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Remarkable Woman – Dame Ruth Nita Barrow

A Pioneer in Healthcare and Diplomacy

Dame Ruth Nita Barrowwas appointed the first woman Governor General of Barbados on June 6, 1990, and served as Head of State until her passing on December 19,  1995.  Born  on November 15, 1916,

Nita Barrow came from a family of notable political activists. Her father, an Anglican priest, was removed from his post on the island of St. Croix due to his controversial sermons against racism and social stratification. Her uncle, Dr. Charles Duncan O'Neal, founded the Democratic League of Barbados and was one of the island’s ten National Heroes. Nita's younger brother, Errol Barrow, fought for the nation's independence and became Prime Minister of Barbados.

Nita Barrow paralleled her family's achievements with her activism and humanitarian efforts. She studied nursing in Barbados and continued her education at the University of Toronto, Edinburgh, and Columbia Universities. Beginning her career as a nurse, midwife, and healthcare administrator, she held various positions in Barbados and Jamaica. Barrow soon gained international acclaim as an accomplished public health official and diplomat.

Throughout her illustrious career, Barrow held several prestigious positions:

• Public health advisor to the World Health Organization and the Pan-American Health Organization

• President of the World YWCA (1975-83)

• President of the International Council of Adult Education (1982-90)

• President of the World Council of Churches (1983)

• Ambassador to the United Nations (1986-90)

In 1980, Queen Elizabeth II knighted Nita Barrow as Dame of St. Andrew and Dame Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, thereafter known as Dame Ruth Nita Barrow. Known for her outspoken nature and commitment to development, she was especially concerned with women's rights in healthcare.

In 1985, Dame Nita presided over the International Women’s Conference in Nairobi, Kenya. The following year, she was appointed Barbadian Ambassador to the United Nations, a post she held until 1990. Notably, she was the only woman named to the Eminent Persons Group, which investigated racism in South Africa. In 1988, Dame Nita ran against Argentina’s Foreign Minister Dante Caputo for the position of President of the UN General Assembly. Despite a fierce campaign and a historic secret ballot, she lost the election.

Dame Ruth Nita Barrow passed away from a stroke on December 19, 1995, at the age of 79. She is honored by numerous national and international initiatives and awards, including:

• The University of Toronto’s Dame Nita Barrow Distinguished Visitorship

• The Dame Nita Barrow Award sponsored by the International Council for Adult Education (ICAE)

• Caribbean Women Catalysts for Change lecture series

• The Nita Barrow Unit of the Institute of Gender and Development Studies, University of the West Indies

Dame Ruth Nita Barrow's legacy lives on through her contributions to healthcare, diplomacy, and the empowerment of women.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nita_Barrow

The late Governor General of Barbados, Dame Nita Barrow with Angie Jackson-Wilson, March 25, 1993. Dame Nita was the keynote speaker for the Women’s Coalition of St Croix, USVI. Annual Meeting.

Copy of a newspaper announcement

Angie Jackson-Wilson 

NFBPWC Nominations Chair

2024-2026

Remarkable Woman – Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955)

I am reading the book "The First Ladies" by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. Even though this book is fiction, it is based on the friendship between First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights activist and educator Mary McLeod Bethune.

Mary, born 15th of 17 siblings, picked cotton to help support her family. At 10 years old she was offered a spot in a local missionary school and became the first in her family to learn to read. She developed a passion for education and founded the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Negro Girls in 1904 which merged with the Cookman Institute for Men and became Bethune-Cookman College in  1923.  Discovering  the

need for a hospital for black citizens, she opened McLeod Hospital where nurses received hands-on training in Daytona, Florida. She went on to be elected president of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs in 1924 and founded the National Council of Negro Women in 1935 and remained president until 1949. Mary was also vice president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People from 1940 to 1955.

Mary's friendship with Eleanor began in 1927 when at a leadership meeting of the country's most influential women's organizations, the all-white attendees refused to sit with Mrs. Bethune, the national president of the National Association of Colored Women. An alliance forged between the two women

over the importance of education and civil and human rights. This mutual admiration and personal friendship afforded her an audience with the president resulting in a major role in organizing the Federal Council on Negro Affairs. She became a cherished advisor and the only black woman in the president's inner circle.

