Meet the 2022 Global Impression Award finalists!
Tiffany Hanson
Tiffany serves as the manager of strategic engagement for LUNA Language Services, a translation and interpretation service organization based in Indianapolis. In her position, she assists organizations and businesses to make their information and services more accessible and inclusive.
Beyond her role with LUNA, Tiffany serves as a board member for the Indiana Latino Expo (ILE) and is a mentor for their AXIS Leadership Program for young Latino professionals. She also serves in board and consulting capacities with the Women Equity Brunch event series, Indiana Language Roadmap and Indy Maven. In the past, Tiffany has served in board roles with the Indianapolis Public Schools Foundation, Indy Pride, and the Diversity Roundtable of Central Indiana. Tiffany is a proud graduate of The International Center’s James T. Morris Global Leadership Series.
Olanike Oladunni Olaniyi
Olanike works for the Indianapolis Public Library as a collection development librarian, supporting the diversity, equity, and inclusion goals of the library by selecting diverse resources in 25 world languages. Before her current role, Olanike was the library’s diversity fellow and focused on increasing the diversity of collection items, adding titles by African American, Latino, and LGBTQ+ authors.
Olanike also volunteers as a natural helper with the Immigrant Welcome Center, where she has assisted 138 immigrant and refugee families in Indianapolis since 2019. An immigrant herself, Olanike understands the challenges navigating healthy food options when moving to a new country. To overcome this barrier and support her community, she has hosted nutrition education events designed for immigrants from Africa and South America. Olanike has also received a grant for a local non-profit to provide basic family and childcare items and supported her community school with provision of school supplies.
Yaza Swe
Originally from Burma, Yaza is a community leader inside the Burmese Community and across Indiana through his work at Exodus Refugee & Immigration. In his role, Yaza leads the employment team at the organization, playing a vital role in building financial independence and professional development for Exodus’ clients. Over the past 12 years, he connected thousands of refugee clients from across the globe to resettle their new lives in our city and find meaningful employment and support their families – helping to diversify Indiana’s workforce in the process.
Beyond his role at Exodus, Yaza helps people connect and mobilize into advocacy groups, such as in response to the military coup in Burma in February 2021 and with the evacuation of thousands of people from Afghanistan in the fall of 2021. His personal experience living in Burma in the 1990’s under a military junta helps him to understand the needs of other global citizens fleeing their own countries for similar reasons. Yaza has spoken at countless events educating the workforce and the general community about inclusion and culture concerning immigrants and refugees.
