Lawrence woman named Miss Wisconsin-USA

TOWN OF LAWRENCE – After settling for second runner-up at last year’s 2024 Miss Wisconsin-USA competition, Aneisha Alise Cox of the town of Lawrence decided to make a last-minute attempt at the state title this year.

Cox was selected as second runner-up last year when she competed with 30 other statewide pageant entrants at the state contest held in June 2024 in Verona.

However, this year, with only three other women vying for the state crown, Cox had a far better chance at victory and was named as Miss Wisconsin-USA 2025 at the Franklin Center in Des Moines, Iowa.

This year marked the first time in state pageant history that the Miss Wisconsin-USA event was staged in another state.

When Miss Wisconsin-USA and Miss Wisconsin Teen-USA co-directors Craig Heitkamp and his wife Denise Wallace (Miss Teen of America 1983) — who ran the two state pageants since 2008 — decided to end their association with the Miss Universe and Miss USA corporations in mid-May, an opening appeared for a new state director.

Kelly McCoy, a Georgia native now of West Des Moines, Iowa, began as the state franchise director for not only Wisconsin, but also Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

The mother of two has many years of pageant training for prospective contestants.

With five states — 10 total Miss and Teen pageants — to operate in a short amount of time, McCoy decided to have all five state pageants staged in Des Moines during the same weekend.

After her recent victory, it was learned that Cox is now the first De Pere area woman and the fourth Brown County resident to hold the Miss Wisconsin-USA title.

The previous Miss Wisconsin-USA titleholders from Brown County, all from Green Bay, were Jordan Marie Morkin (2011), Michelle Ann Altman (1998) and Diane Marie Modrow (1973).

Cox is a Radcliff, Kentucky native who was named Miss Hardin County Fair in Sept. 2020 and held the title of Miss Teen Kentucky County Fair in 2017.

She moved to Green Bay in June 2024, and as of last October, lives in the town of Lawrence.

Cox is the girlfriend of Green Bay Packers receiver Jayden Kevon Reed — dating since 2022 — and the daughter of Ronald and Laura Bradford.

She earned a bachelors degree in business management and marketing from the University of Kentucky, along with a health management certificate in 2023.

When she is not preparing for the 2025 Miss USA pageant scheduled for October, she plans to focus on her business, Just 1 Designs, and to continue work in the fashion industry.