The Denver Regional Council of Governments recognized former Lone Tree Mayor Jackie Malay with the John V. Christiansen Memorial Award during the council's 70th-anniversary event. The announcement praised Malay's two decades of regional leadership and public service.

Malay first began serving Lone Tree in 2004 as a planning commissioner, was elected to city council in 2008 and served eight years as mayor pro tem before being elected mayor in 2016. She served as mayor through 2024. The council credited Malay with leadership roles including chair of the Denver Regional Council of Governments, chair of the Metro Mayors Caucus and chair of the Partnership of Douglas County Governments, and with an appointment to the Regional Air Quality Council board.

The council highlighted Malay's civil engineering background and regional projects she supported, citing cross-jurisdiction initiatives such as the Southeast Light Rail Extension and Lone Tree's Link on Demand free shuttle service. DRCOG noted a 2023 Metro Vision award for the Link on Demand program and called out Malay's role in adopting DRCOG's fiscally constrained 2040 Regional Transportation Plan, which the council described as prioritizing strategic multimodal investments for the Denver region.

The announcement also credited Malay with advancing local economic and cultural development in Lone Tree, including the Lone Tree Arts Center and a planned 80-acre High Note Regional Park, and with fostering transit-oriented housing developments intended to expand attainable housing near light rail.

The council closed its remarks by calling Malay's leadership 'exceptional' and congratulating her as the recipient of the John V. Christiansen Memorial Award.