment Chairman

   Harrison High School /Warrior Athletic Booster Club – Past President (2010 – 2013)

   Harrison High School Athletic Hall of Fame – Founder and Past Chairman

   WNIN Channel 9 Auctioneer (2011 – 2015, 2017, 2018; ”Red Blue Hoops” radio co-host 2014-16)

   Past member of the Evansville African American Museum Gala – Auction Committee 

   Commissioner Shoulders Current And Past Awards and Honors:

   Top Producer/President’s Award – First Federal Savings Bank (2010 and 2011)

   Community Service Award – Fifth Third Bank (January 2013)

   Most “Starz” Volunteer Hours in Evansville Market – Old National Bank (2014, 2015)

   Selected as a Top Performer for Old National Bank 

   Chamber of Commerce Drive – “Big Dawg Award” (most memberships sold)

   Past Recipient of the President’s Award for Community Service – Boys and Girls Club 

   Selected as  a “Top 20 Under 40” – Evansville Business Journal/Evansville Courier and Press in September 2011

   Selected as “Top 20 Under 40” – News 4U Magazine in 2015)

   Involved in 100 Men Who Cook — Chef -Evansville

   Past Vanderburgh Medical Alliance Annual Style Show – Master of Ceremonies

   This year’s awards luncheon will be held at Tropicana-Evansville Walnut rooms A and B. The registration begins at 11:30 am, the event officially starts at 12 noon on October 25, 2019.

   This year’s event is a sellout.