Ben Trockman is a transformative force.
According to his friends and colleagues, he’s motivated and passionate yet affable and genuinely positive.
He uses those assets to his advantage as he works to effect change in Evansville.
“I’m just a driven person in general, and I want to do good in the world,” Trockman says.
For nearly two decades, the 36-year-old has advocated for accessibility and inclusion in public projects and private corporations for people with disabilities. He’s managed winning political campaigns that have made history in his hometown. Now, he serves as president and face of the Evansville City Council, where he works to improve the quality of life citywide.
Before that, a life-altering event reshaped his future.
In March 2006, at 17, he was in a motocross racing accident at a competition in Poole, Kentucky, and suffered a severe spinal cord injury, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down. Trockman now uses a motorized wheelchair — controlled by blowing into a mouthpiece — for mobility.
“After my injury, I realized life is not something that you can count on or expect, and it can change any given time significantly,” he says. “And as I’ve gone through my journey and I have met so many incredible people that have helped me along the way and invested in me along the way, it makes me and drives me to invest back in them and the community.”
When Trockman spoke with Evansville Living for a story in the July/August 2010 issue, he and his family — father Wayne, mother Jill, and brother Josh — still were grappling with his recovery. The then-junior at the University of Southern Indiana kept things lighthearted by joking with his physical therapists at Easterseals Rehabilitation Center and sharing his story whenever someone asked.
Reliving his horrific accident “is OK with me,” Trockman told Evansville Living in 2010, “because I don’t want people staring and wondering, ‘What’s wrong with that kid?’ I want people to know there are people out there who need help, who have injuries. Their lives have changed, but they still are people, too.”
Nearly 15 years later, Trockman has steadily become a vocal advocate for disability rights and inclusion. Now, in politics, he has the power to shape policy firsthand.
Trockman’s political career is a resume of historic breakthroughs and wins.
Evansville voters elected Trockman to City Council in 2019, the first time a Democrat had won a First Ward seat on the city’s East Side in 60 years. After that, Trockman ran fellow Democrat Noah Robinson’s successful campaign for Vanderburgh County sheriff in 2022.
Voters re-elected Trockman to City Council again in 2023. While running his campaign that year, Trockman also served as campaign manager for Stephanie Terry’s bout for Evansville mayor. Terry won the race and became the first woman and first Black person to be elected Evansville’s top official.
As a City Council member in 2021, Trockman pushed for the now-enacted Complete Streets Ordinance, which intends to make roadways more accessible to residents. Improvements include ADA curb ramps, more visible crosswalks, accessible bus stops, and additional pedestrian and bike lanes.
Accessible trails are a big part of his second term.
“It’s something that I just think we’re lacking in our community. We need to be better, just being more connected,” he says.
Trockman was elected City Council president in January. The public-facing part of that role puts him front-and-center during meetings, with his voice guiding the agenda. But the meetings aren’t where the work is done, he says. Behind the scenes, he’s fielding concerns at a micro level — trash in yards, abandoned cars, and connecting people to local resources, among others.
“The idea of being a good city council member is doing the hard work behind the scenes and showing up to the meeting to be able to celebrate the success,” he says. But according to Easterseals CEO and President Kelly Schneider, Trockman’s visibility as City Council President can be more important than anything he says. Trockman became a local Easterseals adult ambassador in 2010. Two years later, he was named the national ambassador and sent around the country speaking about disability and hearing from people with disabilities. After that, he served on the local nonprofit’s board of directors for six years.
Schneider, who’s known Trockman for 15 years, describes him as articulate, driven, positive, and a “force of nature.” But she says it’s his visibility in the community, not just as an outspoken leader but as an accomplished one, that says so much.
“Example is more powerful than any- thing he can say. Seeing people like him leading such powerful lives and having such an impact on this community — it makes people start to see past the disability, which we want them to, and see the person,” she says.
That’s part of Trockman’s political success — people recognize he works hard and is dedicated to the role. Former Indiana Democratic Party Chairman and friend Mike Schmuhl says “the sky’s the limit” for Trockman’s political career and what he can accomplish in those roles.
“I think one of the rare things these days in politics is for people to like you, and I think that people really like Ben,” Schmuhl says. “I think they see he works hard. They see he’s dedicated to the community.”
Before his political career began, Trockman worked at Old National Bank. After graduating from USI, ONB hired him as an outreach and employment specialist to help build programs to bring more people with disabilities into the bank’s workforce. In March 2022, he began working as a project manager at Change for Balance, a national strategic communications and production agency for storytelling and building brand awareness.
If counted as one group, Americans with disabilities would be the largest minority group in the country, according to the Disability Funders Network. Per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, they also have a significantly higher unemployment rate.
Trockman created the Achieve Ability program that paired employees with dis- abilities with a mentor in the bank. Bob Jones, then CEO of Old National Bank, was Trockman’s mentor. The program is designed to be 12 months long, but they met every month until Jones retired in 2019.
During the five years they worked together, Jones saw Trockman’s bold enthusiasm and ambition mature into an effective leader in the community. Then, of course, were the “Ben-isms,” in which Ben would drop his own evolved perspective into the conversation.
During one of their monthly one-on-one meetings, Jones recounts that Trockman said to him, “Ask me anything.”
Jones thought and considered Trockman’s always joyful and upbeat attitude he brings to work and life. He turned to Trockman and asked, “Have you ever had a bad day? I mean, we all have bad days.”
“I had my bad day,” Trockman replied. “Everything’s an upside from here.”
— John Martin and Jodi Keen contributed to this story.
