Healthcare, biotech, telecom, insurance, accounting, journalism, government, and artificial intelligence rarely share a stage. This October, they will. The New Jersey Chamber of Commerce is bringing together ten women from every corner of the state’s economy for its 2026 Women of Inspiration Awards Reception, set for October 22 at The National Conference Center in East Windsor, and the sheer range of industries represented says something worth noticing about where real influence actually sits in this state right now.
Chamber president and CEO Tom Bracken framed the honor as a reflection of the strength and range running through New Jersey’s business community, and looking at this particular list, that’s not just a nice line for a press release. It’s an accurate description. These aren’t ten women pulled from the same industry or the same career path dressed up to look diverse. They’ve built careers in genuinely different fields, facing genuinely different challenges, and they’re being recognized together specifically because leadership in this state doesn’t come from one mold.
The night’s top honor, the Alice H. Parker Outstanding Woman of Inspiration Award, goes to Amy Mansue, CEO of Inspira Health Network. Mansue’s spent four decades moving through healthcare, government, and statewide leadership roles, a career arc long enough to have shaped an entire region’s approach to health system management. She served as Inspira’s president and CEO from 2020 through 2025, and rather than stepping back afterward, she’s stayed on as CEO, now focused squarely on the organization’s long-term strategic direction. Forty years in an industry as demanding as healthcare tends to either burn people out or turn them into exactly the kind of institutional anchor Inspira clearly has in her.
Government gets its own moment in the spotlight too, with the Employer Advocate Award going to Kellie Doucette, chief operating officer to Governor Mikie Sherrill. Doucette holds a genuinely new role in New Jersey government, the state’s first-ever chief operating officer, a position built specifically to coordinate across state agencies and turn policy decisions into actual, functioning action rather than letting good intentions stall out in bureaucratic handoffs. She’s also been a driving force behind Sherrill’s 21-county business outreach tour, the kind of on-the-ground, county-by-county engagement that either builds real relationships with the state’s business community or doesn’t, depending entirely on whether the person running it actually shows up and listens. Whatever your politics, a role built to make government machinery actually work for businesses is worth recognizing when someone’s doing it well.
Corporate technology leadership gets recognized through Heather Staples, who serves as executive vice president of enterprise operations, business and technology solutions, and chief information officer at Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey. Staples joined Horizon in 2024 and now oversees an enormous portfolio, technology infrastructure, information security, enterprise program management, analytics, and day-to-day operations, at one of the state’s largest insurers. That’s the Outstanding Corporate Leader Award, and running information security alone for an organization handling that much sensitive health data is a genuinely high-stakes responsibility most people never think about until something goes wrong.
Debbie Hart earns the Association Advocate Award for her work leading BioNJ, the organization she co-founded back in 1994 and has spent over three decades building into one of the strongest voices representing New Jersey’s biotechnology and life sciences industry. That’s not a short resume line. Building an industry association from scratch and sustaining its relevance for thirty-plus years, through multiple economic cycles and constant shifts in biotech regulation and funding, requires the kind of persistence most organizations never actually achieve.
Telecom policy gets its due through Eileen Mannion, vice president of public policy and state and local government affairs at Verizon, who takes home the Issues Advocate Award. Mannion runs Verizon’s public policy operation across New Jersey specifically while also supporting the company’s broader state and local government affairs work nationally, a dual role that requires understanding both the granular local regulatory landscape and the bigger national picture simultaneously.
The remaining honorees round out a genuinely impressive slate. Liat Krawczyk, executive director of the New Jersey AI Hub, receives the Business Innovation Award, recognition that arrives at exactly the moment artificial intelligence policy and infrastructure are becoming genuinely urgent conversations for state economies everywhere. Michele Siekerka, president and CEO of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, earns the Business Advocate Award for her ongoing work representing the state’s business community at large. Aiysha Johnson, known widely as A.J., CEO and executive director of the NJCPA, receives the Outstanding NJ Chamber Service Award. Fatema Raza, partner and national real estate practice leader at Withum, takes home the Young Professional Award, a recognition aimed specifically at rising leadership rather than decades-long tenure, and a signal that the Chamber is thinking as much about who’s next as who’s already arrived. Rounding out the list, Joanna Gagis, senior correspondent at NJ Spotlight News, receives the Business Communications Award, recognizing the often-overlooked work of actually explaining New Jersey’s business landscape clearly to the public that depends on understanding it.
Here’s my honest take on why this particular list matters beyond a single October reception. Business recognition events can sometimes feel like a rotating cast of the same handful of executives getting celebrated year after year for occupying senior titles. This list doesn’t read that way. It spans a first-of-its-kind government role, a four-decade healthcare career, a newly minted AI hub director, a journalist covering the exact beat these honorees operate in, and a young professional still building her reputation. That’s a genuinely broader definition of business leadership than these kinds of ceremonies usually manage, and it’s worth the Chamber getting real credit for building the list that way rather than defaulting to the safest, most predictable names available.
The October 22 reception will include networking time alongside the formal recognition, giving attendees a real chance to actually meet these honorees rather than just applauding from a banquet seat. For anyone building a career in New Jersey’s business community, regardless of industry, that room is going to be worth being in.
