Author: WOAmemphis17

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Leah Walton

WOMEN OF ACHIEVEMENT
2016

HEROISM
for a woman whose heroic spirit was tested and
shown as a model to all in Shelby County and beyond:

Leah Walton

At birth, she was given the name Dylan, a name befitting the handsome little boy she was. Today she is Leah.

Dylan always felt different. As a child she dressed up in her mother’s lipstick and sang along with Britney Spears. As a young teen she came out as gay, but something still felt off. She felt uncomfortable in her own skin. And then one night, she stumbled upon a video of a beautiful transgender woman and it hit her like a bolt of lightning. “I’m a trans woman.”

In 2013, Dylan was a senior at South Panola High School in Mississippi, a school best known for its powerhouse football team, and she looked like your average teen boy— wearing hoodies and baggy pants. But outside of school, Dylan had changed her name to Leah and her pronouns from “he” to “she.” She was ready to be fully “out.” She began to make plans to attend the prom as a girl.

Mississippi is a state with no laws protecting the trans community. In fact, a law was passed in Mississippi shortly after Leah’s graduation called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. It protects religious people from legal repercussions if they verbally condemn the lifestyles of LGBT persons. Additionally, under this law, businesses can refuse services to LGBT persons. Abusers and bigots are protected, but in Mississippi LGBT persons can be evicted or fired just for being LGBT. With knowledge of these laws you might say it is foolish, even illogical to come out as a proud trans woman, but Leah could not bear to live a lie. She could not bear going to school dressed as a boy now that she had discovered her true self.

Over winter break of her senior year Leah wrote to her school and explained that she was transgender. She asked permission to finish out the year as her true identity—dressing as, and being addressed as, a woman. The school wrote back to say they had never heard the term “transgender” and that school policy stated she had to dress in the style befitting her sex.
“I was distraught” Leah said. “I had six months of school left… I just wanted to be the real me.”

Kim Hood, Leah’s mother, found much at fault with the school’s response. She contacted The American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi and insisted they come to her daughter’s defense. The ACLU began to work with Leah’s school to ensure a smooth transition in the early stages of Leah’s gender transformation.

Quickly, local news outlets in Mississippi picked up the story, then it spread into Shelby County, Tennessee. “Male high school student in Batesville, Mississippi, will finish year dressed as a girl,” was the title of a story about Leah in The Commercial Appeal. Then it became international news. British publications The Guardian and The Daily Mail picked it up, among others. Leah did several interviews. A Facebook page called “Mississippians Support Leah” got more than 1,500 “likes” in less than 24 hours after being created. Supporters from all over the world wrote notes of support to the young, brave girl in Mississippi.

Leah was careful to dress nicely for her first day attending school as a woman. She was interviewed by WMC-TV, a local Memphis news program, and discussed planning her outfit. Leah proudly reported, “I wore jeans and a cute top and I wore high heels.”

But there was backlash. Leah was greeted at the school gates by a group of religious protestors — fellow students and parents wearing t-shirts that read, “You’re going to hell” and, “abomination.” They hurled insults at her and refused to use gender pronouns. They called Leah “it.” Leah was frightened and upset. She stayed away from school for several days.

When she returned to school she dealt with a new set of bullies. Girls stared at her as she walked down the hall. Girls laughed at her and took pictures of her with their phones. Classmates whispered and stared. “But the bullies never had the courage to say anything to my face,” Leah said, “and my friends were all there for me.” And then, slowly, other students began to approach Leah. They congratulated her. They told her she was brave to face the protesters as her true self.

Eventually, things got back to normal. No more protests. No more news reports. People got used to the new Leah and she went about living her life. Leah now lives and works in Oxford, Mississippi. After taking some time to care for herself, she now has great hopes of getting back into the advocacy arena and working to help and support others who are experiencing the same abuse and fear that she once faced. Leah will tell you this experience in high school feels like a lifetime ago, but she continues to be a remembered and visible trans figure in the community. She is surely a ray of hope for other trans people in Mississippi.

During the heavy coverage of her transition, a letter to the editor was printed in The Commercial Appeal in Memphis. The author, Anne Brownlee Gullick, chair of the Tennessee Equality Project Shelby County Committee, wrote of her proud support of Leah. She wrote, “Leah’s courage and strength exhibited in her public transitioning while still in high school in Mississippi is something to be honored and nurtured… When this chapter in Mississippi LGBT history is written, Leah’s very real, very human story will be remembered for making it easier for the next generation of LGBT young people to tell theirs.”