Mary McLeod Bethune resonates with me because

of her bravery and unbridled passion to make a difference at a time when it was the most dangerous. I also think that there is a lesson in her life as she was not shy to forge alliances with white people willing to help her in her mission. Progress involves all people working together.

Deborah Fischer

NFBPWC Legacy Fund Chair

2024-2026

Remarkable Woman – Janet YellenPresident 

The person I picked to write about is Janet Yellen. Do you know who she is? If not, I will bet you have her autograph in your wallet.

Dr. Yellen served as Secretary of the Treasury under President Joe Biden. She served from January 26, 2021,until January 20, 2025. She was the 78^th Secretary of the Treasury and the first and only woman to hold this position.

Dr. Janet Yellen is no stranger to breaking glass ceilings. An economist with a lifelong commitment to making the American economy one that allows all workers to succeed, she was also the first woman to lead the Federal Reserve and the first person in history to be in charge of the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve and the White House Council of Economic Advisors.

Janet Louise Yellen was born on August 13, 1946, in Brooklyn, New York. She was the younger child of her father, Julius Yellen, who was a family doctor, and her mother Anna Ruth, who was an elementary school teacher. Yellen excelled at her local Fort Hamilton High School, where she was the editor of the school paper and valedictorian. Yellen has discussed how growing up in a working-class neighborhood and seeing people who could barely afford to pay her father when they were out of work deeply influenced her, showing the “effect unemployment could have… on human terms.” This is a lesson she has carried with her for her entire career. 

Yellen attended Brown University, deepening her interest in economics and graduating with a B.A. in 1967. She then continued her studies at Yale University, earning her Ph.D. in 1971, the only woman among 24 Ph.D. graduates in Economics. Yellen taught  economics  as  an  Assistant  Professor  at Harvard University for five years, where she was well- regarded but not offered tenure. During her time at Yale and Harvard, Yellen began exploring more deeply how American companies should and could pay workers fairly.

In 1977, Yellen moved to a job at the Federal Reserve—the central bank of the United States—where she worked as a researcher. That was where she met her husband, fellow economist George Akerlof. Yellen and Akerlof, married since 1978, have long collaborated on economic research studies, and consider each other colleagues as well as life partners. Yellen has said Akerlof is “very committed to being a completely full partner in our marriage” who has contributed equally to raising their now adult son.

After spending two years as a lecturer at the London School of Economics, where Akerlof had accepted a job as a professor before their marriage, Yellen and Akerlof relocated to San Francisco in 1980 to join the faculty at University of California at Berkeley. At the Business School, Yellen was a popular teacher, winning awards and praise from students. She taught there until 1994, researching and publishing papers on policies that she believed would make Americans’ lives better: keeping unemployment low, making sure workers are paid based on quality of work no matter their gender or race, and valuing people’s work based on more than just supply and demand. These policy ideas can be seen clearly in one of her early and most cited papers, written with Akerlof, which explained why paying higher wages was often beneficial to employers as well as employees and did not lead to higher unemployment.

In 1994, Yellen was nominated by President Bill Clinton to be a member of the Federal Reserve, serving under Chairman Alan Greenspan. Greenspan was known as a conservative free market purist, and Yellen often had a different viewpoint, which she would lay out with clear-eyed reasoning. In 1996, Yellen convinced Greenspan that zero inflation should not be a goal; instead, based on academic research, she argued that a little inflation was actually healthy and would prevent recessions. The Fed now maintains a 2% inflation target.

In 1997, Yellen left the Fed to head the White House Council of Economic Advisors (CEA), serving as the primary economic advisor to President Clinton. At the CEA, Yellen oversaw a study on the gender pay gap, which concluded that the disparity was not explained by productivity and must be due to discrimination in the workforce.

In 1999, Yellen returned to UC Berkeley, teaching there until 2004, when she was tapped to lead the Federal  Reserve  Bank  of  San Francisco. During her six-year term as its president, Yellen was credited as one of the first economic policymakers to observe rapidly rising housing prices as a possible bubble which might harm the economy. By September 2007, Yellen urged policymakers to act preemptively and in 2008 was the first Fed official to say the economy was in recession. Yellen was part of the team that managed the 2008 recession, maintaining her focus on helping workers.

