Linda White and Essential Workers named 2021 Albion Fellows Bacon winners

Albion Fellows Bacon Inspirational Leader: Linda Elaine White

Linda E. White is credited with leading Deaconess Hospital System’s unprecedented growth while maintaining a commitment to patient-centered compassionate care. While she is currently the Chief Administrative Officer of the Deaconess Henderson, Ky., Hospital, she has left her footprint on the whole system and most personally with the creation of the high quality end-of-life care facility, the Linda E. White Hospice House, affectionately called by some “The White House.” Her service also extended to the community through volunteer service.

“She does not separate her dedication to her work from her dedication to the people and the community she loves,” said Linda Bennett, President Emeritus of the University of Southern Indiana, in supporting the nomination for White. “Her commitment, courage and vision transformed the Deaconess Health System into one emulated by other systems across the country.”

The Deaconess Marketing Department, in supporting White’s nomination, said she is a “known community servant who has a reputation for ‘getting it done.’”

White’s connection to Deaconess began nearly 45 years ago when she enrolled in the Deaconess School of Nursing. Through the years her job titles included nurse analyst, Director of Medical/Surgical Nursing, Vice President of Nursing, Vice President of Patient Care and Chief Operating Officer. She served as President and CEO of Deaconess Hospital and was later named President and CEO of the Deaconess Health System. After retirement in 2016, she led the Deaconess Foundation before coming out of retirement to take the Henderson hospital leadership.

White initially wanted to follow her father into a career as an engineer. She studied mathematics at Purdue because women were not accepted at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology at the time. She first became a computer programmer and at times was the only woman in the room. “I didn’t make an issue of it,” she said. “I just sat at the table and did our business.” She went on to get degrees at Indiana State University and University of Evansville and was named a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives.

White serves on the board of the Indiana Economic Development Corp. and Old National Bancorp. She has received the Athena Award and was inducted into the EVSC Hall of Fame and Evansville Regional Business Hall of Fame.

(Linda White talks about her career in a video available at http://SteppingUpEvv.com/local-women-speak. The video project is in collaboration with WNIN.)

Albion Fellows Bacon Unsung Hero: Essential Workers

Essential workers have been the front-line defense during this deadly pandemic. These workers, outing themselves at risk, showed up daily at our hospitals, schools, nursing homes and grocery stores. They collected our garbage, provided fire and police protection, prepared and delivered curbside meals, gave vaccines, reported the news and treated the critically ill among other essential services. The dedication they displayed is unmatched.

Five women will serve as representatives for the many thousands of essential workers in our community in a video today. The representatives include Megan Anderson, a COVID nurse from Deaconess, Ashley Libbert, a public health nurse at a vaccine clinic, Andrea Husk, the manager of Bosse High School’s cafeteria, Kathy Market, a cook at St. Vincent’s Early Learning Center, and Janice Cox, a cashier at Schnucks. The video will also acknowledge other essential worker categories.

One of the biggest lessons of the pandemic is how important these essential workers are to our community and our economy.

“The soldier on the front lines is most likely a woman,” according to a New York Times analysis of census data. “Nonwhite women are more likely to be doing essential jobs than anyone else.”

According to the New York Times, “Women make up nearly nine out of 10 nurses and nursing assistants, most respiratory therapists, a majority of pharmacists and an overwhelming majority of pharmacy aides and technicians. More than two-thirds of the workers at grocery store checkouts and fast food counters are women.”                

Evansville emerges post-COVID as a stronger community. The more we recognize the role of our essential workers, the more we can we can rebuild in a way that values and cares for all members of society.  Dedicated care-giving women will lead our efforts.

(A link to the video about essential workers, created by Randy Wheeler and moderated by Ange Humphrey, will be available on http://SteppingUpEvv.com after the luncheon.)

Luncheon speaker Dr. Mae C. Jemison

A larger-than-life force of inspiration, Dr. Mae C. Jemison broke more than the sound barrier in 1992 when she climbed aboard the space shuttle Endeavour and became the first woman of color to travel into space. She was also NASA’s first Science Mission Specialist performing experiments in material science, life science and human adaptation to weightlessness. A trailblazer, Jemison offers bold inspiration and game-changing lessons on leadership, social responsibility, and diversity. Currently at the helm of the 100-year Starship Project, a groundbreaking, Pentagon-funded effort, Jemison is pioneering and transforming breakthrough science and technology to enhance the quality of life on Earth. Featured in a children’s book entitled Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History and included in a groundbreaking Women of NASA Lego set, Jemison is a true icon, heralded for her passion and continued dedication to building a world of opportunity and equality. Jemison is a highly sought after speaker on issues of health care, social responsibility, technology, education, STEM, and motivation.

About Women’s Equality Day:

The women’s suffrage movement was a decades-long fight to win the right to vote for women in the United States. It took activists and reformers nearly 100 years to win that right, and the campaign was not easy. On August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was finally ratified. Women’s Equality Day is celebrated each year in the United States on August 26th to commemorate the 1920 adoption of the 19th Amendment. Evansville’s Women’s Equality Day event began in 2004, and over the years has featured prominent speakers discussing the engagement of women in the political process, women in government, gender stereotypes, and more. 

About Stepping Up

Stepping Up, a non-partisan organization, celebrates women in the Tri-State of every race, class and ethnic background who have made historic contributions to the growth and strength of our community in countless recorded and unrecorded ways.

Women worked not only to secure their own rights of suffrage and equal opportunity, but also in the abolitionist movement, the emancipation movement, the industrial labor movement, the civil rights movement, and others, especially the peace movement, which worked to create a more fair and just society for all.

Despite these contributions, the role of local women in history has been consistently overlooked and undervalued. Women Stepping Up is resolved to join nationwide efforts to celebrate women and write women back into history.

Stepping Up exists to encourage, support and offer training for women interested in running for office and serving on boards. The goal is to increase participation by women in the public arena.

It offers an annual Women’s Equality Celebration luncheon, records videos to let women tell their own stories and offers presentations of “Her Story” to tell about the historical Evansville women who fought for rights and their community.

Stepping Up and Women’s Equality Day work with YWCA Evansville to present the Women’s Equality Centennial Celebration luncheon.

See more about the organizations at http://SteppingUpEvv.com; https://www.facebook.com/steppinguptoequality

And https://www.facebook.com/WomensEqualityEvansville

And on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SteppingUpEv