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Rebecca Terrell

WOMEN OF ACHIEVEMENT
2017

HEROISM
for a woman whose heroic spirit was tested and
shown as a model to all in Shelby County and beyond:

Rebecca Terrell

As the executive director of CHOICES: Memphis Center for Reproductive Health, Rebecca Terrell daily faces the ever-present danger that accompanies leadership of an agency that, in addition to its other activities, offers abortion counseling and services.

Despite great opposition, she has campaigned to make conversations about women’s health, teen pregnancy, comprehensive and evidenced-based sex education, and the rights of women to safe abortion care a reality in our community. To an already challenging list, she has added providing services to the LGBTQ community including transgender people. Rebecca consistently works here and nationally to make her vision of open discussion and effective delivery of reproductive healthcare a reality

With a Masters in Public Administration and after years as a dancer, Rebecca spent 15 years as executive director of the Florida Dance Association. Her husband’s work brought them to Memphis in 1998. Here she spent the first five years at home with their twins. When she was ready to reenter the workforce, she talked her way into a part-time job at the Center for Research on Women at the University of Memphis. She was there 6 years then started looking for fulltime work. A friend mentioned that the position of executive director for what was then Memphis Center for Reproductive Health was open. Her first thoughts: “No way! Too intense! Who’d want to do that?” But she kept thinking about the job. Finally she called the director at that time and was told that what MCRH did was abortions. Out of an old house in Midtown.

Rebecca had a vision about sustaining and widening this long-standing feminist women’s center and almost before she knew it, she’d applied and been hired. The job came with both local and national opponents but Rebecca was up to the challenge.

Rebecca’s long-range vision was to transform MCRH into a healthcare facility providing a broad range of services from fertility assistance to a birthing center, STI tests, PAP tests, and breast exams to very specialized services for people living with HIV, the lesbian and gay community and transgender patients. She oversaw the move from the old house to an updated clinic space. MCRH became CHOICES. In 2011, the agency celebrated the new name at the new clinic located at 1726 Poplar. The location has a large, pleasant waiting room filled with information on reproductive health and jars of free condoms. CHOICES now serves more than 3,000 women, men and teens each year and is already outgrowing the space.

Rebecca knows that CHOICES changes peoples’ lives. This is obvious in notes sent thanking staff for kind, competent, non-judgmental care. Many are hand-written and include hearts. Some are from mothers saying they are glad their daughters have been able to make choices different from their own. One young man in transition said, “Each one of your jobs is changing lives, from the receptionist that tells me to sign in, the nurse that walks me to my room and even the lady who always greets me with a warm hello and says ‘I’m going to need you to pee in a cup today.’ ”

Rebecca knows that reproductive rights are always in danger. With that in mind, she is constantly looking for ways to bring allies to the fight.

In 2009 Rebecca served as chair and founding member of Memphis Teen Vision (MemTV). This coalition of 250 local agencies is dedicated to being comprehensive and inclusive of all members’ perspectives. The shared intention is to create a future where all teens are taught comprehensive sex education, teens’ onset of sexual intercourse is delayed, teen pregnancies are reduced/eliminated and teen parents are provided assistance. Rebecca’s confident voice leads the way.

In 2012, Rebecca became the founding member and chair of a statewide coalition: Healthy and Free Tennessee. The group now has over 40 member organizations statewide working together to promote and protect sexual health and reproductive freedom. The Coalition includes individual members and has regional and national partners. In her leadership role, Rebecca speaks out on legislation, leads rallies, and stands up for full and accessible reproductive health care for all.

Today Rebecca is leading the charge to raise $4 million to build a new clinic for CHOICES. The next expansion includes three birthing suites for midwife-assisted births. The facility will be the only non-profit in America to offer a full range of reproductive services.

Rebecca shared this idea of full-service comprehensive reproductive care at a recent national conference of the Abortion Care Network. She believes expanding reproductive services beyond abortion is the way forward.

We know that those who speak out and take action around reproductive rights have been harassed, stalked, even killed, yet Rebecca says that she is not frightened. She purposefully has an office with windows looking out on a busy street. She refuses to be afraid, she refuses to sit down and she refuses to be quiet.

Her heroic spirit is a model for all.