In 2010, President Barack Obama nominated Yellen to be Vice-Chair of the Federal Reserve, where she advocated that the Fed use “all available tools” to bring down unemployment. This was a somewhat controversial opinion, but Yellen was confident that research proved it was the correct path. In 2013, Yellen was appointed to succeed Benjamin Bernanke as Chair of the Federal Reserve—the first woman to hold this job. She oversaw the task of gradually “unwinding” (slowly ending) the government’s propping up of the economy and remained in the position until early 2018.

Yellen’s time as Fed Chair was very successful if judged by the labor market, her primary focus as an academic and policymaker. During her tenure, the unemployment rate dropped from 6.7% to 4.1%, decreasing every month under her leadership. She was also steadfast in her defense of the Dodd Frank Financial Reform and Consumer Protection Act (2010), which regulated various parts of the financial industry more rigorously than many economists deemed necessary. Yellen believed that oversight had in fact made the banking system stronger.

After leaving the Fed in early 2018, Yellen moved to The Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington DC. President Joe Biden announced his intention to name Yellen as Treasury Secretary in late November 2020, and she was confirmed by the Senate in January 2021.

Sandy Thompson 

NFBPWC Finance Chair

Teressa Gehrke, current Digital Training Chair, will be resigning her position effective Mar 13, 2025, in order to spend more time growing her online safety company, PopCykol. She is hoping a member will step up and take on this role to continue the tradition of quarterly training and helping to keep the membership safe online.

If you’re interested in the Chair position, please reach out to to DigitalTraining@nfbpwc.org

Remarkable Woman – Hedy Lamarr

Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS, revolutionizing secure communication methods.

Remarkable Woman – Kathleen Babineaux Blanco

First Woman Elected Governor in Louisiana

Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, a native of New Iberia, Louisiana, began her illustrious career after earning a bachelor's degree in business education from UL Lafayette (then the University of Southwestern Louisiana) in 1964. Starting as a teacher at Breaux Bridge High School, she quickly broke political barriers by becoming the first woman from Lafayette Parish elected to the state legislature in 1984. In 1986, she further cemented her legacy as the first woman elected to the Louisiana Public Service Commission, eventually chairing the commission in 1993 and 1994.

Blanco's political journey continued as she served two terms as Louisiana's lieutenant governor, beginning in 1996. Re-elected with overwhelming support, she played a pivotal role in overseeing the state's Department of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism, contributing to a $2.5 billion increase in the tourism industry's economic output and the creation of 21,000 new jobs. Her initiatives included launching the Audubon Golf Trail and administering the Louisiana Serve Commission and the Louisiana Retirement Development Commission.

In 2004, Blanco shattered another glass ceiling by becoming Louisiana’s first woman governor. Her administration focused on education reform, chairing the Southern Regional Education Board, and making significant strides in economic development. Under her leadership, nearly $24 billion in new investments poured into the state, creating approximately 35,000 jobs. She expanded access to health insurance for children and overhauled the juvenile justice system, earning national recognition.

Blanco's tenure was defined by her leadership during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the largest natural disaster in American history. Her revamped evacuation plan saved countless lives, moving 1.3 million people to safety. She commanded the largest deployment of National Guardsmen by any governor in U.S. history and secured critical funding from Congress to aid in the state's recovery. Her efforts led to the establishment of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, safeguarding Louisiana’s wetlands against future storms.

After retiring from public office, Blanco dedicated herself to various boards and committees aimed at improving education, healthcare, and alleviating poverty. She spearheaded the creation of the Kathleen Babineaux Blanco Public Policy Center at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, ensuring her legacy of passionate public service would continue.

Governor Blanco passed away on August 18, 2019, following a battle with cancer. Her indomitable spirit and commitment to Louisiana live on through the work of the policy center that bears her name.

Engage with NFBPWC on Social Media

Organization Page:   https://www.facebook.com/NatlFedBPWC/

Group Page: https://www.facebook.com/NatlFedBPWC/

Organization Page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nfbpwc

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2l_ciIxLyvbu1dbBOsV9Tg

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nfbpwc_usa/

By: Angie Jackson-Wilson
NFBPWC Nominations Chair 2024-2026

Are you ready to make a lasting impact and champion the cause of professional women across the nation?

The National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs (NFBPWC) is on the lookout for dedicated leaders to join our Board of Directors. As we pave the way for future generations, we need your expertise, passion, and commitment to drive our mission forward.

