Trailblazing Journalist Honored With Indy PR Legend Award

Chelsea Stuart

Donna Mikels Shea, a woman known for blazing trails in Indiana journalism was honored by the Indianapolis Public Relations Society as the 2014 "Indy PR Legend Award" recipient on Wednesday, Dec. 17, at Christ Church Cathedral on Monument Circle.

Ambitious in her career before even graduating high school, Shea got her start in journalism writing for her hometown paper, the Marion Leader-Tribune. The "girl reporter" began stringing for United Press (not yet United Press International) until joining the Indianapolis Times in 1943. There she interviewed heavyweights such as Eleanor Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower, though Eisenhower may not have seen her coming when she masqueraded into his presidential candidate hotel room dressed as a maid.

Shea created the CASPER Awards, a program honoring journalists with work that results in community improvements. No stranger to creating stories with impact, Shea wrote a series of articles on the challenges those with mental disabilities face which led to the creation of the Noble Centers in Indianapolis.

Shea left the newsroom in the 1950s to focus on raising her two children, Kevin and Kelly, with her husband, Cortland Shea. Journalism remained an integrated piece of Shea as she created a news media handbook attaining 3,000 subscribers, and continued lobbying media outlets to focus on health care and racial segregation. 

In recognition of her work through the years, Shea was inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame in 2007, and United Way of Central Indiana has created a Donna Mikels Shea Award in her honor.