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Ruby O’Gray and Karen Moore

Ruby O’Gray
Karen Moore
WOMEN OF ACHIEVEMENT
2017

VISION
for a woman whose sensitivity to women’s needs
led her to tremendous achievements for women:

Ruby O’Gray and Karen Moore

Did you know that 63% of theatre audiences are women or that Broadway shows written by women are 18% more profitable than shows written by men? Yet only 20% of professional theatre artists are women. Only 17% of produced plays are written by women. And only 16% of produced plays are directed by women.

Ruby O’Gray and Karen Moore knew all this and they did something about it. In 2012, due to their vision and hard work, the first biennial Women’s Theatre Festival of Memphis (WTFM) was held. One of only two women’s theatre festivals in the country, it is the only one in the South.

The path leading to WTFM was long.

Ruby’s career in theatre began in Beale Street kindergarten’s talent show and never stopped. By sixth grade after seeing Front Street Theatre’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, she was totally hooked. She dropped out of school in 11th grade to care for her mother. At age 17, after her mother’s death, she got her GED and headed to New York. She came back at age 18, started her family, and then became active in local theatre. She says, “Memphis is my Hollywood.”

Karen says that she was pushed into theatre. By age 14 she was deeply involved in music. It became her major in college. She auditioned for a touring choir and didn’t get in but not from lack of talent. The college was concerned that white board members who housed students on the tour would not welcome her. The good news for us is that a theatre professor who taught her in an Introduction to Theatre class told her that she showed great promise and encouraged her to give theatre a try. She did and she liked it. After graduation, she worked for a television affiliate in Little Rock before moving to Memphis in 1977. While working at the local CBS affiliate by day, she was soon hired to direct a play for Beale Street Repertory Company.

These two forces first met after Karen saw Ruby’s performance at the former Shelby State Community College. They made an instant connection and Karen asked Ruby to audition for a play she was directing at Beale Street Rep. Of course she got the role and they’ve been friends and collaborators ever since.

Their list of individual accomplishments is huge.

Ruby has written 63 plays – 63! She has acted, directed and produced many plays and is the recipient of an Ostrander Award, the Oscar of the local theatre world. Co-founder of Bluff City Tri-Art Theatre Company, she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Theatre Production from the University of Memphis, which she completed after raising six children.

Karen holds a Bachelor in Theatre Arts from Hendrix College. She spent eleven years living in Italy. While there, she made 9 films as an actress, recorded 8 albums as a recording artist and produced, directed and acted in numerous plays for the U.S. Navy Sixth Fleet Naples, Italy and NATO. She is creator and executive producer of “This House is Cooking!” an innovative television show that combines real estate and the culinary arts. She creates the show with one of her daughters and it has aired monthly since its debut in July 2008. She has produced, directed and acted in more than 70 theatrical productions. Currently she works as the Director of Marketing Strategies for Sweet Potato Baby, her daughter’s catering and baked goods company.

Women are underrepresented in the theatre and media and face enormous employment challenges in the arts. This led Ruby to the idea for the Women’s Theatre Festival of Memphis. She called Karen who immediately signed on. Weekly meetings started in 2011. The first festival was held in 2012. With two more produced in 2014 and 2016, the festival is now well-established.

They believe the festival allows exploration of the female experience in theatre and attracts significant visitors to Memphis. They are right. The third festival brought women from all over the United States and even some from outside the country.

The Women’s Festival showcases performances about women, performances directed by women, plays and musicals written by women, and a range of workshops. The group established the Gyneka Awards. “Gyneka” is Greek for woman. Greek women were denied the right to perform in theatre and this award represents strong women who have broken barriers and never allowed their talent to be denied.

One of the amazing things about the Women’s Theatre Festival Memphis is that, like Women of Achievement, it has no paid staff. All the work is done by volunteers. Planning has already started for WTFM 2018. Ruby and Karen hope to reach out to girls, letting them know about careers in theatre including not only acting and directing but lighting and set building. They also hope to inspire more women to become theatre critics.

We thank Ruby O’Gray and Karen Moore for bringing the vision of the Women’s Theatre Festival of Memphis to life!

“Local Treasures: Ruby O’Gray” – by Jon W. Sparks, 3 January 2024. Memphis Magazine.

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Joyce Springfield-Collins

WOMEN OF ACHIEVEMENT
2017

STEADFASTNESS
for a woman with a lifetime of achievement:

Joyce Springfield-Collins

Joyce Springfield-Collins won her first award for community service 40 years ago – and she just keeps going.

