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Susan Brooks, ’85, has been awarded the Antoinette Dakin Leach Award from the IndyBar’s Women in the Law Division. The honor recognizes the accomplishments of female trailblazers in the Indianapolis legal community who have paved the way for other female attorneys to continue breaking barriers in the profession. She received the award during a virtual event that took place on October 7.

Congresswoman Brooks represented Indiana’s 5th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2013 to 2021. As a Congresswoman, Brooks made history as the first woman in her party to serve the state of Indiana in Congress since 1959 and the first woman from Indiana to chair a House committee. During her time in Congress, she served on the Energy and Commerce Committee, as chair of the House Ethics Committee, as co-chair of the Bipartisan Women's Caucus and as a member of the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress.

Prior to her service in Congress, Brooks was general counsel and senior vice president for workforce and economic development at Ivy Tech Community College. In 2001, she was appointed U. S. attorney for the Southern District of Indiana by President George W. Bush, serving six years at that post. She also has worked in the Government Services Practice Group at Ice Miller and served two years as deputy mayor of Indianapolis under Mayor Stephen Goldsmith. Brooks began her career as a criminal defense lawyer, working for 13 years with the law firm McClure, McClure and Kammen.

Brooks has been appointed as a distinguished scholar and ambassador at large at IU McKinney. Among her various roles, Brooks is co-teaching a course on law and leadership with former dean and Paul E. Beam Professor of Law Andrew R. Klein.