Miranda Baerg, Walla Walla

Educational Background: Bachelor of Science in Health and Health Promotion.

Passion in life: Health education, dating violence prevention, HIV/AIDS education, risk reduction and relationship communication skills.

Ways in which she would like to see women and girls better served in the Walla Walla Valley: Give women and girls the opportunities to think about what they want from life and what their ideal relationships would be. One dream would be for women of all ages to be able to come together and share their stories and the wisdom that they have gained and to be able to support each other through life’s challenges and successes.    Strong support networks available to women since many live quite isolated lives.

Melinda Brennan, Walla Walla
Family: Husband: Jack.  Five adult children and 6 grandchildren.

Service & Volunteer Work: Past president and board member of Blue Mountain Association for the Education of Young Children.  Served at the state level on the advisory panel for the development of Early Learning & Development Benchmarks, TEACH Advisory Committee Chair, President and executive board member for the Organization of Parent Education Programs, Washington Early Learning Foundation Advisory Board, member of the Childcare Resource & Referral Council.

Passion in life: Her life exemplifies commitment to the positive development of children, the support of families an the professional growth of women in our community.

Ways in which she would like to see women and girls better served in the Walla Walla Valley: Continue to advance the cause of young children and their families in our community.

Jane Drabek, Walla Walla
Family: Husband, Charles.  Two adult sons; 4 granddaughters and one grandson.

Educational Background: All of family are or have been educators. She earned BA from the University of New Mexico with a major in elementary education. She earned a  M. Ed. from University of Arizona with specialization in diagnosis and remediation of reading disabilities.

Service & Volunteer Work: Helped found Blue Mountain Heart to Heart.  Serviced as Vice President, then President of the board of BMH2H from 2007-2009.  Active member of First Congregational Church; serves on the board of the local PFLAG (Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays) chapter; Volunteers for Planned Parenthood of Central Washington.  In 2008, she attended the organizations annual Lobby Day and spoke to her representatives about the importance of funding for family planning services for those that lack insurance.

Passion in life: I am passionate about health, safety and education of girls and women.  I am passionate about creating a community where my four granddaughters can be validated and achieve their goals.    In working with girls and women of all ages in my career in education, I learned their intellectual development depends on physical and psychological security and self-confidence as students.  I am compelled to support organizations and to find volunteer opportunities that promote the well being of women and girls.

I dream of legions of people asking “How Can this be?”  Then I imagine them flying into action by joining those who ask difficult questions and research answers like the Grandmother’s Roundtable and Commitment to Community for finding organizations like Soroptimists or AAUW which raise money to educate women or by volunteering at Planned Parenthood of Blue Mountain Hear to Heart to help keep women healthy.

Ways in which she would like to see women and girls better served in the Walla Walla Valley: I want people to value girls and women not only for their compassion and physical attributes but for their intellectual achievements and leadership ability.  I want them to have safe places to live, enough to eat and adequate health and dental care so they are free to learn, to work and to dream.

Holly Howard, Walla Walla
Family: Husband, Frank K. Skorina, a physics professor at WWCC, married 24 years. Four children – Matthew 16, junior at Wa-Hi; Russell, 12, 7th grader at Pioneer; Laurel 6, 1st grader at Green Park.

Service & Volunteer Work: Has served on the boards of Explorers, Audubon, Campfire, Walla Walla Swim Club, AFS International Student Exchange.  She has organized the Balloons Day Fun Run 5km for the past 7 years.  She has organized the Walla Walla Valley Mathematics Contest for several years.  She was very involved in fundraising and community support for the Children’s Department Library Addition.  She served as the Executive Director for the Community Center for Youth.  Holly is also an Exchange Club member and USA Swimming Official.  Her latest project is the Lincoln Health Center where she has made health services available to students at Lincoln Alternative high school accessible and affordable.

Passion in life: Her passion for this work has arisen out of the fact that adolescent health care and better health care education is vital from both a primary and mental health care standpoint.  These are formative years and right now we are letting our future community slip away.  We as today’s leaders need to do more and do it efficiently by drawing together resources and not splintering apart over issues that are not the focal point..

Ways in which she would like to see women and girls better served in the Walla Walla Valley:
Give people the ability to make choices for themselves, whether that be in sports, or work, relationships or health care options.  All people too, have responsibility for their actions.