Growing up in Midtown, she saw her grandparents and parents always helping people. Her father often housed people in the back room of his barber shop. Her mother shared holiday meals with homeless people. She had family members in churches across the city in many denominations instilling in her a strong faith and passion for doing community service.

After graduation from Booker T. Washington High School in 1951, Joyce went to Washington D.C. to study at Howard University and work for the Department of Labor. Returning to Memphis, she worked for Judge Odell Horton, married Leon Springfield in 1952 and had her daughter Denise.

In 1966 she began what became a 25-year career with the US Postal Service in personnel and human resources administration and management with responsibilities in 11 states.

And always she was engaged in civic and social organizations, especially those in support of women and girls. She was chair of the personnel committee for the Orange Mound Day Care board and for the Girls Inc. board; she was secretary of the Memphis chapter of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, board member and president of the advisory council at Goodwill Homes Senior Center; and trustee at St. John Baptist Church – Vance.

She was so thoroughly involved that in March 1975 the Chamber of Commerce gave her its Woman of the Year Award for community service.
In 1986 she was on the Girls Club – later to become Girls Inc. – board and brought Oprah Winfrey to Memphis for the initial Lecture Endowment Series – An Evening with Oprah.

When Joyce retired from the postal service, she set out to travel and relax – but her old passion tracked her down. She was asked to join Habitat for Humanity and reorganize the Memphis affiliate. She said, “I didn’t want to do it, but I prayed and asked God if this is what he wants me to do, then give a sign.” After a “third sign,” she said, “Lord, I hear you. I’m on board.”

That began her seven-year stint as executive director for Habitat – work that she loved because she could see directly the results for people who needed help.

Her next opportunity let her finally realize a childhood dream of being a journalist. From her days as editor of her elementary school newspaper, she had wanted to write. For five years she was vice president/Memphis editor of Contempora Magazine and Tennessee Tribune. Then she joined Grace Magazine, eventually becoming editorial director. She authored stories on many local Memphis women for more than 15 years.

During this time she also helped Veronica Coleman create Mothers of the NILE, a membership group with a mission “to reduce the number of children entering the juvenile and criminal justice system.”

Accolades include the Coalition of 100 Black Women Woman of Wisdom (WOW) award; Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow Award, the highest given by the Rotary Foundation; 2008 Mothers of the NILE Founders award.
A colleague from Habitat said, “Joyce puts her money and her time into making our community a better place. She is a role model for all women to follow.”

Joyce Springfield-Collins at 84 is still serving: board secretary for the YWCA of Greater Memphis, active member Midtown Rotary Club, Sunday school teacher, church trustee, grandmother to three Eagle Scout grandsons, mother to daughter and son-in-law who are both ministers, faithful seller of seats for annual luncheons to support Girls Inc. and YWCA. And she and second husband Albert Collins have been married for 24 years!

For a lifetime of service to her community, for sharing her time, talent, leadership and personal funds to build and sustain organizations and agencies that make our community stronger – we salute Joyce Springfield-Collins as Woman of Achievement for Steadfastness 2017.

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Ines Negrette

WOMEN OF ACHIEVEMENT
2017

DETERMINATION
for a woman who solved a glaring problem despite
widespread inertia, apathy or ignorance around her:

Ines Negrette

Ines Negrette immigrated to the United States from Venezuela in 1999 and settled in Memphis in 2000 with her husband and two sons. An attorney with experience in Venezuela as a public defender, in private criminal practice and as legal counsel for a U.S.-based organization, Ines soon began volunteering as a bilingual legal advocate for Spanish-speaking victims of domestic violence in Memphis. She eventually joined the agency’s staff and then became program director.

When Ines’ position as an advocate at that agency suddenly ended, Ines rallied her spirits, support and funding to create a new non-profit dedicated to Latina survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking and stalking. Casa Luz opened in May 2016 with the first Spanish crisis line in Memphis. With a staff of two bilingual/bicultural advocates and trauma-informed care, Casa Luz has already served 87 clients, aiding 264 children who are United States citizens.

Immigrant Hispanic women who are victims of domestic or sexual violence face countless barriers to services and to justice. Many are unaware that in the United States, the type of violence their partners have used against them for years is considered criminal. They do not know that they have the right to stop the abuse.

They might have no family in the country, speak no English, fear police and authority figures, know nothing about community resources, fear losing their children or being deported, be unable to work or drive. Leaving the abuser for a safer environment might mean losing not only his financial support and her possessions, but also the extended family who often are unsupportive, obstructive and resistant of her plans to leave or involve police.

