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Iowa Women's Hall of Fame: Inductees Announced
8/7/2009

Iowa Women's Hall of Fame Inductees Announced

(DES MOINES) Four remarkable women will be inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, August 29, at the State Historical Building in Des Moines. The event is free and open to the public. It is held in conjunction with Women's Equality Day, August 26, which commemorates the day in 1920 when American women first obtained the right to vote. "I am proud to announce that these four extraordinary women are going to be inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame," said Dr. Jill Olsen, chair of the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women. "They symbolize the diversity of Iowa, demonstrating outstanding achievements in the fields of academia, politics, medicine, and civic involvement. Generations of Iowans can look to these remarkable individuals as role models."

Highlights include:

* Hall of Fame awards to: Linda K. Kerber, Iowa City Mary E. Kramer, Clive Adeline Lavonne McCormick-Ohnemus, D.O., Milo (deceased) Lyn Stinson, Burlington

* First Lady Mari Culver will present the Hall of Fame awards. The Governor's Proclamation honoring Women's Equality Day, August 26 will also be read.

* The Cristine Wilson Medal for Equality and Justice will be awarded to Sister Mary McCauley, BVM, Postville.

* A reception will be held for family and friends of the award recipients in the atrium of the State Historical Building. The Iowa Women's Hall of Fame is sponsored by the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women (ICSW). Awards will be presented to the recipients by First Lady Mari Culver; Dr. Jill Olsen, ICSW chair; and Sue Mullins, chair of the Hall of Fame Selection Committee. The building is accessible to persons with disabilities.

2009 Hall of Fame Inductees

Linda K. Kerber Preeminent among historians of her generation, Dr. Linda K. Kerber has devoted her life and career to the empowerment of women through a better understanding of women's history. The first professor of women's history at the University of Iowa in 1971, she became a catalyst for transforming the way scholars and students look at the contributions of women to society. As a humanist scholar, Kerber is an authority on American history and women's studies, achieving international distinction for her contributions to our understanding of gender, citizenship, and the legal and political status of women. Her creative intellect, influential leadership, and invigorating teaching place her at the top of her field. She has received many awards and honors, including becoming a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the American Philosophical Society, the oldest learned society in the United States. She is one of the few scholars to have held the top leadership positions in the three major professional organizations in her field - the American Historical Association, the American Studies Association, and the Organization of American Historians. In addition to her scholarly work, she is a civil rights activist, political advocate, and mentor to countless women. Kerber lives in Iowa City and was born in 1940 in New York.

Mary E. Kramer Mary E. Kramer is a remarkable Iowa leader and citizen. Leadership and support for women have been the hallmarks of her long and diverse career. She has experience as a musician, teacher, wife, mother, volunteer activist, business executive, political leader, and ambassador. Kramer served as an Iowa State Senator for 13 years. During the last seven of those years, she served as presiding officer of the Senate, President of the Iowa Senate. Kramer was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as Chair of the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars in 2002. In 2003, the President nominated Kramer to serve as the United States Ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, where she served until her retirement in 2006. Previous to that, Kramer spent 18 years at Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, joining the company as its the first woman officer, first as Vice President of Human Resources, then as Vice President of Community Relations. A former teacher and school administrator in Iowa, Kramer also served as the Personnel Director for Younkers, Inc. Kramer's leadership, mentoring and negotiation skills have been widely recognized. She is a lifetime member of the Iowa Society for Human Resource Management and was presented the National Society's highest award in 1996. Throughout the years, through her political, business and volunteer activities, Kramer has been passionate and tireless in supporting women and children, particularly as mentor and coach as well as in providing leadership and support for women in the workplace.

Adeline Lavonne McCormick-Ohnemus, D.O. Dr. Adeline Lavonne McCormick-Ohnemus, an advocate for healthy lifestyle choices and preventative medicine, was a role model and motivator for the rural women she cared for over the 45 years she lived and practiced medicine in Milo. McCormick-Ohnemus put herself through junior college and became a teacher. She then decided to go to Drake University in pre-med and was the only woman in her class at Still College of Osteopathy (now Des Moines University) in the 1940s. Through much of her career, her medical practice was adjacent to her home, and on an average day she would care for 40 patients in the office. McCormick-Ohnemus established herself as a dominant force in the Osteopathic profession, supporting her school and hospital, keeping long office hours, driving to nursing homes in Indianola, making house calls and caring for patients in the hospital that was 40 miles away in Des Moines. She did it all with the grace that is befitting the profession as the care and management of her patients always came first. She never turned away a patient that was unable to pay. McCormick-Ohnemus generously shared both her professional life and well as her personal life with her community, serving as Warren County Medical Examiner, on the Warren County Board of Health, and as a trustee of the Iowa Osteopathic Medical Association. After years of exemplary and loyal service to the community of Milo, its community center has been dedicated to her memory. She was born on November 21, 1921 in Lucas County, Iowa and died February 22, 1996.

Lyn Stinson Lyn Stinson has made her adoptive home of Burlington a better place. People in Burlington know that if there is a project that needs done, a problem that needs solved, a person who is in need, or an opportunity to be utilized, Stinson will be there to do it. There are few people in Burlington who have such a profound impact on the community; low-income people, African-Americans, job-seekers, women, children, and future generations all feel the impact of her innovation, tireless spirit, and leadership. During her tenure at Community Action of Southeast Iowa, she developed a Community Food Program, which helped families learn to plant gardens to supplement their food budget, and set up a summer meal program for low-income children. She also founded the Women in Waiting program, a support group for women whose loved one is confined to Fort Madison prison. Stinson has been a leader and member of several state and community boards, including Civil Service Commission, Iowa Workforce Development Commission, NAACP and the African American Historical Museum and Cultural Center of Iowa. Stinson was the only volunteer connecting with Job Corps graduates upon their return to the community. For this, she was named Volunteer of the Year in 2000 by the JACS Region VII, prompting Burlington's mayor to declare June 14, 2000 as "Lyn Stinson Day." Stinson was born in Opelika, Alabama.

2009 Cristine Wilson Medal for Equality and Justice Recipient The Cristine Wilson Medal for Equality and Justice will be awarded to Sister Mary McCauley, BVM. This medal, named for the first chair of the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women, is awarded to an individual who has made significant contributions to the principles of equality and justice.

Sister Mary McCauley, BVM Sister Mary McCauley, BVM, a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin is a Sister of Charity, BVM. During her initial years of ministry she taught at Our Lady of Loretto School in Hempstead, New York and served as principal of St. Thomas in West Hempstead. After nineteen years in education she returned to the Midwest to administer her community's nursing home in Dubuque, Iowa and later continued ministry within her religious community as a regional representative and Vice President. Her final years of active ministry were in Northeast Iowa where she was the pastoral administrator of three rural parishes: St. Mary's in McGregor, St. Patrick's in Monona and St. Bridget's in Postville. In each of these ministries Sister Mary witnessed to the core values of her Congregation: freedom, education, charity and justice. However, never was she more challenged to fidelity to these values than on May 12, 2008, the day of the now infamous immigration raid in Postville, Iowa, when she found herself offering pastoral presence and support to over 400 devastated and traumatized women, children and men. Since this most memorable and transformative day her focus has been to empower and comfort suffering Hispanic brothers and sisters. Imbued with the mission of her Congregation she has tried to love each one into freedom, helping them to know that they are recognized and honored as persons. Her ongoing commitment to equality and justice impels her to continue her efforts for comprehensive immigration reform to insure that 21st century immigrants have the same opportunities as our immigrant ancestors.

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