A Call to States and Affiliates

We are once again issuing an appeal to states and affiliates to nominate qualified candidates for both elected and appointed positions on the Board of Directors. This is your opportunity to contribute to the governance, strategic direction, and sustainability of NFBPWC, an organization that has been at the forefront of advocating for women's rights and professional growth.

While the roles and responsibilities for each position are outlined in the organization's bylaws, here are some basic insights into the expectations for board members.

As a board member, you will work closely with the President and other members of the Executive Committee and Board of Directors. Your role will involve the oversight of the organization's activities, contributing to policy development and implementation, and supporting our fundraising efforts. You will be a key player in ensuring NFBPWC's continued success and growth.

Key Responsibilities:

• Attend and actively participate in board meetings, committees, and related events.

• Contribute to the development and approval of the organization's strategic plans and policies.

• Monitor the organization's financial performance and ensure fiscal responsibility.

• Support and participate in fundraising activities and campaigns. 

• Provide guidance and support to the President and her team.

• Ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.

• Represent the organization in the community and act as an ambassador for its mission.

• Collaborate with other board members and stakeholders to achieve the organization's goals.

Qualifications:

• Experience serving in a leadership role.

• Strong commitment to the mission and values of NFBPWC.

• Excellent leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills.

• Ability to think strategically and provide sound governance.

• Experienceinfundraisingandfinancial oversight.

• Willingness to commit time and resources to board activities.

Join Us and Make a Difference

Board members are elected for a two-year term, with the possibility of re-election for additional terms. The board meets quarterly, offering ample opportunity for meaningful engagement and contribution. This is more than just a position—it's a chance to be a part of a dynamic team dedicated to making a difference in the lives of professional women nationwide.

If you are passionate about our mission and possess the qualifications to help lead NFBPWC into the future, we encourage you to step forward. Your leadership can shape the future of our organization and the professional lives of countless women across the country.

Contact me at: nominations@nfbpwc.org

Angie Jackson-Wilson

NFBPWC Nominations Chair 2024-2026

By: Sandy Thompson
NFBPWC Finance Chair

The Finance Committee is looking for committee members. If you have an interest in money and helping our organization to raise funds, please contact me at finance@nfbpwc.org.

This year we would like to apply for grants. This is something that is not in my wheelhouse. So, we are looking for members who would be willing to provide advice or to assist in the effort of finding grants and then helping to write them. If you know of someone or you would like to help, please let me know.

Also, remember you can advertise in our eMagazine. If you are a member, you can place a quarter page ad for only $25.00. Even a full-page ad is only $85.00, a much better deal than the average for a magazine.

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

On a more personal note, if you are interested in historical fiction, I would like to recommend a book entitled Becoming Madam Secretary by Stephanie Dray. It is about Frances Perkins who was the first female cabinet member. She served as Secretary of Labor under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It is an

incredible story of the work of one woman who has made an impact on all our lives.

I would also like to share something I saw on Facebook.

Six Little Stories with lots of Meanings

1. Once all the villagers decided to pray for rain. On the day of the prayer, all the people gathered but only one boy came with an umbrella. That is faith.

2. When you throw babies into the air, they laugh because they know you will catch them. Thai is trust.

3. Every night we go to bed without any assurance of being alive in the morning, but still we set alarms to wake up. That is hope.

4. We plan big things for tomorrow in spite of zero knowledge of the future. That is confidence.

5. We see the world suffering, but still, we get married and have children. That is love.

6. On an old man’s shirt was written a sentence “I am not 80 years old; I am sweet 16 with 64 years of experience.” That is attitude.

Have a happy day and live your life like these six stores. Remember – Good friends are the rare jewels of life, difficult to find and impossible to replace!

Sandy Thompson

NFBPWC Finance Chair

By: Teressa Gehrke
NFBPWC Digital Training Special Committee Chair

Upcoming Digital Training

Join Digital Training Sunday, February 9 at 5:00pm MT for a virtual event that will cover new Zoom features and artificial intelligence features. This is also a good time to review some online safety tips, like romance scams before Valentine’s Day. Register online.

Here are some resources to review before our event:

• Zoom Learning Center

• Zoom on YouTube

For additional technology assistance or questions, please email: DigitalTraining@nfbpwc.org.

Teressa Gehrke

NFBPWC Digital Training Special Committee Chair