La Crosse County Clerk Ginny Dankmeyer and Campbell Supervisor Lee Donahue received the LeaderEthics Award today for their ethical leadership and outstanding public service.
Lee Rasch, founder and executive director of LeaderEthics, praised Dankmeyer and Donahue for setting a high ethical standard during a time of divisiveness in our democracy.
“Ginny and Lee demonstrate the dedication and professionalism that citizens and voters should be able to expect in our elected leaders,” Rasch said.
Dankmeyer, a UW-La Crosse graduate, became La Crosse deputy clerk in 1996 and has been elected county clerk since 2011.
She oversees elections in La Crosse County and has a reputation as a fair, honest and professional administrator of the county’s election process.
She is respected by the municipal clerks she coordinates in La Crosse County as well as election clerks throughout Wisconsin who seek her guidance on election-related challenges.
Dankmeyer was named the Wisconsin Constitutional Officer of the Year by the Wisconsin Constitutional Officers Association in 2024.
Donahue was appointed to the town of Campbell board in 2020, overseeing Health, Education and Welfare.
Six months later, the town learned that the forever chemical PFAS had infiltrated the wells that provided drinking water to 97.2% of the town’s 4,500 residents, who have relied on bottled water for the past five years.
Donahue fought tirelessly to obtain short-term help and state and federal relief. She has testified repeatedly in Madison and traveled to Washington to advocate for Campbell residents.
State funding has finally been authorized to aid PFAS-plagued communities like Campbell. And thanks to nearly $40 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, development of new wells will continue in Campbell through 2027 with the goal of piping water into the first homes within 12-18 months.
Donahue, who also volunteers for United Campus Ministry and area Scouting, received the 2024 Bill Iwen Environmental Justice Award for advancing environmental justice in Wisconsin.
Dankmeyer and Donahue join a distinguished list of local, state and federal legislators – both Republican and Democrat — who have received the LeaderEthics Award since its inception in 2021.
LeaderEthics presents the award each year to elected officials who exemplify its four pillars of being:
· Honest and truthful
· Transparent with public information
· Unifiers instead of dividers
· Committed to representing their entire constituency.
LeaderEthics is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded in 2018 to promote American democracy through ethical leadership practices among elected officials.
The recipeints will be available at the AVS studion in La Crosse at 12:30pm for interviews. For more information, contact Executive Director Lee Rasch, Lee@leaderethics.us or text: 608-792-3137.
LeaderEthics Award recipients:
2026 – Ginny Dankmeyer and Lee Donahue
2025 – Lisa Tollefson and Lisa Freiberg
2024 – Reid Ribble
2023 – Kathy Bernier
2022 – Jill Billings and Brian Rude
2021 – Lee Nerison and Steve Doyle
For additional information, please contact:
Lee Rasch, Executive Director, LeaderEthics
Email: Lee@leaderethics.us; Text: 608-792-3137
