Each year our board selects an outstanding individual who has been responsible for expanding opportunities for women at the national level. We have presented each of our awardees with an original decorative Raku pot. Raku pottery provides a means by which moments of exquisite beauty may be made overlasting.
2008 Founders’ Award
Gail B. Jackson
Coordinator Grants
Medical Education Campus
Northern Virginia Community College Annandale, VA
The 2008 Founders’ Award of Rachel’s Well recognizes Gail Jackson for her vision and leadership. She has worked tirelessly to represent the faith community in the development of novel models for delivering community based preventative health care. If her efforts were replicated across the country on a larger scale the the health of impoverished women and their families would be greatly improved.
2007 Founders’ Award
Paula Hillard
Chief of the Division of Gynecologic Specialties
Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Stanford University School of Medicine
The Founders’ Award of Rachel’s Well recognizes Dr. Paula Hillard for her vision and leadership in bringing national attention to the importance of the menstrual cycle as a marker of general health in young women. Her service on numerous national professional committees and tireless efforts on behalf of women’s health as it relates to the menstrual cycle have had tremendous impact in the field. Her educational efforts in this area make it more likely that girls and women with disorders of menstruation will receive timely evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment.
2006 Founders’ Award
Kyujung Park
Korean Coordinator
Congregational Health Partnership, INOVA Health System
The Founders’ Award of Rachel’s Well recognizes Kyujung Park for her vision and leadership in reducing health disparities through faith-based interventions. Her expertise in parish nursing and interfaith insights facilitated the development of a model for delivering community based preventative health care. The model could be replicated across the country to improve the lives of women and their families by better meeting their preventative health care needs.
2005 Founders’ Award
Charlene Connolly
Provost
Medical Education Campus, Northern Virginia Community College
The Founders’ Award of Rachel’s Well recognizes Charlene Connolly for her vision and leadership. In the Medical Education Campus she has developed a novel model for delivering community based preventative health care. Her model could be replicated across the country to improve the lives of women and their familiesby better meeting their preventative health care needs.
2004 Founders’ Award
Jane E. Brody
Personal Health Columnist, The New York Times
The Founders’ Award of Rachel’s Well recognizes Jane E. Brody for her leadership in educating women about their health. Since 1976 she has served as the personal health columnist for The New York Times. She has also written scores of magazine articles, authored several books, and lectures frequently on health and nutrition to audiences both lay and professional.
2003 Founders’ Award
Maria Gomez-Murphy
President and CEO
The Way of the Heart: The Promotora Institute
The Founders’ Award of Rachel’s Well recognizes Maria Gomez-Murphy for her leadership of The Way of the Heart: The Promotora Institute. She has developed a model for community partnships that benefits disadvantaged women. Her model, embodied in The Way of the Heart, could be replicated across the country to improve the lives of women and their families by better meeting their medical, social, educational and job training needs.
2002 Founders’ Award
Marilyn Sullivan
Director
Bethlehem Haven
The Founders’ Award of Rachel’s Well recognizes Marilyn Sullivan for her leadership of Bethlehem Haven. Bethlehem Haven, a model for the Nation, has provided shelter to homeless women for more than 20 years. In 2000 the Haven expanded its services to include medical and dental care, mental health counseling, residential recovery, transitional housing, employment and training, and family reunification and parenting education.
2001 Founders’ Award
Frances Hesselbein
The Founders’ Award of Rachel’s Well recognizes Frances Hesselbein for her leadership as CEO of Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. from 1976-1990 and her role in leading social sector organizations toward excellence in performance as President of the Drucker Foundation from 1990 to 2000. In 1998, Frances Hesselbein received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States of America’s highest civilian honor.
2000 Founders’ Award
Vivian Pinn
Director
Office of Research on Women’s Health, NIH
The Founders’ Award of Rachel’s Well recognizes Vivian Pinn for her lifelong leadership in improving the health of American women. Since 1991 Dr. Pinn has worked at a national level as the Director of the Office of Research on Women’s Health, National Institutes of Health. Under her insightful leadership the office seeks to strengthen research related to diseases and conditions that affect women and to enhance opportunities for women in biomedical careers.