Learn From Indy Doers and Changemakers Event

Thank You Sponsors

Meet our host

Lexie Manor

INNOVATIVE / Creative Strategy Intern

Lexie Manor is approaching her senior year at DePauw University. Currently, Lexie is a Creative Strategy intern at INNOVATIVE. She is responsible for helping strategize, create, and promote social media content for the 2021 Indyfluence program.

Meet our panelists

Sara Hindi

Graduate Assistant / IUPUI

Sara Hindi is a graduate assistant at IUPUI with the Center for Service and Learning, and is currently pursuing a Masters in Public Affairs with a concentration in Innovation and Social Change at IUPUI. Sara has served the refugee community in Indianapolis for 6 years with Exodus as an intern, volunteer, and staff member. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Media and Public Affairs.

Mitch Gore

State Representative / Indiana House Of Representatives

After spending his entire life on Indianapolis’ East and Southeast sides, State Representative Mitch Gore is a recognized community advocate, small business operator and public safety professional. Mitch worked hard to keep his family’s Washington Square restaurant afloat during the Great Recession while also attending the University of Indianapolis. As a product of public schools and a working family, Mitch knows what it’s like to work hard for positive results. Having worked in the area of community development, Mitch has sought to eliminate blight in our neighborhoods, demolish unsafe buildings, and crack down on slum lords. Currently a Captain with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, he is overseeing construction of our new Community Justice Center, using a comprehensive approach to making our neighborhoods safer. Mitch believes in compassionate policing and knows that the best way to keep everyone safe is for law enforcement to respect the people they serve, thereby earning the people’s trust. When he isn’t out in his community advocating for his neighbors, Mitch can be found with his wife, Brittany, walking their dog, Daisy, and rooting for the Pacers, Colts and Butler Bulldogs.

Jo Garcia

Community Outreach Manager / Indianapolis Indians

Jo Garcia is the team’s community outreach manager, overseeing the day-to-day activities of the Indianapolis Indians nonprofit Indianapolis Indians Charities. Garcia joined the front office after spending four-and-a-half years with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, most recently as a senior campaign manager. Before LLS, she spent a year with Alpha Chi Omega Fraternity, Inc. as a chapter consultant. Garcia is a 2014 graduate of Bradley University.

Blair Milo

Founding Director / The Center for Talent and Opportunity, Sagamore Institute

Blair Milo began her career as a surface warfare officer in the U.S. Navy, serving on three overseas deployments before transitioning to public service. Blair served as the Mayor of La Porte, Indiana for two terms before joining Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb’s Cabinet as the first Secretary of Career Connections and Talent. She recently transitioned to the private sector to launch the Center for Talent and Opportunity, a partnership through the Sagamore Institute focused on closing the wealth gap of women and minorities by cultivating inclusive startup communities and entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Mark Minner

President & Chief Strategy Officer / First Person Advisors

Mark Minner is President & Chief Strategy Officer at First Person Advisors, an Indianapolis-based benefits, compensation and organizational health advisory firm with decades of experience helping clients navigate the changing workforce. He helps create and carry the firm’s vision and collaborates with clients to build innovative, long-term, benefits and compensation strategies. Minner was named to the Indianapolis Business Journal’s prestigious Forty Under 40 list in 2019 and received Employee Benefit Advisers Rising Star in Advising honor in 2016.

Mali Jeffers

Co-Founder / GANGGANG

Malina (Mali) Simone Jeffers started her career organizing performance based events for the spoken word community. She has served in roles at Emmis Communications, the Arts Council of Indianapolis, Madame Walker Theatre Center, Plan 2020, and the Ben Franklin Funds at Central Indiana Community Foundation. Among a plethora of current civic duties, Mali is co-founder of GANGGANG, a cultural development firm based in Indy.

Angela Smith-Jones

Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion / Health & Hospital Corporation

Angela Smith Jones has recently been named the Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion at Health & Hospital Corporation. In her role she oversees the strategic implementation of diversity, equity and inclusion across all entities of Health & Hospital, including Eskenazi Health, IEMS, Marion County Public Health Department – to ensure that all employees, patients, clients and vendors feel welcome and valued.

Darryl Lockett

Executive Director / Kennedy King Memorial

Darryl Lockett is the Executive Director of the Kennedy King Memorial Initiative. Lockett, an Indy native who has worked in politics and philanthropy, came back home after nearly 20 years to lead KKMI. A quote that informs his perspective on the work of impacting our collective community is a fitting one from late Senator Robert Kennedy; “The future will be shaped in the arena of human activity, by those willing to commit their minds and their bodies to the task.”