Betty Lodmell, Walla Walla
Family: Three children, Jeff, Scott and a daughter, Brenda Shields

Educational Background: She received her teaching credential from Western Oregon.  She was able to attend college with a 4 year scholarship from the PTA.  She taught in public school kindergarten, preschool and first grade. She is in her 52nd year of teaching.  She is the owner, director of Betty’s Preschool since 1962.

Service & Volunteer Work: Belong to Junior Club;   Chairman of book writing project “Mother, May I”  which has 6 successful printings and is in the Library of Congress.  Cub Scouts and Campfire organizations were a big part of her volunteer time .  She was also director of Bible School in her church.

Passion in life: My goal for my work with children is to help them grown in independence, to have as many successes as possible and to gain self esteem and confidence.  Being a self assured can be the key to many good things in life including, good choices for oneself.

Ways in which she would like to see women and girls better served in the Walla Walla Valley: Her hope for our community is for young mothers of all walks of life to have opportunities to gain knowledge about their roles in their children’s early childhood enrichment and that they would understand the importance of these very formative years of learning.  For children, my hope is that they would have the opportunity to receive quality early childhood education because it can and does make a big difference in the course of a child’s life.

Carol Peterson, Walla Walla
Family: Husband, Jim.

Service & Volunteer Work: Carol is involved in many different activities and organizations in the Walla Walla Valley representing the interests of women everywhere.  She served on the Camp Fire USA Board of Directors from 2003-2005 encouraging fundraising as critical to the programs of Camp Fire. She chaired the annual CFUSA Greenery sale.  Volunteering at camp for three years with her husband Jim; Driving the CFUSA “float’ in the Christmas and fair parades.  She served as Council’s 2nd vice president for two years.

She was musical director for the 1990 WWCC Foundation summer musical Oklahoma.

She served on the YWCA board and is intensely committed to women’s empowerment and is seriously devoted to the YWCA’s mission of eliminating racism.  She chaired the YWCA’s Racial Justice Committee.
She coached girls little league softball and senior league softball for many years.  She started the girls’ softball team at DeSales High School.  She served as volunteer coach with Robin Greene at WWCC women’s softball team.   She volunteered with Jerry Humphreys coaching Wa-Hi girls’ softball for 9 years.

She volunteers with the American Cancer Society’s Reach to Recovery program.

She is a member of the Walla Walla County Rural Library District Board of Trustees and is currently serving a 5 year term appointed by the county commissioners.

She is a member of the Walla Walla Valley Band and her role as a great humanitarian has made a great impact in this organization.

Passion in life: I really believe in the statement “She believed she could so she did”.

Ways in which she would like to see women and girls better served in the Walla Walla Valley:The most important thing we can do for women and girls in our community is to create opportunities so they understand they can make anything they dream come into reality.

Anne-Marie Zell-Schwerin, Waitsburg

Educational Background: An accountant by training. She is the Executive Director of the YWCA for many years.

Service & Volunteer Work: Member of Rotary since 2000; Board chair of Housing Authority; Board member of the Blue Mountain Community Foundation.  Safe housing has been made available, essential clothing and personal items have been collected and legal and social services support have been donated.  Advocacy of Hispanic and Latina girls has been strengthened through the Mariposa program.

Passion in life: Women are incredibly strong, and we don’t always know it.  We have considerable influence in our homes, and we don’t always believe it.  We influence most of the major household purchasing decisions, and we don’t always realize we do.  I want to be part of creating conditions where women and girls realize their strengths individually and collectively. Seeing the face of a woman when she realizes that rape is NOT her fault or listening to the presentation by the girl who discovers she CAN make a public presentation reminds me that the potential for empowerment is present in each one of us.  We need to nurture it in ourselves and also in others.  An empowered woman makes an empowered household.  Empowered households change society.

I am inspired by the potential of women and girls as change agents in our world.  Women who came before us made things happen and instead of stopping after meeting their individual needs, they made policy to make life better for all.

Ways in which she would like to see women and girls better served in the Walla Walla Valley: I dream of a day when asked to envision leaders, the women and girls of this community would all envision women as leaders.

Grandmothers Roundtable

This is a nonpartisan group of mature women from the Walla Walla Valley.  These women believe we have a special responsibility to model the ethic of participation to make our democracy work.  They seek out and create opportunities to listen, question and learn so we and our neighbors can better participate in more balanced public decision making.

They sponsor nonpartisan open dialogue, educational forums and other activities around issues of interest in the Walla Walla Valley.