Leadership Pasadena Names Impact Award Honorees for Fire Recovery and Community Service

Leadership Pasadena has named five honorees for its 2026 Impact Awards, recognizing work in Pasadena and Altadena involving wildfire recovery, disability access, employment and homelessness outreach.

The selections were announced Tuesday, Oct. 13, ahead of a Friday, Nov. 6, luncheon at The Shakespeare Club in Pasadena. U.S. Rep. Judy Chu is scheduled to speak at the event, Leadership Pasadena said in a news release.

Joy Chen, executive director of the Every Fire Survivor’s Network, will receive the Claire and Bill Bogaard Community Leadership Award, the organization’s highest honor. The award bears the names of former Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard and his wife, Claire.

Chen’s network began with a group of Altadena neighbors coordinating during the Eaton Fire and expanded to serve survivors of both the Eaton and Palisades fires. The organization says it connects more than 10,000 survivors and allies, with work focused on rebuilding resources, insurance claims and recovery policy.

“We did not originally start out as an advocacy group,” Chen told The Planning Report in a September interview. State Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez also recognized Chen as her district’s Woman of the Year in March.

Kaiy Smith-Biesman, associated with the Old Pasadena café Neighbors & Friends and the catering business Stems, will receive an Impact Award. After the Eaton Fire, the café became a distribution site for food and donated supplies. Smith-Biesman described operating it as a relief center in an interview published by Edible San Fernando Valley in January.

“When your neighbors are hurting, you don’t wait for permission. You move,” Smith-Biesman told the publication.

Another honoree, Janie Heinrich, founded Pasadena-based MobilityDog, a nonprofit that trains service dogs and provides education on disability access. She also serves on Pasadena’s Accessibility and Disability Commission. MobilityDog says it was founded in 2018 and has matched more than 40 service dog teams.

The Pasadena Community Job Center will be honored for its employment and worker-support programs. The center, operated by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, became a base for volunteer cleanup and aid following the Eaton Fire. LA Public Press reported that the center helped 174 workers obtain disaster-site worker certification for recovery work.

The fifth honoree is the City of Pasadena’s Pasadena Outreach Response Team, known as PORT. The program brings together public health and fire personnel with Huntington Health and Union Station Homeless Services to connect people experiencing homelessness with housing, medical care and other services.

Firefighter/paramedic Tony Zee helped establish the program, Leadership Pasadena said. “These are our people. It’s our community,” Zee told CBS Los Angeles in a report on PORT.

Leadership Pasadena launched the Impact Awards in 2025, when the inaugural event focused on community responses to the Eaton Fire. The nonprofit also operates a six-month leadership development program that connects professionals with local civic issues and organizations.

NEED TO KNOW

Event: 2026 Leadership Pasadena Impact Awards. When: Friday, Nov. 6. Time: 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Where: The Shakespeare Club, 171 S. Grand Ave., Pasadena. For more, call (626) 905-0116 or visit https://www.leadershippasadena.org/getinvolved.html.