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Press
Release - August 16, 2016
Iowa
Women’s Hall of Fame honorees to be inducted Saturday, August 20, 2016
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2016 Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame Induction
Ceremony
DES
MOINES - Four remarkable women will be inducted into the Iowa Women's
Hall of Fame at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, August 20, 2016, in the State
Historical Building auditorium located at 600 E. Locust St. in Des
Moines, Iowa. The event is free and open to the public.
The
Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame is held in conjunction with Women's Equality
Day, August 26, which commemorates the day in 1920 when American women
first obtained the right to vote.
Highlights
include:
Hall
of Fame awards to:
- Grace
Amemiya, Ames
- Angela
Connolly, Des Moines
- Dr.
Michele Devlin, Cedar Falls
- Viola
Gibson (deceased), Cedar Rapids
To
celebrate the honorees and their families and friends, the Friends of
the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women will host a reception and
give a short presentation in the atrium of the State Historical
Building immediately following the ceremony. The reception is free and
open to the public and attendees do not need to register.
The
Iowa Women's Hall of Fame is sponsored by the Iowa Commission on the
Status of Women (ICSW). Awards will be presented to the
recipients by Rachelle Hunt Russian, chair of the 2016 Iowa Women’s
Hall of Fame Selection Committee, and Sherill Whisenand and Elizabeth
Coonan, Commissioners on the ICSW.
The
building is accessible to persons with disabilities. For ADA
accommodations, call 515.281.4470 or 800.558.4427.
Contact:
Kristen Corey, women@iowa.gov
www.humanrights.iowa.gov
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Biographies
Grace Amemiya, Ames, Iowa
Date of birth: October
26, 1920
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 Grace Obata Amemiya was born on October 26, 1920, in
Vacaville, California, the youngest of six children born to Japanese
immigrants. At ten years old, her father died, and Grace decided to
dedicate her life to service by becoming a nurse. On December 7, 1941,
as a 21 year old nursing student at the University of California,
School of Nursing in San Francisco, she heard radio news that the
Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. Within hours Japanese citizens were
being picked up, investigated, and told not to travel more than five
miles from their home. Two months later President Franklin Roosevelt
signed Executive Order 9066 that authorized the incarceration of more
than 120,000 Japanese/Japanese Americans. Grace’s family was hurried
off to Turlock assembly center, then on to Gila, Arizona, where one
of the country’s ten internment camps was located. They were given
only a few days to dispose of their homes, businesses, pets, and
possessions. While Grace was in Gila, she used the nursing skills she
had learned in nursing school. She was desperately needed for this
service since persons who had been in nursing homes and hospitals
were even taken away to internment camps.
Grace was determined to
complete her education when internment ended, and she wrote to
nursing schools around the country. Many of them told her they didn’t
need any more of “her kind” in their school and she was rejected.
Finally, she was accepted at St Mary’s School of Nursing in
Rochester, Minnesota. She spent her final six months of nurses training
as a senior cadet nurse in the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps, working at
Schick General Army Hospital at Clinton, Iowa.
Throughout her life,
Grace has made two great commitments based on her experiences in the
internment camp, and with a disabled son. She has volunteered at
Woodward Resource Center, the YWCA and the Special Olympics for many
years, and has committed to sharing her story of internment with all
who are not aware of this injustice. At the age of 95, she continues
to tell this story of grace, forgiveness, and service through
hundreds of speeches across the state of Iowa and beyond.
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Angela Connolly, Des Moines,
Iowa
Date of birth:
March 1, 1954
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 Angela Connolly is a native Iowan, born to
second-generation Italian immigrants. Her parents owned a small
Italian restaurant, which was like a second home for Angela and her
three brothers. The restaurant is where Angela learned the
value of hard work. She attended Kansas University after high
school to study liberal arts. She returned to Iowa to marry her
husband Tom in 1974, and together they have three children and four
grandchildren.
Angela
began her career in the Polk County Public Works Department as a
Zoning Enforcement Officer where she was a dedicated employee for
nearly 20 years. She was first elected as a Polk County
Supervisor in 1998. Angela is one of three female Supervisors to be
elected to the Polk County Board of Supervisors in more than 150
years. She represents the 2nd District which includes the
northwestern area of the City of Des Moines, a portion of
unincorporated Polk County, and the suburb of West Des Moines.
Community
engagement has always been a priority for Angela, and she enjoys
participating regularly in neighborhood organizations and civic
activities. Angela currently serves as Co-Chair of The Tomorrow
Plan and Tri-Chair for Capital Crossroads: A Vision for Greater Des
Moines and Central Iowa and is the Chair of Rebuilding
Together. In addition, she represents the Board of Supervisors
on the following boards: Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning
Organization, Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority – DART,
Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau, Polk County Health
Services, Riverfront Development Authority, Des Moines Arts Board,
Polk County Housing Trust Fund, and the Homeless Coordinating
Council.
