The Greater Missouri Leadership Foundation celebrates where women leaders are today while building connections that shape where they go next.
The Broadway Columbia’s Elevation Ballroom hummed with conversation as attendees gathered to celebrate women whose leadership is making a difference across Missouri. The July event was the 20th anniversary of the Greater Missouri Women of the Year Awards luncheon, an annual event hosted by the Greater Missouri Leadership Foundation to recognize women who have dedicated their time, talents, and energy to strengthening their communities.
The luncheon is one part of the foundation’s broader mission to develop and connect women leaders across the state. Through the Greater Missouri Leadership Challenge, the organization brings women together to learn about Missouri’s communities, industries, and institutions while developing leadership skills and building relationships that continue outside of the program.
Throughout the luncheon, honorees were celebrated across four categories: Community Leader of the Year, Inspirational Leader of the Year, Civic Leader of the Year, and Alumna Leader of the Year — each highlighting a different way women are stepping up and serving others.
Before the awards were presented, attendees heard from 2026 keynote speaker Lori Robertson, who shared a story about stepping far outside her comfort zone — 19,341 feet outside it, to be exact.
Two summers earlier, Robertson had been invited to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. It was not an obvious fit at first. She had never owned a pair of hiking boots, and as she joked with the audience, she likes to sleep and use the bathroom indoors.
“Have you ever done something like that where you see an opportunity or someone even suggests you or invites you into an opportunity, and you immediately start thinking about all the reasons you’re not right for it?” she asked.
Robertson ultimately changed her “no” to a “yes” and summited the mountain alongside 12 hikers and 42 crew members. In sharing the experience, she invited the audience to draw their own comparisons between climbing a mountain and navigating the challenges of leadership and life.
“Some of you are facing a mountain right now. … You have have no idea how on earth you’ll ever make it to the top. Some of you are on the journey right now. You’re not where you want to be, but you’re not where you started either. And some of you are standing on the summit, taking in a breathtaking view. … One thing I’ve learned about summiting mountains is that … it’s really just a moment in time. It’s over almost as fast as you get to it. What really matters and what’s worth sharing are the lessons you learn along the way, the stories of the journey, and the person you’ve become.”
Robertson’s address set the stage for the introduction of the honorees, whose work reflects the many forms leadership can take.
The honorees represented where women leaders are today. But throughout the room were also women who could speak to where that leadership can lead.
One alumna in attendance, Lindsay Young Lopez, president and CEO of the Food Bank for Central & Northeast Missouri, knows firsthand how the Greater Missouri Leadership Challenge can change the course of a career.
Lopez participated in the program in 2012, after spending 18 years working in higher education advancement. At the time, she was beginning to question whether she wanted to spend the rest of her career in the field. The Leadership Challenge exposed her to organizations and industries across the state, including a visit to Harvesters, a food bank in Kansas City.
Before that visit, Lopez had supported the Food Bank for Central & Northeast Missouri through fundraisers and community events, but she had never stepped inside a food bank. Seeing the work firsthand shifted her perspective.
“I came away from that experience just really changed,” Lopez said. “I had never been in a food bank before.”
Two years later, Lopez saw that the Food Bank’s longtime leader was retiring. She read the announcement in the Columbia Daily Tribune and spent the weekend thinking about it. Ultimately, she decided to apply for the position, and nearly 12 years later, she is still at the helm.
“If I had not been part of the Greater Missouri Leadership Challenge, I might never have thought that I needed to compete for this position,” Lopez said. “It probably would never have occurred to me. So Greater Missouri really did change my life.”
The program impacted Lopez in ways beyond career opportunities, connecting her with women from across Missouri — from agriculture and business to government and higher education — whom she otherwise may never have met. Those relationships have continued long after the program ended, creating a statewide network of women who can share expertise, offer encouragement, and pick up where they left off, even after years apart.
That sense of connection was evident throughout the anniversary luncheon, as alumnae greeted one another and celebrated the women being honored. It also reflected one of the central messages of Robertson’s keynote: Leadership is less about reaching a single summit than about what happens along the way and who you become through the journey.
For Lopez, that journey ultimately led somewhere she never expected.
“I probably never would have ended up in the role that I’m in now had it not been for Greater Missouri and participating in 2012,” she said. “But it’s the best thing I ever did.”
More than three decades into the Greater Missouri Leadership Challenge and 20 years into the Women of the Year Awards, Lopez’s story is just one example of the impact the organization has had on the women who have passed through its programs.
Nearly 1,300 alumnae now make up that network, with Lopez continuing to stay involved as a member of the organization’s board of directors. She sees that continued involvement as part of the responsibility that comes with being part of such a network.
“It’s so important as women that we lift each other up,” Lopez said. “And this is one way to do that.”
Community Leader of the Year
Ashley McCarty
Executive Director, Missouri Farmers Care
Inspirational Leader of the Year
Kim Becking, JD, CSP®
Founder & CEO, Unstoppable Momentum
GMLC Alumna Class of 1998
Civic Leader of the Year
The Honorable Mary Russell
Judge, Missouri Supreme Court
Alumna Leader of the Year
Dr. Yemi Akande-Bartsch
President & CEO, FOCUS St. Louis
GMLC Alumna Class of 2014
