By Liz Massey, January 2018 Issue

As each year comes to a close, the Echo Magazine team takes pause to reflect on the events that defined the past 12 months and the exceptional individuals who led the way. To these individuals, Echo bestows its Leaders of the Year recognition.

We’re proud to announce Bob and Renee Parsons of The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation as the leaders who have earned this recognition for 2017.

If you know their names, then you know that their support has made possible, and sustained, such community pillars as the Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS and the new one•n•ten Youth Center.

Throughout the past few months Team Echo has had the pleasure of getting to know these philanthropic trailblazers a little better, and we’ve also learned that there are many aspects of the LGBTQ community that fall under their foundation’s three primary areas of concentration – veterans, youth and medical causes.

And, in the pages ahead, we invite you to get to know a little more about the faces behind this foundation and find out how their work in the community has earned them Echo’s highest honor.

But first, let’s take a look back at the past 23 years of honorees who paved the way!