Angela
has played a leadership role in many significant far-reaching efforts
that have improved life for Polk County residents and strengthened
the communities and economy of Central Iowa. For example, she
is an advocate for our most vulnerable citizens facing mental illness
and is a leader in enhancing crisis services in our community, such
as the Crisis Observation Center which opened in 2014; she championed
a referendum to update three downtown courthouse facilities which
will centralize court services and enhance safety; she was one of the
strongest supporters for the construction of Wells Fargo Arena at the
Iowa Events Center, which has been a key driver in the revitalization
of downtown Des Moines; she championed a centralized intake system
for over 20 homeless outreach providers; she encourages regional
collaboration for increasing affordable housing; she advocates for
Polk County Crisis and Advocacy Services for victims of crime, the
majority of whom are women; and she leads efforts to increase
linguistic and culturally appropriate basic human services for
refugee families.
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Dr. Michele Devlin - Cedar Falls, Iowa
Date
of birth: April 17, 1961
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 Dr. Michele Devlin is Professor of Global Public Health
and Chair of the Division of Health Promotion and Education at the
University of Northern Iowa. She is also Director of the Iowa Center
on Health Disparities, a model organization established by the
National Institutes of Health to improve health equity for
underserved populations. Dr. Devlin completed her doctorate degree in
international public health at the University of California at Los
Angeles. Her primary areas of specialty include cross-cultural
emergency and disaster response with refugee and minority
populations, with a particular focus on women and children. She
has published nearly 100 articles, reports, and books including
“Health Matters: A Guide to Working with Diverse and Underserved
Populations” and “Postville USA: Surviving Diversity in
Small-Town America.”
In
addition to her academic expertise, Dr. Devlin has more than 30 years
of field experience working with public safety, law enforcement,
public health agencies, non-profits, and disaster relief
organizations around the world that serve women and at-risk
populations in multicultural communities. Dr. Devlin is the Cultural
Awareness Trainer for the Iowa Department of Public Safety and the
Iowa Law Enforcement Academies. She is an International Disaster
Relief team member with the American Red Cross, and has served in
Haiti and the Philippines. She has led and/or participated in
multiple medical missions around the world in Latin America, Africa,
Asia, and the Middle East. Dr. Devlin is a licensed Emergency Medical
Responder, and member of the Star One Search and Rescue Team in Iowa;
the Iowa Disaster Medical Assistance Team; Disaster Mortuary
Operational Team; multiple FEMA Community Emergency Response Teams;
and the Medical Reserve Corps. She has provided training and
technical assistance on human rights topics and cultural terrain
issues to thousands of law enforcement, public safety, search and
rescue, disaster response, public health, and emergency management
professionals at the federal, state, and local level.
Dr.
Devlin is the recipient of the One Iowa Award, Richard Remington
Award, the Iowa Civil Rights Award, and other local, state, and
national honors for outstanding teaching, scholarship, and
service. She has extensive travel experience in over 50 nations
around the world, and also served with the U.S. Army Corps of
Civilians in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom.
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Viola Gibson (deceased) - formerly of
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
September
6, 1905 - June 14, 1989
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 Mrs. Viola Gibson was born in Bethel Springs, Tennessee,
on September 6, 1905, and was one of five children. Her Father was a
minister and farmer and her mother a school teacher. After her
mother’s death, at the age of nine, the family moved to Cedar Rapids,
Iowa. In Cedar Rapids, Viola left school when she was 14 to work to
help support the family, later returning to complete high school
several years later. After graduation, Viola got married, became the
mother of six children, and pursued a nursing degree to become a
practical nurse and a Red Cross Home Nursing Instructor. Viola also
studied at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois and was
ordained as a minister in 1954 by the board of the Christ Sanctified
Holiness Church. Viola later became the Pastor and served in this
capacity for more than twenty years, where she served the Cedar
Rapids community in numerous roles.
Viola Gibson’s faith
and her lifelong work in the Church gave purpose and determination to
the numerous civic and community activities in which she became a
part. This community involvement, spanning more than seventy years,
made her a true champion in the area of human and civil rights for
all.
Her many
accomplishments include founding the Cedar Rapids Branch of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in
1942; setting up the first adult evening classes on Black History
within the State of Iowa; advocating and pushing for the teaching of
African American History in the Cedar Rapids community schools;
serving on numerous Cedar Rapids Mayor’s committees for the Oak Hill
– Jackson area; serving as a member of the Cedar Rapids-Marion Council
on Human Relations since its inception in 1961; and serving as a
member of the Jane Boyd Community House Board of Directors; among
other community service roles. She was also the recipient of numerous
civic awards and honors including Outstanding Citizen of Iowa (by the
U.S. and Cedar Rapids Jaycees), Churchman of the year (by the Cedar
Rapids-Marion Area Council of Churches), Outstanding Older Iowan (by
the Governor’s Conference on Aging), and Outstanding Black Woman (by
the Black Women’s Civic Organization), among other honors. In 1970,
the Viola Gibson Park was dedicated to her namesake, and in 2002, the
Cedar Rapids Community School District opened the Viola Gibson School
in her honor.
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