Health and Fitness
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Women's eNews Philadelphia Leadership Awards 2009
the short term and the root causes of violence, such as anger or poor self-control and self-esteem. They"ve lobbied for stricter gun laws in their area "so 15- and 16-year-olds can"t get their hands on guns," Johnson-Speight says. On Saturday mornings they work with kids who have struggled with acting out, teaching them methods for peaceful conflict resolution and anger management. Their biggest, most lasting, partnership is with the Carson Valley School, where students are sent by courts either because they"ve suffered abuse or have other serious issues and problems. The organization runs programs for each age group, focusing on literacy, grief support and more. "All those kinds of programs serve as rites of passage to help them grow up to be productive adults," says Johnson-Speight. "You don"t immediately see the results. But with some of the kids who are in the programs for longer periods of time, sometimes twice a week, you see the benefit of your work." For grieving families, she says, "It helps us tell the story of our children, keep their memory alive and stay connected with them, because through that connection we"re able to help someone else." [----------] Carol Tracy, Putting the Law to Work for Women Carol Tracy became a lawyer for a single purpose: to advocate for women"s rights. As the executive director of the Women"s Law Project of Philadelphia, she has led the group that has been at the forefront of all the major legal battles women have faced in the past few decades. "I went to law school later in life. I was in my mid-30s and went specifically so that I could do women"s rights laws," Tracy says. "Midway through law school I discovered there were only 25 jobs at most doing this kind of work in the United States. I had been a long-time supporter and board member of the Women"s Law Project. So when the position of executive director opened, it was thrilling that I could live up to my life"s goals." Founded in 1974, the law project has an office in Philadelphia, a smaller one in Pittsburgh and a staff of attorneys, social workers, development experts and project staff. The law project"s staff are experts in both national and local issues. For example, they served as counsel in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which challenged a Pennsylvania law that required, among other provisions, that a married woman notify her husband in order to obtain an abortion. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the husband notification provision, but upheld other onerous restrictions. Casey was widely believed to be the case that would overturn Roe v. Wade, but fortunately the core elements of Roe were upheld. The law project also discovered the mismanagement of sex crime cases by the Philadelphia Police Department and challenged the police to properly investigate all cases of rape and sexual assault. This resulted in major changes in police practice. The project"s team went on to work with the police to review case files and ensure that sexual assaults were handled appropriately. Under Tracy"s leadership, the Women"s Law Project has also taken notable Title IX cases, successfully winning settlements for female athletes at many educational institutions, including Tracy"s alma mater, The University of Pennsylvania, in 1994. "When history looks back on this era, I believe that the two most significant events that changed the future of women will be the Roe v. Wade decision and the enactment of Title IX with its impact on athletics," she says. "Both of these connect around women"s control of their bodies. There are few things that are more inspiring to see than young women athletes. The downside is that the attacks on reproductive freedom are unrelenting and female athletes are still treated like second-class citizens in many places. We still have a lot of work to do." [----------] Constance Williams, Speaker for Women"s Rights Connie Williams may no longer hold elective office, but she still possesses a bully pulpit to advocate for women"s rights. Involved in politics since she was a girl, she served 12 years in the state legislature, becoming a statewide hero for many, but particularly women and girls. "I"m from a political family," she says. "So running for political office was something that was considered an important value." In her official statement released when she announced in 2008 that she would not run for re-election, she said she "has not abandoned her goal of helping women and will continue her work to establish a new policy that would require all hospitals to inform rape victims of all of their options, including access to emergency contraception, and she will continue her fight for prescription equity, so that women with health insurance policies that cover prescription drugs can count on those policies covering the cost of prescription contraceptives." Williams" resume reads like a guide on how to get important work done, including serving on the governor"s Advisory Committee on Minority and Women Business Opportunities and the state"s Public Television Network Commission, as well as being a member of the Forum for Executive Women and a trustee at The Episcopal Academy. Williams was a local powerhouse while her daughter was in school as chair of the local Democratic committee. After her daughter graduated from high school, though, she decided it was time to step it up. This was around the time that Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, a Philadelphia congresswoman Williams had campaigned for, lost her re-election bid. "I decided I would run for office," she says. "And it has been the best 12 years of my professional life." Williams first served five years in the Pennsylvania House, founding and co-chairing the House Children"s Caucus. During her subsequent two terms as a state senator, Williams championed issues such as safe child care, diversifying the business community and equal funding for women"s sports. She was also the only woman in leadership in the Senate Democratic Caucus at the time. One of Williams" proudest accomplishments is a law that protects women publicly breastfeeding their children. "In Pennsylvania, women could be arrested for indecent exposure or obscenity for breastfeeding," she says. "It took years, but I got my bill finally through and we got it in." One issue that Williams is most concerned about is involving more women in electoral politics and encouraging them to run for office. But for that to happen, she says, women need support systems. "We"ve had a lot of young women work for us," she says. "As they move on in their careers, I hope they will run for office." [----------] Wendy Wolf, Leverager of Donor Power Wendy Wolf is now, has been and intends to remain an activist for reproductive rights. "I majored in population studies in college, so reproductive rights has been in my bones for a long time," she says. "Particularly, being in college in the late 1960s transformed me into the activist that I am today." Wolf earned a doctorate in demography and sociology from Johns Hopkins University and enjoyed a long career as a social policy analyst and evaluator. In 1988, she founded the Center for Assessment and Policy Development, which works with national and regional foundations to craft and implement major children"s initiatives to improve outcomes for poor children and families. She also has served as director of research for Public/Private Ventures, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that creates programs to assist low-income communities, and was chairperson of the board of the Healthy Teen Network, based in Baltimore and designed to help young families make informed reproductive health choices. Wolf wanted her expertise to make dramatic social change, though. She joined the Women Donors Network, a group of women of wealth who use their collective power as donors to influence policy. "When I retired, I found a new calling--to work with independent donors. It was more exciting because you can move them quicker, they are more willing to take risks and they are easier to mobilize," she says. As for targeting female donors, it"s a surprisingly open field, says Wolf. "There were not that many organized mechanisms to martial women"s support. We can be a catalyst for change." Today, Wolf is the key point-person on reproductive rights issues for the Women Donors Network. In 2005, the network founded the Reproductive Rights Action circle, a group of over 60 women who have raised $759,000, which in turn has leveraged over $1.75 million in foundation grants to reframe reproductive and other health issues and to help win policy fights. They have had many successes and the work has provided a values-based method to talk about sensitive issues without walking away from the topic of abortion. The network"s approach has also provided a mechanism to recapture the center and build on broad public support for a host of reproductive and other health issues. For example, Wolf and her colleagues were involved in fighting the Colorado "personhood" ballot amendment--which would have given a fertilized egg constitutional rights. They broadened the focus beyond abortion to important life decisions and in the end the ballot amendment lost 3-1. [----------] Lynn Hardy Yeakel, Promoter of Healers Lynn Hardy Yeakel understood at an early age that a double standard existed for women and men. "The defining moment was when I was turned down for a job I was qualified for because they said they weren"t ready for a woman at that level," she says. "This was soon after I graduated from college and I naively believed job opportunities were gender neutral." Today Yeakel serves as director of Drexel University College of Medicine"s Institute for Women"s Health and Leadership. She also holds the Betty A. Cohen Chair in Women"s Health. As Yeakel"s unusual career path evolved, she always kept women"s needs in mind. In 1994, she was appointed mid-Atlantic regional director for the U.S. DepartmentPages: 1 2 [3] 4
Corporate Events commented:
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11.04.2012