Miami Valley Urban League: 2025 Pillar Award Recipients

Honoring four individuals and a minority business for their unwavering commitment and transformative efforts in the community.

The Miami Valley Urban League is proud to announce the recipients of the 2025 Pillar Awards, honoring outstanding community leaders and minority owned businesses that have excelled in their respective fields and made significant contributions to advancing the Greater Dayton and Miami Valley regions. Their unwavering commitment and transformative efforts in the community underscore the Pillar Awards as a beacon of the region's highest accomplishments in service and leadership.

The 2025 Pillar Award Honorees:

• Marsha Bonhart, Media Trailblazer

• Carl Kennebrew, IUE-CWA International President

• Stacey Lawson, Chief Human Resources Officer, Premier Health

The 2025 Rising Pillar Honoree:

• Fabrice Juin, Regional Equity Initiative Manager, Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission

The 2025 Pillar IMPACT Award for minority-owned businesses:

• Robinson’s Janitorial & Floor Care Service

“These outstanding individuals embody the commitment and leadership that leads to meaningful progress in our community,” said Nikol Miller, Executive Director of the Miami Valley Urban League. “It’s a privilege to celebrate their accomplishments and the impact they’ve made throughout the Greater Dayton area. We’re especially excited to add the honor of Rising Pillar this year to recognize up and coming leaders who are making a difference and inspire other young leaders to do the same.” The Pillar Awards will be presented at the 2025 Pillar Awards Reception on Tuesday June 3, 2025 at The Dayton Arcade, 35 W. 4th Street, Dayton, OH 45402. More information and tickets can be purchased at: https://mvul.org/pillars.

The 2025 Pillar Award Honorees:

Marsha Bonhart has had a remarkable and pioneering career in the media. She began in her hometown of Toledo, Ohio, working in radio and television news for two years before moving to Dayton in 1980 to join WKEF-TV as a reporter. She was promoted to weekend co-anchor and later became the primary anchor for the station’s weekday 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts—making history as Dayton’s first Black primary television news anchor. After a brief period as a news anchor in Los Angeles, Marsha returned to Dayton to lead public relations efforts at Good Samaritan Hospital. In 1988, she rejoined the local news scene at WDTN, Channel 2, where she spent the next 20 years as a news anchor and health reporter. Following her retirement from WDTN, Marsha transitioned to the nonprofit sector, serving as Development Director for the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company and later as Director of Public Relations and Media for Dayton Public Schools. Since her retirement in 2018, she has continued to lend her expertise to nonprofit organizations, supporting their media and public relations efforts.

Carl Kennebrew became the 8th President of IUE-CWA on August 2, 2018. He has been a proud member of IUE-CWA for 25 years. He started his Union career as an elected delegate and Vice-President of Local 84755 in Dayton, Ohio where he worked as an organizer, served as the local’s Legislative Political Action Team Member, and as an Executive Board Member for the Dayton Miami Valley AFL-CIO. In August of 2013, Carl became the first Minority President of Local 755, the founding local of IUE-CWA. He was re-elected without opposition in the fall of 2014 and 2017. Carl is a long-time supporter of many community and partner groups such as Stand Up Ohio and the Miami Valley Organizing Collaborative. He currently serves on numerous boards including: The Ohio Organizing Collaborative, Triune Skilled Development Services, the Greater Dayton Union Co-op Initiative, the United Way of the Greater Dayton Area, and as a Dayton Metro Library Board of Trustee. Additionally, Carl was ordained last year as a Minster for Revival Center Ministries.

Stacey Lawson is an innovative and transformational change leader with an extensive career in creating vision, developing strategy and translating goals into results. Stacey has been with Premier Health for 27 years serving in various human resources roles culminating in her current role of Chief Human Resources Officer where she has responsibility for developing and executing human resources strategy to support the strategic direction of the organization. Stacey is committed to giving back to the community and investing in others. She is the first African American Board Chair for the Dayton Art Institute, serves as Board Chair for Culture Works and is a member of the Equity Board and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.

The 2025 Rising Pillar Honoree

Fabrice Juin serves as the Regional Equity Initiative Program Manager for the Institute for Livable & Equitable Communities housed within the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission. In this role, he strives to advance equity across the Miami Valley by collaborating with the regional community to correct policies, reform institutions, and close gaps that undermine sustained quality of life improvements for underserved, under-resourced, and vulnerable populations. Fabrice brings a public health background to this regional planning work and leverages the idea that “a society should be able to promise all its members the most optimal health status available to them” as a guiding principle.

Impact Honoree

Robinson’s Janitorial & Floor Care Service

Robinson’s Janitorial & Floor Care Services was founded by Lewis Robinson in March 2017, with the primary focus of providing janitorial and floor cleaning services to the Dayton and surrounding areas. They currently provide commercial cleaning solutions for over 100 buildings and employ upwards of 125 individuals. Approximately 85% of Robinson’s employees are ex-offenders. Lewis initially started this venture as a side business prior to his retirement from Wright State University after a 20 year career in Environmental Services. Shortly after he was joined by his wife, Dr. Joeanna Hill-Robinson, who took on the role of business manager. She was able to establish key partnerships with the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce and Ohio Small Business Development Center leading to the creation of an impactful full-time business. According to Lewis, Robinson’s core mission is “my ministry is just really to get a lot of men and women that have had troubles from the past, just like I had, and get them off the block and get them on the clock.” They both believe that God provided opportunities that have allowed the business to grow and thrive as a positive asset to the community.

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The Miami Valley Urban League is on a mission to end generational poverty through advocacy and by empowering individuals to establish careers, become entrepreneurs, build wealth, and develop as leaders. To learn more visit: www.mvul.org