‘Stand strong and remember who you are’: Highlights from Ragan’s 2026 Top Women in Marketing Awards

Behind every polished marketing campaign, there’s a marketing leader who is working hard to ensure that it’s succeeding, even in the face of challenges.

At Ragan’s Top Women in Marketing Awards luncheon at The Yale Club in Manhattan, honorees were recognized for the impact of their work and spoke openly about the balancing act that often comes with it.

Rachel Salis-Silverman, chief communications officer at Ragan, opened the ceremony asking honorees to look back at their careers.

“Think about all the things that led you to this point in your career,” she said. “There might have been some big decisions along the way, but more realistically, there were dozens, or likely hundreds, of small, inconsequential decisions that have compounded over time and have led you to this very moment. And it’s because you said yes — yes to innovation, yes to even some uncertainty, and yes even though you knew the stakes were high and the time was short.”

The honorees came from industries including finance, retail, healthcare, technology, fashion and nonprofit.

“Have you ever felt like a duck?” Salis-Silverman asked the audience. “On the outside, you look effortless, gliding across the lake, but in reality, on the inside, you are paddling as fiercely as you can under the surface of the water. That’s the price of admission for what I call a special club — women with careers.”

Hear from the winners

When they came to the stage to accept their awards, the honorees were asked to answer a a question. Asked about her marketing superpower, Leslie Ankney, head of communications at the Sui Foundation, said she excelled at helping make sense of complexities in the crypto space.

“My biggest marketing superpower is translation,” Ankney said. “I have to constantly break down complex topics like Bitcoin and financial infrastructure for an everyday audience and I’m so honored to receive this award for doing just that.”

Emily Murray, assistant director of creative and brand at Norfolk Southern, said her autobiography would be called, “Award Winner at Work, Barely Making it to Pickup,” citing her dual role as a top marketing professional and a working mom.

“A lot of us in this room have managed millions of dollars in campaigns,” Murray said. “We get important strategic briefs together, but when we’re at home, it’s a struggle to help get our kids’ shoes on.”

Jessica Dixon, CEO of Imaginari, shared her favorite piece of advice from her years in the marketing profession.

“The best piece of advice I can give you as a woman and as a creative person is to always let your light shine,” she said. “Stand strong and remember who you are. It all works out in the end, so stand up straight and just be the queen that you are.”

The Top Women in Marketing Hall of Fame

The event also welcomed the Class of 2026 members of Ragan’s Top Women in Marketing Hall of Fame. The honorees were Shelley Diamond, chief marketing officer at UNICEF USA, and Aruna Ravichandran, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of AI, networking and collaboration at Cisco.

“When I think about this recognition, I think about all the people who made it possible,” Ravichandran said. “That includes the mentors who saw potential in me, the teams I’ve worked with who have brought ideas to life and last but not least my family, who have always supported me.”

Diamond said that she realized as her career progressed she could help build iconic brands, but she wanted to do more.

“At UNICEF, we work with the most badass do-gooders in the world,” Diamond said. “We’re turning all of this brainpower and passion into clean water, vaccines, classrooms and a brighter future for children. There is nothing more important than that, and it gets me up every day.”

Sean Devlin is the senior internal communications editor at Ragan. You can connect with him on LinkedIn here.