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They lead hospitals and build companies from the ground up. They fight cancer, welcome visitors to the Capital Region and reshape how students learn. They run operating rooms, consulting practices and construction sites. And in every corner of the Baton Rouge business community, they are leaving things better than they found them.
Each year, Business Report recognizes women whose leadership has made a measurable difference—not just within their organizations, but across the region. This year’s nine honorees represent the full breadth of what that looks like in practice.
Terri Hicks leads The Spine Hospital of Louisiana with the perspective of both an administrator and a mother who knows firsthand what neurological care means to a family. Lesley Tilley helps guide one of the state’s most respected health systems as executive vice president and COO of Woman’s Hospital. Danielle Mack drives the philanthropic mission of Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center, one of the nation’s leading cancer care institutions.
Jill Kidder has spent years making sure the rest of the world knows what Baton Rouge has to offer. Rebecca Evans Mouk has built not one but two successful companies in industries where women remain underrepresented. Adonica Pelichet Duggan is working to change outcomes for students across the parish. Meredith Eicher has built a consulting practice on the strength of her expertise and relationships. Dr. Gunjan Raina has reimagined what a doctor-patient relationship can look like. And Melissa Thompson has spent her career helping leaders find their voices—and given Baton Rouge a bigger stage on which to use them.
These nine women didn’t wait for the right moment—they made one.
