Morgan Elise Johnson, co-founder and publisher of The TRiiBE, will be honored next month by the Chicago Defender during Women’s History Month.
Johnson is one of 50 Black women who will be inducted into the publication’s 2025 Women of Excellence class on March 21. With the honor, the Chicago Defender recognizes “Black women entrepreneurs, corporate executives, community leaders, educators, and media members who are at the forefront of their respective fields and blaze trails for the younger generations,” the storied publication wrote in its press release.
“It’s an honor to be named amongst this dynamic cohort of Black women. The Chicago Defender’s impact has helped shape my work as co-founder of The TRiiBE, so it’s even more special to be recognized by my people,” Johnson said about being named as an honoree. “We wouldn’t be here if not for their example.”
Johnson joins 800 women who have received the honor in what the Defender describes as a “prestigious sisterhood of achievers” and “the only one of its size and scope in the Chicagoland area.”
At this year’s ceremony, Valerie Jarrett, chief executive officer of the Obama Foundation and the country’s longest-serving advisor to a U.S. president, will receive the Women of Excellence Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Chicago Defender is a digital media publication that focuses on editorials and events happening in Black Chicago. The publication founded the Women of Excellence Awards in 2007 to give Black women their flowers for making waves in their disciplines and to share “their stories of overcoming and accomplishment with others.”