Casa Luz provides civil and criminal legal advocacy, immigration legal advocacy, support groups and individual counseling in Spanish, outreach and community education, crisis counseling, case management, safety planning, danger assessment and support through all steps to move forward from violence.

Ines is known as a tireless, fearless and dedicated advocate. An immigration attorney who works with her wrote, “Serving a client population that is largely invisible in our society and that has such complex needs can be demanding and even disheartening, but Ms. Negrette maintained her relentlessly positive attitude; she taught me to celebrate every victory, no matter how small. Her focus always was on empowering each client to rise above her past so that she could be the author of the next chapter in her life.”

In October 2016, Casa Luz was awarded a federal grant of $600,000 to provide comprehensive services to women victims of domestic and sexual violence – strong evidence of the local need for these services and Ines’ determination to provide help to our most severely underserved victims.

Ines says her father Dr. Americo Negrette empowered her. He was a ground-breaking researcher into Huntington’s disease who recognized that his fourth child was different. When she took the unusual step of leaving her parents’ home before she completed law school, he told her, “Well, I will die happy because you fight for your dreams.”

Ines works closely with the Memphis Police Department to build a bridge of trust and open lines of communications with the Hispanic community. She is a founding member of the Voice of the Community, a group formed to assist and advocate on behalf of the entire Spanish speaking community in the greater Memphis area on quality of life issues including safety and education. In 2015 her work was saluted with the Ruby L. Wharton Outstanding Woman Award for race relations.

One of Ines’s mottos is: “We cannot solve every problem, but every day we solve more than one, no matter how tired we are.”

With Casa Luz, Ines is determined alleviate the suffering of women’s experiences, guiding them toward a path of healing and bringing hope to future generations, the future of our Hispanic community and our entire city.

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Lisa Anderson

WOMEN OF ACHIEVEMENT
2017

COURAGE
for a woman who, facing active opposition,
backed an unpopular cause in which she deeply believed:

Rev. Lisa Anderson

In 2010, Lisa Anderson, pastor of Colonial Cumberland Presbyterian Church, asked the congregation if they would open their doors to shelter the homeless. They said “yes” and Room in the Inn-Memphis was born. The program has grown from one church open one night per week to thirty-six churches, offering at least one location for shelter seven nights a week, November through April.

Lisa comes from a family of pastors, married a pastor and is a pastor herself. She was participating in a Bible study group that wanted to take their study from the page into an active service ministry. Due to her connection to the Burrito Ministry and the Urban Bicycle Ministry, she recognized the need for a free shelter for the homeless. She asked her church members to open the doors one night a week during the winter to those less fortunate, to feed them a home-cooked meal and to provide a safe place to sleep in unused classrooms upstairs. Based on a program in Nashville, visitors were to be treated as honored guests with congregation members preparing and sharing the meal and spending the night.

After two successful seasons, Lisa and the Colonial congregation decided they needed to recruit more faith communities to be a part of this important ministry. Peace Lutheran joined the effort in 2012. Five more congregations became Room in the Inn-Memphis sites in 2013.

Among those was Trinity United Methodist. Due to its location, the City Council ruled that opening the doors to the homeless would be a code violation.

According to Peace and Justice Center archives, “The City Planning Office is helping Trinity UMC to craft language to change the size of the property requirement in the code. It will go to the Land Use Board and then to the City Council and County Commission for three readings each, giving the public chances to object. However, this process begins in December and will last at least a couple of months. Our immediate need is to get started in November without the fear of a church being cited for this violation. This code is ignored for all other groups, the only reason it is coming up for Trinity now is the prejudice against the guests being homeless.”

Lisa went into action, giving many interviews standing on the steps of the church, speaking at a town hall meeting and appearing before the City Council. Her passionate explanations were heard and the program at Trinity went ahead.

Since that time, over twenty more congregations have joined.

Rev. Lisa, as she is affectionately known to her congregation, says that the biggest barrier to expanding the program is combating the many stereotypes surrounding homelessness: They’re lazy and don’t want to work. They’re crazy and not taking their medication. They’re drug addicts and not to be trusted. And, they’re dangerous. It’s not safe to be around them.

Some congregations have to be convinced that the homeless are people just like us and deserve to be recognized as such. Lisa Anderson’s explanations help allay these fears and bring support to the program.

