Women Making a Difference
Staff reports
Let us here honor some of the other women who have shaped the history and are improving the present state of our community, beginning with the late educator Gladys Forney and downtown promoter Robin Daniel; recently retired educator Jackie Simms and philanthropist Leah Karpen; community leader and healthcare activist Minnie Jones and Urban News publisher Johnnie Grant; waterfront park creator Karen Cragnolin, founder of RiverLink; Latina leader Edna Campos and UNC Asheville vice chancellor Jane Fernandes; educator and biographer Mrs. Helen M. Edington; Buncombe County Manager Wanda Greene and Montreat Mayor Letta Jean Taylor.
Other valued educators include music teacher Jacqueline King and
retired Mars Hill College professor Janet Bowman; in medicine our
community is blessed by the leadership of health educator Jacquelyn
Hallum at MAHEC, Aminah Harden at WNCAP, healthcare provider Clara Jeter
at ABCCM, and Community Health Liaison Sharon West. We celebrate Elaine
Robinson at ABIPA, Janet Moore at Mission Hospitals, and Octavia
Caldwell at WNC Hypertension Center.
Our community is indebted to Shirley Whitesides, Lettie Polite,
Marjorie Locke, and other leaders of Delta House, just as we are to Debi
Miles of the Center for Diversity Education, LaFrieda Morris at the
Asheville Housing Authority and Joyce Harrison, president of Self-Help
Credit Union. Sorors such as Harriet Ray (Zeta Phi Beta), Barbara Jones
(Chi Eta Phi), Florence Green (AKA); and Links Linda McDaniel, Diane
Mance, Sharon Pitts, Willie Vincent, Raynetta Waters, Robbie Williams,
and others have contributed in countless ways to make our community what
it is, as have NAACP Vice President Sophie Dixon and community and
social activists Lillian Butler, Shirley Moog, Priscilla Ndiaye, and
Claudia Tucker.
How many women have we overlooked in this list? More than we have
named, for women have been and will remain in the front lines of the
march toward progress, growth, and improvement in our community and our
world. These women, named and unnamed, like their foremothers and
heroines, are women making a difference.
