MotherWoman 10 Year Anniversary Pillar Award Winners

In celebration of MotherWoman’s 10 year anniversary, we are proud to honor four women who are pillars in our community, and whose life’s work has had an extraordinary impact on improving the lives of families.  It is on their shoulders that MotherWoman stands.  

Anne Marie Meltzer has dedicated her life to living “as a house by the side of the road. Being a place of refuge for those in need.” Asked to leave college when she became pregnant as a young married woman, she shifted focus to raising her three children and fostering teens in the juvenile justice system. In 1973, she courageously opened her home as a safe house for women in crisis, including victims of domestic violence. All while becoming an expert belly dancer. A leader in the Restorative Justice Movement, Ann Marie serves on a Franklin County probation board holding low-level offenders accountable and supporting them in moving ahead. In a culture that minimizes the needs of our elders, Anne Marie runs MotherWoman Groups that provide grandparents with a precious opportunity to find their voices. In January, she will be in our hearts as one of her seven grandchildren is deployed to Afghanistan.  And in May, she will mark her 70th birthday by being bat mitzvah. Ann Marie, for working tirelessly in the background to improve the lives of mothers, families, and children we thank you. It is on your shoulders that MotherWoman stands.    

Dr. Sarah Perez-McAdoo is an OB/GYN at Baystate Medical Center, researcher and political activist dedicated to improving the lives of Latinas, and reducing health disparities for underprivileged women and children.  She was raised by her grandmother in the Dominican Republic because her single mother was working in an American factory, going to night school to learn English, could not afford childcare, and lacked a network of support to help. Dr. Perez- McAdoo graduated with honors from her Bronx high school, and worked her way through college, becoming a physician and receiving a Master of Public Health in Minority Health Policy from Harvard. A mother of four young children, she is founder of the Youth Empowerment Adolescent Health Network- a Hampden County organization that works to improve adolescent health and prevent teen pregnancy. Dr. Perez-McAdoo, for teaching that women and children’s health is a social and economic justice issue as much as it is a clinical issue, we thank you. It is on your shoulders that MotherWoman stands.     

Representative Ellen Story-  A member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives since 1992, Representative Story is an unyielding advocate for families.  She has a 100% voting record rating on issues of poverty and human services, and a 100% rating from the National Organization for Women.  While raising two children, she served as Associate Executive Director of the Family Planning Council of Western, MA for almost 30 years.  A Native Texan, she uses wit and integrity to move legislation forward, all while wearing the hottest cowgirl boots to ever walk the floors of the state house.  Representative Story has introduced ground-breaking legislation in partnership with MotherWoman to promote depression screening for pregnant and postpartum women.  And she is currently working hard on behalf of parents for passage of paid sick leave legislation in the wake of the H1N1 outbreak. Representative Story, for using the political system in ways that improve the lives of mothers, families and children, we thank you. It is on your shoulders that MotherWoman stands.     
Our final pillar award goes to Felice Yeskel. 

Felice Yeskel- A mother and lesbian from a Jewish, working class family, Felice Yeskel has dedicated her life to building peaceful, just community.  She is co-founder of Class Action and United for a Fair Economy, national organizations dedicated to confronting classism and creating an economy that works for everyone.  An unyielding advocate for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender civil rights, Felice served as director of the Stonewall Center for 20 years. She has led hundreds of workshops on economic inequality and healing divisions among Americans across class, race, genders and sexual orientations.  Believing in the necessity and power of community, Felice has built- in her personal and professional life- “interlocking circles of community that have lasted throughout time and space” which- in a culture increasingly characterized by disconnection- has been a powerful gift.  Felice is joined today by her partner of 15 years- Felicia and their daughter Shira. Felice, for all you have done to dismantle the systems of oppression that harm our most marginalized mothers, families and children, we thank you. It is on your shoulders that MotherWoman stands.