Room in the Inn is not an attempt to resolve all the issues of homelessness. It is not a social service agency. Room in the Inn-Memphis is about changing people, guests and hosts alike. It creates an environment and an opportunity for the guests to learn that there are people who care and for the hosts to come to understand that the faceless figure on the street corner is more than a statistic. It is about serving without prejudice or pride. It is about accepting everyone. Room in the Inn-Memphis is about people of religion putting the tenets of their faith into practice. It is a ministry of love.

To quote her nominator, “Though small in stature, Rev. Lisa is tall in spirit.” She fearlessly fights to improve the lives of the homeless and to change the lives of those who help.

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Vanessa Luellen

Women of Achievement
2012

COURAGE
for a woman who, facing active opposition,
backed an unpopular cause in which she deeply believed:

Vanessa Luellen

Vanessa Luellen’s neighborhood was being taken over by drug dealers, vandals and prostitutes. Vanessa experienced that and knew someone had to do something about it.

Vanessa knows the troubles on the streets well – she has had two sons in prison, one for murder. She was raised right, but she says, “I was a hard-headed child. I had the best parents. My parents prayed for me and told me right from wrong. But when I got grown, I chose the path I went down. I lived the street life.” In 1992, she herself briefly served time on drug-related charges. The day before her arrest, she prayed to God for help. Of her time in jail she says, “It gave me time to get my life together. That’s where God spoke to me and let me know it was time to get it right.” She has stayed clean ever since.

In 1999, she bought her current home on Pope Street in the Mitchell Heights neighborhood. Originally valued at $55,000, the home’s value dropped to considerably. As property values were declining, so was the neighborhood. Property owners lost their homes and those homes became the property of absentee landlords and the county and city. Grass grew up and trash marred the neighborhood.

As unemployment rose, there were an increasing number of young men out of work and out on the streets with nothing productive to do. There was more drinking, more drugs, more fights. And you couldn’t sleep for the gunfire. In December 2004, her cousin was staying with her, trying to get his life back together. He was shot near her home because of an argument that took place months earlier and he died before she could get there. It was this violent death that lead her to start walking the streets of Mitchell Heights, meeting neighbors and talking about their mutual concerns. Vanessa Luellen made sense and the neighbors listened.

She revived the old Mitchell Heights Neighborhood Association. She has spoken to mayors and City Council meetings and code enforcement and police officials. She photographs vacant buildings and pushes for repairs by absent owners. She recalls a meeting with Mayor Wharton, who walked through the neighborhood with her despite the rain. She’s very persuasive and that very day, crews were there to cut the grass and bushes on the vacant lots. In 2009, she organized a Christmas parade, a first in the area’s history.

And most telling of all perhaps — the Perfect Grocery, where alcohol and cigarettes were sold to minors and drugs were available to anyone with the money, was closed down by law officials. It reopened as All Good Grocery with new owners who marched in the parade and joined the association. Those owners are still trying to do the right thing.

There are still young men out there looking for work and with little to do, but now they know her. She says 75% of them want to work but can’t find jobs because of their records, which Vanessa says is a problem. She treats them with respect and when she sees them engaging in inappropriate behavior, she’ll tell them “you gotta move that on down.” She provides encouragement and hope for the future.

The challenges and the work continue. Now Mitchell Heights is joining with Brinkley Heights, Highland Heights, Grahamwood Heights and several other groups. The new Corner of the Heights hopes that together they can move all of their neighborhoods forward. It may take a long time and a whole lot of work, but Vanessa Luellen believes that effort and consistency will make it happen. She says, “It’s a struggle, but Glory Be to God.”

Vanessa Luellen’s courage has allowed her to confront the negative forces at work in her neighborhood, forces that have the potential to be vicious when their terrain is policed. Her willingness to offer leadership, to work vigorously with law enforcement and political leaders, shows a strong spirit, true grit, an ability to use her own bad choices to rebuild her community. Vanessa’s work earns recognition by Women of Achievement.

 

In 2018, Governor Bill Haslam granted Luellen a pardon for her 1984 conviction of fraudulent breach of trust and her 1992 conviction of facilitating the sale of a controlled substance for her exceptional positive contributions to her community.

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Teri Craven

Women of Achievement
2010

COURAGE
for a woman who, facing active opposition,
backed an unpopular cause in which she deeply believed:

Teri Craven

From big deputies in rural Mississippi to big security guards in Wal-Mart parking lots and gunfire on picket lines, Teri Craven has repeatedly faced big opposition in her years as a union organizer and political action director for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1529.

