INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Historical Society honored five Hoosiers with induction into the Indiana Living Legends at the Scottish Rite Cathedral.
Author and journalist A'Lelia Bundles, businessman Albert Chen, philanthropist Cynthia Simon Skjodt and "health care heroes" Joseph and Sarah Ellen Mamlin were honored at this year's banquet Thursday night.
Bundles, the great-great-granddaughter of Madam C.J. Walker, consulted on a Netflix series last year about the Indianapolis icon. The series "Self Made" was based on Bundles' book, "On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker."
She is also the official historian and spokesperson for Madam C.J. Walker Beauty Culture and worked for 30 years as a television news executive and producer at NBC News and ABC News.
Chen founded the Telamon Corporation, which has its headquarters in Carmel, in 1985. The communications company has more than 2,000 employees at 20 locations worldwide. He also founded the Asian American Alliance (AAAI), which trains Asian Americans for leadership roles, and the America China Society of Indiana (ACSI), that focuses on building trade between Indiana and China.
The Mamlins have spent the past two decades living in Kenya, helping build a health care system to fight against HIV and AIDS. Joseph Mamlin's work with a medical exchange program between Indiana University and a university in Kenya led to the creation of AMPATH, which has cared for more than 200,000 HIV-infected patients in Africa.
The organization has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize on several occasions.
Sarah Mamlin founded the Sally Test Child Life Center in Kenya and started a rape crisis center in the country.
Skjodt was the founding director of the Pacers Foundation in 1981 and has served on dozens of local boards of directors, action committes and advisory councils. She has been awarded the Sagamore of the Wabash, the highest honor bestowed by an Indiana governor, on two occasions.
Click here to read more about the 2021 Living Legends.