Thank you for joining the
20th Annual Heroes Breakfast
Wednesday, May 11, 2022
7:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. CST
For the past 20 years, we have honored individuals and groups for acts of immense bravery, dedication and service to the community. Join us in celebrating the 2022 Class of Heroes.
Make a Gift in Honor of a Hero
Honoring Heroes in the following categories:
Blood Services Hero | Community Impact Hero | Disaster Relief Hero
Education Hero | Firefighter Hero
Global Citizenship Hero | Healthcare Hero | Law Enforcement Hero
Lifesaving Rescue Hero | Military Hero | Social Justice Impact Hero | Youth Hero
Donate Now
Now through May 11, your gift will be matched TWICE for every dollar donated up to $100,000
Thank you to our generous Matching Gift Sponsors
Edwardson Family Foundation
Susan and Nick Noyes
Karen Gray-Krehbiel and John H. Krehbiel, Jr.
Dr. Helene D. Gayle | 2022 Heritage Award
Dr. Gayle has been president and CEO of The Chicago Community Trust, one of the nation's oldest and largest community foundations, since October 2017. Under her leadership, the Trust has adopted a new strategic focus on closing the racial and ethnic wealth gap in the Chicago region. Trained as a pediatrician, Dr. Gayle's career has spanned public health and global development fields. For almost a decade, Dr. Gayle was president and CEO of CARE, a leading international humanitarian organization. An expert on global development, humanitarian and health issues, she spent 20 years with the Centers for Disease Control, working primarily on HIV/AIDS. She worked at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, directing programs on HIV/AIDS and other global health issues. A native of Buffalo, N.Y., Dr. Gayle earned a B.A. at Barnard College, M.D. at the University of Pennsylvania, and an M.P.H. at Johns Hopkins University.
Dan Ryan | 2022 Honorary Chair
Dan Ryan is the Central Region President for JLL. Dan has overall responsibility for JLL's team and services across the Central U.S., including Brokerage (Office, Industrial, Retail), Property Management, Project and Development Services and Valuations. Dan is accountable for the firm's operations and business results in the Central Region, as well as developing and implementing strategic initiatives. He also maintains and develops key client relationships with owners and occupiers of real estate. Dan is a Board Member of the Chicago Executives' Club, World Business Chicago, and a member of the Chicago Economic Club. Dan also serves on the alumni board of directors of the Cara Program and in 2010, received the Spirit of Life Award from the Chicago Construction and Real Estate Council of City of Hope. Dan received his B.S. in Finance from Miami University (Oxford, OH) and earned an M.B.A from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Special Thanks to Our Heroes Committees
Brad Edwards | CBS2 Chicago | Emcee
Brad Edwards is an investigative reporter and main anchor at CBS2 Chicago.
He anchors the weekday evening newscasts at 5, 6 and 10 p.m. with Irika Sargent. Edwards is also a CBS 2 Investigator along with Dave Savini, Dorothy Tucker, Dana Kozlov and Megan Hickey.
In 2021, Edwards won the nation's top broadcast writing award: the National Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Writing. This adds to Edwards' cache of more than 100 awards, which includes 11 other Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards: four at WBBM for Excellence in Writing - 2013, '19, '20 and '21. From 2003-2010, he won eight consecutive regional Emmy Awards for Best Writing. His exposé on Chicago's broken water billing system - "Getting Hosed - won Emmy Awards in 2019, '20 and '21, and the 2020 RTDNA / NEFE award for Personal Finance Reporting.
His work has led to new policies and prosecutions, has reunited families, and helped free a woman serving a 50-year prison sentence for a crime she didn't commit. In Detroit, his year-long inquiry into the Wayne County morgue led to the burial of dozens of indigent souls, and the fast-tracking of funding for a massive facility expansion. In 2021, Illinois instituted two new state laws following a revelatory investigation by Edwards and his team. The statutes protect the identities of sex abuse victims, after Edwards' series showed a deeply disturbing pattern of unfettered public access to such information.
Irika Sargent | CBS2 Chicago | Emcee
Irika Sargent's anchoring and reporting has garnered multiple Emmy Awards and Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards.
She joined CBS2 Chicago in 2015 from CBS Miami, where she anchored the station's weekday evening news at 5 and 11 p.m. She also anchored the station's public affairs show, Focus on South Florida, and contributed a weekly legal news segment, Legally Speaking. Prior to that, Sargent was an anchor and reporter with KPRC-TV in Houston. She also worked in Mobile, Alabama, at WPMI-TV as the anchor of a legal show and a reporter for the evening newscasts.
Sargent graduated from the University of Missouri with a Bachelor of Journalism degree. She then earned a Juris Doctor degree from Cornell Law School because she wanted to gain legal insight and expertise that could assist her in news coverage. While studying law, Sargent was an editor for the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy. She was also a writer and editor for the Legal Information Institute focusing on cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Sargent practiced labor and employment law for four years in New York City at the Greenberg Traurig law firm. She represented clients in New York federal and state courts, as well as before the New York Division of Human Rights and National Labor Relations Board. While in New York, Sargent also set aside time to provide free legal services to those in need. She is a registered member of the New York Bar and has maintained active status for more than a decade. She is also a member of the National Association of Black Journalists
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