Catherine Mardikes Receives 2025 Greensfelder-Elam Award

We are delighted to announce that Catherine Mardikes, our current Vice President for Membership, received the 2025 Greensfelder-Elam Award at LWV Chicago’s Annual Meeting on June 28.

Established in 1981, the award has been presented to a member who has demonstrated extraordinary long-term dedication and effectiveness in League work. It was named after Olive Greensfelder, a child welfare activist and a charter member of the League, and Elinor Elam, a former Chicago League President who played a crucial role in identifying a budget error.

Pat Wilder, who received the award in 2024, presented Catherine with the Greensfelder-Elam award in a long-overdue recognition of her outstanding service.

Catherine has spearheaded many League projects since joining us in 2017. She led LWV Chicago’s campaign to rename a street after Ida B. Wells and the effort to get a Pomeroy marker for the Alpha Suffrage Club in Bronzeville as well as representing the Chicago League in the push to add three suffrage murals in the Wabash Arts Corridor.

Along with Julie Shelton and Michelle Mbekeani, she started the program to register detainees at Cook County Jail and worked on the legislation to require voting machines in Cook County Jail every election.

She manages the Election Protection program, which partners the League with Common Cause Illinois and the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights in order to tackle any problems voters encounter at the polls. She’s organized our voter registration efforts at naturalization ceremonies, where 10,000 new citizens were registered to vote in 2024.

Her other Board leadership roles have included Acting President and Executive Vice President. She is also the founder and co-chair of LWV Chicago’s South Side Unit.

As anyone who knows her can attest, Catherine prefers action over accolades. In her own words at a recent pro-democracy rally, “We’ve all sat around and watched, and now it’s time to get up and do.” That statement really encapsulates her approach to League work. She shies away from ceremony, focusing instead on tangible impact in our communities.

The Greensfelder-Elam Award is a celebratory moment for someone who usually avoids the fanfare, and underscores just how much Catherine has contributed to our mission. If something good is happening in the League, Catherine is either leading it or in the midst of its successful implementation. Please join us in warmly congratulating Catherine!