Learn more about our honorees below!

Luminary Award:
Brooke Wiseman
Retired CEO, Girl Scouts of Chicago

Brooke M. Wiseman, retired CEO Emeritus of Blessings in a Backpack. During her eight years, the organization grew dramatically in size and scope, feeding 90,000 children across the country every weekend. Blessings feeds hungry children across the United States by sending a backpack full of food home on the weekends for children who otherwise might go hungry.

Prior to this, Brooke was the CEO of the Girl Scouts of Chicago for 17 years, CEO of the Permian Basin Girl Scout Council in Midland, Texas and CEO of Girl Scouts of DuPage County in Naperville, Illinois. She began her Girl Scout career as a Field Director and Program Services Director for the Michigan Capital Girl Scout Council in Lansing, Michigan.

Brooke also served as the Chief Development and Marketing Officer for the YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago for two years. She taught at Northwestern University and Notre Dame University. Brooke was President of her New Knowledge Consulting company from 2008-2022. Brooke served as President of the Union League Club of Chicago and currently serves on the Public Affairs Committee, the Art Committee and the Personnel & Administration Committee.

Brooke is an active member of the Economic Club of Chicago, The Chicago Network and the International Women’s Forum. She currently sits on the Board of Directors for the DuPage Symphony Orchestra. Previously, Brooke was the National President of the Association of Girl Scout Executive Staff from 1996-2002 and served on the Chicago State University Foundation Board from 2014-2015.

Brooke is a graduate of Leadership Greater Chicago and Leadership America. She is the recipient of the Albert Nelson Marquis Who’s Who Lifetime Achievement Award and the International Women’s Forum - International Women who Make a Difference Award. She has also received the National Jefferson Award. Brooke received a Human Relations Award from the Chicago Commission of Human Relations.

Family Philanthropist Award:
The Landgraf Family Foundation

The Landgraf Family, created the Landgraf Foundation, which was founded in 2016 to provide charitable giving. The Landgraf Family was created 50 years ago this summer, when Anne Marie Siepka and John Landgraf met at Northern Illinois University and married in Chicago. They have three children, Jennifer, Michael, and Douglas, and have been blessed with ten grandchildren. They have resided in Lake County Illinois for the past 47 years. John and Anne have served on several not-for-profit boards and community organizations and have been involved in fundraising for numerous charities. They have instilled in their family the importance of service and giving back to their community and founded the Landgraf Family Foundation in 2016 to further the participation of their children and grandchildren in charitable giving. The Foundation is solely funded by contributions from John and Anne.

Anne’s background is in middle school education. She has served in leadership positions in all the parent/ teacher organizations at her children’s schools, culminating in being elected to the Community High School District 128 Board of Education, overseeing Libertyville and Vernon Hills High Schools. She served for 10 years, four of them as President of the Board. Anne was her daughter, Jennifer’s, Girl Scout leader for 12 years, and was a part of the Moraine Girl Scout Council leader group, organizing activities and planning programs for the girls across the council. Anne assisted Jennifer as she achieved both her Silver and Gold Girl Scout awards. Anne was also a Cub Scout den mother for both of her sons.

John has a BS in Biology, MS in Microbiology, and an MBA. He was previously employed by Abbott for over 37 years, retiring in 2015. He held positions in all 4 of Abbott’s core businesses: Diagnostics, Pharmaceuticals, Nutritionals, and Medical Devices. John ended his career as Executive Vice President of Abbott Nutrition, Abbott’s largest division at the time overseeing sales of over $6 billion. John has been deeply immersed in Boy Scouts for over 25 years, starting out as an assistant leader for his sons, who both earned the rank of Eagle, moving on to be Chair of properties for the Northeast Illinois Council of Boy Scouts and then became President of the Council. John has served on the Northern Illinois University Foundation Board, Malisita board, and is involved at his parish, St. Joseph’s in Libertyville. He has helped in fundraising efforts for all these organizations. John currently serves on the Boards of five companies (TerSera, Corza, Curia, SCA and AIS).

The founding principles of the Landgraf Family Foundation are to support youth, education, health, and medical research. Annually the Foundation funds grants to organizations fulfilling those ideas. Their daughter, Jennifer Maresso, and sons, Michael, and Douglas, serve as Trustees of the Foundation, along with their families, personify the commitment to give back through community involvement and philanthropic work. The goal is to have their grandchildren continue their work into the future, impacting the lives of children to come.

The Landgrafs are a four-generation Girl Scouting family, and all seven of their granddaughters are Girl Scouts in the Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana council. In 2021, the Landgraf Family Foundation established a campership fund that offers full and partial scholarships to families in our community so camp is more accessible to all girls. They also sponsored the creation of our new 1912 Society, which recognizes individual donors who have given at least $50,000 personally over their lifetimes to GCNWI and legacy councils.

Girl Scout’s Own Award:
Dr. Karen Eng
President and CEO of CSMI

Dr. Karen Eng, President and CEO of CSMI, a privately held engineering firm specializing in the FDA & USDA regulated industries. Karen has over 27 years of experience in the professional services/engineering industry and providing outstanding technical, financial, and operational service to align teams to successfully strategize and execute manufacturing solutions. As a CEO, she has a proven track record of developing successful global growth strategies that enable organizations to scale, innovate and expand market share.

Karen’s career demonstrates her flexibility to work with small growing organizations to medium privately-owned companies to Fortune 100 corporations. Her close work with the Food Drug Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, Minority Business Development Agency, the International Trade Administration, and the Export-Import Bank of the United States has led CSMI to be one of the top engineering consulting service firms in both domestic and foreign markets.

Karen is a member of several prominent Boards, including National Asian/Pacific Islander American Chamber of Commerce & Entrepreneurship (ACE) for which she serves as the current Foundation Board Chair. She is also the Board Chair for APAlVote based out of Washington DC. She previously chaired the Board of trustees for Illinois College of Optometry and is a Trustee for the New England College of Optometry. She has an advisory role for Chinese Mutual Aid Association and is a member of the Committee of 100.

She received her Bachelor of Science degree in both Biochemistry & Biology from the University of California, San Diego and her Doctorate of Optometry from the New England College of Optometry.