She has sweated and spent some sleepless nights – and smoked some packs of cigarettes – but she has not quit, she has not backed down and she has never lost courage for the job of getting America’s working people the rights they are due.

Teri grew up in a union house. Her father was longtime president of UFCW Local 1529, representing workers in Mississippi, West Tennessee and east Arkansas. Teri heard his stories of the fights and the arguments and the abuses and the needs of the people – all people.

She started her union career as secretary for the local in 1980 while earning an associate’s degree in business and raising a young son. She grew to love the work.

Two years later she joined the union’s staff, representing workers at 18 Kroger groceries in Mississippi. In 1990 she was dispatched to Indianola, MS, where she ended up in a three-month strike at Delta Pride’s catfish processing plant, facing bullet fire on the picket line and community pressure to force workers back to the plant. Workers stood firm.

Craven later took on the Wake-Up Wal-Mart campaign, battling the giant retailer for its abuse of worker hours and pay. She joined the Living Wage coalition in Memphis and rallied union support for the votes in City Hall and County Commission to secure improved wages for local government employees and contractors.

Still a regular work week could find her on a lonely back road in Mississippi, headed north after a political campaign meeting, being pulled over by deputies who know her car and want to harass her, being put into their back seat for a while, just because they know her work and because they can.

Teri Craven has courageously stood up for and stood with ordinary working people in the fight for just wages, safe working conditions and decent hours – things that too many employers still notoriously try to avoid and will go to great lengths to dodge.

She loves the cause and loves the work, but she laughs at herself because sometimes, on a plane, asked what she does, she answers, “’I’m a housewife.’ You see, sometimes, when you bring up unions, people get ugly!”

Teri has championed the cause of workers, especially women, whose labor is often forgotten, whether they work as a nursing home aide or on a catfish farm. She also campaigns tirelessly in electoral campaigns for candidates she believes are the best voice for working people, even in parts of Mississippi and Tennessee where the likelihood of success was not always great.

Beyond her courage, perhaps her greatest trait is that, even if a cause does not seem to have a great chance of success at the outset, this does not stop her from organizing with all her energy if she believes it could improve conditions for workers.

For her career of courageous service, we honor Teri Craven with the 2010 Women of Achievement Courage award.

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Africa Gonzalez

Women of Achievement
2009

COURAGE
for a woman who, facing active opposition,
backed an unpopular cause in which she deeply believed:

Africa Gonzalez

As director of Immigrant Women’s Services for the Memphis YWCA, Africa Gonzalez can find herself in tense and difficult situations, facing angry husbands or clerics, neighbors or community members intent on their own interpretation of what immigrant women should be doing.

Helping women who are victims of domestic violence become safe and secure, helping them achieve their rights in a new country, helping them maneuver a strange landscape to get medical care and education for their children – all these things are the daily “to do” list for Africa, herself a survivor of a violent relationship.

After first coming to Memphis from Mexico 12 years ago, Africa moved here in 1999 to take a job with the Memphis Police Department communication division as a liaison for the Latino community. She was an interpreter and helped people deal with the legal process in the Criminal Justice Center where she was allowed to open the Hispanic Office.

When she learned that the Memphis YWCA was seeking an advocate for immigrant women, she left the police department and developed the program to help women in the domestic violence court and in the Order of Protection hearing room. Starting with Africa in 2003, the program now includes one full-time court advocate and three part-time. Almost 3,000 calls for help came to the Spanish line last year, 900 attended support group and 270 victims were helped with court matters – over 900 assists with filing orders, appeals or violations.

Africa collaborates with Latino Memphis, the Exchange Club Family Center, the Memphis Child Advocacy Center and other groups to connect immigrant women and their children to services. Africa is co-chair of the Shelby County Domestic Violence Council, speaks to groups and on the radio and is known for her work – but that’s not always a good thing.

She has had harassing emails, complaints from strangers at community events, even abusers who confront her in court.

“There’s a strong patriarchal rule that women should be in the house serving men,” Africa said. “Women helping other women stand up for themselves – these men see that as a threat, that we are changing these women and they’re becoming bad women.”

After one abuser showed up at her home, she moved to protect her children. “It was too dangerous to live there,” Africa said. “No one really knows where I live.”

