Michel Coconis is Free Press 2026 "Libby" Award winner
Michel Coconis holding the banner on the right.
Elizabeth "Libby" Gregory, 1970s and 80s Free Press Editor, is the inspiration for our annual award for Lifetime Achievement in Community Activism. Libby was foremost a feminist, but also an entrepreneur owning three businesses on OSU campus -- Tradewinds, King Avenue Coffee House, and Byzantium. As a journalist she primarily covered women's rights including a sexual assault column. Libby was a Columbus community activist who sadly left us in 1991 as a result of a plane crash.
Each year since 1998, the Free Press chooses a local activist to honor with the "Libby" award. This year, it is Michel Coconis.
Our awards event is Saturday, November 14 from 12:30-3:30pm at the Goodale Park Shelterhouse. Free and open to all, we will provide light refreshments.
Michael Coconis served for many years on the Board of the Columbus Institute for Contemporary Journalism, the nonprofit organizaiton that publishes the Columbus Free Press. She is a retired social work educator and consultant on death penalty cases as a mitigation investigator and jury selection expert. She has worked in mental health with Women Against Rape (WAR-part of Women's Action Collective) and much of her work has involved violence against women, from family violence to community violence.
Her first national protest was in Indianapolis for the Equal Rights Amendment. She was active in the National Organization for Women (NOW). She was an equal housing advocate and was involved with independent media at public access TV in Grand Rapids, at our local WGRN low power 91.9FM community radio staion, as well as the Free Press. Michel tells of many arrests over around 30 years, several states, andf or many causes. Later in life, her attention has somewhat turned toward food sovereignty, justice, and other human rights.
Other awardees at this year's Free Press Salon and Awards event will be Steve Molk as a Free Press founder, Mahmoud El Yousseph as the Free Press reporter of the year, and the Outstanding Community Organization will be the Ohio Immigrant Alliance.