Women caught in domestic violence suffer isolation, injury and fear. When that woman is a newcomer to this country, struggling to communicate and understand how to use the laws to protect herself and her family, perhaps unskilled or unemployed and with no financial resources or place to live – the challenges she faces are enormous. The YWCA Immigrant Women’s Services tries to understand that tangle of problems and help women find a way out. And Africa wants them to find their own voices.

She said, “My hope is to empower the Latino women I come across when I speak or do presentations, helping these women to have more control over their lives, to be able to use birth control if they want to, to report sexual abuse, to be more educated in terms of things that will better their lives – English, parenting skills, sexual education.

“If I don’t do this, the problem will continue generation after generation.”

Her dream is to add Arabic- and Vietnamese-speaking advocates to do outreach in those communities where she knows need is high and growing.

Africa Gonzalez speaks for those who cannot speak for themselves. She guides the lost and vulnerable. Africa’s courage fortifies her every day as she continues the necessary, dangerous work of rescuing women and children.

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Ashley Coffield

WOMEN OF ACHIEVEMENT
2016

COURAGE
for a woman who, facing active opposition,
backed an unpopular cause in which she deeply believed:

Ashley Coffield

On a list of taboo subjects in our community, the right of a woman to make her own reproductive choices would be near the top. In this conservative part of the country, that’s a conversation that most people would rather avoid, yet in her role as President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Greater Memphis Region, Ashley Coffield stands up and speaks out daily.

As columnist Gail Collins said in The New York Times this fall, “Being at the helm of Planned Parenthood in the current climate is more like steering a boat carrying unstable explosives…while surrounded on both sides by enemy pirates throwing burning torches.”

But Ashley Coffield is up to the challenge. A fearless leader, passionate advocate and champion for women’s health, she joined Planned Parenthood Greater Memphis Region at a watershed moment and has led PPGMR through many transitions. She has overseen the expansion of advocacy efforts to empower patients, led staff and hundreds of volunteers throughout Tennessee during the Vote No on Amendment One campaign in the fall of 2014 and led the battle against new anti-abortion laws in Tennessee in 2015.
Born and raised in Hot Springs, Arkansas, Ashley came to the “big city” to attend Rhodes College. As a student with no insurance, she was a patient of Planned Parenthood. She was so impressed with the organization’s compassionate and confidential care that she became a volunteer health educator. That sparked an interest and set her on the path of a 20-year career in public health that has included time in Washington, DC, at the Public Health Foundation and later leading the advocacy group Partnerships for Prevention for 12 years, three as executive director.

When she and her husband decided to return to Memphis to start their family, she telecommuted to her job in Washington but joined Planned Parenthood as a board member for 9 years, serving 2 as board chair. She left the board for a couple of years but was asked to serve on the Search Committee for a new Executive Director. This led her to apply for the job with an organization she reveres.

Founded in 1938, as a result of women’s kitchen table talks, the Memphis Planned Parenthood provides high-quality, affordable reproductive services and education to women and men throughout the Mid-South, regardless of their ability to pay. This year PPGMR celebrates its 75th anniversary.
Ashley became President and CEO on April 1, 2013. It has been a momentous three years.

Asked if she worries about the daily protesters outside the clinic, she said, “They don’t worry me…though there have been some dark days……It’s the politicians in office who want to remove the rights for which we’ve fought.”
Ashley says that the courage required for this job is not in facing the protesters or the threats but the courage needed to talk about abortion; to work to remove the stigma around discussing unplanned pregnancy.

She fights for women who have no voice, especially poor women who struggle to get family planning services through Obamacare or Medicaid Insurance.
She credits the debate over Amendment One for opening the public conversation in Tennessee. She sees a huge difference in Tennessee women’s willingness to speak out since that battle over the state constitution and women’s rights. The silent majority was activated – and Ashley and PPGMR led that fight. She worked literally day and night for weeks on end in the finally-unsuccessful effort to defeat the amendment and is vigilant now in efforts to block new laws it made possible that can further restrict or end a woman’s right to full reproductive healthcare in Tennessee.

Ashley feels strongly that people should live the lives they want to lead, not based on what someone else wants them to do – whether a partner, spouse, parents or government. She works to provide a safe place for women and men to make their own important decisions free of judgment or coercion. That’s what motivates her to have the courage to get up every day and keep fighting to keep the doors open and choices available.

Ashley Coffield is the 2016 Woman of Achievement for Courage.